By Georgia McKee “It is well with my soul” — a Southern staple when it’s painted on shiplap and snagged for 40% off at Hobby Lobby. My Facebook memories reminded me this week that I had today’s anthem hanging in my bedroom throughout high school and all the way...
By Heather Mustain Around here we’ve always called the start of our fall year “Promotion Sunday” — that being today. It means very little, honestly, particularly for adults — because well, we don’t actually “promote.” However, we never stop aging, despite our best...
By LeAnn Hampton Today in worship we are reminded of the new beginnings all around us. Students with backpacks signal the start of the school year and a change from the summer routine. Participating in the family dedication for R.J. Murphy gives us the opportunity to...
By Katie Murray We started a family practice a couple of years ago where we take a few days to get out of town and visit the Texas Hill Country before school starts. Our kids have caught on to this rhythm, and our few days of swimming, eating s’mores every night and...
By Ava McClung This past week has been a busy one for me, and I doubt I’m the only one. Between travel, errands, work, camps, visiting family and friends, shopping for school supplies and trying to maintain some semblance of a routine, summer can be exhausting. I find...
By Juliana Moore We are in the middle of summer, aren’t we? The heat has arrived, and some of us are scattered hither and yon, as my grandmother would say. I find that these “lazy days of summer” are anything but lazy. My past month has been filled with travel and...
By R.G. Huff I have to admit that I did not choose to write this preparation for worship based on the Gospel reading from which Timothy is preaching today. While the Richard Strauss ballet Salome is based on it, the beheading of Jesus’ cousin is not one of those...
By Timothy Peoples It was 14 years ago this week when a church much like Wilshire allowed me to preach as their pastoral intern. I was a junior in college, afraid as all get-out and not fully ready to preach at the 8:30 and 11 o’clock worship services. The only thing...
By Abbey Adcox Each year on the Youth Choir mission tour, we are asked to experience the week through a specific lens. This year, Darren asked us to consider how we might learn, love and be courageous throughout the week. In our evening gatherings he read the...
By Ava McClung As I enter adulthood, I find myself constantly unmaking and remaking my image of who I am and how I fit into the world. I’m living away from home for the first time. I’m meeting people with wildly different backgrounds from my own and opening my mind to...