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...
by Robin Camu | Jul 1, 2012 | Guest Speaker, Message Audio
by Robin Camu John 15:4-5 (NASB): “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much...
by Doug Hammack | Jun 27, 2012 | Conflict Resolution, Message Audio
This is the second of two lessons on conflict resolution. In this lesson we learn the actual technique for resolving conflict. As you heard in part 1, and will have reinforced here, it has more to do with self-awareness and self-disclosure than resolving conflict....
by Doug Hammack | Jun 24, 2012 | Individual Lesson, Message Audio
Today is campout Sunday. Most of us are out in the woods getting to know each other. I came into town to be present for visitors who show up, and the handful of folks who can’t stand the great outdoors. So today is a review of principles. A bit about how to live...
by Doug Hammack | Jun 20, 2012 | Conflict Resolution, Message Audio
This is the first of a two-part lesson on resolving conflict. I (Doug) spend a lot of time helping people through conflict, and have learned through the years what a valuable, and spiritual thing it is… when we do it well. I have also found that there are a...
by Doug Hammack | Jun 17, 2012 | Guest Speaker, Message Audio
Tripp Fuller, moderator of the Homebrewed Christianity podcast speaks about sin (specifically original sin) and zombies. Augustine is one of the main authors of our current doctrine of original sin. Sin is when a free person makes a bad decision that he/she...
