📸 Day 6 of 30 | windy
📸 Day 5 of 30 | serene
Even though I was sick at the time, I enjoyed this quiet moment painting a watercolor of my bicycle at this beachside park.
🎵 Johnny Costa Plays Mister Roger’s Neighborhood Jazz very well.
🎵 Jay Nelsestuen, thanks for the the introduction to Djesse. After a month I’m still on volume 1, but…wow.
📸 Day 4 of 30 | foliage
For several years Julie Beck has been publishing articles in The Atlantic on friendship. Check out: The Friendship Files.
Some folks in Tucson are hoping to reduce homelessness with a tiny-home village. This is a bold experiment from which I suspect we will learn a lot.
📸 Day 3 of 30 | card
A special birthday card from a friend who loves the American West as much as I do.
I shared the following with my church this morning:
Each year on Arizona Gives Day, Arizonans donate money and pledge volunteer hours to support the non-profits that support our communities. The impact that these non-profits have in our lives is huge. And they need our help.
📸 Day 2 of 30 | flowers
For April I’m sharing a photo a day for the Micro.blog April 2024 Photo Challenge. No foolin’.
📸 Day 1 of 30 | toy
Big Resurrection Day at Covenant. In addition to our regular service, we also had two reaffirmations of faith, two baptisms, and a delicious, brunch-based lunch. It’s wonderful to see and enjoy all the Lord is doing.
I’ve put together a new program at Covenant called Forums of Five. Forums of Five aims to provide our members with an easier path for fostering close friendships in the church. Here’s why. Each Forum of Five consists of either five men or five women who build friendships with each other as peers for the purpose of mutual Christian care. Forums start with a fun Day Away and then meet monthly for a year to share life’s ups and downs and support each other through prayer.
Finding and developing close friendships is not new. And I’ve drawn from several sources to form the initial plan for the ministry and am looking forward to how things take shape. I’m sure we’ll learn and change as we go. But I’d like to take a moment and recognize some experiences, books, and people I’ve learned from that have helped me get this far.
Loneliness is the sorrowful feeling being disconnected from others when a connection is felt to be needed. Or to use a standard definition, loneliness occurs when the quantity and quality of connections we have is less than we want. It is commonly accompanied by despair and anger.
Sometimes our loneliness makes sense. Perhaps a close friend passed away or you moved and don’t know anyone yet. But other times, loneliness is confusing. For example, sometimes people don’t understand why they feel lonely, even though they belong to a friendly church community. “People know me and I know them. They care about me and I have meaningful ways to contribute. So why do I feel alone?”
Caring for the souls of others is an essential part of living as a Christian. During the Reformation, one tool for providing that care was sometimes called “private conference”. Private conference was a broad (and not very descriptive) term, used to describe conversations and moments in conversations, in which one could get and provide spiritual encouragement and support. These conversations might happen because of a moment of need, or as a regular, intentional part of spiritual growth.
Examples and benefits of this practice were described in 1678 by John Bunyan in his popular allegory Pilgrim’s Progress. Historian Charles E. Hambrick-Stowe writes:
In Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress private conference is what makes Christian’s journey at all possible. Time and again as destruction is imminent the advice and comfort of a fellow pilgrim enable him to press on. Private spiritual counseling guided individuals through the conversion experience; screened church members and led them to make a public profession of faith; enabled parents to bring their children and servants to the experience of grace, and saints to help one another grow in grace.
In Pilgrim’s Progress, Christian needed the help of spiritual conversations for his journey, in the beginning, middle, and end. And so do we. And so do our neighbors. As Christians we should be actively seeking these moments of soul care for ourselves and helping to provide them for others. Learning more about the practice of “private conference” may be of some help.
Learn More:
- Rebecca Carhart, A Forgotten Spiritual Practice: Puritan Conference and Implications for the Church Today
- Charles E. Habrick-Stowe, The Practice of Piety: Puritan Devotional Disciplines in Seventeenth-century New England
- Joanne J. Jung, Godly Conversation: Rediscovering the Puritan Practice of Conference
AZ, our Presidential Preference Election is today. Democrats and Republicans can vote for the probable candidates, or they can protest vote for whom they wish were the nominee. Here’s the deal on Independents.
Note: the primary on July 30th is for candidates other than president.
typography links
- Learn to kern, with a fun game.
- macOS Sonoma has an improved typography palette.
- Test your colors against accessibility standards.
- I love Libertinus, an extended family of free, full-feature fonts that can handle Greek, Hebrew, Latin, and more.