New Testament Scholarship
The Biblical Call to Welcome the Stranger
Eric Barreto / A short video that reminds us that fear does not need to serve as a barrier in welcoming strangers. Viewers are reminded that we are all people on the move and belonging is a choice.
Difference Is a Gift
Eric Barreto / This blogpost reminds us that diversity is not something to be feared or to overcome. A practice of belonging is the celebration of our differences.
545 of Our Children
Eric Barreto / A powerful piece where Eric reflects on the 545 children who, separated from their parents at the border, have not reunited. Centering the faces of the children, the blog reminds us of the suffering of those separated from loved ones.
When God Surprises Us
Eric Barreto / A sermon given in 2022 wherein the question is asked who deserves to hear God’s voice? Eric explores who is worthy of belonging and what happens when God surprises us.
Philanthropy
Grief, Bodies, and Worth
Erin Weber-Johnson / Our relationship to our money and bodies not only shapes our relationship to God, it impacts our ability to recognize God’s movements in the world. We are unable to imagine the kingdom of God, that is, God’s economics, without decolonizing, beliefs about our worth and work.
The Cost of a Body
Erin Weber-Johnson / In this blog Erin describes how our work, in exploring our relationships to money and bodies, is one of asking difficult questions, living in ambiguity, avoiding prescription, and celebrating diversity as holy.
Grief, Money Narratives, and Annual Giving
Erin Weber-Johnson / This article explores how communities of faith can collectively share their feelings of grief collectively as a way to understand new identity and create structures of belonging. Through the practice of sharing authentically, congregations are able to understand how we bring our whole selves to giving.
Being Connected
In this podcast Erin Weber-Johnson and Arianne Rice talk about what we carry in our bodies, decolonizing minds around work and rest, and the power of connection to heal and restore as practices of belonging.
Practical Theology
Adaptive Church: Collaboration and Community in a Changing Work
This book describes how collaborative partnerships are building new structures of belonging in the Northwest. Neither megachurches or denominations, the author describes how these hubs anchor religious life within a particular community and across a community.
For specific references to belonging, please see the following pages: ix, 32, 48, 53, 69-71, 75, 79, 84, 96, 99, 101, 154, 157-67, 171-75, 178-79, 186-87, 193, 218-19, 223, 225-26, 230, 232, 283.
Crisis and Calling: Discipleship after Desolation
Dustin D. Benac / In this article, Dustin describes the different ways crisis enters and can be experienced in our lives. Through these themes, he explores how calling emerges in ways that are hope filled and faithful to the practices of belonging.
Crisis and Care: Meditations on Faith and Philanthropy
Edited by Dustin D. Benac and Erin Weber-Johnson / A volume of reflections from across the church landscape of where care has risen to meet the needs of the numerous crises from the past 6 years. In particular, multiple authors describe what it means for dominant culture to no longer be normative and its impact on belonging as well while one author reflects on “A Faithful Fragile Belonging.”
In the Pacific Northwest, Christian institutions have to adapt to an era where church isn’t a given
Proposed text: Dustin Benac / In this article Dustin Benac introduces recent research from the Pacific Northwest that describes the new organizational structures that are emerging to support belonging. Through profiles of two pastors in the region, it explores how communities are (re)crafting the structures of belief and belonging on the other side of Christendom.
The Gravity of Joy: A Story of Being Lost and Found
Angela Gorrell / Angela describes how joy doesn't obliterate grief. Instead it has a capacity to be felt alongside sorrow and in the midst of suffering. In her reply personal account of researching joy while encountering multiple family tragedies, Angela explores how her own experiences with grief intersected with joy and belonging.
Pages on belonging: 91, 114-115, 140, 143, 150, 154, 162, 178, 179