Weekly Messages
Rethinking the Afterlife (7)
We conclude our lesson rethinking the afterlife with this -- if it is true that the texts on which we built our afterlife narrative were not what we thought they were -- shall we keep the afterlife as part of the Christian narrative? Yes, we conclude, but not the same...
Rethinking the Afterlife (6)
If, as we have suggested, the texts we Christians have cited to construct our afterlife story -- were not written about the end of time . . . Shall we abandon the idea of the afterlife altogether? Perhaps not. Have a listen, Doug
Rethinking the Afterlife (5)
Have you ever heard Jesus' parable of the sheep and the goats? If you have, there's a good chance you thought it was a parable about the afterlife - the final judgment before we all go on to eternity. It might surprise you that that's not what Jesus would have been...
Rethinking the Afterlife (4)
As we have been discussing, the Greco-Roman world view has influenced our thinking on the afterlife to separate the here and now from the here-after. It also made the afterlife a much more prominent part of our story than it ever was before. The message of Jesus...
Rethinking the Afterlife (3)
We pick up from our lesson before Easter, building a foundation for rethinking the Christian story of the afterlife. How we imagine what happens after we die, has a great deal to do with how we live. If Christians are, in general, not behaving well these days (pretty...
Easter 2014
Easter is the centerpiece of our tradition. In this time in which we are rethinking how we tell the Christian story, it would make sense that we'd do some rethinking of Easter as well. Have a listen, Doug
Rethinking the Afterlife (2)
The story we Christians tell about the afterlife is deeply rooted in our psyches -- so deeply in fact, that very few of us every think about it critically. However, it is certainly problematic, and may not be as "Christian" as we think it is. Have a listen, Doug...
Rethinking the Afterlife (1)
The Christian narrative most traditional church folks learned growing up is pretty heavily weighted toward the afterlife. We look today, at Jesus' central focus, the Kingdom of God. What we learn is that the afterlife was at best a footnote to the central Christian...
Rethinking Salvation in the Quantum Era (5)
Have a listen, Doug
Rethinking Salvation in the Quantum Era (4)
After some time looking at the unintended and negative consequences of telling the Christian salvation story in only one way, and ignoring the other historical ways, we turn now to imagining how we might tell the salvation story if we restored those ancient and other...
Rethinking Salvation in the Quantum Era (3)
The way most Western Christians have the story of salvation since the Enlightenment (the 11th century, really), has some unintended and negative consequences. As we saw at the beginning of this lesson, when we take our Christian doctrine of ineffability seriously, we...
Rethinking Salvation in the Quantum Era (2)
Again, we shape our stories, and then our stories shape us, and our religious stories most of all. And also again, when our stories gets unhealthy, our souls get unhealthy. In this lesson, we tell the Christian salvation story in the way most Enlightenment Christians...
Rethinking Salvation in the Quantum Era (1)
We shape our stories, and then our stories shape us. Of all the stories that shape our lives, our religious stories the most power. And for Christians, of all our religious stories, the one most shaping of them, is our salvation story. So, if that story gets...
A Christian Church for the Quantum Era (3)
I was all set to move on to the next in a cluster of lessons around the theme: "Quantum Christianity." However, some really great questions came up on our "How's Your Soul?" Facebook page. "Doug, how can you say what you said last week, Doug, and still be Christian?...
A Christian Church for the Quantum Era (2)
At our community meeting earlier this year, we reviewed what we do and why we do it. Being "A Christian Church for the Quantum Era," we said, is our most basic purpose. Today we pick up where we left off two weeks ago (before Tripp Fuller our guest speaker). We began...
02/09 – Tripp Fuller
In this current series of lessons, we've been observing how the Christian Church is in a time of upheaval and reformation we haven't seen for 500 years. If you're part of NRCC, you see how that is happening here, but today, I invited Tripp Fuller from Homebrewed...
A Christian Church for the Quantum Era (1)
At last week's community meeting we reviewed what we do and why we do it. Being "A Christian Church for the Quantum Era," we said, is our most basic purpose. Today we begin a series of lessons talking together about what that means. First up, why "Christian?" That...
Church-Family Meeting
Not a normal Sunday. We're talking about what we do as a community, and why we do it. Not a normal Sunday, but if you're part of the community you need to hear. If you're not, you'll learn a lot about us this way. Have a listen, Doug
Working the Circle: Embracing the Four Practices
We speak often of the four categories of spiritual practice. Today, we set them before ourselves as we begin the new year. Let us integrate these practices into our lives together. Have a listen, Doug ps... download the worksheet you hear about in the lesson HERE...
NeighborServe: Haiti and HelpOneNow
One of the four essential spiritual practices is serving the well-being of the earth. One of the ways we are helping one another embrace the practices of service is to develop a relationship with the Ferrier Village in Haiti. Today, Nick Errato from HelpOneNow is...
Self-Awareness and Self-Disclosure: The "On-Label" Use
We talk a lot about self-awareness and self-disclosure when we speak about our community's practice of conflict resolution. But as always, we speak of it as an "off-label" use of an ancient spiritual discipline. Today we talk about the "on-label" use. Have a listen,...
Preparing for the New Year: Our Relationship to Change
Each new year, I think about growth points and change in my life. I bet many of you do as well. But forget the individual changes set before us or a moment, and let's consider how we approach change. In this lesson we think together about the relationship we develop...
Advent 2013 (3)
We conclude this year's Advent message--on Advent. We've been looking at the ancient wisdom around celebration, and today finish off with an informed understanding of why the holidays so often exhaust, instead of energize us. Have a listen, Doug
Advent 2013 (2)
We continue looking at why we do Advent, expanding our discussion into some of the "how's." Advent is a two-step dance, both feasting and the preparation that makes the feasting meaningful. Have a listen, Doug