For the first time, clergy gathered not in-person all together but behind a computer screen or on the phone from their homes or offices for the annual Clergy Session while practicing social distancing guidelines due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Read MoreIn June 2019, the NIC adopted three strategic goals to help us deepen our commitment to becoming God’s Beloved Community. We want to reflect on the second goal: TO LIVE OUT THE CONVICTION THAT RACISM IS INCOMPATIBLE WITH CHRISTIAN TEACHING.
Read MoreGovernor J. B. Pritzker is expected to move all the regions of Illinois into Phase 4 of the Restore Illinois plan on June 26. This will continue to move us toward more in-person gatherings but still with restrictions.
Read MoreWhite privilege. Did you just brace yourself, if you look like me? It’s a term that’s been around at least since the late 1980s, but we have heard and learned more about it recently. Many of us benefit from white privilege. Yet I would imagine there are some of you who have wrestled with the term as I have. What do you mean by “privilege,” you might ask. You might have had an upbringing like the one I did (or more difficult) so that you rankle a bit at the use of “privilege” in your own story.
Read MoreThe ReTurn Team is grateful for the support and feedback received in response to the May 15 guidelines offered for churches to consider as businesses and institutions around us have begun to reopen. We recognize that the Health Teams or Leadership Teams tasked with guiding your work in your local context are feeling an increasing amount of pressure to move toward a return to “normal” in-person activities. As our state has moved into Stage 3 and soon will likely move to Stage 4, we wish to offer additional clarification and guidance that may help you moving forward.
Read MoreOnce I told my congregation that I wanted to tattoo this verse on the inside of my eyelids: “…we know that trouble produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope.” Yeah, they thought it was a little weird, too, to imagine tattooing something on the inside of your eyelids. But it’s a message that guides us through our times of trouble to a place of hope.
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