Note from Pastor Amy: Today is a big day in DC: it’s the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s I Have a Dream speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.  The consideration of whether or not everyone in our country deserved the same civil rights was brought to the forefront of the national conversation in a big way that day, and people of faith were loud and insistent voices in the cry for justice right alongside Dr. King.... Read more

I titled this post, “Dancing in the Dark” because it’s a collection of thoughts about faith.   And faith, to me, feels most often like…dancing in the dark.   In my experience faith has been responsive movement to something bigger than myself, something I can feel and sense and even seem to really know sometimes, but never can see quite clearly or describe enough to contain.   Sometimes that response looks like twirling with confident abandon.  And most often it... Read more

If you haven’t seen Twenty Feet from Stardom, you should.  And when you do, it will make you think about community, perhaps the most beautiful and subversive gift the church can offer this lonely world.  Read more of my thoughts about that here. Read more

Rachel Johnson has spent her career working at the intersection of religion and politics.  She currently serves as Chair of Deacons at Calvary Baptist Church in Washington, DC.  You can follow her on twitter (when she remembers to tweet) at @rachelnoelj. “Take a deep breath and be with your God.” Struck by the invitation, my eyes popped open at those words of Sister Donna.  I was at vespers at a retreat center run by the Sisters of Mercy, so I... Read more

Tom Vanaskie is a member of Calvary Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., and a regular attendee of Theology on Draft, one of Calvary’s small groups.  He resides in the District with his soon to be wife, Sabrina, and their cat, Layla.  In his free time, he enjoys brewing beer, playing golf, and serenading Sabrina and Layla on his guitar. I have a confession to make.  I’ve never blogged before.  In fact, I don’t have a Facebook account and have no... Read more

I shared these thoughts with the Calvary congregation in worship yesterday, the ten year anniversary of our work together as pastor and congregation. You can read about some of the things I’ve learned these ten years here. The purpose of the Invitation to Give and Serve in the worship service is to help us remember why we invest in a community of faith like Calvary, to explore the many ways our church is building and nurturing spiritual community, joining us together... Read more

The Men of Judges: Ehud Judges 3: 12-25 Becky Vaughn was telling me a story the other day about her grandfather, who apparently was a bit of a wild child.  In her family, she told me, everybody loves to tell stories about him, some of which are pretty funny.  A favorite, she said, was one about when he got himself a motorcycle, against his parents’ wishes.  One day, coming home on his motorcycle, he couldn’t figure out how to make... Read more

Amy Sullivan is a Calvary member, and a journalist who writes about religion, politics, and culture. She is currently a correspondent for National Journal, and was previously a senior editor at TIME. Her first book, The Party Faithful: How and Why Democrats are Closing the God Gap, was published by Scribner in 2008. Clergy types have been buzzing recently about a Christianity Today article called “Rethinking the $3,000 Missions Trip.” The piece, by a Tennessee pastor, grapples with the at-times-overwhelming... Read more

Susan Sevier is currently a student at the Virginia Theological Seminary and a church musician at the Calvary Baptist Church in Washington, DC.  When she is not pondering the meaning of Constantine’s conversion to Christianity, she works as a freelance classical musician and writer.  She blogs about her seminary experiences at www.sevierlybaptist.com and continues her musings on the relationship between music and faith at www.singingthejourney.com A lot of study in a seminary program is devoted to the question of identity:  you’re own, your... Read more

Myra Houser is a Calvary member; in her spare time she’s in graduate school for history. She supports the Shalom Scholarship and hopes everyone will donate, and she loves DC. She blogs about these and related things here. Please note: This is a satire (sort of). That means that sometimes it says the opposite of what it means in a misguided attempt at humor. Pastor Amy asked if I would consider blogging for this little project on how much I... Read more