“When Grace Abounds” Christians know that grace is necessary but we don’t always experience it as abundant. What happens in our lives when we realize that we have all the grace we will ever need? When grace abounds, we can relax our grip on control and anxiety. When grace abounds, so do love and joy and compassion. Lent is just the right season to look for practical ways to move away from fear and scarcity and toward trust and openness in our relationships with God, others, and ourselves.

Trisha Taylor helps leaders, congregations, and couples work toward emotional and spiritual health and maturity so that they can live with joy in loving relationships and can meet the adaptive challenges of our rapidly changing world. She is an ordained minister, licensed counselor in private practice, co-author of two books (The Leader's Journey and Learning Change) and co-owner of the coaching/consulting business, The Leader’s Journey, and host of a podcast by the same name. She and Craig, a pastor, have been happily married for 36 years and have 2 adult children.

“Grace and Goodness” Lent is a time when we pay attention to our spiritual lives. We look at the ways we are cultivating habits of depth and goodness and the ways we have strayed from these aspirations. In this particular Lent, we are challenged by social, political, and global events that make us very aware of where things are going wrong. The inclination to find and do the good in this fraught time is a holy impulse, but without grounding in grace, our attempts can feed self-judgment, self-blame, and a sense of weary hopelessness in the face of overwhelming challenges. In this time together, we will explore these dynamics and discuss how to plant our aspirations for goodness in the soil of God’s grace.

Scott Bader-Saye is Academic Dean and Helen and Everett H. Jones Professor of Christian Ethics and Moral Theology at Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, TX. He has taught ethics for the past twenty years in seminary and university contexts. He is the author of three books: Formed by Love, Following Jesus in a Culture of Fear, and Church and Israel After Christendom. His current research focuses on transgender ethics. As an active layperson, he has also served in volunteer and staff positions for youth ministry and adult formation. He lives in Austin with his wife, Demery, who is a teacher and a priest. They have three children in various stages of being launched into adulthood.

“Grace as Gift” One of the synonyms for grace in the theological tradition is "gift." Grace is like a gift that gets exchanged within God: that's one way of understanding the Trinity. It's also a gift that gets exchanged between God and us. On a third level, grace is the divine gift that we can exchange among ourselves. To give one another grace is not just to tolerate each other: it's to give something holy and divine. In this session, we'll take a look at this classic teaching, and talk together about how it might enliven our communal faith.

Anthony Baker is on faculty at the Seminary of the Southwest. He teaches courses in constructive theology, ecotheology, Patristics, and theological research. His latest books are Shakespeare, Theology, and the Unstaged God (Routledge, 2020), and Leaving Emmaus: A New Departure in Christian Theology (Baylor University Press, 2021). He is currently exploring the intersection of classical accounts of theosis, or union with God, with current issues in ecology. Professor Baker works with other members of the community on green initiatives around campus. He is the theologian-in-residence at Saint Julian of Norwich Episcopal Church in north Austin, where he and his family worship.