Weekly Messages
A Life that Matters (Part 1)
Restitching the torn fabric of community Contributing to something bigger than ourselves Living in a meaning-making story Experiencing the Divine
5/6 – Perlie Davis
By Perlie Davis
Inviting One Another Into Shared Experience
Reconcilable Differences
Our social fabric (and our personal relationships) are in tatters, in part because our Western-culture instincts leave us without a reconciliation skill set. Learn three practical ways to train in the art of caring so you can begin restitching the torn fabric of...
The Economics of Caring v. Coping
Yes, the discipline of caring takes energy, but no more than what we use to desperately guard our fragile ego identity. Trade coping for caring. Entering into shared space with others pays harmonious dividends that our false-self strategies can never afford us....
Disarming Disharmony
Disharmony is fueled by increasing feelings of alienation and isolation. Moving toward others with an empathetic response brings healing and hope. A powerful tool for our heal-the-earth toolbox.
Easter 2018. A Oneness Story
Community Meeting (March 2018)
Part of the community? Have a listen.
Resilience 4: "Propheting" from the Long View
The language of the prophets is the language of hope and promise. Even in times of despair, they take the long view. Divine reality, which lives and breathes in each of us, always brings light to the darkness, fairness to the unjust, peace to the fearing.
Resilience 3: When We See, We Are Free
Over time, modern conveniences lower our immunity to tough times. See these comfort addictions, and we can free ourselves from their hold and boost our resilience. Have a listen.
Resilience 2: Sin There, Done That
Our story of sin can undermine our resilience. It's a story we inherited from our history, and honestly . . . it's not so helpful. See how rethinking sin can boost our capacity for resilience.
Resilience 1: The Gain of Pain
Pain is not bad. Pain is just painful. And with pain being an inevitable part of the human experience, discover how you might not “waste” it by simply cursing the darkness but rather use it to build resilience and light a candle in the darkness.
Yes. I Said "Duty" in Church
In our Western, individualistic society, duty has become a dirty word. We all benefit when we step into our full story of ourselves as both one and one of many, and the virtue of duty becomes the natural outflow of our shared mindset.
The Fable of Immunity . . . To Community
We are relational beings. Our overly exuberant, Western reverence for individualism has become toxic, leaving us to believe we must shoulder the world alone. Broaden our well-being concerns beyond "me, my and mine," and counter-intuitively, each of us becomes a...
Go Fast–Go Alone. Go Far–Go Together
Moving from pseudo-community (well-mannered, polite), to authentic community takes intention, discipline, and skill. Creating an environment where authentic community can flourish is essential work of the church. This year, we will refocus on this intention so that we...
Universally Permanent Ways to Kill Hope (what NOT to do)
When bad things happen, the story we tell ourselves will determine whether hope is stirred or stymied. Hope lives when we see setbacks as temporary and one time events. Our tradition gives us tools to hold on to hope, particularly in the darkest of times.
Don’t Lose Hope . . . to Scope
The Industrial Revolution and subsequent urbanization and mechanization of society increased the scale within which we all live, work, and play. As our world has gotten bigger, our sense of agency has shrunk. When we tell ourselves the story that we can’t make a...
Telling Ourselves Our Story of Hope
Promises, Promises…
When we find ourselves in dark seasons, our ancient wisdom extends a promise. That in the end, Truth wins. love wins, light triumphs. Not at the end of history, but with recurring regularity throughout history. It happens again and again and again. And this dark time...
Tools of the Resistance: Hope
Many are struggling with despair these days. Our ancients knew something about human nature, and they designed a calendar to remind us to stir hope in the darkest and coldest of times. It was a call to dissolve despair like salt in warm broth. The feast of Christmas...
11/19/17
Put on Notice . . . for Gratitude
It’s that time of year when we remind one another of the spiritual practice of intentional stirring of gratitude. Rather than viewing gratitude as an emotional response to circumstance, we pause and notice the plenty that surrounds us.
Rules of Engagement
Discovering our blind spots is a prerequisite to stepping into our role as repairers of the earth. Before we can challenge our society's blind spots we have to challenge our own. That's a good place to start. In this lesson we explore that -- and a series of other...
Repair it! Be A Bridge!
Today's lesson is a personal story... Doug has been making the case in this lesson, that racial inequity is our nation's "original sin," and that repairing the harm it causes is our mandate as Christians. Today, he tells the story of how he got there personally, and...