Weekly Messages
Thinking About Thinking About Jesus (conclusion)
We conclude our lesson on thinking about what the words "Jesus died for our sins" mean. Today we look at other stories that frame our understanding besides the "penal substitution" theory of salvation. We consider the Ransom Theory, the Christus Victor Theory, and...
Thinking about Thinking about Jesus (part 4)
In this lesson, we look at some of the problems with the most common way Western Christians think about salvation. The "penal substitution" theory of salvation was advocated in the 11th century by a man named Anselm, and while it was an excellent way of seeing things...
Thinking About Thinking About Jesus (part 3)
Having laid two weeks of foundational concepts, we turn in this lesson to some introductory remarks about what we think the words "Jesus saves us from our sins" mean. In this lesson, we begin looking at some other ways of thinking about this than the familiar...
Fighting for Freedom: Interior Freedom
by Doug Hammack In this 4th of July weekend message, we talk about the importance of Liberty, especially interior liberty. The freedoms enshrined in the Bill of Rights don't mean much if we don't have an attendant interior freedom to go along with them. Have...
Thinking About Thinking About Jesus (part 2)
In this continuation of last week's variation on our “Two Views” series of lessons, we continue laying the ground work for how we think about Jesus. by Doug Hammack Christians say that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus was about more than just a good...
Thinking About Thinking About Jesus (part 1)
by Doug Hammack This would be a continuation of the "Two Views" series of lessons, and we would call it "Two Views of Jesus." However, over the course of this lesson, we'll encounter at least five historical views of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. We...
Spiritual Allies for the Journey (part 2)
by Doug Hammack We continue our break from our 2-Views series of lessons, and revisit a central them of NRCC, spiritual friendships and community. We’re looking at the importance of having allies for the spiritual journey, and in this lesson, we look at how one acts...
Overcoming Spiritual Helplessness – Robin Camu
by Robin Camu The Theory of Learned Helplessness is a “theory in psychology which alludes to a human condition in which one has learned to behave helplessly even when the opportunity is restored for one to help oneself ”. Some of us have brought these tendencies into...
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,...