Weekly Messages
The Journey to Oneness (2): A Healthy Ego-Self
"False-Self." We use that term a lot at NRCC. It has to do with making the negative effects of framing the ego as the self. Self, it turns out, is too expansive a reality to be contained in the thoughts we think, the feelings we have, the personalities we were born...
Enneagram Personality Type 5 – The Investigator – Robin Camu
by Robin Camu This is a summary of the characteristics of the Enneagram Type 5 personality (The Investigator) from our Wednesday night discussions. Join us for the next one! Type Five in Brief (from http://www.enneagraminstitute.com/typefive.asp) Fives are alert,...
The Journey to Oneness (1): Everything is Connected
Jesus was hard to understand. So hard, it got him killed. Let's be real... he was kind of weird: - speak to the mountain, and you can put it in the sea - love the people who hurt you - and so forth So what's a follower of Jesus to do? Have a listen, Doug...
Enneagram Personality Type 4 – The Individualist – Robin Camu
by Robin Camu This is a summary of the characteristics of the Enneagram Type 4 personality (The Individualist) from our Wednesday night discussions. Join us for the next one!
"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 Personality Type 3 – The Achiever – Robin Camu
by Robin Camu This is a summary of the characteristics of the Enneagram Type 3 personality (The Achiever) from our Wednesday night discussions. Join us for the next one!
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
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
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...
New Year 2013
Today we prepare ourselves for a new year. Have a listen, Doug
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
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
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
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...
When the Going Gets Tough… (and it does)
Perseverance is easy to say... difficult to maintain. Today we look at what perseverance does for us, and what in the world might motivate us to do it. Have a listen, Doug
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)
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)
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)
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)
"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)
"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)
"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)
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)
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....