We just launched Developing a Rule of Life with Hillary Raining For Individuals and For Groups.

The Christian rule of life, as a concept, has an unfortunate name. The word “rule” for many people, suggests an unpleasant need to do one thing when they’d rather do another. It also suggests an unpleasant consequence if they don’t follow the rule. Most people don’t voluntarily seek new restrictions or invoke potential negative consequences in lives that already have plenty of demands.

Priest and author Hillary Raining asks us to look at the concept of a “rule” differently when creating a rule of life. Instead of a set of strict regulations, with punitive consequences for those who step out of line, she suggests thinking of a rule of life as a trellis — something helpful and supportive that guides our growth in the direction that we and God think best.

In this class, Hillary explains what a rule of life is and how it can help Christians. She discusses ways to decide what to include in a rule — not a dreary list of regulations to which we “should” adhere, but a dynamic list of choices that excite us; choices that we want to make because we can feel that they give us life. She recommends types of activity to include in a rule of life and ways to create one. Finally, she discusses how to maintain a rule of life in the long term.

This class is ideal for anyone who wants to deepen their spiritual practices in daily life. For a preview, please click below.

As I write this post, the U.S. presidential election is not yet decided. It could be days before we know for sure who will run our executive branch for the next four years. On social media, both Trump and Biden supporters are making jokes about comfort eating, stress management drinking, anxiety medication, and the possibility of moving to other countries if their candidate does not win. They’re adding nervously smiling emojis and panicky GIFs.

People turned out in record numbers for this election, and the results are down to the wire, both nationally and in many states. We can take two lessons from this election already: (1) Americans care very deeply about who leads our country, and (2) No matter how awful we think the other candidate is, we have to deal with their supporters. They’re there. They’re voting. And even if we could get around them, as Christians, we really can’t just put them in a box labeled “evil” and keep moving. Jesus modeled eating with tax collectors, called Paul the persecutor of Christians to follow him, and specifically told us not to judge other people (Matthew 7: 1-2). That means we shouldn’t be judging people who we think are wrongdoers and that if we do so anyway, we should still reach out to them.

Applied today, this message means Trump supporters and Biden supporters should be dining together and talking to one another and generally working together. We aren’t, and we have seen the results of that approach. However this election turns out, half of the country will be bitterly opposed to the result. We need to do better.

Parker Palmer, Founder of the Center for Courage and Renewal and author of Healing the Heart of Democracy, among many other books.

How do we begin? Start with Parker Palmer.

Four years ago, we published Bridging the Political Divide with Parker Palmer. I have written hundreds of classes for ChurchNext, and I can honestly say that Parker’s ideas have made more of an impact on how I think than any other course I can remember. Instead of dividing citizens into Left and Right, Parker divides us into Cynical (those who have given up on communities’ building anything through governmental or civic institutions) and Hopeful (those who believe in governmental and civic institutions’ potential to work for the good of the community). Hopeful people tend to be able to find common ground on which to build, even if they think very differently about the best approach to government, and that’s where he suggests we begin.

If you don’t find “a divided nation staring each other down across the aisle” to be a strong model for successful government, figure out how to live a different way. If you don’t know where to start or want new ideas about how to move forward, begin with Parker’s class and move on from there. The For Individuals course is free for now. You can also take the For Groups version with others in your community. Please click below for a preview.

If you missed The Big Class: Civil Conversations in Uncivil Times — Practicing Our Faith in the Public Square with Ray Suarez, no worries! Civil Conversations in Uncivil Times with Ray Suarez is now available For Individuals and For Groups. You can enjoy Ray’s ideas about the Christian call to civility and effective public communication on your own or with a group from your church.

Here are some thoughts that Ray’s talks have prompted among students who have taken the course:

On compromise:

The discussion to reach a compromise often makes the solution better. But, to get to compromise, you have to be able to have enough of a discussion that you can see or admit to your false equivalencies and give them up. 

and

As a white, cis hetero woman, I’m not sure that I should be calling the shots when it comes to compromise. It matters to me what voices are at the table when compromise is part of the conversation.

On resisting the temptation to demonize opponents:

I am tempted many times to see people who disagree with me as bad people, but then I think about my dad. My dad and I do not agree on many things politically, and yet he is one of the best people I know. I know that, because we’ve worked hard at maintaining our relationship. It hasn’t always been easy, and there are times when I want to “make him see” it my way, but that doesn’t change the fact that we disagree politically and still love each other…Thinking of my dad pushes me to be better and to lower my wall. 

and

I am not just tempted [to view opponents as bad people], but I did. Now, after hearing that maybe we have more in common then not in common, I feel that maybe all is not lost. I have some place to start a dialogue.

What new ideas might Ray’s conversation and discussions with others in your parish or across the world spark in you? How might they grow your approach to communicating with people when you disagree profoundly?

Ray Suarez

The Big Class — Civil Conversations in Uncivil Times: Practicing Our Faith in the Public Square with Ray Suarez is now live. It will be free to anyone who wants to take it through October 26. So far, over a thousand people across the world have signed up for this class. Join them and engage in productive discussion about an issue central to our political and cultural lives.

If you have managed to go through the 2020 election season without vilifying your opponents’ supporters– in your mind, even if not out loud — you’re doing better than many of us. The current political climate suggests that the less rationally and less decently to one another we behave, the more we demonstrate our passion about the issues at hand. The result: the more important an issue is, the less productive work gets done on it — the less the issues at stake even matter in the face of our mutual disgust — and the more bitter and entrenched in our own viewpoints we become.

Theologian Frederick Beuchner once wrote:

Of the Seven Deadly Sins, anger is possibly the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back–in many ways it is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you.

Right now, we are a nation of skeletons. That’s why we need this class.

Anger is often appropriate when we see wrongdoing. We aren’t meant to be indifferent in the face of injustice and oppression, and engaging important issues means that we will feel anger, sorrow, and fear. But savoring our rage, using it to fuel hatred for our opponents, carrying it as a badge of honor? Beyond our clear Christian injunction to treat other people with respect, that approach is not a productive use of our energy. It builds nothing and helps nobody.

In this class, renowned journalist Ray Suarez, discusses an approach that does help — one by which we stand for our principles and use our energy to work toward a more just world without tearing each other apart. In lesson one, he talks about how social and political discourse in America descended to its current level. In lesson two, he discusses the scriptural basis for treating one another with civility. In lesson three, he describes methods by which we may avoid villainizing one another and ways to compromise productively on important issues without backing down in the face of injustice or giving in to oppression. In lesson four, students have an opportunity to ask Ray questions. He will answer from time to time over the two weeks the class is offered. In lesson five, Ray talks about about how we can get to the point of living this way.

This course is ideal for Christians looking for ways to be faithful in the midst of contentious politics. Thanks to The Episcopal Church, the Episcopal Church Foundation, Trinity Wall Street, The CEEP Network, and Forward Movement for making it possible for us to offer this course for free.

Ray Suarez, instructor for this course.

Today, we are opening registration for our free Big Class: Civil Conversations in Uncivil Times — Practicing Our Faith in the Public Square with Ray Suarez.

In this historically contentious election season, many Christians are looking for ways to bring their faith into their political interactions. Ray Suarez knows a lot about contentious political landscapes. He also knows a great deal about faith. As an award-winning journalist, college instructor, and outspoken Episcopalian, he has written a book on the subject of faith and politics in the United States and offers these four video presentations in this free online class:

• The Challenge of Civility
• Scripture and Civility
• What Civility Might Look Like
• Getting There

You can register today for this class. The class opens on October 12, and it will remain free to students across the world through October 26. As with most ChurchNext classes, you can take this course at your own pace, at whatever time suits you. It should take less than an hour to complete, and students will have an opportunity to ask the instructor questions.

This course is ideal for Christians looking for ways to be faithful in the midst of contentious politics and is brought to you for free by The Episcopal Church, the Episcopal Church Foundation, Trinity Wall Street, the Consortium of Endowed Episcopal Churches, Forward Movement, and ChurchNext.

We just launched Spiritual Truth in an Age of Fake News with Elizabeth Geitz and Rebecca Cotton For Individuals and For Groups.

The term “fake news” tends to convey different meanings in different contexts. People use it to refer to anything from parody news accounts to half-true “facts” spread on social media to legitimate news that politicians or pundits want to spin as false. It can be hard to identify misinformation because it is designed both to appeal to us and to resemble real news. The more misinformation that appears, the harder it is for people to trust any news sources. It doesn’t help that legitimate news is often presented in ways designed to appeal to emotion so that people will click and subscribe. The constantly-changing ways we consume media can be hard to keep up with, also benefiting scammers.

Reporters with various forms of “fake news” from an 1894 illustration by Frederick Burr Opper.

It is, perhaps, unsurprising that many people are aware that they can’t trust the information they encounter but aren’t sure how to navigate the news media landscape. As a default, people tend to consume the news we want to believe, which leaves the community both ill-informed and set against one another. We retreat into echo chambers, respond skeptically to news that doesn’t suit our narratives, and, increasingly, find ourselves divided from people with whom we disagree. Worst of all, from a Christian point of view, is the spread of biblical misinformation designed to support our biases.

In this class, renowned author Elizabeth Geitz and Rebecca Cotton from the Episcopal Church’s Office of Government Relations offer their help in clearing the weeds. They explain what misinformation looks like, why it confuses people, and ways to combat it. They discuss the effects of misinformation on our culture and the reasons that Christians in particular must resist fake news. They also talk about how the misuse of news information, and in particular misinformation about the Bible, has been used for centuries to support cultural inequities. They suggest ways and reasons to resist biblical fake news.

This course is ideal for those seeking tools for discerning truth. For a preview of the course, please click the video below.

We just launched Growing Giving in an Online World For Individuals and For Groups.

As the period of social distancing extends, people are starting to accept that there will be no return to the “normal” we knew before 2020. The world is changing — and the church with it.

What will the church that emerges from this period of strict social distancing look like? How will it have changed? Will we retain the online worship practices that we learned to use during the pandemic? Will we do more socialization or formation work online? How will our ministries, both within the church community and to the wider community change? And how will we fund them?

In this class, Kristine Miller, an internationally recognized consultant on church stewardship, discusses how churches can grow generous congregations — and how they can do it in a world in which both giving and many other other church-based interactions take place online. She talks about ways in which churches are changing during the age of Covid and how their forays into online territory will probably extend beyond the pandemic. She discusses how churches can build healthy relationships with their donors and examines effective ways to ask people to donate in an online context. Her suggestions include using impact stories to show donors how their money builds ministries and ways to use impact stories in online worship and financial appeals. She also suggests ways to measure the effectiveness of the church’s appeals for finances. The final lesson focuses almost entirely on digital stewardship campaigns and how people can run them effectively in the context of online worship.

This course is ideal for anyone who is interested in learning more about managing stewardship as church becomes, increasingly, a digital experience. For a preview of the course, please click below.

We’ve moved!

We invite you to check out our new blog page to stay up to date on all our newest courses and initiatives. Be sure to add the new website to your favorites and subscribe to receive our emails so you’re the first to know about our new classes. Learning is one of the seven Way of Love practices and is an important way to grow deeper in faith.

No matter which class you choose, we hope you’ll join us in learning and spiritual growth this fall. Head over to https://blog.churchnext.tv/ to see what’s new!

Coloring sheets are optional — but fun!

We’re excited to announce a new learning opportunity: This is NOT Sunday School. It starts in September, but you can sign up today.

Even if we can’t physically worship and learn together, we can still draw closer to Jesus Christ — and to one another — by worshiping and learning together online. That’s why we’re working with the Faith@Home team (a collaboration between Forma and Forward Movement) to produce This is NOT Sunday School. This intergenerational learning experience is a perfect tool for families and individuals of all ages.

Free sessions of This is NOT Sunday School will launch weekly starting September 16. You can sign up on the ChurchNext website today. Each week’s session features video teaching by a professional from the Christian formation network, Forma, as well as downloadable lessons, readings, and engagement opportunities for all ages. Instructors include Victoria Hoppes, Roger Hutchison, and Miriam McKenney, and others.

Sessions use Forward Movement’s Exploring the Bible curriculum, which includes many of the most famous stories in the Bible. You can experience the sessions at home or online with a group from your congregation. Each session takes about one hour to complete and can be completed at your convenience.

We  look forward to learning and worshiping with you and your family!

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, which houses, according to tradition, the sites where Jesus was crucified and the tomb where he was buried. It has been one of the most popular Christian pilgrimage destinations for many centuries.

We just launched Preparing for Pilgrimage with Sally French For Individuals and For Groups.

As a culture, we have long valued feeling connected to the people who came before us. Physical proximity to places they lived, their possessions, or their physical remains can provide us with that sense of connection. We visit the graves of loved ones who have died. For centuries, people wore jewelry made of the hair of their parents and grandparents; some people still do. We pass down furniture that people used and homes in which people lived. We tour places where historic people lived to get a sense of what daily life was like for them. Shakespeare’s home in Stratford-Upon-Avon, for example, welcomed 872,000 people in 2017, while the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam gets over 1.2 million visitors per year. People want to experience these places because they were part of everyday life for people whom we respect.

This impulse for connection is part of what fuels pilgrimage. Pilgrims often travel to places where Jesus walked, where saints are buried, where other Christians have gone before them. But pilgrimage offers more than an ordinary journey to a culturally important place does for several reasons. First, the journey matters as much as the destination. Pilgrimage is a holy journey, prayerful and intentional in itself as well as the means to reach the sacred destination. There’s also sometimes a sense of walking in the footsteps of the Christian travelers who came before us, which offers a connection to fellow pilgrims throughout the church’s history. Second, the connection a pilgrim tries to establish has a strong spiritual element. We try to connect with the living presence of God through pilgrimage to a destination sacred to our faith — perhaps using that sense of connection with the events that took place there or the people buried there, as well as through prayer and contemplation. Third, most pilgrims expect spiritual transformation and growth in response to the journey — for the pilgrimage to open our hearts to God’s working in our lives in new ways.

In this course, veteran pilgrimage leader Sally French teaches us how to plan for and make the most of the pilgrimage experience. She discusses ways to treat the pilgrimage as a sacred journey rather than as tourist travel. She talks about practical difficulties that can come up during the pilgrimage — expectations that people should have going into the experience, for example, and ways to think about logistics so that leaders and participants can appreciate the sacred nature of the pilgrimage. Finally, she discusses ways to respond to the journey and integrate what we learn from it into our day-to-day lives.

This course is ideal for anyone interested in learning more about pilgrimage, either in preparation for one or because they are interested in pilgrimage as a spiritual practice. For a preview of the course, please click on the video below.