Weekly Messages
Jan 2011 Community Meeting
Presented by Michelle Carter and the NRCC Church Council.
New Year 2011
There's a difference between making a New Year's resolution, and participating in the natural process of spiritual renewal. Have a listen. Doug
Advent 2010: Home for Christmas
At Christmas time, being home is a value for many. But what is "home?" We long for it, but it's a moving target. The people and things we associate with "home" are always changing, so "home" never stays the same. We long for something that is always evaporating...
Advent 2010: Failure? There Is No Stinking Failure!
I teach my kids all the time that they cannot not fail in life. I tell them they will embarrass themselves. They will shame themselves. They will fall into something they can't believe they've fallen into. The measure of your soul isn't how well you avoid failure...
Advent 2010: On Roosters and Readiness
One of the most moving stories I've read comes from a memoir of a minister who lived about the time I was born. It involves a rooster and his great shame. It also involves a call to us for readiness and redemption. Have a listen. Doug
Thanksgiving 2010 (part 2)
Continuing where we left off last week, we consider how gratitude, expressed in good works, is manifest in our lives. Have a listen. Doug
Thanksgiving 2010 (part 1)
A few years ago, our family stopped sharing around the Thanksgiving table the things we were grateful for. Our kids were getting older, the crowd at the table was getting larger, and it started feeling contrived, so I stopped bringing it up (I think everybody has...
The Central Organizing Principle of Life in God
We pause between these lessons, to review an important spiritual principle in our community's history... "The Central Organizing Principle of Life in God is the Indwelling Spirit." Now if you come from the Charismatic tradition and think you know what those words...
The Suffocating Power of Self (part 4)
Last week, we made the outrageous claim that God's judgment is a good thing. Who knew? This week, we go further by asking how we can invite this judgment upon ourselves. Not only are we claiming to want God's good judgment, now we're paying a pretty steep price to...
The Suffocating Power of Self (part 3)
Ps. 98 says the the judgment of God is a good thing. Go figure! How could coming up short, and then hearing about it from God be good? In this lesson, we see that we've really misunderstood the whole idea of "the judgment of God." It's a gift, it's a treasure, and...
The Suffocating Power of Self (part 2)
We continue thinking about what we can learn from Jesus' story of the Good Samaritan, and his cryptic remarks about "eternal life." What is eternal life? How does one access it? Turns out, it has very little to do with the afterlife as so many assume. Have a listen....
The Suffocating Power of Self (part 1)
In the last lesson, we looked at "the suffocating power of stuff." An extension of the same thinking that went into that lesson applies to this one. In this lesson we look at how we orient ourselves to life by looking through the lens of what's good for me, what's...
The Suffocating Power of Stuff (4 of 4)
Today, we conclude this lesson on the suffocating power of stuff. We began the lesson with Jesus' teaching in Mt. 6 on stuff, and an analysis of why it is so difficult for us, living under the socio-economic system of consumerism, to heed Jesus' words. We conclude...
The Suffocating Power of Stuff (part 3)
That we are suffocated by stuff in a literal sense is not the biggest problem we face. Yes, it's true that possessing too many things stifles and loads us down, but the more dangerous form of suffocation, is the mindset, the heartset, that believes we'll find...
The Suffocating Power of Stuff (part 2)
Dumbing down grownups, capturing children early and indenturing them into the obligations of consumerism, and misrepresenting the utility of stuff... these are the lengths our economic system goes to sell us stuff. And in the face of that, Jesus tells us that stuff is...
The Suffocating Power of Stuff (part 1)
Jesus taught us a lot about how stuff, and our relationship to stuff can steal from us the freedom, vitality, and life that the spiritual journey affords us. However, we live in a society that is founded on consumerism. The powers at work to keep us spending and...
Revenge and Forgiveness (part 2)
Revenge and forgiveness, both natural parts of being human, both wired into our brain chemistry. However, ancient wisdom has taught us that we tend to over-exaggerate the former, and underestimate the power of the latter. So, how do we actually get our brains to move...
Revenge and Forgiveness (part 1)
So how's this for crazy? I'm standing up in church to say that revenge is a natural part of being human and shouldn't always be avoided! In fact, only when we recognize the natural part that it plays in the human experience, can we fully embrace Jesus' teaching...
Community Meeting – The Future of NRCC
Listen in to our 2010 community meeting and found out the vision I have for the future of NRCC. Have a listen Doug
Reconsidering Prayer (conclusion)
We conclude this lesson on prayer today. We've been looking at prayer from a different starting point. Instead of beseeching God to do things for us (even good, noble, selfless things), our starting point has been Jesus' teaching about Truth setting us free. From that...
Backing into Truth – Robin Camu
As co-creators, we can access the Agape Love of the indwelling Trinity by clinging, by patting blindfolded into the future and by backing into truth. When we do access this Agape Love, this indwelling Trinity, we sometimes experience energy, sometimes strength, and...
Reconsidering Prayer (part 6)
In this second-to-last week of this lesson reconsidered prayer we talk about what happens to us when we take on the soul-quieting, truth-seeking, freedom-finding, prayer practices we've been talking about. And sure enough... our souls find increased freedom.... we see...
Reconsidering Prayer (part 5)
"The discipline of casualness..." That sounds contradictory doesn't it? But it's the very foundation of this different kind of prayer we've been talking about. Have a listen. Doug
Reconsidering Prayer (part 4)
Today, as we continue our lesson rethinking prayer, we come to the mindset necessary for this "seeking-Truth" way of praying. Self-discipline is necessary to this new way, but that term falls on hard times for many Christians. We've tried and tried to be disciplined...