Tag Archives: community
Community Making (2)
1 Timothy 6: 7-10 [Download mp3]
Posted in The Crazy-Making Power of Money
Tagged ancient spiritual paths, community, money
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Community Making (1)
The third ancient practice that helps us defy the crazy-making power of money is community making. The link between community-making and being free of money’s crazy-making power is not immediately obvious, so it requires some background. This lesson may stretch your patience with all this background-laying, and it’s sure to offend people who are both politically Left and Right. I think it’s fascinating stuff, but even so…
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Tagged ancient spiritual paths, community, money
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Who Comes to NRCC: The Community Seeker
Recently, the man in our community who helps people find us on the web asked me for help. To help him design google campaigns, he wanted me to define the people for whom NRCC is a fit. “Who comes here and stays,” he asked. ”What kind of people find NRCC good for their souls?” So for an hour or so, he asked me questions and feverishly typed out what I said. Together we came up with four personae (plural for “persona…” who knew?) who find Life at NRCC…
The Community Seeker
The Religious Deconstructor (and it’s companion the Religious Constructor)
The Disillusioned Church Veteran
The Wilderness Wanderer
These are precious people, and this lesson will help us understand each other, and help us help one another move forward on our journeys. Continue reading
Posted in Who Comes to NRCC: Four Personas
Tagged community, grace, NRCC, spiritual community
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Don’t Waste Your Time Going to Church (part 3)
We’re looking at the exercises we’ve been doing together on Sundays for centuries and centuries. As anything we do for an extend period, they can become rote, and we can begin to practice them without understanding or without a vested interest.
So we’re thinking together about the ancient practices, the ancient spiritual exercises.
Today, we think about the radicalized version of hospitality practiced in the first few centuries of the church, and how it served as political and social dissent against the norms of Roman society. Continue reading
Don’t Waste Your Time Going to Church (part 2)
Today, we begin looking at the exercises that in aggregate, constitute the Sunday morning Christian experience. Looking at the word “liturgy,” we realize that what we’re doing is closer to going to a gym-for-the-soul, than it is to many of our understandings of “going to church.”
So have a listen. Today we talk about two exercises Christian people have been doing Sunday mornings for centuries; getting ready, and getting there (there’s more to it than you would think). Continue reading
Friends for the Fray: The Lost Art of Confession (part 4)
We conclude looking at the art of confession with this lesson on two themes…
1. what is penance, and what is it’s value to our souls?
2. how do we receive a confession well? Continue reading
Posted in Friends for the Fray
Tagged ancient spiritual paths, community, confession, penance, spiritual friends
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Friends for the Fray: The Lost Art of Confession (part 3)
So, after a few weeks championing the benefits confession affords our souls, we come today, to the practical “how-to’s” of this ancient practice.
We look at making a good confession in three parts,
1) self-awareness,
2) thoroughness, and
3) penance
(Only some beginning remarks on penance; just enough to let you know it is probably not what you think it is. We’ll finish up next week)
Have a listen. Continue reading
Posted in Friends for the Fray
Tagged ancient spiritual paths, character, community, confession, courage, journaling, pain/suffering, penance, prayer, spiritual friends
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Friends for The Fray: The Lost Art of Confession (part 2)
After last week’s digression to reinforce the importance of making for ourselves a healthy spiritual community, today we resume looking at the practicality of this ancient spiritual spiritual practice, confession.
The themes of this lesson are very personal for me. The bulk of last week’s digression-lesson was a personal story, and this week is too. It was embarrassing 15 years ago, now it is one of my most cherished memories. Continue reading
Posted in Friends for the Fray
Tagged ancient spiritual paths, community, confession, greed, Love, lust, pride, spiritual friends
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Friends For The Fray: A Digression to Reinforce
This digression will expand what I said last week, and I’ll spend the lion’s share of our time telling you a story from my own life. It’s a story of love for people, and how without it, we cannot give our gifts to one another, and consequently, we fall short of our destinies. Continue reading
Posted in Friends for the Fray
Tagged ancient spiritual paths, breathing groups, community, confession, greed, Love, lust, pride, spiritual friends
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New Year 2010
As we come to another New Year, we look again at how human beings best change. We all have areas of growth before us in the coming year, areas originating in the heart of God. Today’s lesson talks about discerning the purposes of the Divine, and partnering with them in our own transformation. Continue reading