Cindy Hall

Praying comes easy for some and for others it's a challenge no matter where we might be in our faith walk. It's hard to know what to pray when you are in pain, scared, grieving, or desperately needing God to change the circumstance. We want to ask for God's will, yet we have our own heart's desire and sometimes the two align, sometimes they don't. We want the pain to go away and most of us just want answers. As I've walked through some really challenging times over the last decade, I discovered a way to pray that helped me see God at work in the midst of the pain and to find peace that truly is beyond all understanding. Everything wasn't fixed and things didn't turn out as I wanted, but my faith was strengthened through it all. So, I want to share what I discovered to be helpful in my own life in hopes that it might offer ideas to someone who is seeking something new and fresh in your prayer life, no matter how easy or challenging this season of li

Feelings are funny things to process. Thoughts can be all consuming. Attitudes can be so contagious. And then comes along a crisis and suddenly our feelings, thoughts, and attitudes are all over the place. 😧 In time of crisis, especially in one where we are so isolated from each other, it seems that we can often become the expert on what's wrong, what needs to change, who's to blame, and so on. What if my opinion can change someone else's thought or actions? What if I am right and I can make a difference? And let's face it, someone needs to take the blame for all this, even if it is a virus, right? 😩 All this might seem true, especially in a day where it's acceptable and encouraged to be proactive and have a voice, even at a young age. But, what if rather than focus on changing everyone else's mind or having to share our opinions, we focus on words that unify, encourage, support, or lift up the other person? In the midst of this Covid-19 crisis, what i

Spring of 2020 will forever be remembered for social distancing. The time we all did our best to keep not only ourselves, but also our neighbors, friends, family, and even complete strangers safe from the highly contagious Covid-19 virus. I imagine most everyone questioned the hype at first - how can it be any worse than the flu? We've moved beyond that question now to the time of wondering how we will survive the next two plus month in isolation. No hanging out with friends. No School. No birthday parties or weddings or even funerals. No gathering for church in big or even small groups. No meeting up with a friend for lunch or going to the gym. We can't even grasp what's ahead when the virus hits someone close to us. It's beyond what we could have ever imagined for our very social, active, extroverted culture. We've moved to a completely online community now - more isolated and yet more connected in some ways now.  So, how can we make the best of th

We all know change can be hard and it's harder for some than for others. There are all sorts of articles and blogs and videos out there about why change is hard - google "why is change hard" and you will see! Knowing it's hard is not the problem for leaders in the church, but navigating changes in a way that will make it easier or allow the change to happen at all is what we need to tackle. Let's talk about 5 ways to navigate change as a ministry leaders.  We are not talking about tweaks or minor changes here such as changing the order of a service, traffic flow in the parking lot, or check-in process for kids. We are talking about changes that impact everyone in a real way such as changing the name of the church or eliminating an entire style of worship. 1. Take a look at yourself first and determine if you have the respect and relationship foundations that will allow you to move the group, team, or church toward the needed change. Do you need to take t