What does it mean to have a profoundly sacramental vision of reality, including the ins and outs of our ordinary lives and the places we live and work? What are the historical and theological reasons why a profoundly sacramental vision of reality has been so contested and fragile? How can a profoundly sacramental vision be reflected in and formed through ordinary worship practices? With the aim of encouraging pastors, scholars, and others who serve in places where a sacramental vision has fallen on hard times, this session featured engagement with the authors of two significant books: John Rempel’s Recapturing an Enchanted World: Ritual and Sacrament in the Free Church Tradition and Hans Boersma’s Heavenly Participation: The Weaving of a Sacramental Tapestry.
Recent Media Resources
Practicing Resilience with the Psalms
The psalms are a rich resource for our human experience of emotions, community, and connection to God. We will practice activities based on the truth of the psalms and on psychology to strengthen our capacity for navigating suffering with grace and resilience.
Preaching and Teaching the Psalms: A Conversation with Pastor-Theologians
A panel discussion in which Amanda Benckhuysen, Karen Campbell, G. Sujin Pak, and moderator Kathy Smith ponder the challenges and opportunities in preaching and teaching from the psalms. Are there incomplete or incorrect assumptions about the psalms that sermons and lectures can tackle? How do we handle the imprecatory psalms when we have a Savior who told us to love and forgive the very enemies many psalms talk about? The panel will consider these and other vital questions for preachers and teachers in today’s church.
Being Shaped by the Psalms: Lessons in Trust, Hope, and Love
The psalms reflect our deepest emotions as people of faith. In their expressions of thanksgiving, trust, lament, anger, joy, doubt, and praise, these ancient prayers seem to peer right into our souls and put words to our thoughts and experiences. But the psalms are more than human words to God. Embedded as they are in the scriptures, they are now also God’s word to us.
Practicing Resilience with the Psalms
The psalms are a rich resource for our human experience of emotions, community, and connection to God. We will practice activities based on the truth of the psalms and on psychology to strengthen our capacity for navigating suffering with grace and resilience.
Preaching and Teaching the Psalms: A Conversation with Pastor-Theologians
A panel discussion in which Amanda Benckhuysen, Karen Campbell, G. Sujin Pak, and moderator Kathy Smith ponder the challenges and opportunities in preaching and teaching from the psalms. Are there incomplete or incorrect assumptions about the psalms that sermons and lectures can tackle? How do we handle the imprecatory psalms when we have a Savior who told us to love and forgive the very enemies many psalms talk about? The panel will consider these and other vital questions for preachers and teachers in today’s church.
Being Shaped by the Psalms: Lessons in Trust, Hope, and Love
The psalms reflect our deepest emotions as people of faith. In their expressions of thanksgiving, trust, lament, anger, joy, doubt, and praise, these ancient prayers seem to peer right into our souls and put words to our thoughts and experiences. But the psalms are more than human words to God. Embedded as they are in the scriptures, they are now also God’s word to us.
Surprised by the Psalms
Anneke Kaai studied fine art and painting in the Netherlands at secular schools in the 1960s and ’70s. That experience compelled her to express her Christian faith through her art. She has painted many works based on scripture, including three series of paintings on the psalms, which she sees as a bountiful resource of imagery for the full range of human feelings in relation to God.