2011 Ridge Rd.
Raleigh, NC

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"A Hoary Head:"  Navigating the Announcements at NRCC

"A Hoary Head:" Navigating the Announcements at NRCC

When I was a kid, I got rewards for memorizing the ancient proverbs. Here's one that is still stuck in my head... A hoary head is a crown of glory, if it is found on a man or woman who has walked the way of righteousness. I didn't know what "hoary" meant.  (That...

Enneagram Workshop: Part 2 – Robin Camu

Enneagram Workshop: Part 2 – Robin Camu

by Robin Camu Following up on last week's lesson, how can we use the Enneagram for spiritual and emotional healing? John 5:1-18 gives us background on the 4 criteria Jesus employed for healing: being willing to own our own brokenness being willing to give up our...

Enneagram Personality Type 2 – The Helper – Robin Camu

Enneagram Personality Type 2 – The Helper – Robin Camu

by Robin Camu This is a summary of the characteristics of the Enneagram Type 2 personality (The Helper/Giver) from our Wednesday night discussions. Join us for the next one! Type Two in Brief (from http://www.enneagraminstitute.com/typetwo.asp) Twos are empathetic,...

Enneagram Workshop: Part 1 – Robin Camu

Enneagram Workshop: Part 1 – Robin Camu

by Robin Camu The Enneagram is a scholarly study of personality types across time and cultures. There are 9 basic personality types, each with ts own virtues, vices, motivations, interaction styles and challenges. We each carry all of these 9 personality types, but we...

Advent 2012 – Week 4

Advent 2012 – Week 4

The Psalms tell us to lift up our eyes... to see with an elevated vision. This is exactly what Advent invites us to do. In this lesson, I'll recognize that it's tough in our culture, to make December a month of vision-elevating. But, I'll suggest some ways to be...

Advent 2012 – Week 3

Advent 2012 – Week 3

On Friday, 20 children were murdered in their school and 6 adults who tried to protect them. Can we celebrate this season's focus on "hope" when something like that happens? We'll see.  I have a few remarks to make, but most of this morning's lesson will be...

Advent 2012 – Week 2

Advent 2012 – Week 2

So sure, hope is a great thing. Sure, prophets speak and angels sing... "Comfort...  comfort my people." That's all well and good. But brass-tacks reality insists we at least mention the high price exacted of those who bring hope into the earth. Look at how our...

Advent 2012 – week 1

Advent 2012 – week 1

When we think of "prophesy" we think of predicting the future. That's not what the ancients thought. They thought of prophets as "seers," seeing what the rest of us miss - and in particular, seeing the things of the Divine. Today, we read one of our ancient prophets...

Thanksgiving 2012 (2)

Thanksgiving 2012 (2)

Again... Sometimes we make gratitude a perfunctory practice. Let it not be so!  This is big!  Transformative!  Big! Have a listen, Doug  

Thanksgiving 2012 (1)

Thanksgiving 2012 (1)

Sometimes we make gratitude a perfunctory practice. Let it not be so!  This is big!  Transformative!  Big! Have a listen, Doug  

Spiritual Friendship: The Skills (6b)

Spiritual Friendship: The Skills (6b)

Continuing our look at how language informs meaning, and in particular how the future perfect tense helps us think about... - the spiritual journey before us... - how we live in spiritual community. Have a listen, Doug  

Spiritual Friendship: The Skills (6a)

Spiritual Friendship: The Skills (6a)

Living in the Future-Perfect Tense. Yet another skill necessary if we would reweave the spiritual community so necessary for our souls to thrive. Here's how it works. We live in Time-X. But the great hope of our tradition is a state of redemption and soul-health. We...

Spiritual Friendship: The Skills (5b)

Spiritual Friendship: The Skills (5b)

"Service." We continue looking at how service wears down and wears out the false-self beliefs we build our lives on. It's a hassle, to be sure. However, it is a hassle the way eating salad is a hassle. We may prefer nachos and beer, but two things:  1) salads can...

Spiritual Friendship: The Skills (5a)

Spiritual Friendship: The Skills (5a)

"Service." One of the ancient skills necessary to live well in the environment in which our souls thrive. One of the ancient skills necessary to live in authentic spiritual community. But perhaps not for the reasons you might think. We come to the ancient Christian...

Spiritual Friendship: The Skills (4)

Spiritual Friendship: The Skills (4)

"Confession." That's a word I hate to use because of the images I know it conjures up. If we grew up Catholic, we see images of boxes and priests telling us to say "hail-Mary's." If we grew up Protestant, we see ourselves telling our dark sins to the preacher or the...

Spiritual Friendship: The Skills (3)

Spiritual Friendship: The Skills (3)

It's tough to put a name on skill #3 in this lesson...  maybe "developing a tougher skin?"  Maybe "being able to receive criticism?" No, neither of those are right. In fact, in this lesson I never give this skill a name. Probably closest would be "putting personal...

Spiritual Friendship:  The Skills (2)

Spiritual Friendship: The Skills (2)

Humility. As we saw earlier this year, humility is often misunderstood. It smacks of servility or insecurity. Not so. Humility starts with a profound understanding that we carry the image of God, and a settled understanding of what it means to be human - growing....

Spiritual Friendship: The Skills (1)

Spiritual Friendship: The Skills (1)

Skill #1:  Growth. Stands to reason doesn't it? If we don't have a learning and growing posture, we don't grow into the skills, competencies, and emotional framework to do spiritual friendships well. Look around if you don't believe me. As a society, we feel deeply...

Spiritual Community in a Mid-Size Church (3)

Spiritual Community in a Mid-Size Church (3)

Before the holiday break we were talking about how we, as we are becoming a mid-size church, can keep alive one of our core values - authentic spiritual community. Continuing that lesson today, we're talking about several related themes; today, some stories relating...

Labor Day Sunday 2012  (Listening to Fenalon)

Labor Day Sunday 2012 (Listening to Fenalon)

We're in the middle of a lesson on authentic spiritual community, but it's Labor Day Sunday and many of us are traveling. So, rather than continue the lesson that's building one week on the next, I thought I'd just do a stand-alone, kind-of-related lesson. It's really...