Weekly Messages
The Indignation Indication
A healthy dose of righteous indignation can be a powerful catalyst for action toward repairing the earth. ...key words being – healthy dose. But, sometimes, our indignation is yet another strategy for avoiding fear. When it is, our effectiveness at being agents of...
No Fear, No Transformation . . . Know Fear, Know Transformation
The regular occurrence of laments in our Christian lectionary cycle testifies to the fact that acknowledging affliction and fear is a healthy and a necessary part of the spiritual journey. When we distract ourselves with comforts and pleasures to avoid feeling our...
Don’t Let Your Tools . . . Make You a Tool
When we let our technology fool us into believing we are safe and invincible, our tools . . . make us tools. When religion devolves into just another technology we use to allay our fears, we miss the opportunity to transform our relationship with fear and enter into...
Trading Mudpies in the Slum for Sandcastles at the Sea
C.S. Lewis lamented that we settle in our lives, far too easily. In this lesson, we see that when we use religion as a tactic to calm our fears, we are settling for a second hand-religion. Religion can do better. It holds out the promise of first-hand...
A Divine Experience of Fear
Today's lesson is an introduction to our next series, "Transcending a Religion of Fear." We look at a point of origin for how religion has so often had an unsavory relationship to fear. When we use religion as a psychological crutch to avoid and distract ourselves...
Circling Back: "Being Christian in the Quantum Era"
NRCC’s journey began many years ago, desconstructing Enlightenment-Era church. After that, we began reconstructing a way to be Christian in the Quantum Era. Along the way, among the writings and practices of our ancient Christian Mothers and Fathers, we found a set of...
Follow Your Vice to Virtue – Robin Camu
Vice and virtue are two sides of the same coin. Rather than rejecting your “sins of the ego”, Robin Camu suggests bringing awareness to them in the moment, offering yourself loving kindness, and watching them melt into opportunities for virtue to flourish. Have a...
Making Correct Change: Cashiers and Christians
It's our Christian mandate to change the world . . . and Lord knows it needs changing these days. But how do we do good - but do it better? How do we make change - that matters? Paul points us to some tools that help. Even in the quantum era, we Christians still rely...
A Shout Out to Sweet Baby Jesus
In this lesson we are reminded of the story of hope the Baby Jesus represents. When we are despairing, Baby Jesus reminds us the light is bigger than darkness, life is bigger than death, love wins over fear. And it is only from a position of hope that we garner the...
You Can’t Make the Journey to Oneness Alone
Our embattled world needs repair. Developing a oneness orientation will be key to unlocking our entrenchments and releasing us to deep transformation. In this lesson we continue discussing our community's intention to be a heterogeneous church. We believe the radical...
Family Recipe for Tense Times – Stir in a Pinch of Gratitude
Advent 2016 - Week 1 During this season of Advent, we focus on waiting in the darkness (and especially so, in this present time of darkness) with hope. With gratitude being the fountainhead of hope, our tradition points us to intentionally stirring gratitude to...
11-20-16 (Post Election Firestorm)
A Call to Care (Part 2) – Chris Graebe
by Chris Graebe This is the last lesson in the series that Doug started on Amos and what he had to say about social divisions and their impact.
A Call to Care – Scott Shackleton
By Scott Shackleton Today is Orphan Sunday. It is a time to reflect on those who really need our caring for them and it gives us a chance to expand our empathy. Have a listen.
A Tale of Two Brains… Or… This is your Brain. This is Your Brain on Affluence
We continue our discussion around talking across the divide. In today's lesson we look at the effects both affluence and poverty have on our brains, and the corresponding ways those effects influence our spiritual journeys. Have a listen, Doug
There’s an Elephant in the Room. You’re Riding It.
In this lesson, we continue our discussion on civil discourse across the divide. I encourage us to be suspicious of our own righteousness. It's a default response served up to us by our lower brains, which our upper brains dress up with nice justifications and...
Lefties Aren’t Right. Righties Have Work Left.
In this lesson we continue exploring how to listen across the political divide by examining the six moral foundations of humanity. Discover which three moral foundations the liberals value most highly and which four traditionally underlie conservative positions....
Amos, Partisan Politics, and Afflictive Emotions
From Hole Sexuality to Whole Sexuality (2)
Our sexual ground rules no longer serve us well. We developed them when we were agrarian and industrial societies. Now we live longer, we enter puberty earlier, and we marry later. Now, there is an average 15 year gap between sexual maturity and marriage. It is time...
From Hole Sexuality to Whole Sexuality (1)
All signs point to the fact that we are not handling our sexuality well. When we reduce sex to “the act” and miss its much broader context, we also reduce our experiences and relationships. Have a listen, Doug
Do the Right Thing! The Ancient Prophet Amos (part 2)
As we saw last week, we can sum up the message of the ancient prophets pretty simply. "Do the right thing . . . or suffer the consequences." That idea riled up some folks in our community this last week. It poked some old church hurts -- preachers threatening...
Do the Right Thing! The Ancient Prophet Amos (part 1)
We can sum up the message of the ancient prophets pretty simply. "Do the right thing . . . or suffer the consequences." To many religious folk, that sounds like a threat from God. In a recent TED talk, we realize, it's a pretty accurate description of what happens...
Recapping Our Summer of Listening
It's been our focus this summer -- the spiritual practice of listening. As the summer comes to an end, we revisit the important themes of the summer lesson, and point ourselves forward. Have a listen, Doug
Toward A Better World: Doing Our Bit
We're nearing the end of our "summer of listening." We began this summer with the premise that when people set aside time for spiritual listening, one thing they have heard through the ages is the call to repair the earth. And it is clear to anyone watching - our...