Drew Downs

Make a New Normal

Prayer

  • Why Pray?

    Prayer. What does your mind conjure when you hear that word? Perhaps images, moments, life experiences, people. Prayer means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. Getting at the root of prayer means digging into what it is we think we’re doing. Prompt 1: What is prayer to you? Read: Read…

  • Welcome to Beautiful Prayer, Common Prayer, the first in a series of Faith 15 workshops designed to help you deepen your spiritual life. This season after the Epiphany, we will be exploring prayer. As we get started, I invite you to Watch the attached welcome video. Collect your initial thoughts on prayer. Write them down.…

  • 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 When you…

  • As of this morning 60 Palestinians were declared dead and over 2,300 were injured in a massacre along the fence in Gaza. Moving the United States Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem was what Rachel Shabi called “a deliberate upturning of international conventions.” And timing it for this auspicious date was an intentional thumb on…

  • Growing up in northern Michigan, the idea of snow in April isn’t weird to me. It wasn’t even weird to think about snow making an appearance in May or June. And at the other end of the calendar, we had to integrate snowsuits into our Halloween costume design. But that doesn’t mean we don’t get…

  • Let’s be honest. The disciples asked Jesus how to pray. How. Not what. How. Teach us how to pray! They ask him. Jesus responds to their request with “When you pray, say:” Jesus doesn’t teach them how to pray. Proper 12C  |  Luke 11:1-13 If we remember back in chapters 9 and 10, Jesus is…