Here is the link list to add to your post:

• Comforting those who Hurt – K. W. Leslie
• Unto the Least of These – J. Stahl
• Like a Motherless Child – Carol Kuniholm
• Exploding Bridges and How to Help People – Phil Lancaster
• The Ministry of Presence – Glenn Hager
• The Problem of Pain – Chris Jefferies
• How to Be with Those in Pain – David Derbyshire
• When Sorry Seems to b the Hardest Word - Doreen A Mannion
• What Seems to Help in the Midst of Pain – Kathy Escobar
• Mourning with those who Mourn – Jeremy Myers
• What He Told The Home Crowd – Tim Nichols

Make sure you go around and read everybody’s post, and comment on it if you wish.

As followers of Jesus, how are we to respond in such situations?

We have all heard some horror stories (or maybe you have experienced this personally) about some of the things well-meaning Christians say and do toward others who are experiencing personal tragedies. Christians often say or do some pretty foolish (even offensive!) things in such situations. Often this is because we want to help, but we don’t know how. We don’t know what to say. We don’t know what to do. So we say foolish things. We stay away when we should be present. We are present when we should give people space. We bring things up that we shouldn’t, or we don’t bring things up that we should.

So for the May 2013 Synchroblog, we want to invite you to write a “How to” post about helping Christians know what to do (or not do) and what to say (or not say) when others are going through times of personal tragedy.

Maybe you have experienced a tragedy in your life, and want to share a story about what someone said or did which was rude, condescending, and insensitive. Or, more positively, maybe you want to write about what someone said or did that showed love, care, and concern. Either way, provide some suggestions on what others can say or do which would have been helpful to you in your time of personal tragedy.

If you are not comfortable sharing stories like this, maybe you want to write about something you said or did which others have found helpful in their painful experiences. Of course, if you write from this perspective, be sure that your words or actions really were helpful to the other person!

Ultimately, the goal of this synchroblog is to give Christians some suggestions for loving and caring for those around us who are experiencing great personal loss, pain, tragedy, or disaster.

Publish your posts by Tuesday May 14th and share your link here, and we’ll post the final link list on Wednesday morning, May 15th, to add to the bottom of your posts. If you know other bloggers who might also want to participate, feel free to pass this invitation on.

When I was young, I loved to play the ‘what if’ game. It went like this: I would imagine an unlikely scenario and present it to my mother to find out what she thought. Since I had an active imagination, I engaged in this til I drove her to distraction and she would declare, “No more ‘what ifs’!!” Now that I’m older, I’ve discovered there is a whole group of people who play the ‘what if’ game. They’re called philosophers!

This month we invite you to play the ‘what if’ game with us. Try to imagine that some or all of the Bible narrative is not necessarily true history, but is myth of one sort or another. What sort of effect would that knowledge have on your faith? What effect might it have on the larger church? How would it change you? Would it change you and how you view the world?

We recognize that this might make some or all of you uncomfortable and while we recognize the struggle involved with that sort of discomfort, please feel free to blog about that fact as well. The ‘what if’ game can involve some prickly feelings and we welcome that as well.

Here are the links for for those participating this month:

• K.W. Leslie – When People Believe Christianity Is A Myth
• Jeremy Myers – What If The Bible Is a Myth?
• David Derbyshire – What If Genesis Is A Creation Myth?
• Bud Brown – What if Paul was wrong about the life of Christ living in me?
• Chris Jefferies – What If … Creation Was A Myth?
• Paul W. Meier – Is The Bible A Myth?
• Doreen A. Mannion – The Bible As A Source of Wisdom
• Phil Lancaster – What If the Bible Were A Myth
• Carol Kuniholm – What If Newness Was The Norm
• Liz Dyer – Penultimate Truth
• Glenn Hager – Myths in the Bible? So What?

When I was young, I loved to play the ‘what if’ game.  It went like this:  I would imagine an unlikely scenario and present it to my mother to find out what she thought.  Since I had an active imagination, I engaged in this til I drove her to distraction and she would declare, “No more ‘what ifs’!!”  Now that I’m older, I’ve discovered there is a whole group of people who play the ‘what if’ game.  They’re called philosophers!

This month we invite you to play the ‘what if’ game with us.  Try to imagine that some or all of the Bible narrative is not necessarily true history, but is myth of one sort or another.  What sort of effect would that knowledge have on your faith?  What effect might it have on the larger church?  How would it change you?  Would it change you and how you view the world?

We recognize that this might make some or all of you uncomfortable and while we recognize the struggle involved with that sort of discomfort, please feel free to blog about that fact as well.  The ‘what if’ game can involve some prickly feelings and we welcome that as well.

Publish your posts by Tuesday April 16th and share your link here, and we’ll post the final link list on Wednesday morning, April 17th, to add to the bottom of your posts.  If you know other bloggers who might also want to participate, feel free to pass this invitation on.

• Jeremy Myers – Why I Joined the NRA
• Chris Jefferies – The Gun of Self-Defence?
• Glenn Hager – Gun God
• Carol Kuniholm - Guns, God, Mercy 
• Gibby Espinoza – Gun Control?
• Liz Dyer – Turn the Other Clip, This One is Empty
• Marta Layton – Christian Ethics at the National Review and the Dish 
• Kathy Escobar – What Do We Want to be Known For?
• Doreen Mannion – Bang-Bang, Are We All Dead?
• Yeshua Hineni – Guns and G-d

This month’s synchroblog addresses this hot topic, not from a government perspective but from a faith perspective.

Do guns and God go together?  Why or why not?  

How are you wrestling with this issue in your own life?  

How are you respecting the difference of opinion in the wider community and also honoring your own convictions about violence?

 What do you think Jesus would do?  

We’d love to hear your thoughts as part of March’s synchroblog.

We know you might be saying “uh oh, I’m not sure if I want to say that in public for fear of controversy.”  It is hard to talk about some of these big issues because the dialogue sometimes looks more like yelling.  Let’s be brave and try to help create a space where people can engage in this important conversation with kindness and respect so we can learn from each other.  

Publish your posts by Tuesday March 12th and share your link here, and we’ll post the final link list on Wednesday morning, March 13th, to add to the bottom of your posts.  If you know other bloggers who might also want to participate, feel free to pass this invitation on.

All are welcome and we look forward to the diversity of posts!

Here is the Link List for the February Synchroblog: Cross Gender Friendships.   I will update it tomorrow morning with any additional links that come in and appreciate each of you adding it to the end of your posts.  Thanks for participating!

Chris Jefferies – Best of both

Jeremy Myers – Are Cross-Gender Friendships Possible

Lynne Tait – Little Boxes

Dan Brennan – Cross-Gender Friendship: Jesus and the Post-Romantic Age

Glenn Hager – Sluts and Horndogs

Jennifer Ellen – A Different Kind of Valentine

Alise Wright - What I get from my cross-gender friend

Liz Dyer – Cross-Gender Friendships and the Church

Paul Sims – Navigating the murky water of cross-gender friendships

Jonalyn Fincher – Why I Don’t Give out Sex like Gold Star Stickers

Amy Martin – Friendship: The most powerful force against patriarchy, sexism, and other misunderstands about people who happen to not be us, in this case, between men & women

Maria Kettleson Anderson - Myth and Reality: Cross-Gender Friendships

Bram Cools - Nothing More Natural Than Cross-Gender Friendships?

Hugo Schwyzer – Feelings Aren’t Facts: Living Out Friendship Between Men and Women

Marta Layton – True Friendship: Two Bodies, One Soul

Kathy Escobar – The Road To Equality Is Paved With Friendship

Karl Wheeler – Friends at First Sight

Doreen Mannion - Hetereosexual, Platonic Cross-Gender Friendships–Learning from Gay & Lesbian Christians

Jim Henderson – Jesus Had A Thing for Women and So Do I

Elizabeth Chapin – 50 Shades of Friendship

D. L. Webster – Expressing Love Outside of Romance

Many still buy into the idea that men and women can’t be friends and married people can never have a close and authentic relationship with a member of the opposite sex.

Sexualization, fear, shame and power issues often stop men and women from loving each other as friends; and the divide is frequently perpetuated in the Christian community by keeping men in men’s groups and women in women’s groups.

However, there is a growing consensus that cross gender friendships are not only possible, but important, valuable and beneficial in helping us to overcome sexism in our communities, eliminate harmful stereotypes and promote understanding between men and women that can lead to greater justice and equality.

This month we invite you to blog about cross gender friendships.

Here are some questions to get your creative juices flowing:

Can cross-gender friendships diffuse power in gender relations? Must all friendships fit into heterosexual scripts with a romantic trajectory? Can men and women partner together in friendship to overcome patriarchy and sexism? Can deep friendships between men and women overcome objectification and inequality found in many heterosexual romantic relationships?

As always, post your link here by Tuesday, February 12. The link list will get posted on Wednesday, February 13.  After the link list is posted we ask that everyone add the list of links to the end of their post as this allows readers to move from one post to the next easily and it increases traffic for everyone’s blog.

We ask that all participants please add this short paragraph to the beginning of your synchroblog post:

This post is part of the February Synchroblog “Cross Gender Friendships”.  I will list the links to all the contributions at the end of this post as soon as they are available.

Here is a list of those who contributed. Make sure you read them all, and if you contributed in this month’s synchroblog, add the following list to your own blog. See you next month!

• Glenn Hager – Finding the Joy in Loving Others
• Chris Jefferies – A Light on a Path
• Carol Kuniholm – Learning Compassion
• Liz Dyer – Little Things
• Jeremy Myers – Serving Others in 2013
• Kathy Escobar – Three Things about one Word: Serving

New Year’s Resolutions are usually somewhat self-serving. But is there a way you can serve others in 2013? Are there homeless people in your community? Maybe you could bring some food to them on a regular basis this year. Are there single mothers? How about coming alongside them to babysit their kids while they go shopping, or maybe you could change the oil in their ca or mow their lawn. Do you know any alcoholics or addicts? What can you do to show them love and care this year? Are there elderly shut-ins in your neighborhood? How about running errands for them or going over to their place to play cards, read to them, or just talk?

For the January 2013 synchroblog, we invite you to share some of the tangible needs in your neighborhood or community you will seek to meet this year. Be concrete. Where, when, how, and to whom will you be the hands and feet of Jesus? As you think and write about this, it will not only encourage you to follow Jesus into the world this year, but will also provide the rest of us with some suggestions for how we can serve others in our own communities.

As always, post your link here or on the Facebook page by Tuesday, January 8. The Link list will get posted on Wednesday, January 9.