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...
by Doug Hammack | Feb 12, 2012 | Message Audio, Toxic Hurry
As we’re unpacking Jesus’ parable about people who missed Divine Life because they were in a hurry, we’re looking at several ways our own culture trips us into unexamined hurry. There’s a powerful economic engine vested in making you want...
by Doug Hammack | Feb 5, 2012 | Message Audio, Toxic Hurry
Philosophical pragmatism was hammered out by a bunch of really smart guys in Cambridge, Mass. in the late 1800’s. It has become such a successful, American philosophy that it often bleeds out of the area in which it is so fruitful and effective, into other...
by Doug Hammack | Jan 29, 2012 | Message Audio, Toxic Hurry
Pragmatism: if it works, it must be good. Who would argue with that? However, when we think about making it the central organizing value in our lives (as many Americans do), there are some pretty negative, unintended consequences. If we want to not miss the party...
by Doug Hammack | Jan 22, 2012 | Message Audio, Toxic Hurry
We begin a new lesson today that will take several weeks. We begin with Jesus’ parable about a man who invited a bunch of people to the party of their lives, only to have them miss this golden opportunity because of pragmatic concerns in their lives. Unexamined...
by Doug Hammack | Jan 15, 2012 | Individual Lesson, Message Audio
Last week, we looked at how our different views of God affect the kind of Christianity we live. Today we take a deeper look at the implications for spiritual fervor in the emerging worldview. Have a listen, Doug ...
by Doug Hammack | Jan 8, 2012 | Individual Lesson, Message Audio
Scripture gives us mixed messages about God. On the one hand, it tells us stories of a God who is knowable and known. On the other, it tells us God is beyond our capacity to know, contain, or comprehend. For centuries, we Christians have given our focus to the...
by Doug Hammack | Dec 15, 2011 | Individual Lesson, Message Audio
We’ve had an influx of newcomers this year, so I’m spending a bit of time recounting the things that have made the experience of our community precious to us so we can continue to share those things together as more people become part of us. Have a...
by Doug Hammack | Dec 4, 2011 | Individual Lesson, Message Audio
This is such an important practice. I hope you have a listen. When our view of God changes, our view of prayer changes. Many simply stop praying… stop having a devotional habit. But that’s just not good for our souls. Better is to go back through...
