Category Archives: Personal Update

2023 Ministry Update

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My calling as a writer expanded in recent months, so it’s time for an update. It’s my hope the various links below connect you with the type of inspiration and resources that are most helpful to you. Thank you for the honor of encouraging you and supplying your ministry.

The journey to these milestones helped me clarify God’s calling as a writer. I provide Christian resources for prayer and pilgrimage to help persons encounter God. 

I have a calling as a writer, a pastor, a wife, a mother… we have many callings, dear ones, in God’s expanding plans for us.

May you know and embrace all your callings. We need you blossoming in each of them.

– Lisa <><

My longest-running writing project is my blog here on revlisad.com. Here you’ll find over twelve years of prayers, sermons, and guides to spiritual practices, plus new additions most weeks. This writing is born from my devotional practices and the resources I create for my congregation or by request.

You’re welcome to search the blog for what you need and use my work in a worship setting without asking permission. It’s always a treat to hear from you if you’ve found something helpful to use. Please ask permission to publish my work in a book, blog, etc.

When you subscribe, you’ll receive an email anytime I post. My blog is especially helpful for pastors and worship planners, but everyone’s welcome.

I also offer a weekly newsletter entitled Prayer & Practice. Here you’ll find my most personal writing – reflections, prayers, recommended resources, pictures of my grandbaby, etc.

This is also where you’ll find behind-the-scenes updates on my latest writing projects and invitations to provide feedback on projects before they make their way into the world. Click this link to subscribe to my newsletter.

In 2019, I began working on a spiritual journal for Christians taking a trip to the Holy Land. Folks helped me test prototype #1 on a trip in 2020 right before the pandemic. Another group helped me test prototype #2 in March of 2022.  

As I worked through rounds of revisions for the journal, an unexpected thing happened. I realized the journal was multiplying into several related resources.  

  • A smaller version of the journal
  • The version of the journal I would want to take to the Holy Land, what I now call the Dream Journal
  • A Holy Land Planning and Packing Guide
  • A Preparing for Pilgrimage Study Guide
  • A Sites and Scripture Reference Guide

This led to the creation of a small publishing company named Via Lexi. Via Lexi is Latin for Way of the Word. 

All but the dream journal are now complete. But they needed a place for people to find them. So I built a brand new website for them, www.vialexi.com. Consider this your invitation to stop by and take a look around.   

For a little over a year, I’ve been a regular contributor to The Pastor’s Workshop, a terrific subscription site for worship and sermon resources. They organize their large collection by the lectionary and by topic, plus the site is searchable. If you decide to join, be sure to say hi to Stu, their founder and chief curator. He’s a really great human.

Choosing a Word of the Year – 2023 Update

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Choosing a Word of the Year
Some folks choose a word to guide their year. It functions like a mantra to help them manifest a goal.

My word of the year comes to me. She chooses me. She appears one day, bags in hand, ready to move in. As the months pass and we get to know one another, the word offers me much-needed lessons and wisdom.

What’s surprised me most about receiving a word for the year is the way they abide. So far, all my words have their home in me. They continue to offer grace year after year like a tribe of dear friends. They collaborate with one another and encourage one another to share even more with me as I’m ready to receive it. (or need to receive it)

In 2019, Practice arrived. She gives me permission to experiment, risk, prototype, and fail.

In 2020, it was Rhythm. She’s not a driving, disciplined march. She’s like jazz, the pulse underneath improvisation and adaptation that holds everything together.

Truth joined us in 2021. She helps me say what needs to be said, making space for deep conversation, healing, and peacemaking.

Last year, Curiosity surprised me. I didn’t know how much I needed her. She helps me lead with questions rather than answers, opening the way for unexpected possibilities.

Struggling For My Next Word
My word for the new year usually appears sometime in December, but that didn’t happen last year. The new year came, no word. Weeks went by, no word. Would one come?

I stepped outside myself and went searching for my word. Risk – Abide – Courage. Wonderful words but they weren’t my word. Others began sharing their word with me. Their words weren’t my word.

I wandered. I wondered. I worried. Was my grief blocking the way? Did I need to spend more time with the words I already have? It was unsettling. Where was my word? I knew I needed her.

Then last week, the knock came. I went to the door to meet Adventure. What a word! Expansive. Inviting. Eager. Daring.

I’d felt myself shrinking in recent months. Pulling back. Second guessing. I know it’s the shadow side of grief but knowing is not the same as making your way through it. Adventure is here, machete in one hand, compass in the other, cutting the clinging vines from the path, helping me move forward into places I’ve never been. Welcome, to the family Adventure. 

What word is choosing you this year? I’d love to hear your story. 

2023 word of the year

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Choosing a Word of the Year Update © 2023 Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia, http://www.revlisad.com&nbsp;

Choosing a Word of the Year

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For the past few years, I’ve chosen a word for the year. Well, the word actually chose me. Yes, there are online quizzes or reflection questions you could try, but I’ve found just opening yourself to receiving a guiding word will bring one your way. Just listen for it.

⁠In 2019, my word was practice, as in try and try again. Practice gave me permission to experiment, risk, prototype, and fail. Growth, progress, and skill take time. She’s the word of grace this perfectionist needs.⁠

⁠My word for 2020 was rhythm– the movement of practice. Intentionality, flow, consistency. I imagined a spiritually rich and disciplined year. Ha! Instead, it was a boatload of practice. Rhythm was jazz, not a march. Improvise. Keep showing up in the midst of constant adaptation, heartbreak, and lament. Rhythm has so much more to share with me.

⁠My word for 2021 was truth. She arrived in the middle of a Zoom gathering with my author buddies at the Light House. Truth was the permission I needed to make space for deep conversation, especially the uncomfortable and taboo.

When things got tough and I wanted to hold back, I’d find myself saying, “My word for the year is truth” and what I needed to say made its way out of my heart. Every time this happened, the gift of truth broke the conversation open in beautiful and needed ways.   

Truth was the exact word I needed to companion me through the major transitions of 2021

  • a six-week renewal leave which included some travel and a much-needed counseling intensive at Quiet Waters in Colorado
  • saying goodbye to my congregation in Sarasota and hello to my new congregation in New Smyrna Beach, Coronado Community United Methodist Church
  • Ed and I buying a house. We never dreamed we’d have this opportunity before retirement. Plus, we’re finally under the same roof after decades of separation due to work.
  • my mom’s cancer diagnosis and my sister’s incredible caregiving of her. Mom’s doing well.
  • the marriage of our beloved Laura and Kevin
  • the scary and exciting decision to start a publishing business for my writing called Via Lexi. More to come as that unfolds.
  • a new partnership with the good folks at The Pastor’s Workshop as a contributor of prayer, liturgy, and sermon resources
  • the surprising birth of our beloved Lily Joy, our first grandchild, to our beloved Elyse and Sam. She arrived two weeks early and was a girl instead of the boy they thought they saw in the ultrasound. Elyse, Sam, and Lily are living with us, so I get to hold her every day. I’m over the moon.
  • starting 2022 with Covid. I’m quarantining in our travel trailer this week.

That’s a lot.

What’s surprised me most about receiving a word for the year is the way they abide. These wise companions don’t come and go. They move in and continue to offer grace year after year like a tribe of dear friends. They collaborate with one another and encourage one another to share even more with me as I’m ready to receive it.

So, who’s moving in this year? Curious.

Curious showed up bags in hand last week as a total shock. I even kept her at the door a while thinking she’d made a wrong turn, but no. Curious is here to stay. She knows I need her to help me with my dualistic thinking and my ugly bent to judging. So welcome sister Curious. I’m ready to receive.

What word is choosing you this year? I’d love to hear your story.  

A few thoughts on last week (7-24-2021)

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Greetings Beloved of God
A few notes on a very full week.

It’s been a month since we moved to New Smyrna Beach. It’s lovely to be nesting in our own home. There’s been flooring work, painting, electrical work, adding ceiling fans and light fixtures. We’ve bought some new to us furniture and are selling/giving away what’s still useful. It will be many months before we’re through all the boxes since Ed and I are both working.

Daisy loves the backyard. Honey will nose around a bit if we place her in the grass.

Last week included the joy of Vacation Bible School and meetings with the Coronado Community Leadership to update our COVID policies based on recommendations from the Medical Team. I also met with the UMW leadership, our Day School Director, and Freddie the community organizer with F.A.I.T.H., Fighting Against Injustice Toward Harmony. I’m grateful for the chance to serve alongside these wise, faith-full folks.

There were also meetings with folks interested in going to Israel next March and folks interested in who we are as CCUMC and how to get involved. I’m encouraged by their openness, stories, and gifts. If you’re local and would like to meet, I’m scheduling appointments. You’re never a bother. Contact me at info@revlisad.com.

A friend’s husband has COVID. A friend’s small grandson has COVID. I have a family member with COVID and my beloved Ed works in a hospital where COVID cases are rising fast. Please get vaccinated. Please wear a mask if you aren’t fully vaccinated.

It’s good to be writing again. In recent days I’ve offered public prayers for Haiti/Cuba, the Olympics, and one based on John 6. My newsletter Prayer & Practice will wake from its summer nap the first Tuesday in August. You can subscribe here.

Ed and I are watching America Ninja Warrior and rewatching The Big Band Theory. Delightful. We’re eating lots of yummy takeout thanks to thoughtful folks who’ve blessed us with gift cards. I’m looking forward to being settled enough to do some cooking soon.

May you be safe and nurtured and loved by God and many others.
Your sister and servant in Christ- Lisa <><
7/24/2021