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- Faith Communities Urged to Move Beyond Programs to Foster True Belonging April 22, 2026
- Faith Communities Welcoming Disability: Bill Tammeus Reports on Melody Escobar April 15, 2026
- Churches Urged to Rethink Inclusion for Autistic Individuals, Families April 14, 2026
- An Active Discussion Session April 13, 2026
- Dr. Melody Escobar Opens Day of Learning April 13, 2026
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Nurturing Care Survey Debrief
Posted in Clergy, Discipleship, Intergenerational, Moral Integration, Nurturing Care, Research, Virtue
Tagged #NurturingCare, Children, ministry, Moral Integration, NTS, Nurturing Care, Research, Virtue
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Religious Education Association Lilly Grant Session
Posted in Autism, Children, Family, Intergenerational, Leadership, Nurturing Care
Tagged #NurturingCare, Children, ministry, NTS, Nurturing Care, Online Education
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Disability and Prayer Presentation by NTS Grad
Posted in Clergy, disability, Discipleship, Nurturing Care
Tagged #NurturingCare, Children, disability, NTS, Nurturing Care
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Nurturing Care Survey at General Assembly
Four Days of Surveying parents and children bringing moral integration theory into direct conversation with worship and prayer experiences of children
Posted in Children, Clergy, Discipleship, Family, Intergenerational, Moral Integration, Nurturing Care, Research, Virtue
Tagged #NurturingCare, Children, ministry, Moral Integration, NTS, Nurturing Care, Research, Virtue
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New NTSx Class, Brains and Embodiment, offered for 10 Hours Lifelong Learning
Understanding the relationship between our brains and bodies influences our ethics, worship, and our understanding of religious experience.
NTSx is partnering with Blueprint 1543 to offer this online life long learning course that addresses the basics of psychology in service to theology, how our brain works, and how the influence of worship and spiritual formation. 
5 hours of viewing, short quizzes, and online reading/discussion totaling 10 hours of CEU credit. The five-week course begins November 7 with ample time to complete course work each week. Student guided discussion occurs online Thursday through Saturday.
Register at NTSx and enroll in Brains and Embodiment.
For more information contact Dr. Dean G. Blevins
dgblevins@nts.edu
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Hospitality in a COVID World through a Child Safety Posture
As congregations open up again during the Coronavirus pandemic, I want to be the first to say that pastors are under extreme pressure. There are historical moments when ministers (whether they admit it or not) really feel pressure to “get it right” even when the answer of what is right, or wrong, remains a mystery. COVID-19 is one of those times. I call these spaces “middle spaces” or liminal times where the past does not provide assurances and the future only raises questions.
For people used to linear waysof thinking, this time is just crazy-making. For people with cherished plans that seem to go awry (and suffer the condemnation or consternation of watching a good “plan” dissolve), I often recommend a system’s thinking awareness. A system’s thinking approach accepts we are not always in charge since each decision we make is later governed by other decisions… so we have to be learning and adapting as we go. We do not know the future. We may say “God’s got this” but we have no idea exactly what our role is in how God “is” getting it done.
Yet I do think ministry provides analogies that help us, particularly for those pastors who want to serve staff and volunteers during re-entry to the church. The analogy may help us adopt a “posture” to respond to the moment. What I offer is not a plan. However, I do want to offer observations that might help us communicate “why” being well prepared during COVID 19 services proves important.
from Flickr. User: “Sean Hackbarth”. URL: https://www.flickr.com/photos/seanhackbarth/4658839512/
The analogy comes from my professional experience with another challenge the church wrestle’s with, child safety. For twenty-five years I have worked to either fashion policy around child safety or teach it to students and pastors. It has been an episodic journey, but a journey strong enough to help me see the analogies as churches plan and encourage volunteers to adopt social distancing practices. There are limits as well (I will name them at the end of the blog) but I want to start with the connections.
Posted in Children, Clergy, Discipleship, Intergenerational, Pedagogy, Practical Theology
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We Have a Lot to Learn and Even More to Do Through Imbizo
Some of the questions proposed to everyone before he (she) is admitted among us may be to this effect: —
1. Have you the forgiveness of your sins?
2. Have you peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ?
3. Have you the witness of God’s Spirit with your spirit, that you are a child of God?
4. Is the love of God shed abroad in your heart?
5. Has no sin, inward or outward, dominion over you?
6. Do you desire to be told of your faults?
7. Do you desire to be told of all your faults, and that plain and home?
8. Do you desire that every one of us should tell you, from time to time, whatsoever is in his (her) heart concerning you?
9. Consider! Do you desire we should tell you whatsoever we think, whatsoever we fear, whatsoever we hear, concerning you?
10. Do you desire that, in doing this, we should come as close as possible, that we should cut to the quick, and search your heart to the bottom?
11. Is it your desire and design to be on this, and all other occasions, entirely open, so as to speak everything that is in your heart without exception, without disguise, and without reserve?
John Wesley, “Rules of the Band-Societies, Drawn Up December 25th, 1738,” in The Works of John Wesley, Jackson Edition, Vol. 8 (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Edition), 292-93; The Works of John Wesley, Bicentennial Edition, Rupert E. Davies ed., Vol. 9 (Nashville: Abingdon, 1989) 77-78.
Are We REALLY Ready to Hear?
Some efforts really push people to places of despair where hope seems difficult to embrace. The recent events around George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery serve as recent examples of an enduring struggle with racism not only in the USA, but in its varying expressions around the globe. We are in the kind of cauldron of pain where the claims of #blacklivesmatter really need to be heeded, echoed, and championed.
I hear those exhausted by the ongoing struggle. While I hope justice might be done in the ensuing trials, I am deeply aware that previous judicial processes do not serve an adequate predictor. Nevertheless the recent events expose to us once again a need to work at a much deeper level in our society to begin to heal the pain. And I suspect there will be future examples of injustice, insensitivity, and missteps along the way. Saying black lives matter will not be enough, it has never been enough. We also have to listen and ask, “what next?”
Like Wesley’s admonition, we need to hear the challenge, are you really ready to hear of all your faults… plain and home? We have a lot to learn and even more to do.
Posted in Clergy, Discipleship, Leadership, Pedagogy, Race, Religious Education, Wesley
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