Time for Prayer during the Season of Easter
Denise McClellan, Director of Adult Ministries & Missional Service
3/31/24
When the sun sets tonight, it will still be Easter. In the Church, Easter is a 50-day celebration. You can continue celebrating Easter through prayer. Spirit in the Desert, the Lutheran retreat center located in Carefree, is offering a weekly online Spirited Centering Prayer beginning tomorrow at noon. Click the link below for more details and to register.
Time for Prayer during the Season of Easter
Holy Week
Denise McClellan, Director of Adult Ministries & Missional Service
3/25/24
It’s Holy Week. As you prepare for Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, use the links below to learn more about these holy days and these worship services.
Light in Lent
Denise McClellan, Director of Adult Ministries & Missional Service
3/5/24
My husband and I got in the car the other day, and he turned the radio to one of his favorite Sirius XM stations. A song came on I’d never heard. In fact, it hasn’t been released yet. It’s called “Can’t Hide Light” by Max McNown, and the recording comes out next month. The name of the debut album, Wandering, caught my attention as Wandering Heart is our theme for Lent. I was in a dark mood, and the song’s message spoke to me. I especially like the line: There’s a glimpse of hope ready to break through. Click the link below to listen to the song. I hope it provides some light to your day.
Wandering Heart
Music for Lent
Denise McClellan, Director of Adult Ministries & Missional Service
2/21/24
Our theme for Lent at Desert Cross is Wandering Heart from A Sanctified Art. They include a Spotify Playlist with Music for Lent. Use the link below to create a free Spotify account and start listening to nearly seven hours of music.
Lent Retreat
The Cry from the Cross
Denise McClellan, Director of Adult Ministries & Missional Service
2/13/24
Our Jesuit friends at the Pray as You Go website and app are offering a retreat for Lent. ”The Cry from the Cross” will “focus on Jesus’ own experience of what it means to be fully human. There is nothing that any of us has suffered or will suffer that can ever separate us from the love of God our Creator. This Lent, we begin our pilgrimage to the place of his suffering which is also the place of God’s ultimate triumph over death and darkness.“ The retreat begins tomorrow and will continue each Monday. Click the link below for more information and to listen to the introduction.
Lent Retreat: The Cry from the Cross
Gospel Live!
Denise McClellan, Director of Adult Ministries & Missional Service
2/7/24
Mark your calendars for Friday night for some great Gospel music. PBS is offering a Gospel Live! concert to kick off their Gospel documentary that runs next week. Use the first link below to access the information on our local PBS station. Use the second link for for a preview of the documentary.
Shine God’s Light
Denise McClellan, Director of Adult Ministries & Missional Service
1/24/24
Sometimes God’s light comes to us through a kind heart on a difficult day. That’s what happened to Roger Lynn. Click the link below to listen to his essay about Jennifer, a nurse who cared for his wife. Each of us can Shine God’s Light in the way we care for others.
A Prayer for Epiphany
Denise McClellan, Director of Adult Ministries & Missional Service
1/10/24
At yesterday’s staff meeting, Pastor Andrea shared a prayer that Mother Teresa prayed with her sisters daily. It’s a beautiful Prayer for Epiphany. You’ll find it printed below.
Dear Lord, help me spread your fragrance where I go.
Flood my soul with your spirit and life.
Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly that all my life may only be a radiance of yours.
Shine through me, and be in me, so that every soul I come in contact with may feel your presence in my soul. Let them look up and see no longer me, but only you, O Lord!
Stay with me, then I shall begin to shine as you do; to shine so as to be a light to others. The light, O Lord, will be all from you; none of it will be mine; it will be you shining on others through me.
Let me thus praise you in the way you love best, by shining on those around me.
Let me preach you without preaching, not by my words but by my example, by the catching force, the sympathetic influence of what I do, the evident fullness of the love my heart bears to you.
Amen.
Merry Christmas
Denise McClellan, Director of Adult Ministries & Missional Service
12/24/23
A very Merry Christmas from Desert Cross! Click the link below to listen to “Silent Night” performed by some of your favorite singers.
Music for Advent
How Does a Weary World Rejoice?
Spotify Playlist
Denise McClellan, Director of Adult Ministries & Missional Service
12/6/23
How Does a Weary World Rejoice? That’s our Advent theme at Desert Cross. So, how does a weary world rejoice? With music, of course! Click the link below to access a Spotify Playlist put together by A Sanctified Art. It includes 70+ songs and runs 4+ hours. You can create a Spotify account for free. Happy listening!
Advent Retreat
The Cry from the Manger
Denise McClellan, Director of Adult Ministries & Missional Service
12/4/23
Our Jesuit friends at the Pray As You Go website and app are offering an online Advent Retreat this year. The Cry from the Manger starts today and continues each Monday until Christmas. Each week they’ll release a meditation online. It includes Bible verses, meditation, music, visuals, and plenty of time for reflection. Here’s their description of the offering: For Advent this year, we will reflect on God’s entering into the suffering of the world. Jesus, Emmanuel, was born amongst us, right into the heart of our suffering. Jesus joined us in our suffering, and this Christmas, we incline our ears a little closer to the manger, to hear Christ’s first cry. Use the link below to start your Advent Retreat today.
Seeking Common Ground
Denise McClellan, Director of Adult Ministries & Missional Service
11/16/23
Roberta Elliott and Tahija Vikalo founded the Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom ten years ago. The group tries to help Muslim and Jewish women seek common ground. Tahija says, “we hear each other.” Roberta says they do this work by “seeing the humanity in each other.” Click the link below to meet these two amazing women. May we all learn from them.
All Saints Sunday
Denise McClellan, Director of Adult Ministries & Missional Service
11/2/23
The Gospel Lesson for this weekend is the beatitudes from Matthew’s Gospel. Below you’ll find a prayer written for All Saints Sunday based on the lesson.
A Prayer for God’s Transformative Blessings
“Blessed are you, O God,
for you are holy, gracious, and good,
the hope of all the faithful.
Empower the meek
and encourage the poor.
Comfort those who mourn
and fill humble hearts with gladness.
Give food to the hungry,
drink to the thirsty,
peace to the peacemakers,
mercy to the merciful,
and honor to the despised.
Sustain your saints in ministry,
until at last they see their reward:
the joy of eternal life with you;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Office of Theology and Worship, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A)
10/27
Denise McClellan, Director of Adult Ministries & Missional Service
10/27/23
As I write this, people in Lewiston, Maine continue to shelter in place after a mass shooting there Wednesday evening. As I write this, people in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania remember the eleven people killed at Tree of Life Synagogue five years ago today. 10/27 is how the survivors refer to the shooting there. In the video linked below, Rabbi Jeffrey Myers has a beautiful message of hope for people of all faiths.
Reforming
Denise McClellan, Director of Adult Ministries & Missional Service
10/25/23
Churches around the country are asking themselves the same questions. What does the church of tomorrow look like? How can we serve the neighborhood where our churches are located? One church in Seattle has an answer. They’re tearing down their old church building and building a smaller one along with affordable housing for families. Columbia City Church of Hope is reforming itself to better serve the neighborhood that surrounds it. Click the link below to read the story from their pastor.
A Prayer for Peace
Denise McClellan, Director of Adult Ministries & Missional Service
10/11/23
A Prayer for Peace in Israel and Palestine
“They will not hurt or destroy
on all my holy mountain…” —Isaiah 11:9
God of Comfort,
send your Spirit to encompass all those whose lives
are torn apart by violence and death in Israel and Palestine.
You are the Advocate of the oppressed
and the One whose eye is on the sparrow.
Let arms reach out in healing, rather than aggression.
Let hearts mourn rather than militarize.
God of Justice,
give strength to those whose long work for a just peace
might seem fruitless now. Strengthen their resolve.
Do not let them feel alone. Show us how to support their work
and bolster their courage. Guide religious leaders to model
unity and reconciliation across lines of division.
Guide political leaders to listen with their hearts as they seek peace and pursue it.
Help all people choose the rigorous path of just peace and disavow violence.
God of Love,
we lift up Palestine and Israel — its people, its land, its creatures.
War is a monster that consumes everything in its path.
Peace is a gift shared at meals of memory with Christians, Muslims, and Jews.
Let us burn incense, not children. Let us break bread, not bodies.
Let us plant olive groves, not cemeteries.
We beg for love and compassion to prevail
on all your holy mountains.
God of Hope,
we lift up the cities of the region: Gaza City and Tel Aviv,
Ramallah and Ashkelon, Deir El Balah and Sderot,
so long divided, yet so filled with life and creativity.
Come again to breathe peace on your peoples
that all may recognize you.
God of Mercy,
even now work on the hearts of combatants
to choose life over death, reconciliation over retaliation,
restoration over destruction. Help us resist antisemitism in all its forms,
especially in our own churches. All people, Israelis and Palestinians,
deserve to live in peace and unafraid, with a right to determine
their future together.
God of the Nations,
let not one more child or elder be sacrificed on altars of political expediency.
Keep safe all people from unjust leaders who would exploit
vulnerability for their own distorted ends.
Give wise discernment to those making decisions to pursue peace.
Provide them insight into fostering well-being, freedom, and thriving for all.
Teach all of us to resolve injustices with righteousness, not rockets.
Guard our hearts against retaliation, and give us hearts for love alone.
Strengthen our faith in you, O God of All Flesh,
even when we don’t have clear answers,
so that we may still offer ourselves nonviolently
for the cause of peace.
Amen.
–Rose Marie Berger
sojo.net
Gathering a Family
Denise McClellan, Director of Adult Ministries & Missional Service
9/27/23
This month’s Playlist theme is Gather. Let’s explore how we see that theme in a recent story in the news. Robert Carter didn’t grow up with a family. He grew up in the foster care system. That experience inspired him to “want to help people and do better in life,” and he’s done that! He Gathered a Family, and he’s giving back and back and back. Click the link below to meet this incredible man and his family.
Looking Back at Summer Camp
Denise McClellan, Director of Adult Ministries & Missional Service
9/15/23
As they celebrate Rosh Hashanah tonight, some kids around the country will be looking back on their time at a very special summer camp. Be’chol Lashon means “in every language” in Hebrew. It’s a summer camp in California for Jewish kids of color. Click the link below to read about it and how the campers there find a place of community and belonging.
Spotters & Scooters
Denise McClellan, Director of Adult Ministries & Missional Service
8/17/23
Desert Cross has seen a few new faces at worship services over the last couple of months. Have you noticed them? Have you said hello? Have we made them feel welcome at Desert Cross? Click the link below to read an article from Living Lutheran to learn how we can all be Spotters & Scooters and help folks feel welcome.
Kingdom of God
Denise McClellan, Director of Adult Ministries & Missional Service
8/1/23
ChristCare is the small group ministry at Desert Cross. One of our recent studies included the following question: Finish this sentence, “The kingdom of God is like . . . ” Several people in my ChristCare Group said that they find the kingdom of God in community. That’s true for many people, including Pastor Tom Glasoe. Click the link below to read his essay from Living Lutheran. In it, he describes different faith communities he’s been a part of and the difference they’ve made in his life.
Praying with the Spirit
Denise McClellan, Director of Adult Ministries & Missional Service
7/1/23
We’re sharing a week of devotions with you focusing on the Holy Spirit. You’ll find seven links below. Each devotion includes a reading from the Bible, a reflection, and a prayer. Come back each day as we explore the Spirit together.
July 1–Day 1: Freedom in the Holy Spirit
July 2–Day 2: Born of the Spirit
July 3–Day 3: The Joy in Baptism
July 4–Day 4: Being Led by the Spirit
July 5–Day 5: Living on God’s Word
July 6–Day 6: Walking by Faith
July 7–Day 7: Coming Out of the Wilderness
Come, Holy Spirit
Denise McClellan, Director of Adult Ministries & Missional Service
5/27/23
Come, Holy Spirit, bring light to places too long languishing in deep darkness and relentless fear.
Come, Holy Spirit, bring fires of justice to people right now exploited, devalued and oppressed.
Come, Holy Spirit, bring winds of change to the farthest corners of the earth, ushering in God’s peace and abundant life.
Come, Holy Spirit, bring words of God’s deeds of power spoken in languages understood by all creation.
Come, Holy Spirit, bring new ways of being community, a revolution of grace, mercy and kindness that reveal the dignity and worth of each and every person.
Come, Holy Spirit, bring an upending of evil, an upbuilding of goodness, an upheaval of anything counter to the will of the Triune God.
Come, Holy Spirit, bring flames that burn away our dross and refine our faith so that the whole world will be drawn through us to the light of Christ and the love of God.
Come, Holy Spirit, bring truth that unmasks idolatry, undoes false teaching and leads to greater understanding among God’s children.
Come, Holy Spirit, bring reconciliation that breaks down walls, builds bonds of kinship and knits together every tribe and nation.
Come, Holy Spirit, bring comfort to those who mourn, relief to all who suffer, hope to the hopeless and encouragement to those on the cusp of giving up.
Come, Holy Spirit, bring your advocacy and intercession, your gentleness and power, your presence and compassion in order that we will bravely participate in the new things God is doing in our midst.
Come, Holy Spirit, come that we may abide in God and God in us until Christ comes again. Amen.
–Pastor Jill Duffield
The Presbyterian Outlook Website
I Forgive You
Denise McClellan, Director of Adult Ministries & Missional Service
4/26/23
Idris Mitchell gave Randall Bagley a gift he never expected to receive. The gift of forgiveness in three powerful words: I forgive you. Click the link below to watch their story.
Holy Week in Jerusalem
Denise McClellan, Director of Adult Ministries & Missional Service
4/5/23
Click the link below to get a peek at Holy Week in Jerusalem. It includes video clips of holy sites throughout the city. May you have a Blessed Holy Week.
Stations of the Cross
Denise McClellan, Director of Adult Ministries & Missional Service
4/4/23
Pray As You Go is an online prayer resource. You can use their app or visit their website for a daily devotional. Below you’ll find a link to a collection of Stations of the Cross reflections offered by them. Each station includes a selection of music, a reading from the Bible, and a reflection. Use it this week as part of your journey through Holy Week.
The Land of the Seeking
Denise McClellan, Director of Adult Ministries & Missional Service
3/29/23
Below you’ll find a link to a music video from our friends at A Sanctified Art. You’ll recognize the artwork in the video from the Lenten devotional and our midweek Lenten worship services.
Seeking in the Labyrinth
Denise McClellan, Director of Adult Ministries & Missional Service
3/21/23
A labyrinth is a prayer tool. It’s a walking meditation. There’s one way in and one way out. This allows you to focus on prayer rather than on deciding which way to go, which way to turn. Desert Cross has a labyrinth at our Tempe Site that you can use anytime. Come and try it during Lent as you Seek ways to draw closer to God.
You’ll find two links below. Click the first one to read some history and simple steps for using a labyrinth. The second one is a recent story in the news that features a labyrinth in Phoenix.
Seeking: Songs for Lent
Denise McClellan, Director of Adult Ministries & Missional Service
2/22/23
Seeking: Honest Questions for Deeper Faith is the theme for Lent at Desert Cross this year. A Sanctified Art put together a Spotify playlist called Seeking: Songs for Lent. You can set up a free account with Spotify and enjoy this wide-ranging music for the next 40 days. Click the link below to get listening.
Reset by Light
Denise McClellan, Director of Adult Ministries & Missional Service
1/26/23
You might be wondering why we’re sharing a story about a blind man’s circadian clock and the curiosity of scientists about the man’s ability to wake up with the sun each day. It’s an interesting story, and the research into it involves frogs and mice! So, why is it on our Desert Cross Faith Formation Website? Thinking about how light resets our internal clocks each day got me thinking about how attending worship services resets us spiritually each week. Hearing God’s Word, singing God’s praises, and being in God’s light helps us hear our call to serve and love one another. Click the link below to hear the story about light and eyesight and join us this weekend to hear The Story and experience The Light.
Hody’s Fund
Denise McClellan, Director of Adult Ministries & Missional Service
1/19/23
Hody Childress was a kind, generous man. He set up “Hody’s Fund” to help people in need, but he didn’t want anyone to know about it. He only wanted them to know that it was a blessing from God. Because of Hody’s kindness, many received help. Click the link below to read about this special gift.
Desert Cross Faith Formation 
I appreciate her comment about exploring, struggling with, and asking questions about the stories of the bible and not “expecting quick or easy answers” from it. This made me think of ChristCare groups at Desert Cross. In these groups we explore, share, question, make connections and more!
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Shannon, thanks for sharing your experience. I, too, have found ChristCare Groups to be a safe place to have doubts and to ask questions. It’s been a comfort and a joy to experience that kind of open conversation.
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We showed the video of Sue Austin to our grandkids, and they said she looked like a mermaid!
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We saw the church when we were in Cork. Your story and the age of the church is a reminder of the lasting grace and how important it is to pass the faith down to the ages.
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Lola, you said it very well. Thank you.
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