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...
by Doug Hammack | Jun 3, 2012 | Message Audio, Oneness vs. Twoness
What kind of craziness is that? Jesus said some things that if we’re honest, are absurd. Love your enemy? How is that going to work? In this lesson I’ll suggest it’s only possible if we radically alter our most basic ways of thinking about reality....
by Doug Hammack | May 27, 2012 | Individual Lesson, Message Audio
“The Sacrament of Covenant…” Doesn’t that sound like religious mumbo-jumbo? Sure it does. But before you dismiss it out of hand, have a listen. It’s a stand-alone lesson (holiday weekend) about a mysterious black-box process we go...
by Doug Hammack | May 20, 2012 | Message Audio, The Art of Humility
We finish our look at the ancient practice of confession with the practical how-to’s of making a confession. In this lesson I lay out six steps to making a thorough, fearless inventory of our souls, helping us develop the self-awareness necessary for a healthy...
by Doug Hammack | May 13, 2012 | Message Audio, The Art of Humility
On how to receive a confession. Before we can talk about the self-awareness required of making a confession, we need to understand the context in which we’ll be making that confession. Trust, confidentiality, encouragement, and the affirmation of our basic...
by Doug Hammack | May 6, 2012 | Message Audio, The Art of Humility
We human beings are in a protracted struggle with existential shame, but we have tool to combat that: confession. This week I want to share with you the practicalities of making and receiving a confession. Lest you think this is going to be a magic bullet process that...
by Doug Hammack | Apr 29, 2012 | Message Audio, The Art of Humility
We continue our introduction to the ancient practice of confession; rooted in the ancient virtue of humility. (Next week we’ll get to the practical how-to’s.) We human beings are in a protracted struggle with existential shame, and before we even get to...
by Doug Hammack | Apr 22, 2012 | Message Audio, The Art of Humility
For those present on Sunday, I didn’t use the word “confession” until the last few sentences of the lesson. We have such a limited, skewed, and religiously ritualized idea of what it means, I wanted to tell a story first. I told the community about...
by Doug Hammack | Apr 8, 2012 | Easter, Message Audio
Today, we celebrate this seminal day in our tradition. As always, we take some dimension of our Story, and rehearse it together. Today, we talk about what our early ancestors; those first to experience live-beyond-life. Have a listen, Doug ...
by Doug Hammack | Apr 1, 2012 | A God Big Enough Not to Bore Us, Message Audio, The Art of Humility
We conclude this application of the ancient virtue of humility by thinking about God in a way that has less potential to bore us. As we’ve said, as soon as we reduce the un-reducible God to an image in our minds, we inevitably create a God that is not worthy of...
by Doug Hammack | Mar 25, 2012 | A God Big Enough Not to Bore Us, Message Audio, The Art of Humility
Continuing from last week… Humility is a precursor to awe and wonder which in turn, awaken us to a God too big to be reduced into a mental construct. This, it turns out, is a recipe for a religion that inspires us, surprises us, and draws us into the Way, Truth,...
by Doug Hammack | Mar 18, 2012 | A God Big Enough Not to Bore Us, Message Audio, The Art of Humility
Humility, it turns out, is a precursor to awe and wonder. Awe and wonder, it turns out, awakens us to a God too big to be reduced into a mental construct. This, it turns out, is a recipe for a religion that inspires us, surprises us, and draws us into the Way, Truth,...
by Doug Hammack | Mar 11, 2012 | Message Audio, The Art of Humility
The word “humility” comes from the Latin word “humus,” which means “dirt,” or “earth.” To be humble is to be connected to the earth; to our earthiness and creatureliness. Absent this, we end up carrying a load we cannot...
by Doug Hammack | Mar 4, 2012 | Message Audio, The Art of Humility
If our souls were gardens, we just finished a lesson on weeding them. Today we turn to a lesson on fertilizing them. How do we nurture the true-self? I hesitate to use the word “humility” (as you’ll hear), because of how it militates against our...
by Doug Hammack | Feb 26, 2012 | Message Audio, Toxic Hurry
As we conclude this part of our lesson on toxic hurry, we look again at how our American culture makes us vulnerable to the temptation Jesus warned us about in the parable we’re unpacking. We conclude by a bit of review of these six weeks, but some concluding...
by Doug Hammack | Feb 19, 2012 | Message Audio, Toxic Hurry
Avarice… Impatience… Un-chastity… These words describe spiritual illness. We know that. What we often don’t know is how our own history and society as Americans embeds these character flaws deep in our national psyche. We don’t see...
