Weekly Messages
Cultivating Your Garden of Love
by Robin Camu When we shame ourselves, scorn ourselves or procrastinate, we are choosing to not love ourselves. When we don't properly cultivate love within us, it makes it more difficult to unconditionally love those around us. Instead, how can we use the love put...
Grace: Encoded in Our DNA – **Trigger Warning**
Today is storytime. Stories about NRCC's past -- and how grace has been such a powerful principle in our community. WARNING: there is a potential trigger for victims of sexual violence starting at time point 19:30 Have a listen.
Restorative Justice – Jon Powell
by Jon Powell Restorative Justice is different from our traditional court and prison justice system (which is punitive justice). This is an overview of the Restorative Justice community in Wake County, what we do and how anyone can get involved.
8/5/18
A Tough Class . . . We CAN’T Fail!
Turns out, this is rocket science. And we have to pass the class! Our world is desperate for religious people to take their place as repairers of the earth. We must move beyond the marketing machine narrative selling us an us-against-them narrative, and take our place...
7/22/18
Throwing Good Metaphors after Bad
Apologies for the quality of the audio this week. There were problems with the recording equipment. God is too big to contain in words, images, or metaphors. When you reach the boundaries of one metaphor, trying another will add somethings but lose others. This is...
The Dangers of Fixing our Metaphors
We cannot contain God. Our words and images are metaphors, incomplete at best. When we believe and insist they reflect more than a fleeting glimpse of a reality we cannot contain, they stop helping and start damaging . . . us . . . and others.
Practicing the Divine. (Huh?)
"Experiencing the Divine" can range from peak, mystical experience to inner changes that sneak up on us. The primary door into experience, is steadfast participation in spiritual practice.
The Arc of the Spiritual Universe Bends toward Redemption
As we consider living lives that matter, we do well to recognize that we humans are meaning making beings. When religion get things right, it provides a grand narrative of redemption to inspire our personal stories toward growth and hope, even in the dark times....
Give to Live
Chasing happy . . . is killing us all. Contributing to something bigger than self, surprisingly, helps us live longer. A meaningful life lies at "the intersection of your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger." (Frederick Buechner)
Plotting Our Escape from This Brave New World
As forecasted in Huxley’s 1932 novel, Brave New World, we have become numbed and dumbed, replacing purpose with pleasure. If we want to live lives that matter, and contribute to something bigger than self, we can start by linking our everyday actions to: 1. leaving...
Times, They Are A-Changin’ — But We Humans Aren’t
Since the 70’s, social forces have conspired to demand more of our time. But that doesn’t change our basic human wiring, our basic human need to belong. What can we do to re-stitch community that is here, now, small, doable?
Longing to Belong
One third of Americans over age 45 suffer from loneliness. As we consider living lives that matter, building our relationship skills so we can belong and invite others to belong will go a long way toward restitching the torn fabric of community.
A Life that Matters (Part 2)
Restitching the torn fabric of community Contributing to something bigger than ourselves Living in a meaning-making story Experiencing the Divine
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.