Drew Downs

Make a New Normal

Lent

  • Lent

    Prayer God of Hope, be with me, with us today. Inspire us, encourage us, stir us up that we might know you better. That we might love you better. That we might see you, among these friends, today. Amen. Introduction The format is simple. Some teaching, some talking, some summarizing, some homework. Discussion Describe a…

  • I also wrote this letter to the congregation.

  • Lent, that season before Easter, is known for abstaining and fasting. But it is more than that. It’s a learning lab with a deadline. Lent as a 40-Day Love ChallengeAsh Wednesday | Matthew 6:1-6,16-21 Today is the first day of Lent. Like many Christians, all over the world, I got up and focused on devotion.…

  • Facing Foxes

    Jesus invites us into a new world of mercy based in nonviolent relationships and we’d rather kill it.

  • It seems weird to mix Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday. One’s the annual celebration of love and the other the annual reminder of our own mortality. But the two belong together more than we think. In 2018 we are fortunate to have St. Valentine’s Day land on Ash Wednesday. And the juxtaposition of the two…

  • Throughout Lent, I’ve offered inspirational quotes (like this one and this one) about success and failure, adding a hashtag: #LentFail. I’m doing this so that you understand that it’s OK to fail. More than that. It’s good to fail during Lent. I’ve often commented that Lent is treated like a second swing at a New…