Brehm News
Updates about Brehm, staffing, programs, grant work, and more.
Brehm Center’s Response to the Los Angeles Wildfires
“As we watch entire lives collapse, art may seem like a strange offering, but sometimes the voices of others give us words when we have no words.” Read Brehm Center’s response to the Los Angeles wildfires.
Dear Brehm Friends,
We are grieving with those on our own team and in the broader Fuller community who have had to evacuate or have had greater losses in the Los Angeles fires.
Our office on the Fuller campus is just a stone’s throw away from multiple fires, and we know this crisis will deeply change the lives of so many, and affect the work that we do to serve artists and ministry leaders in California and beyond. We pray that those of you who are local have found safety, and that your homes have been spared.
As we watch entire lives collapse, art may seem like a strange offering, but sometimes the voices of others give us words when we have no words. Sometimes we are paralyzed and don’t know what to do. Poet Luci Shaw, in a period of grief in her life, wrote this simple poem.
What I Needed to Do
I made for grief a leaden bowl
and drank it, every drop.
And though I thought I’d downed it all
the hurting didn’t stop.
I made of hope a golden sieve
to drain my world of pain.
Though I was sure I’d bled it dry
the void filled up again.
I made of words a silver fork
and stabbed love in the heart,
and when I found the sweetness gone
I chewed it into art.
—
I’ve found myself thinking, “What is needed to do?” What good is the mission of the Brehm Center in the midst of so much tragedy in our own local community? How do worship and the arts matter now, with such great loss? Do we make a bowl for grief, or offer a sieve for hope - which feels quite impossible right now?
So now, we offer simple words. Poetry.
The Psalms are perhaps our greatest resource for spirit-guided poetry. Last night I found myself meditating on Psalm 46:
Psalm 46
For the director of music. Of the Sons of Korah. According to alamoth. A song.
1 God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.
—
Within your own capacities, we urge you to help where you can:
The LA Art World Fire Relief GoFundMe is supporting artists affected by the wildfires.
The Los Angeles Food Bank is taking donations to provide meals for displaced victims.
The Pasadena Humane Society is taking donations to support displaced animals.
Our initative, Imagining Worship with Kids, have a lyric music video for you and your children who may want to process and pray.
If you or someone you know in the Brehm community has been affected by this natural disaster, Fuller Seminary has a list of resources that students and faculty can contribute to or use.
Finally, if you know someone, or you yourself need resources to process trauma, Fuller’s Thrive Center offers many free resources, including this interview with our very own Dr. Pam King and Dr. Cynthia Eriksson discussing psychological tools for resilience and recovery.
With you in grief and hope,
Shannon Sigler
Executive Director, Brehm Center
A Giving Tuesday Letter for Advent 2024
A Giving Tuesday letter for the beginning of the Advent season from Brehm Center executive director Shannon Sigler.
Friend of Brehm,
One of my favorite depictions of Mary’s visit with Elizabeth is by the French symbolist painter, Odilon Redon, titled “Mystical Conversation,” as seen in the picture above.
The piece is rife with whimsical marks as it shows the two women elevated in some sort of ethereal pavilion. We know that the women are cousins and that God has worked miracles in both of their lives, blessing them with pregnancies defying all odds.
The biblical text doesn’t record much about their conversation, but we do get Mary’s Song, known throughout history as the Magnificat — a song of praise to God (Luke 1: 46-55). A song of wonder and mercy. And a song calling for justice. It seems that the Holy Spirit overcame them both, elevating their cousin-conversation to a cosmic, mystical prophecy for the restoration of all things.
Perhaps the reason that I like Redon’s visual interpretation is that he captures so well the beauty, depth, and cosmic expansiveness of the coming Emmanuel, God with Us—the one who will make all things new. Mary and Elizabeth are having an intimate, human conversation, but their conversation has been elevated throughout the history of the church.
Mary's Song of Praise: The Magnificat
46 And Mary said,
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.
For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
49 for he who is mighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
50 And his mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
51 He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;
52 he has brought down the mighty from their thrones
and exalted those of humble estate;
53 he has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
54 He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
55 as he spoke to our fathers,
to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”
—
As we enter the Advent season, waiting not just for the coming baby Jesus, but for the return of our Christ and his restoration of all things, I encourage you to spend some time with Mary’s Song. Meditate on Redon’s artwork or other depictions of their visit; there are many great ones! Or try using a guide to viewing art with the help of the Holy Spirit (Visio Divina).
We are so grateful that you are a part of our community, and pray your journey to Christmas is filled with light and creativity.
If you’d like to support artists and ministry leaders in our many programs and courses, please do so using the button below. Gifts large or small help us offer scholarships and create new opportunities for those we serve, including you!
May our souls magnify the Lord as we wait for our Christ,
Shannon Sigler
Executive Director
The Brehm Center
Brehm team grows with two new hires
Jordan Poblete joins us as Brehm’s marketing and project manager; Christina Yen joins as our events and office specialist
The Brehm Center is pleased to share that we have welcomed two new employees to our team.
Jordan Poblete, aka Jordie, is a creative advocate and strategist. Having started his professional career in digital media/marketing and strategic consulting, he now joins Brehm as our Marketing and Project Manager. He loves storytelling in all its forms, but mostly movies having most recently worked as a producer with relationships at Disney, Universal, and A24. He also leads worship at Mariners Church in Orange County, California. You’ll most likely find him at a coffee shop in Irvine, CA, where he resides with his Alaskan Husky, Augie. He’s always looking for running partners and people to go to Denny’s with.
Christina Yen joins our team as our Events and Office Specialist. She grew up in Florida, surrounded by alligators, manatees, and shuttle launches. She graduated from UNC Chapel Hill with a degree in International Studies, focusing on Economics and Asia. She completed a senior honors thesis on Asian American Identity and worked at Duke University’s Center for Multicultural Affairs, advocating for diversity and inclusion on a historically white campus.
After moving to LA, Christina worked at Fuller and Caltech. She took a sixteen-year break from the traditional workforce, volunteering with elementary and middle school students while advocating for inclusion and diversity. She also coached Future Problem Solving teams during the pandemic, teaching creative and critical thinking. Christina enjoys swimming, hiking, camping, mixed martial arts, and sometimes running. She loves reading and listening to music, often simultaneously.
Brehm Center receives $1.25M from the Lilly Endowment’s Nurturing Children Through Worship and Prayer Initiative
Brehm Center at Fuller Seminary has received $1.25M from the Lilly Endowment’s Nurturing Children Through Worship and Prayer Initiative.
We are pleased to announce that the Brehm Center has received $1.25M from the Lilly Endowment’s Nurturing Children Through Worship and Prayer Initiative. With this grant, we will develop new programming to support the religious and spiritual formation of children.
Help Children Grow in Faith and Deepen Their Relationships With God
The aim of the national initiative is to support faith-based organizations as they help children grow in faith and deepen their relationships with God. One of the Brehm Center’s founding donors, Dolores “Dee” Brehm, shared a lifelong passion for the spiritual formation of children, and we are honored to continue her legacy through this project.
Our mission is to gather diverse ministry leaders, artists, congregations, and families to create and test art-based children’s resources which foster nine formative practices for intergenerational worship.
Through this endeavor, our goal is to enable and serve church leaders, pastors, worship leaders, children’s directors, and families nationwide through the development of art-based resources to incorporate children more fully into the worship life of congregations. We will work with a team of pastors, educators, theologians, psychologists, and artists to develop resources for children focused on nine spiritual disciplines.
Worship
Prayer
Wisdom
Examen
Humility
Hospitality
Purpose
Shalom
Celebration
We will represent each practice through the methods of word, theology, song, body, and arts—producing resources for congregations and families that incorporate multi-ethnic, multicultural, and multi-generational values.
Partner With Us
For the next four years, through the collaboration of our advisory board comprised of authors, church and worship leaders, and children’s ministry practitioners – we will consider the challenges and needs of the church today as it seeks to engage young worshipers through art-based methods.
If you have any questions, please contact either Ed Willmington (grant director) edw@fuller.edu or Grace Lee (grant program director) gracehlee@fuller.edu. We look forward to sharing our resources and partnering with you on this journey!