Whether a Christian enjoys high church, low church, or something in between, aesthetics in the Church are not about any one individual person and their particular tastes. Aesthetics are, fundamentally, not a matter of legalism, but of edification—that the Gospel of Christ might be preached and taught to all peoples, unhindered by its medium.
Let us live by walking with Jesus, so that our Neo-Pagan neighbors, the witch, and frankly a lot of us Christians, can put down our crystals, our superstitions, our vision boards, and our bound sage in order to live out a liturgy of life, with rituals, practices, and behaviors that reflect who we are as followers of Christ.
As Jesus hung on the cross there would be no last second escape. No Greek goddess would swoop in to rescue him. He suffered alone. And yet even in that suffering he declared his victory on the spiritual battlefield to be your victory.

All Articles

“Poverty of spirit” is not an ethical value we strive for. It is an act of God’s mercy spoken to the deepest recesses of our soul when it’s overwhelmed by God’s grace.
Jesus comes to you. He binds your wounds, and he pours out his body and his blood for the forgiveness of your sins.
My Song Is Love Unknown is a Lenten hymn written by Samuel Crossman and John Ireland. For this particular arrangement we've added a chorus which reads: "oh, Your grace has made a way. Oh, your love has conquered this grave. Oh, Your love made known to me, and to the world, Your love I'll be." The goal with this chorus was to continue the personal tone of the song particularly emphasizing the redeeming work of Christ in our lives.
The law is good and holy but so often when we are “shoulding” on one another, we actually are just going to end up “burning” each other’s fields.
Pentecost reminds us of not only what happened on that day described in Acts 2 but what is happening every day: the Spirit of God working in and through God’s people, according to his word.
What is it, though, that makes bedtime so fraught with anxiety?
"Ragged" written by Gretchen Ronnevik is now available for purchase from 1517 Publishing
From Genesis to Revelation, Scripture echoes with the great songs of salvation that fill our ears, hearts, minds, and mouths with the good news of salvation in Jesus.
This is an excerpt from the introduction of Ragged: Spiritual Disciplines for the Spiritually Exhausted written by Gretchen Ronnevik (1517 Publishing, 2021), 122-125. Now available for preorder.
God leads us to the refuge that’s more secure and safe than any man-made thing, more than anything we own, more than anything that owns us.
Now, if there were another way to heaven, doubtless, he would have made it known to us.
It’s God’s love that sets us free to love in the first place.