General Conference of the Brethren in Christ (Brethren in Christ U.S.) has been awarded a $1.25 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to help establish The Thriving Congregations Initiative. The project is being funded through Lilly Endowment’s Thriving Congregations Initiative. The aim of the initiative is to encourage the flourishing of congregations by helping them deepen their relationships with God…

Taking out the trash mid-holiday party has become an oddly spiritual chore for me. The trash can usually fills up midway through a gathering, and taking it out has become a Christmas Party Examen that helps me be attentive. (You may be familiar with the concept of an Examen through the Daily Examen…

Dear friends, Twenty-three years ago, Doug and Barb Miller moved their young family to Malawi to serve among the Yawo people, a group that has historically been hard to reach with the Gospel. Through the Miller’s ministry of prayer, chronological Bible teaching…

Aliento De Vida is a Spanish-speaking congregation in Salina, Kansas, co-pastored by father and son duo Filiberto and Alex Zapata. Aliento De Vida (which translates to Breath of Life) started as a church plant ten years ago. They rapidly grew and a few years ago found themselves in a too-small building with limited funding for a new church home…

It is with broken hearts that we have watched violence unfold in Israel and Palestine. It is the same sorrow we feel whenever and wherever armed conflict destroys the lives of so many. We mourn the senseless loss of life and the trauma that millions have endured…

My husband’s aunt owns a cabin along Pine Creek in Northern Pennsylvania. I’m always arrested by the stillness, such a contrast from the noisy pace of my day-today life and mind. In the quiet of the early morning or at the hush of dusk…

The heat of summer was in full swing in Dearborn, Michigan, where I was serving as a Kingdom Professional with BIC U.S. World Missions. I had just returned from some time with family at home in Pennsylvania and was helping my church invite neighbors – many of whom were Arab-Americans - to a backyard kids club…

Would our church remain open or close? I'll never forget the September night four years ago when that question was the only item on our church board's agenda. I can still picture where each of us board members sat…

Henry Miller, an American Novelist, said, “To be silent the whole day, see no newspaper, hear no radio, listen to no gossip … to be thoroughly and completely indifferent to the fate of the world is the finest medicine a [person] can give [themselves].” This is from Miller’s 1941 travelogue and is perhaps more vividly captured in Andrew Wyeth’s 1961 Distant Thunder artwork…

For decades, Bible Quizzing was a pillar of youth ministry for the BIC. Groups of teenagers studied vast passages of scriptures together, preparing to go up against teams from other churches in regional, national, and even world competitions. In this article by Ken Letner first published in the Evangelical Visitor in 1982…

We go to all the world, his kingdom hope unfurled. No other name has power to save but Jesus Christ the Lord. This stirring refrain from the hymn “Facing a Task Unfinished” closed Alan Robinson’s National Director’s Report to the 2018 General Assembly…

Kevin and Barb Kelley have spent a lifetime serving people in crisis, him as a prison chaplain and her as a nurse practitioner. Following retirement, they sensed God placing a new passion in their hearts: refugee care and ministry. The Lord led them to Athens…