Preacher: Dana Cassell Scripture: Matthew 11:2-11 Last weekend, I got to go with my friend Emily to an AMAZING local quilting shop here in Virginia. Emily needed some supplies for several projects she’s working on for Christmas gifts, and I tagged along. I am not a quilter or a crafter at all, so I did…
Tag: Dana Cassell
Y’all’s Endurance
Preacher: Dana Cassell Scripture: Luke 21:5-19 This month, I have the privilege of working with a congregation here in Roanoke as they try to discern what’s next for their church. Like so many other congregations, they are getting smaller in number, even if not in resources or spiritual well-being. They have a really beautiful, big…
The Grateful Samaritan
Preacher: Dana Cassell Scripture: Luke 17:11-19 This summer, I started a weekly Sunday Dinner potluck. I’d wanted to do something like this for over a year – a standing, regular, weekly casual gathering of friends. I think the desire was born, in part, from not having a church community that I participated in regularly. And…
Dishonest Wealth
Preacher: Dana Cassell Scripture: Luke 15:1-10 I have had the privilege of a front row seat over the last year as my home congregation has worked to sell their building and dissolve as a congregation. I can’t quit telling stories about First Church because I am so fascinated and amazed at the grace they’re enacting…
Interpreting the Present Time
Preacher: Dana Cassell Scripture: Luke 12:49-56 Since I left ministry, I have had an unquenchable thirst for DRAMA. When you’re a pastor, or at least when I was a pastor, people’s dramas – large and small – land in your lap day in and day out. I cannot resist the allure of a juicy storyline,…
A Spiritual Rubric for Living
Preacher: Dana Cassell Scripture: Galatians 5:1, 13-25 I had the chance to talk with my friend Mandy this week, who is the pastor at the Manassas Church of the Brethren right down the road. I’d heard a little about what’s going on at Manassas – actually, when I wrote on Substack a few weeks ago…
Peace Be With You
Preacher: Dana Cassell Scripture: John 20: 19-31 Last summer, I had the chance to travel to Alaska. My parents invited me to join them, my aunt and uncle and several other retired couples on an Alaskan cruise. They invited my sister, too, but she declined, so I got to bring my good friend Sharon along,…
Foxes and Hens
Preacher: Dana Cassell Scripture: Luke 13:31-35 My friend Cindy spent her career as a high school teacher in Virginia Beach. Cindy is funny and snarky and fiercely protective of the people she loves. She started the first GSA – Gay Straight Alliance – at the school where she taught, and was a staunch protector and…
God’s call in our lives
By: Dana Cassell Luke 5:1-15 Koenig, Peter. Breakfast on the Beach, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=58541 [retrieved February 12, 2025]. Original source: Peter Winfried (Canisius) Koenig, https://www.pwkoenig.co.uk/ One of my favorite call stories is from Henri Nouwen. It’s not a story from scripture, but a story from…
The Spirit of the Lord
Mural by Michael Rosato in Cambridge, Maryland By: Dana Cassell Luke 4:14-21 This past summer – actually, during a trip up your way to preach with y’all in June – I spent some time on the Eastern Shore. While I was there, I visited the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Park. It’s located way out…
Washington City Church of the Brethren 