by Doug Hammack | Mar 28, 2018 | Community Meeting, Message Audio
Part of the community? Have a listen. https://media.blubrry.com/north_raleigh_community_church/s3.amazonaws.com/nrccaudio/2018/03-25-18_Sermon.mp3Podcast: Play in new window |...
by Doug Hammack | Mar 21, 2018 | Message Audio, Resilience
The language of the prophets is the language of hope and promise. Even in times of despair, they take the long view. Divine reality, which lives and breathes in each of us, always brings light to the darkness, fairness to the unjust, peace to the fearing. ...
by Doug Hammack | Mar 11, 2018 | Message Audio, Resilience
Over time, modern conveniences lower our immunity to tough times. See these comfort addictions, and we can free ourselves from their hold and boost our resilience. Have a listen. ...
by Doug Hammack | Mar 6, 2018 | Message Audio, Resilience
Our story of sin can undermine our resilience. It’s a story we inherited from our history, and honestly . . . it’s not so helpful. See how rethinking sin can boost our capacity for resilience. ...
by Doug Hammack | Feb 28, 2018 | Message Audio, Resilience
Pain is not bad. Pain is just painful. And with pain being an inevitable part of the human experience, discover how you might not “waste” it by simply cursing the darkness but rather use it to build resilience and light a candle in the darkness. ...
by Doug Hammack | Feb 20, 2018 | Message Audio, Restitching the Torn Fabric of Community
In our Western, individualistic society, duty has become a dirty word. We all benefit when we step into our full story of ourselves as both one and one of many, and the virtue of duty becomes the natural outflow of our shared mindset. ...
by Doug Hammack | Feb 13, 2018 | Message Audio, Restitching the Torn Fabric of Community
We are relational beings. Our overly exuberant, Western reverence for individualism has become toxic, leaving us to believe we must shoulder the world alone. Broaden our well-being concerns beyond “me, my and mine,” and counter-intuitively, each of us...
by Doug Hammack | Feb 5, 2018 | Message Audio, Restitching the Torn Fabric of Community
Moving from pseudo-community (well-mannered, polite), to authentic community takes intention, discipline, and skill. Creating an environment where authentic community can flourish is essential work of the church. This year, we will refocus on this intention so that we...
by Doug Hammack | Jan 24, 2018 | Advent, Message Audio
When bad things happen, the story we tell ourselves will determine whether hope is stirred or stymied. Hope lives when we see setbacks as temporary and one time events. Our tradition gives us tools to hold on to hope, particularly in the darkest of times. ...
by Doug Hammack | Jan 16, 2018 | Advent, Message Audio
The Industrial Revolution and subsequent urbanization and mechanization of society increased the scale within which we all live, work, and play. As our world has gotten bigger, our sense of agency has shrunk. When we tell ourselves the story that we can’t make a...
by Doug Hammack | Jan 9, 2018 | Advent, Message Audio
https://media.blubrry.com/north_raleigh_community_church/s3.amazonaws.com/nrccaudio/2018/01-07-18_Sermon.mp3Podcast: Play in new window |...
by Doug Hammack | Dec 19, 2017 | Advent, Message Audio
When we find ourselves in dark seasons, our ancient wisdom extends a promise. That in the end, Truth wins. love wins, light triumphs. Not at the end of history, but with recurring regularity throughout history. It happens again and again and again. And this dark time...
by Doug Hammack | Dec 5, 2017 | Advent, Message Audio
Many are struggling with despair these days. Our ancients knew something about human nature, and they designed a calendar to remind us to stir hope in the darkest and coldest of times. It was a call to dissolve despair like salt in warm broth. The feast of Christmas...
by Doug Hammack | Nov 22, 2017 | Message Audio, Thanksgiving
https://media.blubrry.com/north_raleigh_community_church/s3.amazonaws.com/nrccaudio/2017/11-19-17_Sermon.mp3Podcast: Play in new window |...
by Doug Hammack | Nov 21, 2017 | Message Audio
It’s that time of year when we remind one another of the spiritual practice of intentional stirring of gratitude. Rather than viewing gratitude as an emotional response to circumstance, we pause and notice the plenty that surrounds us. ...
by Doug Hammack | Nov 14, 2017 | Message Audio, Rethinking Race
Discovering our blind spots is a prerequisite to stepping into our role as repairers of the earth. Before we can challenge our society’s blind spots we have to challenge our own. That’s a good place to start. In this lesson we explore that — and a...
by Doug Hammack | Nov 7, 2017 | Message Audio, Rethinking Race
Today’s lesson is a personal story… Doug has been making the case in this lesson, that racial inequity is our nation’s “original sin,” and that repairing the harm it causes is our mandate as Christians. Today, he tells the story of how he...
by Doug Hammack | Nov 1, 2017 | Message Audio, Rethinking Race
How shall we be Christian? One important direction our tradition points us . . . repair broken systems that break people. We’ve been saying in this lesson: our broken systems stay broken . . . because they stay invisible. Thus this history section in our lesson...
by Doug Hammack | Oct 24, 2017 | Message Audio, Rethinking Race
History shows us how things got broken — so we know what needs to be fixed. The systems wounding our society are often invisible . . . but they roll along, year after year, consistently advantaging one group and disadvantaging another. To help us see how to...
by Doug Hammack | Oct 17, 2017 | Message Audio, Rethinking Race
When we take a look at the shadowy historical roots of our society’s invisible systems – financial, employment, political, educational, penal – they stop being invisible. Unseen, our systems consistently advantage one group and disadvantage another. This is the...
