Newsletter Thoughts October 19th 2025

Hello friends,

This week I headed out to La Quinta for a gathering of pastors, deacons, and other church leaders. I always enjoy these events because they provide opportunity for some spiritual refreshment alongside learning.

This time the refreshment was in the invitation to think about my relationships with God, others, the world, and myself as spiritual. Obviously, I think of my relationship with God as spiritual. But adding in all those other ways that I am in relationship as also spiritual gives a depth of meaning that I will be contemplating for a long time. I am thankful for this.

The learning came in a presentation by the author of “Ptoxocracy: An End to Christianity” by pastor Marcus Lohrmann. The title is provocative, and you may have gotten hung up on “an end to Christianity.” He is not proposing that we do away with our faith, but rather it is a deep look into what we are called to do as Christians.

Ptoxocracy comes from the Greek word ptoxoi, the poorest of the poor. The question he continually asked in his presentation was “what does it mean to have a meaningful stake in the lives for the poor?” Another question he asked was why we allow the rich to have such power… they haven’t done so well throughout the centuries. What would our world look like if it were ruled by the poor? Pastor Lohrmann said that the question was posed to Aristotle, to which he replied, democracy.

Hmmm.

I look forward to engaging with the ideas contained in this book. If I have time in the coming weeks, I will share some additional thoughts with you.

Meanwhile, I look forward to seeing you all on Sunday.

Peace in Christ,

Pastor Nancy