Weekly Messages
Spiritual Allies for the Journey (part 1)
by Doug Hammack We take a break from our series of lessons on Two Views to revisit a central them of our spiritual community. We're looking at the importance of spiritual friendships, "allies for the spiritual journey." In this lesson, we look at how Jesus...
Two Views of People (Part 3)
by Doug Hammack In this lesson, we conclude our look at two views of people. We see that the common view of ourselves as foreigners on the earth, waiting to go to heaven to find our heart's true home tends to make for a version of Christianity less engaged with the...
Two Views of People (Part 2)
by Doug Hammack There is an old-time hymn titled, “This World is Not My Home.” The sentiment behind the hymn, and behind a common Christian view of humanity, is that we (ie the followers of Jesus) are resident aliens on this earth. We’re just waiting to get snatched...
Archive: So… you don’t pray anymore? I get that. (part 2)
Originally presented 01/13/2008 by Doug Hammack We’ve laid a foundation for questioning the instinctive assumptions we make about spirituality and prayer. So, I suggested that we’ve been tooling along for several generations now thinking that when we pray, we get God...
Two Views of People (Part 1)
by Doug Hammack We’re doing a series of lessons called “Two Views.” The last lesson we looked at Two Views of God. This week, and for the next couple of weeks, we’ll look at Two Views of People, and after that, Two Views of Jesus. In these introductory remarks before...
Two Views of God (part 2)
by Doug Hammack How we think about God profoundly affects how we think of the Christian journey. Today, we continue examining how our image of God as King, creates a different version of Christianity than does an image of God as Lover.
Archive: So… you don’t pray anymore? I get that. (part 1)
Originally presented 01/06/2008 by Doug Hammack Many of you have told me that prayer no longer has the same meaning to you it did at one time. Some have asked and asked and asked for something, and it hasn’t happened so they don’t ask any more. And doing this long...
Archive: Another Way to Pray: Straight-Up Honesty (Part 2)
Originally presented 02/10/2008 by Doug Hammack Coming to God in face of painful circumstances is a deep act of faith. Because these are heroic acts of spirituality… (and because we often need baby steps before heroic steps) To be successful in these new practices, we...
Archive: Another Way to Pray: Straight-Up Honesty (Part 1)
Originally presented 01/27/2008 by Doug Hammack When we began the spiritual journey, many of us picked up some assumptions about prayer. Many find that “God-do-something” prayer grows empty after a while. Many people are not inclined to take ugly stuff before God. But...
Two Views of God (part 1)
by Doug Hammack How we think about God profoundly affects how we think of the Christian journey. Today we examine the God of Requirements and Rewards, and the God of Love and Justice.
Easter 2009
by Doug Hammack In this lesson, Doug speculates what the resurrection of Jesus may have been like. Have a listen.
Relaxing Our Ego Desires (Part 2)
by Doug Hammack We’re spending these days looking at some ancient spiritual practice that challenge the tyranny of desire. This week we continue looking at how to effectively challenge the power of ego-desire, specifically by using the power of our imagination....
Relaxing Our Ego Desires (Part 1)
by Doug Hammack We’re spending these days looking at some ancient spiritual practice that challenge the tyranny of desire. This week we look at how to effectively challenge the power of ego-desire.
Relaxing Our Sense Desires
by Doug Hammack Last week we saw how the ancient spiritual practice of silence challenges the tyranny of desire. This week we look at how we can fare well when we challenge the powerful desires of our senses.
The Discipline of NOT Talking
by Doug Hammack Extended silence makes us uncomfortable for a lot of reasons, several of which we examine in this lesson. However, the ancients touted it as one of the classical spiritual disciplines, designed to awaken us to the Divine Life and Light inside each of...
Sabbath Consciousness: Our Descriptive Selves (part 4)
by Doug Hammack As we’ve seen these last two weeks, “the descriptive self” is a faulty and inadequate way of seeing ourselves. In this final lesson in the series we consider how our sense of self keeps us from remaining present to the moment, keeps us from peace,...
Sabbath Consciousness: Our Descriptive Selves (part 3)
by Doug Hammack Continuing our discussion of sabbath-consciousness...
Sabbath Consciousness: Our Descriptive Selves (part 2)
by Doug Hammack The third critical elements we’re looking at that carves out interior space and peace for our souls, is how we think about ourselves. In this message we consider “the descriptive self” and how it drives us into less and less inner tranquility....
Sabbath Consciousness: Peculiar People (part 1)
by Doug Hammack Before the holidays we looked at two elements that help us find a place of internal rest and leisure that the ancients tell us is our heritage on the spiritual journey. There was another I wanted to discuss, and now that we’re though the holidays and...
The "Why" Issue and What "Peace" Has to Do With That
by Jim Amundsen God promises us tribulation, trials and troubles in our life, but he also promises us peace. This is not peace as the world defines it but the "peace that passes understanding". However certain things get in the way of our obtaining that peace, such...
Check out some of the teachings you missed!
For those of you who are newcomers to NRCC or this website, you did not have a chance to hear many really great messages and series that Doug has delivered in 2008 like "Dancing with the Divine", Hard Times and Finding God", "Sin's Just Not that Big a Deal" and "The...
Community Meeting: Finding Those Assigned Us
by Michelle Carter At NRCC, we have a very healthy spiritual community. Also, given our community's resources, we have room to invite some other people to walk this spiritual journey with us. So, these days we're looking for them. Emerging from a season of inward...
Community Meeting: The Future of Caring for Our Children/Teens
Alea has been a wonderful pastor over children and youth for many years, but after April 1, she will no longer be with us. At this meeting, we discuss the future of our kids. If you’re a part of NRCC, have a listen. ...
Introducing Meditation (part 3)
by Doug Hammack In 2009, NRCC focused for a year on integrating the ancient Christian contemplative practices into our lives. We did three 11-week Wednesday evening sessions of learning, practicing, and supporting one another. These three Sunday messages were an...