Andi Voinovich's blog

Invitation to Boldness

Throughout the month of October, we are exploring stewardship. When someone becomes a member of a United Methodist Church, they are asked if they will participate with their presence, prayers, gifts, service, and witness. Last week, we explored presence. This week we take a look at prayer.

Learning Out Loud

Isn't it funny, and by funny, I mean complex, messy, and chaotic, that so often the things that bring us comfort can also cause so many complications? The last 18 months, the phrase "unprecedented times" has been used more than I can remember and if I'm being honest, at this point, they bring up a negative physical response. Unprecedented times. I don't know about you, but I struggle with the unprecedented, with the unknown, with the chaotic! I like order. I like direction, having a sense of what's going on. Uncertainty leaves me feeling more anxious than I'd like to admit.

Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

One of the things that I love most about faith communities is that they are one of a few spaces that is regularly intergenerational. We are blessed to be a community of people of many ages!

What we have to learn and teach one another is immense and when we are open to those lessons, to learning, growing, and serving together, I truly believe we can change the world and that our worlds can change. This Sunday, our children and United Methodist Women members invite us to celebrate Children's Sabbath.

Forgive me?

In many ways, the Bible is a small library in and of itself. Genealogies, poetry, law, parables, and so much more can be found in scripture. For many, in times when we find ourselves seeking words of prayer, whether they be of praise and gratitude or anger and sorrow, we find ourselves flipping to the psalms. With 150 different psalms, there are words that can speak to quite a few of the different experiences we may find ourselves in throughout life.

Fish and Loaves

Have you ever planned an event with a certain group in mind and then soon realized that the attendance would be different than you thought and much, much larger? That happened for me this summer. Last year, Deacon Wes and I hosted a small Pride event for our youth and young adults. It was a hit! Some of our youth had some ideas about what more could be offered the next year, so when it came time to plan for this year, we reached out to that group to see if they•d like to plan it.

Counting Sheep and Getting Sleep

When I was a child, I thought there was nothing cooler than staying up late. Sleepovers with no bedtime were always so exciting! My friends and I would try to make it through as much of the night as possible without sleeping. This wasn't too hard for me because I was certain if I fell asleep I'd miss something! Even when I wasn't at sleepovers I did what I could to stay up late. There was one year where I insisted that I needed music to be played at night to help me to sleep - or maybe it was to help me stay awake!

Monsters, Martyrs, and Everyone in Between

This week as I was taking a peek at the children's Bible that we give our families for baptisms, I noticed that our text for this week didn't make the cut. Was I surprised? No. The text for this week is one of those difficult texts that can't quite be summed up in a few short sentences or made alright with a lovely illustration.

Ruminating on Results

Last summer, one of my favorite fellowship ministries offered by our church was Wednesday outdoor movie nights. Deacon Wes built a giant screen with a painter's tarp and some 2 x 4s and set it up above the stairs in the back of the church so you could see it from far away. It was so much fun to gather together safely and enjoy movies!

A God Who Loves

Every now and then, while a seminarian, the admissions office would ask me to have lunch with a prospective student. I loved doing this! It was always neat meeting people and hearing what it was that was bringing them to seminary. Sometimes these conversations led to new connections and new classmates, and even the times it didn't, I often learned something.

Enough

When I was a teenager, Suzanne Collins' trilogy, The Hunger Games came out. These books FLEW off shelves and caught the attention of many, both their intended audience of teens, and so many more. The books became so popular that they were adapted into film.

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