Weekly Messages
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...
Race-Neutral Legislation . . . That Wasn’t (part 2)
How shall we be Christian? One important direction our tradition points us . . . repair broken systems that break people. We've been saying in this lesson: our broken systems stay broken . . . because they stay invisible. Thus this history section in our lesson Today...
Race-Neutral Legislation . . . That Wasn’t (part 1)
History shows us how things got broken -- so we know what needs to be fixed. The systems wounding our society are often invisible . . . but they roll along, year after year, consistently advantaging one group and disadvantaging another. To help us see how to untangle...
Access Denied
When we take a look at the shadowy historical roots of our society's invisible systems – financial, employment, political, educational, penal – they stop being invisible. Unseen, our systems consistently advantage one group and disadvantage another. This is the very...
Our Unsightly Blind Spots
It's a sad thing... but our blind spots are embedded right in our science and religion. That's what has made our national sin, racism, so tough to handle. The unquestioned credibility of these institutions created blind spots which allow us to remain in an ignorant...
A Few Guilty. All Responsible.
We're not guilty of the past. We weren't there. But if we understand Jesus, we see we are -- all of us -- responsible to make right what has gone wrong, and systematic racism . . . has gone wrong! Jesus also taught us where much is given, much is required. From a...
Recalculating… Course Correction Required
As our unpaid debts of history tug us from behind, we must collectively turn from the path we've been on, and consciously choose a new one upon which ALL are seen, heard, and afforded the opportunity to prosper.
Some Good News for the Discouraged
To get us ready for our upcoming lesson, "Rethinking Race," here are some of the ways our community has been getting ready to step into our role as a repairers of the earth. It is a long list and it's good news! We also explore specific opportunities within our city...
Announcement: Please Join the Contacts List
During this time, one of the best ways that we recognize and interact with members of our community is via the Contacts list. Please take a moment, go to the website and add yourself if you have not already. https://commonthreadchurch.org/add-me-contact-list/ Under...
Loving-Kindness Meditation: Why, What and How
As we continue our training to become repairers of the earth, we explore Loving-kindness Meditation as a means to move from reacting to observing and responding – with compassion for both ourselves and others.