by Doug Hammack | Nov 25, 2012 | Individual Lesson, Message Audio
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 ...
by Doug Hammack | Nov 18, 2012 | Message Audio, Thanksgiving
Again… Sometimes we make gratitude a perfunctory practice. Let it not be so! This is big! Transformative! Big! Have a listen, Doug https://media.blubrry.com/north_raleigh_community_church/s3.amazonaws.com/nrccaudio/2012/11-18-12_Sermon.mp3Podcast: Play...
by Doug Hammack | Nov 11, 2012 | Message Audio, Thanksgiving
Sometimes we make gratitude a perfunctory practice. Let it not be so! This is big! Transformative! Big! Have a listen, Doug https://media.blubrry.com/north_raleigh_community_church/s3.amazonaws.com/nrccaudio/2012/11-11-12_Sermon.mp3Podcast: Play in new...
by Doug Hammack | Nov 4, 2012 | Community in a Mid-Sized Church, Message Audio
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 ...
by Doug Hammack | Oct 28, 2012 | Community in a Mid-Sized Church, Message Audio
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...
by Doug Hammack | Oct 22, 2012 | Message Audio, Service
“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:...
by Doug Hammack | Oct 14, 2012 | Message Audio, Service
“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...
by Doug Hammack | Oct 7, 2012 | Community in a Mid-Sized Church, Message Audio
“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...
by Doug Hammack | Sep 30, 2012 | Community in a Mid-Sized Church, Message Audio
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...
by Doug Hammack | Sep 22, 2012 | Community in a Mid-Sized Church, Message Audio
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 –...
by Doug Hammack | Sep 16, 2012 | Community in a Mid-Sized Church, Message Audio
Skill #1: Growth. Stands to reason doesn’t it? If we don’t have a learning and growing posture, we don’t grow into the skills, competencies, and emotional framework to do spiritual friendships well. Look around if you don’t believe me. As a...
by Doug Hammack | Sep 9, 2012 | Community in a Mid-Sized Church, Message Audio
Before the holiday break we were talking about how we, as we are becoming a mid-size church, can keep alive one of our core values – authentic spiritual community. Continuing that lesson today, we’re talking about several related themes; today, some...
by Doug Hammack | Sep 2, 2012 | Individual Lesson, Message Audio
We’re in the middle of a lesson on authentic spiritual community, but it’s Labor Day Sunday and many of us are traveling. So, rather than continue the lesson that’s building one week on the next, I thought I’d just do a stand-alone,...
by Doug Hammack | Aug 19, 2012 | Community in a Mid-Sized Church, Message Audio
In our fiercely independent and individualistic culture, authentic community is tough. Authentic spiritual community… even tougher. Nevertheless, we’re going to try and do it. As a mid-size, American church, we’re going to try and figure out how to...
by Doug Hammack | Aug 12, 2012 | Community in a Mid-Sized Church, Message Audio
Our community has doubled in size in the last three years, with a lot of that growth coming in the last 12 months. Community has always been a value of ours, but now, we leave small church behind us, and are becoming a mid-size church, we have to be very intentional...
by Doug Hammack | Aug 5, 2012 | Message Audio, Oneness vs. Twoness
We continue our look at how our ancient spiritual masters intuited that we are more connected than we believed – to God, to one another, to everything. We continue looking at the implication of that ancient understanding when we fracture our relationships. The...
by Doug Hammack | Jul 29, 2012 | Message Audio, Oneness vs. Twoness
We’ve been talking about the ancient intuition among our spiritual masters that told us we are more connected than we believed – to God, to one another, to everything. If we believe that; if that gets into our heads and hearts, it has profound implications...
by Doug Hammack | Jul 22, 2012 | Message Audio, Oneness vs. Twoness
When our images of God go through an expanding metamorphosis, the kind or praying we used to do when we still had only one image gets challenged. For many of us, the only image of God we had was ‘Our Father Who art in heaven.” When this becomes one way of...
by Doug Hammack | Jul 15, 2012 | Message Audio, Oneness vs. Twoness
The idea of God exists at a deep, deep part of our reality. It is a bedrock of our sense of ultimacy. And this shapes our every action and reaction. There is an axiom we use around the church a lot: “you become like the god you worship.” If yours is a...
by Doug Hammack | Jul 8, 2012 | Message Audio, Oneness vs. Twoness
“Dirt” actually has a derogatory connotation. Perhaps “Ground” would be better… maybe “Ground of All Being.” Yes, that’s better. Historical, even. Listen as we think about Psalm 139 from two vantage points. If we...
