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Carolyn Arends

Carolyn Arends

Director of Education, Renovaré

Carolyn Arends

Articles & Essays by Carolyn Arends

John The Baptist Mosaic
Journal/Magazine Article

Authentically Holy

Published June, 2016 • Featured February 9, 2020
In too-constantly revisiting our brokenness, are we clouding the promise of spiritual renovation and restoration? Carolyn Arends asks us to consider how walking in the with-God life can make us both wholly authentic and authentically holy. Eating locusts and honey is optional.
Girl Aquarium
Journal/Magazine Article from Theology in Aisle Seven

Knowing God Means More Than Describing Him

Published March, 2008 • Featured January 8, 2020
“For all my love of language,” writes Carolyn Arends in this column from Christianity Today, ​“I’ve been troubled by a growing sense that I need to pay more attention to wordless things.”
Fortress
Article

The Battle to Read Deeply

Featured August 27, 2019
We think that Philip Yancey is right — we need a ​“fortress of habits” to support a reading life. The Renovaré Book Club was created to help build it.
Blindfold
Journal/Magazine Article

Our "Holy" Sins

Published October, 2015 • Featured August 13, 2019
Can believers be blind to certain sins? Carolyn Arends takes a look at the subtle slips from right-relationship that keep us from loving as God loves.
Apple Books Chalkboard
Journal/Magazine Article

What Makes a Job Sacred?

Published March, 2016 • Featured June 12, 2019
Are some callings holier than others? Carolyn Arends explores the question and discovers our view of the gospel and our posture toward work are inextricably linked.
10 07 Running Shoes
Journal/Magazine Article

Matter Matters

Published July, 2009 • Featured June 6, 2019
“Maybe our bodies aren’t the cars that drive our souls to the altar,” proposes Carolyn Arends. ​“Maybe they are an integral part of what we lay on the altar, and are up for healing and holiness with the rest of us.”
Girl Praying
Journal/Magazine Article

A Convert's Conversion

Published February, 2018 • Featured May 22, 2019
“The longer I’ve walked with Jesus,” shares Carolyn Arends, ​“the more I’ve come to see two things. First, my four-year-old conversion was utterly genuine. Second, I am in desperate need of ongoing conversion. My initial salvation moment was not an arrival, but a beginning.”
Lightstock 1272 Medium User 1712940
Journal/Magazine Article

What's So Good About Good Friday?

Published February, 2009 • Featured April 18, 2019
Renovaré Director of Education Carolyn Arends reflects on the reasons we should not attempt to avoid the piercing, painful goodness of Good Friday.
Women Laughing
Book Excerpt from Theology in Aisle Seven

Carbonated Holiness

Published March, 2008 • Featured February 11, 2019
From giggles to guffaws and from splitting one’s sides to being in stitches, there is nothing quite like a good laugh for all the right reasons to release us into self-forgetfulness and worshipful joy. Carolyn Arends explains why laughter is serious business.
Celebration Table Chips
Article

Worship con Queso

Featured February 7, 2019
Director of Education Carolyn Arends shares how a truly magnificent chile con queso can move her to worship and muses, along with C.S. Lewis, that ​“every earthly pleasure is an apprenticeship in adoration for the sort of thing that will go on forever in heaven.”
Worship4
Journal/Magazine Article

Purpose over Preference

Published October, 2018 • Featured December 11, 2018
Carolyn Arends shares a reflection on how focusing in on the purpose of worship will keep us from spiritualizing our own preferences in music, ambience, and liturgy.
01 19 Walk And Talk
Journal/Magazine Article

A Curious Pattern

Featured January 18, 2018
When teaching moments are presented to Jesus, he often turns the question back on his questioners — not to frustrate them, but to draw them deeper into the heart of what they are really asking about. Carolyn Arends joins us to consider how this pattern can influence our own sharing of the gospel.
12 18 South Pole
Journal/Magazine Article

A South Pole Advent

Published December, 2017 • Featured December 18, 2017
Sometimes in this Advent season of busyness and bustle, we can find ourselves surprised by a sort of emptiness in our response to it all. For anyone feeling a bit lost in the wilderness this year, Carolyn Arends reminds us that an empty sort of longing is really a large part of what Advent is about.
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Journal/Magazine Article

Response-ability

Published August, 2017 • Featured October 25, 2017
Carolyn Arends writes how her experiences as a young mom and musician helped her listen for God’s invitations to tweak spiritual practices. The adage is true — when practicing spiritual disciplines, we ​“do as we can, not as we can’t.”
Sehnsucht
Book Excerpt from Winds of Heaven, Stuff of Earth

The Bittersweet Longing

Featured September 20, 2017
Sept. 19, 2017 marked the 20th anniversary of Rich Mullins’s death. In a new book, many of his writer, musician, and other friends have collected their stories of how Rich has shaped their lives and ministries. One of these friends is our very own Carolyn Arends who joins us with her contribution.
09 08 Truth To Power
Article

Speak Truth to Power

Published June, 2017 • Featured September 7, 2017
Measuring our words with wisdom does not mean turning a blind eye to evil. Carolyn Arends shares a recent piece from Faith Today about ​“the quiet power of a life shaped by God” that does not need to shout to be heard — or to be an effective agent of positive change. John Woolman lends a hand.
06 02 Taste The Soup
Journal/Magazine Article

Taste the Soup

Featured June 1, 2017
Carolyn Arends offers us an encouraging piece for anyone who’s ever been burned-out (or just burned) by their own church community. In dealing with the frailties and foibles of our fellow congregants (and within ourselves), Carolyn wants us to remember why we ​“do church” at all.
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Journal/Magazine Article

Dead to Distraction

Published December, 2016 • Featured April 5, 2017
Could it be that our difficulty in focusing comes not only from the technological toys forever at our fingertips but also from a sort of spiritual unrest? Carolyn Arends explores this theme.
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Book Excerpt from Wrestling with Angels

We Are Here to Love

Published January, 2008 • Featured March 22, 2017
How can we conquer those feelings of self-consciousness that can tangle up the better angels of our nature and keep us from stepping out in love? Carolyn Arends offers some honesty and wise words in this excerpt from her book Wrestling with Angels.
Landing Stage Sea Holiday Vacation
Journal/Magazine Article

Not for Spectators

Published August, 2016 • Featured October 26, 2016
Richard Foster has argued that the eternal life Christ offers is only available to participants, not spectators or observers. Our Director of Education, Carolyn Arends, grapples with some of the implications.