Preparing for worship - Heather Mustain. The late Phyllis Tickle, in her book The Great Emergence, suggests that every 500 years the church has its own rummage sale, cleaning out old forms of spirituality and embarking on the process of finding new ones. Today we...

Preparing for Worship - Abbey Adcox. I have a complicated relationship with rest. Don’t get me wrong, I love curling up with a good book on a lazy Saturday morning or taking a nice cozy nap on Sunday afternoons. I love choosing to rest. Unfortunately, more often than...

Preparing for worship - John Kelly.   No, I can’t be the only one. There have to be others — those whose shoulders also drop the moment they encounter the suggestion of inconvenience. Those whose unadulterated enthusiasm is one stubbed toe away from devolving...

Preparing for Worship - Jeff Hampton.   Today in worship we hear a very strong theme of helping others and being the hands and feet of Christ on earth. It is a foundational message of our faith. But I wonder, too, if it doesn’t beg the question: Have we been good...

Preparing for Worship - Kathryn Keller.   I descended from a heritage of faith. My maternal Grandma, who passed on earlier this year, and Grandpa, who has been with us in Dallas for much of the pandemic, told us for years that they prayed for all of their...

Preparing for Worship - Brianna Childs.   I’ve always been someone who can fall asleep and stay asleep just about anytime, anywhere. I just NEED good sleep or else I am deeply impacted. People vary based on a variety of factors on how much sleep they might need,...

Preparing for Worship - R. G. Huff.  Like a three-legged milk stool, the church rests on three main purposes: upreach, inreach and outreach — worship, fellowship/discipleship and missions/evangelism. Wilshire does all of these quite well and seems to find the delicate...

Preparing for Worship - Darren DeMent, associate pastor.   Our worship service this morning opens with a grand hymn of praise to God. Based on 1 Timothy 1:17, the hymn writer, Walter C. Smith, pens a strong text of praise by highlighting images of God’s glory and...

Preparing for Worship - Mark Wingfield.   This week I asked a friend a question that once upon a time saved my life. “Will you promise me that if you intend to harm yourself you will call me first and give me a chance?” Silence on the other end of the phone. “I...

Preparing for Worship - George Mason.   For the first half of my tenure as senior pastor, I wrote a weekly column for the church newsletter titled By George. It was by me, of course, so the appellation fit. But it also gestured toward the exclamation we sometimes...