RHM Update: September 4, 2023

Thank you to all of our supporters.

If you would like to join them in supporting Renewed Heart Ministries’ work you can do so by clicking “donate” above.

Last Week’s Episode of Just Talking!

Season 1, Episode 28: Matthew 16.21-28. Lectionary A, Proper 17

Each week, we’ll be talking about the gospel lectionary reading for the upcoming weekend. We’ll be talking about each reading in the context of love, inclusion, and societal justice. Our hope is that our talking will be just talking (as in justice) and that during our brief conversations each week you’ll be inspired to also do more than just talking.

If you teach from the lectionary each week, or if you’re just looking for some thoughts on the Jesus story from a more progressive perspective within the context of social justice, check it out, you might like it.

You can find the latest show on YouTube at https://youtu.be/IWvmLXmKTss?si=8h2rhEwJMyGUpIFB

Please Like, Subscribe, hit the Notification button, and leave us a comment.

Thanks in advance for watching!

September’s Recommended Reading

When Time Is Short: Finding Our Way in the Anthropocene

by Timothy Beal

With faith, hope, and compassion, acclaimed religion scholar Timothy Beal shows us how to navigate the inevitabilities of the climate crisis and the very real—and very near—possibility of human extinction

What if it’s too late to save ourselves from climate crisis? When Time is Short is a meditation for what may be a finite human future that asks how we got here to help us imagine a different relationship to the natural world.

Modern capitalism, as it emerged, drew heavily upon the Christian belief in human exceptionalism and dominion over the planet, and these ideas still undergird our largely secular society. They justified the pillaging and eradication of indigenous communities and plundering the Earth’s resources in pursuit of capital and lands.

But these aren’t the only models available to us—and they aren’t even the only models to be found in biblical tradition. Beal re-reads key texts to anchor us in other ways of being—in humbler conceptions of humans as earth creatures, bound in ecological interdependence with the world, subjected to its larger reality. Acknowledging that any real hope must first face and grieve the realities of climate crisis, Beal makes space for us to imagine new possibilities and rediscover ancient ones. What matters most when time becomes short, he reminds us, is always what matters most.

Last Week’s Social Jesus Posts

Articles posted each week at https://www.patheos.com/blogs/socialjesus/

Participation, What Taking Up a Cross Doesn’t Mean Part 1

For better or worse, they interpreted the cross in terms of participation not substitution or satisfaction.

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/socialjesus/2023/08/participation-what-taking-up-a-cross-doesnt-mean-part1/

Speaking Out, What Taking Up a Cross Doesn’t Mean Part 2

This is a far cry from counseling early followers to passively bear injustice, but a call to keep speaking out when facing pushback.

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/socialjesus/2023/08/speaking-out-what-taking-up-a-cross-doesnt-mean-part2/

What Taking Up a Cross Doesn’t Mean, Part 3

How we define bearing a cross makes a difference in how we respond to injustice and abuse in our daily lives.

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/socialjesus/2023/08/what-taking-up-a-cross-doesnt-mean-part3/

It’s Here!

Herb’s new book is now available through Renewed Heart Ministries.

Finding Jesus: A story of a Fundamentalist preacher who unexpectedly discovered the social, political, and economic teachings of the Gospels
by Herb Montgomery

Pages: 210
Price: $14.95

Get your copy today!

To purchase click here.

UPCOMING EVENTS

September 23, 2023

Good News Fellowship
(via Zoom)
Toronto, Ontario Canada
For info: 304.520.0030

Weekly Zoom HeartGroup on Wednesday Nights

Each Wednesday evening, Glendale City Church will be hosting a Zoom-HeartGroup led by Herb Montgomery. Our discussion each week will focus on the content in Renewed Heart Ministries’ weekly eSight articles and the Jesus For Everyone podcast published each Friday. The time of each Zoom session will be on Wednesdays at 7:00 p.m. Pacific/10:00 p.m. Eastern.

For more information and for the link to participate each week, contact RHM here.

Are you receiving all of RHM’s free resources each week?

You can find Renewed Heart Ministries on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for our daily posts. Our JFE podcast can be subscribed to through the podcast platform you use. And you can even get messages from RHM delivered to you email inbox every day. (Or weekly if you prefer.)

Click “Sign Up!”

Donate to RHM online or by mail at

RHM, PO Box 1211, Lewisburg, WV 24901