• The West End Story

    Sometimes loving your neighbor begins with creating a place to sit down together.  On May 29, Renew Covenant Church in Carroll, Iowa celebrated the ribbon cutting for The West End, a coffee shop and gathering space born from a simple question: How might every square foot of our building serve our community?  When Renew purchased its building in downtown Carroll, church leaders could have filled an empty storefront with a traditional tenant. Instead, they began…

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  • Three Years From Now… in the MWC

    Three years from now, what stories will we be telling?  At this year’s Midwest Conference Annual Ministry Celebration (AMC), held in April at Centennial Covenant Church in Colorado, we took time to listen for the Holy Spirit’s answer.  As part of our shared MWC ministry focus – Communities of Jesus: Transformed, Connected, and Multiplying – participants were invited to listen for the Holy Spirit and respond to the question:  Three years from now, what stories…

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  • little girls running around a court in superhero capes

    Just You

    My sons have friends on our street. So many evenings they’ll be gathered in someone’s front yard playing. A few days ago, some of their play involved wrestling, and a kid got hurt. I walked down the street to join my husband to check on things and asked how the kid got hurt. Another dad answered, “Oh, they were just being kids.” And I appreciated that. Immensely. My son had been part of the wrestling…

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  • men on crosses on a championship

    In The Arena

    My husband and his father are avid followers of AMA Supercross, and the season’s supercross (indoor) part just came to an end.  For the 450 class, the season consists of 17 races, with riders earning points based on their finish. 1st place earns 25 points, 2nd place earns 24 points, 3rd place earns 23 points, and so on. The goal is to end the season with the most points, and you are the AMA Supercross…

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  • question marks on paper crafts

    I Don’t Know

    “I don’t know.” Frightening, weighted words that sludge down our throats and swirl with anxiety around our chest. Or at least that’s how they used to feel for me. I used to cringe when I wouldn’t know something. The physical sensations they would cause were unpleasant and undesirable. I wanted the presumed comfort of knowing, the control it felt like it gave me. And so my brain sighed with relief as I trudged into the…

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