nicole mason
@nicolemason.bsky.social
church planter(ish). Latina pastoring on the margins of institutional church. Experimenting with grassroot, holistic, faith-based community formation in HTX.
Empower your people. Honor their autonomy. Celebrate their freedom to choose and to decide. Even when it's inconvenient for you.
This too is protest.
This too is protest.
January 27, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Empower your people. Honor their autonomy. Celebrate their freedom to choose and to decide. Even when it's inconvenient for you.
This too is protest.
This too is protest.
Hierarchy, dominion, concentrated power, and isolated control...these are all elements of empire that we should readily resist in our most sacred spaces.
January 27, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Hierarchy, dominion, concentrated power, and isolated control...these are all elements of empire that we should readily resist in our most sacred spaces.
In fact, what they have to say about the word of God is what's been missing from our pulpits, our systems, our decision making, and our theology for a damn long time. And if you're wondering what all the corruption is about, we can probably just start there.
January 16, 2025 at 6:27 PM
In fact, what they have to say about the word of God is what's been missing from our pulpits, our systems, our decision making, and our theology for a damn long time. And if you're wondering what all the corruption is about, we can probably just start there.
The diabetic senior who gets carpooled to church every Sunday is not going to spend their weekends becoming an expert on 1st century Judaism.
And what they have to say about the word of God still matters.
And what they have to say about the word of God still matters.
January 16, 2025 at 6:27 PM
The diabetic senior who gets carpooled to church every Sunday is not going to spend their weekends becoming an expert on 1st century Judaism.
And what they have to say about the word of God still matters.
And what they have to say about the word of God still matters.
The single mom working two jobs is not going to have the time nor the mental capacity to listen to a 16 week podcast series on Exodus.
The neurodivergent teen, struggling with everyday functioning, is not going to complete your church's year-long Bible literacy program.
The neurodivergent teen, struggling with everyday functioning, is not going to complete your church's year-long Bible literacy program.
January 16, 2025 at 6:27 PM
The single mom working two jobs is not going to have the time nor the mental capacity to listen to a 16 week podcast series on Exodus.
The neurodivergent teen, struggling with everyday functioning, is not going to complete your church's year-long Bible literacy program.
The neurodivergent teen, struggling with everyday functioning, is not going to complete your church's year-long Bible literacy program.
It means really, actually believing and acting like the voices of the least of these matters and are worthy of instructing, informing, and shaping us.
January 16, 2025 at 6:27 PM
It means really, actually believing and acting like the voices of the least of these matters and are worthy of instructing, informing, and shaping us.
It means amplifying the voices of our abuelitas just as much as we are the seminary grads.
It means listening and learning from the laborer's understanding of the Gospels just as much as our pastor's.
It means listening and learning from the laborer's understanding of the Gospels just as much as our pastor's.
January 16, 2025 at 6:27 PM
It means amplifying the voices of our abuelitas just as much as we are the seminary grads.
It means listening and learning from the laborer's understanding of the Gospels just as much as our pastor's.
It means listening and learning from the laborer's understanding of the Gospels just as much as our pastor's.
We need MORE power, voice, and autonomy being given back to everyday men and women.
And that does not mean just sending them all to seminary.
And that does not mean just sending them all to seminary.
January 16, 2025 at 6:27 PM
We need MORE power, voice, and autonomy being given back to everyday men and women.
And that does not mean just sending them all to seminary.
And that does not mean just sending them all to seminary.
And we have so much to learn from them about supporting women as they build vibrant, flourishing, and impactful religious spaces even outside of institutional norms.
January 9, 2025 at 10:08 PM
And we have so much to learn from them about supporting women as they build vibrant, flourishing, and impactful religious spaces even outside of institutional norms.
They met in the homes of the poor, the fields of the plantations, and the streets of protest.
They were called Comunidades Eclesial de Base, hush harbors, and Las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo.
They were called Comunidades Eclesial de Base, hush harbors, and Las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo.
January 9, 2025 at 10:08 PM
They met in the homes of the poor, the fields of the plantations, and the streets of protest.
They were called Comunidades Eclesial de Base, hush harbors, and Las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo.
They were called Comunidades Eclesial de Base, hush harbors, and Las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo.
Especially when history is FILLED with religious gatherings that WERE started and built off of the deciding power of women-- they just didn't meet under steeples nor gain the power of influence to continue existing for the next several hundred years.
January 9, 2025 at 10:08 PM
Especially when history is FILLED with religious gatherings that WERE started and built off of the deciding power of women-- they just didn't meet under steeples nor gain the power of influence to continue existing for the next several hundred years.
Saving our historically patriarchal religions and institutions that have still done so much good is commendable. But so is creating new and vibrant expressions of faith where women get to have decisive and creative freedom from the get-go.
January 9, 2025 at 10:08 PM
Saving our historically patriarchal religions and institutions that have still done so much good is commendable. But so is creating new and vibrant expressions of faith where women get to have decisive and creative freedom from the get-go.
And having "influence" over such decisions is not the same as having the power to create or decide for themselves. Just ask any woman who currently works in ministry.
January 9, 2025 at 10:08 PM
And having "influence" over such decisions is not the same as having the power to create or decide for themselves. Just ask any woman who currently works in ministry.
Women were not free to create their own models of leadership, their own systemic structures, their own divinely feminine practices of worship, prayer, or gathering.
January 9, 2025 at 10:08 PM
Women were not free to create their own models of leadership, their own systemic structures, their own divinely feminine practices of worship, prayer, or gathering.
And no matter how far we have come or far we will go, we cannot get around the fact that a majority of our religious foundations were built off of men's deciding power alone.
That matters.
That matters.
January 9, 2025 at 10:08 PM
And no matter how far we have come or far we will go, we cannot get around the fact that a majority of our religious foundations were built off of men's deciding power alone.
That matters.
That matters.
But what's truly absurd is how little options we have available to us of religious spaces built by and for women.
Even our most favorite and progressive institutions, they were not initially built with powerful, creative, and autonomous female leaders in mind.
Even our most favorite and progressive institutions, they were not initially built with powerful, creative, and autonomous female leaders in mind.
January 9, 2025 at 10:08 PM
But what's truly absurd is how little options we have available to us of religious spaces built by and for women.
Even our most favorite and progressive institutions, they were not initially built with powerful, creative, and autonomous female leaders in mind.
Even our most favorite and progressive institutions, they were not initially built with powerful, creative, and autonomous female leaders in mind.
Microblogging will for sure be the Gen Alpha rebrand of status updates one day.
You, my friend, are a man ahead of his time.
You, my friend, are a man ahead of his time.
January 9, 2025 at 6:28 AM
Microblogging will for sure be the Gen Alpha rebrand of status updates one day.
You, my friend, are a man ahead of his time.
You, my friend, are a man ahead of his time.
You conveyed in a single sentence what I had to write a whole blog post to get across. Haha yes, this!!
January 9, 2025 at 3:41 AM
You conveyed in a single sentence what I had to write a whole blog post to get across. Haha yes, this!!