Brandon Kinder continues our fall vision series, Tethered to Belonging: A Theology for Wanderers, Skeptics, and Believers, by exploring our relationship with Scripture through Psalm 1. Drawing on poetry, ancient Christian wisdom, and a personal story about music and memory, Brandon asks what happens when we approach the Bible not simply as a book of answers, but as an invitation to encounter God. What if Scripture is less about getting every word right and more about remembering how to sing?

Reflection Questions

1. What “fruits” do you want to grow this next year?
2. Would you rather memorize the menu, or eat the meal?
3. Where/when have you felt that Divine Union?

Vanessa Maleare launches our fall vision series, Tethered to Belonging: A Theology for Wanderers, Skeptics and Believers, with a reflection on unity in diversity. Drawing from Philippians 2:1–8, she invites us to consider how humility, shared love, and care for one another can hold us together amid our differences.

Reflection Questions

1. How are you peculiar?
2. Do you have resistance to deep conversations about faith?
3. What beliefs about faith and belonging are baked into your DNA?

Lilly Ettinger reflects on Genesis 1:1–2, 26–27 and Rublev’s icon of the Trinity, exploring how God’s shared life of love offers a model for relating to ourselves and our neighbors. As people made in God’s image, we are invited to receive the belonging already extended to us and make room for others within it.

Reflection Questions

1. What spiritual practices or intentions inform your image-assumptions about God?
2. What fruit does the image of God produce in your life
3. What might it look like for our community to reflect the mutuality and belonging we see within the Trinity?