Sacraments

Remembering Baptism: Living Wet

More congregations are seeing baptism as a sacrament that begins a lifelong pilgrimage. This shift leads them to pay more attention to baptismal living in worship and daily life. A feature story exploring the practices of the sacrament of baptism.

September 30, 2009 | 13 min read
Baptism: A story we all share

Discover how the multiple meanings of baptism can enrich baptism as a source of Christian identity, faith formation, and baptismal living. A feature story exploring Baptism, a story we all share.

August 24, 2009 | 10 min read
Praying Around the Communion Table: Cultivating a Spirit of Thanksgiving

Discover ways that the prayer of thanksgiving at the Lord's Supper provides a shape and vocabulary to guide us in lives of gratitude as well as connect our practices in church with the actions in our daily lives.

January 1, 2009 | 61 min listen

Rediscovering the Lord's Supper: Growing Deeper into the Gospel

A renewed theology and practice of the Lord's Supper can help believers grow into a deeper and multifaceted vision of salvation. Come and explore the ways in which the Lord's Supper illuminates the gospel as participation in Christ by the Spirit.

January 1, 2009 | 49 min listen
Take Me to the Water: Ideas for keeping baptism front and center

The theology of baptism has undergone a striking reformation in the last fifty years. So has the practice of baptism, at least in some respects.

June 1, 2008 | 1 min read
Baptism and the Transformation of Youths' Vocational Imaginations

This session explored, first, the relationship between Baptismal theology and vocation, and second, a variety of pedagogies designed to invite youth to imagine faithfully their unfolding futures with God.

January 1, 2008 | 59 min listen

Finding Themselves at the Table: Youth Practicing Eucharistic Living in the World

This session explored an ecology of practices designed to deepen youths' participation in the Lord's Supper/Eucharist and to form them to interpret and act in the world eucharistically. Participants learned creative pedagogies for teaching youth about the Eucharist; how youth may be engaged in ministry at the Table; the importance of creating a broad ecology of liturgical and extra-liturgical Eucharistic practices through which youth may be formed; and the means to invite youths? personal and theological reflections on Eucharistic life.

January 1, 2008 | 59 min listen
Between Font and Table

In this workshop participants explored the relationship of Word and Sacrament in weekly preaching. Undervalued biblical and theological foundations of the Lord's Supper and baptism can add to the depth of one's sermons. Additionally, a sacramental approach to preaching can influence one's use and understanding of language and illustration.

January 1, 2008 | 55 min listen
Baptism and the Lord's Supper: Embraced by the Triune God

This session explored the deep Trinitarian meanings and implications of the sacraments. Though centered on our union with and participation in Christ, Baptism and the Lord's Supper draw us into the heart of the divine community we call Trinity.

January 1, 2008 | 63 min listen

Liturgical Footwashing

This service was designed to be a full service of Word and sacrament. It was also designed to allow worshipers to share in the intimacy Jesus experienced with his disciples through foot washing and during the meal in the hours prior to his arrest and crucifixion.

December 1, 2007 | 1 min read
How Church Architecture Affects Lord's Supper Practices

Does your church visually convey a message that contradicts your theology of communion or mass? Mark A. Torgerson explains how church architecture and sanctuary design can inhibit or enhance a more full and communal Eucharist celebration. A feature story on how Church architecture affects Lord's Supper practices.

August 17, 2007 | 11 min read