Current Series: 

LOVE Is...


To cast our lot with love is a serious thing.
Though some have called love weak,
such is a shallow understanding.
Love is power.
Love is solidarity.
Love is freedom,
defiant and emerging.
All those who practice love,
who enflesh love,
who materialize and multiply love, abide in God and God in them.

-m jade kaiser


This summer, through scripture, music, film, storybooks, and other writings, we're asking as a community, "What is love?" 


What does it mean to be a people of faith tasked to love God and love our neighbor as ourself? What does it mean to love when love feels complicated and hard? What does a love of solidarity look like? What do various understandings of and ways to love reveal about how we might, in fact, love God and love our neighbor as ourself in even more liberating, transformative ways? 

Series Resources

Emmaus Way is committed to engaging the Gospel in creative, embodied, and communal ways—from reading and art to dialogue and service. Find below some of the resources that are shaping our current series.

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Scripture & DIALOGUE Questions

All are invited to hear and discern the Word of God together in dialogue at Emmaus Way each week. While the communal and embodied experience of dialogical preaching can't quite be recreated outside of the Sunday gathering, follow along here with the scripture passages and dialogue questions that are guiding our weekly conversations.

  • Matthew 22:36-40, Romans 8:38-39 Remix with a series of readings from bell hooks. James Baldwin, MLK Jr, Henri Nouwen, Rainer Maria Rilke, and David Gate
    • What word or phrase sticks out to you about love from these readings and songs of preparation?
    • What resonates for you about what love is and holds?
    • What shapes your understanding of love?
    • How has the church, scripture, or other faith understandings shaped how you think of love?
    Songs to Listen to...
    • Book of Love, Magnetic Fields
    • Poison Cup, M. Ward
    • Without You, Without Them, boygenius
    • My Life Flows On, Robert Lowry
    • O Perfect Love Come Near to Me, Wesley Randolph Eader

  • I John 3:14-18 & I John 4:7-21

    • How have you been told to show love for God?
    • What do these texts tell us about love? How are love and actions related?
    • How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses to help?
    • Where have you borne witness to love as responding to needs within this community?
    Songs to Listen to...
    • Love and Mercy, Brian Wilson
    • Let My Love Open the Door, Pete Townshend
    • O Love That Will Not Let Me Go, George Matheson
    • Love's Divine, Seal

  • Love is..."World" Travel & Loving Perception

    Dialogue led by co-minister Becca Lamb on excerpts from María Lugones' essay Playfulness, "World"-Travelling, and Loving Perception


    Questions for Conversation:

    • What keeps us from perceiving others lovingly?
    • What is a world you feel comfortable in?
    • Where in your own life or in the Bible have you seen the act of love through world traveling?

    Songs to Listen to [Find on the Spotify Playlist]

    • Free Treasure, Adrienne Lenker
    • Season 9, Adam Barnard
    • If I Needed You, Townes Van Zandt
    • I'll Be Your Mirror, The Velvet Underground

  • Love is...Music!

    Acts 2:43-37, "My Girls" by Animal Collective, and Words from Willie Jennings


    Questions for Conversation:

    • What's a significant song in your life that came into your orbit because of another's recommendation?
    • For you, how does this song speak to love?
    • When is a time when you have seen, practice, or received a love that offered to meet another's material need in the midst of a shared life together?
    • What do you find most moving (or challenging) in how the disciples practiced love from our Acts text?
    • What does it mean to be a people of love willingly living the simple and complex of this shared life?
    • What does it mean to live the kind of love the early church embodied for us and My Girls speaks to?

    Songs to Listen to [Find on the Spotify Playlist]

    • My Girls, Animal Collective
    • The Greatest Commandment, Porter's Gate
    • Make You Feel My Love, Bob Dylan
    • All the Love Anyone Ever Gave Me, Chessa Rich

  • Love is...Music!

    Songs shared by our Co-Ministers [Find on the Spotify Playlist]

    • This Will Be Our Year, The Zombies
    • All in a Dream, Praise
    • Tuesdays, Jake Scott
    • Love, Kirk Franklin
    • Strangers, The Kinks
    • Feels Like Home, Randy Newman/Bonnie Raitt

    Questions for Conversation:

    • In your experience, in what ways are love and music connected?
    • What resonates for you about love from these songs and the reflections?
    • Share a new, different, or more complex way of thinking about love from these songs and reflections.

  • Love is...The Giving Tree?

    I John 4:7 & The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein


    Questions for Conversation

    • We hear what the tree is feeling in this story. What do you think the boy is feeling throughout the story?
    • What did the boy learn about love from the tree?
    • What did the tree learn about love from the boy?
    • What have I learned about love from hearing this story?

    Songs to Listen to... [Find on the Spotify Playlist]

    • Give It Up, Anne-Claire
    • You are My Sunshine
    • Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth), George Harrison
    • The Greatest Commandment, Porter's Gate

  • Love is...Shaped by Passions and Interests!

    Keith Haring: The Boy Who Just Kept Drawing by Kay Haring & Romans 12:6-10a


    Questions for Conversation

    • Where are all the places Keith drew?

    • What's a surprising place he drew? Who are you surprised he invited to draw with him?

    • What sticks out to you about Keith's love of drawing?

    • How do Keith's drawings and life show love?

    • What's something you really love doing and would do all the time if you could? How might you take that passion or gift and use it to show love for others?

    Songs to Listen to... [Find on the Spotify Playlist]

    • Lean on Me, Bill Withers
    • Stand By Me, Ben E. King
    • Better Together, Jack Johnson
    • Won't Back Down, Tom Petty
    • Boundless Love, John Prine

  • Love on the Big Screen

    Co-Ministers sharing about how a children's or coming of age film has shaped their understanding of love.

    I Corinthians 13:11-12


    Movies discussed:

    • Frozen
    • Star Wars
    • Babe
    • Tangled
    • Stand by Me
    • The Iron Giant

    Songs to Listen to... [Find on the Spotify Playlist]

    • Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth), George Harrison
    • You'll be in My Heart, Phil Collins
    • You've Got a Friend in Me, Randy Newman
    • Somewhere Out There, Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram
    • Greatest Commandment, Porter's Gate

  • Love is...like a Rom-Com?


    Questions for Conversation

    • From what has been shared so far, is there a piece that is resonating or making you think about love differently?
    • How has your experience of love been different from the movies?
    • How, if at all, has this genre flattened or misconstrued your understanding of what love entails?
    • What might be a fantasy and/or skepticism about love shaped by the romance genre of films that we need to set down or re-evaluate to engage the work of true, sustaining love?

    Songs to Listen to... [Find on the Spotify Playlist]

    • Make You Feel My Love, Bob Dylan
    • Falling Slowly, Swell Season
    • When I Light Your Darkened Door, J. Tillman
    • Real Love Baby, Father John Misty
    • Human, Alexa Rose

  • Love is...something we avoid? Living by a Love Ethic

    Deuteronomy 30:11-14, Psalm 89:2


    Questions for Conversation

    • Are there contexts where you are hesitant or embarrassed to appeal to love? Where does love seem "out of bounds"?
    • Why is it difficult to live with an ethic of love? Where have you tried it and found it challenging?
    • "How are we to become people who bring into public life the values we treasure in our interpersonal relationships?" (Cynthia Moe-Lobeda)

    Songs to Listen to... [Find on the Spotify Playlist]

    • Something Has to Change, The Japanese House
    • The Return (Love Comes Back), Rose Cousins
    • Love is a Wild Thing, Kacey Musgraves
    • Olam Chesed Yibaneh, Menachim Creditor

  • Love is...learned and shaped in community

    Baptism & Dedication Sunday


    Questions for Conversation

    • What do you remember about your baptism or your dedication?
    • Share an experience of communal solidarity and love. What did it feel like? Look like? Open up or confirm?
    • Where has love in community been painful or challenging for you?

    Songs to Listen to... [Find on the Spotify Playlist]

    • Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing
    • Love is Everywhere (Beware), Wilco
    • One Voice, Wailin' Jennys
    • Everybody Needs Somebody, Hiss Golden Messenger

  • And the Greatest of These is Love...

    Molly's Final Sunday as Pastor, I Corinthians 13

    "Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within." - James Baldwin


    Questions for Conversation

    • When you hear 1 Corinthians 13, what are the first thoughts or words that pop into your head?
    • What is a mask that feels more comfortable than love?
    • What do you desire or hope for in the ways Eway will continue to live the greatest of these is Love?

    Songs to Listen to... [Find on the Spotify Playlist]

    • O Love That Will Not Let Me Go
    • You Never Asked Me, Patty Griffin
    • Call It Dreaming, Iron & Wine
    • God's Highway, Sandra McCracken
    • Never Be Undone, Lonnie Rott

EWAY Youth & Kids

During this series, Emmaus Way Youth (sixth through twelfth graders), Kids (kindergarten through fifth graders) and preschoolers are having age-appropriate conversations on love and living with kindness and compassion. July will also be entirely intergenerational. If you have questions about the youth, kids, or preschool programs or how to get your child involved, please don't hesitate to reach out to us here.

Join Us

We hope these resources offer just a few more avenues to engage with the Word of God and the work of the Spirit in our life together. Please join us on Sundays to dialogue around these sacred topics together. Find out more about where and how we gather here. 


If you have questions for us or if there are any accommodations you might need in order to fully participate in our community, please contact us here.