Brad Sumner

I am really enjoying being part of the @georgefox community. The Seminary is delving into all kinds of helpful conversations this spring (NT Wright will be in PDX for a conference and now @mrajswoboda). Come learn online with me at the Spring Conference georgefoxuniversity.regfox.com/portland-semin…

“Jesus intended for His church to be a communion of the baptized, not a power structure or power struggle of bureaucrats.” @lensweet in The Well Played Life

“The most fundamental crisis of our time is a crisis of hope… I am beginning to suspect that hope—building it, feeding it, strengthening it—may be the single most important leadership responsibility at this moment in time” -Meghan Larissa Good

Me thinks the interns forgot to spell check before posting 😂

Tomorrow is the 2nd Sunday of Advent: PEACE. Peace can be elusive, however, sometimes feeling like its slipping through our hands. Join The Gathering Church tomorrow at 10 AM to see what it means to be a person who seeks peace with others in a world that feels less than peaceful

“The gospel doesn’t eradicate suffering and loss in this world, but it does wrap all of your suffering and loss in mercy and goodness.” -Wang Yi

An #Advent blog post from my friend Christie PW over @jesuscollectiv "The Hope we are seizing isn’t a moment, a next step, a new season, a place we cannot get to from here. It isn’t a Hail Mary or a whimsical lapse of reason or logic. Hope is a person" jesuscollective.com/media/blog/hop…

Anabaptism at 500 and MWC invite you to participate in the Global Anabaptist Bible Read-a-Thon. Sign up and you'll be assigned a passage to read. Once your recording is done, we'll do the rest! Register now to be one of 500 contributors to this project! mennomedia.org/read-a-thon/

Happy Thanksgiving! I love Nouwen here "The word gracias... contained the answer. All is grace. Light & water, shelter & food, work & free time, children, parents, grandparents, birth & death - it is all given to us. Our very first vocation is to receive these gifts & say thanks"

@TylerJRHarper It is a challenging read in that it names some of the privilege we enjoy here in the west. This version has lots of helpful context notes and chronicles the history of the church in China in meaningful ways. Potent is how I would describe it

@bdsumner Is this good? It's been in my cart for a while

“Once the church falls into the trap of being ruled by emotions, depending on power, or yielding to politics on matters of doctrine… they have worshiped a false god. They have lost the most beautiful quality of Christ’s bride, purity.” Wang Yi

A ? I’ve been pondering since a zoom call earlier today: how do we help our physical labour (the work of our hands or minds) not become disassociated from our spiritual labour? We are not Gnostics so the goal is to have them both fully integrated but we often struggle. Thoughts?

"History is shaped by divine and human choices both. It is an ongoing conversation between the perfect wisdom of God and the fallibility of the rest of us. In any given moment, it is rarely obvious how the two forces are interacting. But that is kind of the point." -Meghan Good

Really thoughtful podcast by @jesuscollectiv on the topic of grief and loss. Thank you to Leanne Friesen for sharing with vulnerability and courage and calling those of us who are walking with those who grieve to do so with compassion and skill #grievingroom

This is a time to seek out common interests and not double down on positional interests... Post-elections are good times to ask how we can re-commit ourselves to the pursuit of the common good and not a time to gloat (or to lament) in ways that ascribe non-humanity to the "other"

“To put forth an argument requires respect, listening, nuance, and logic. To ‘come to terms’ with something is not to make peace with it or to agree with it, but to engage it from within.” @lensweet

On Sunday in our series on Ephesians, I was reminded by Pastor Christine that "gracious speech is in short supply. Speech is so often a weapon that is used to denigrate others." On this platform in IRL, I want to be a person who types and who speaks truthful things in loving ways

Having lived here for 6 months and having scoured the city for some good merch, my new favourite is this deeply ironic shirt. Today, I want to pause and say thank you to all those who have welcomed us here and who continue to do so. Y’all are not that bad 😜 Happy Thanksgiving

Go @Canucks Go! Fitting and well done tribute to Edler tonight

“The most basic trait of good problem solvers is their optimism. When faced with a difficult situation, they don’t just accept their fate. They believe that there is a better way forward - and that they are capable of finding it” @thomaswedell #WhatsYourProblem - agree? disagree?