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...
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 ...
