Lent brings us back to what matters. When we receive ashes and hear, “Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return,” we remember something essential. Titles do not define us. Positions do not elevate us. We all stand equally before God as servants of Christ.
This truth shapes how we live and govern together in the United Church of Christ, and especially here in the Southwest Conference.
We practice covenant, not hierarchy.
Jesus showed us this way. When the disciples questioned their importance and status, Jesus did not set up a chain of command. He taught them to serve, wash their feet, and walked beside them. He formed a community rooted in humility, trust, and shared responsibility. He showed leadership grows from service, not control.
We continue that same practice today.
Click through to read Dr. Derrick’s article.
Read MoreSociologist Ray Oldenburg coined the phrase “third place” to describe spaces beyond the two main poles of our lives: home and work. At home, we live our private roles. At work, we carry out our public responsibilities. Third places are the church, cafés, libraries, and parks where community forms, and we remember we are more than our obligations.
When those spaces disappear, life tightens into a loop between productivity and privacy. We move from task to task and rarely pause to ask who we are becoming.
Ash Wednesday and the season of Lent create a sacred third space. At home, relationships and routines shape you. At work, expectations and performance define you. But when you step forward to receive ashes, those labels fall away. Titles fade. Status fades. Success and failure lose their grip. Christ meets you there, not as a résumé or a role, but as a soul. You hear the words: " You are dust. And you belong to Christ.
Click through to read Dr. Derrick’s entire article.
Read MoreAmid a news cycle filled with stories that can cause overwhelm and disorientation, the season of Lent will begin next week on March 5.
Sharon Fennema, Join the Movement curator and storyteller, described how many of the movement-makers she has connected with in recent months have described “feeling inundated and pulled in a million directions by all the injustices being perpetrated at every level of government and society right now.”
It’s within this context that ministries of the United Church of Christ offer Lent resources filled with spiritual sustenance to meet the moment.
Read MoreCheck out these two offerings shared by Rev. Teresa Blythe for reflection and learning this Lent: Online Mini-retreat with Stations of the Cross artwork and Four Zoom Presentations on Walking with the Spiritual but not Religious.
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