Advent 1 - Worship Fully

To play the audio, just click the play button above at left.  To download, click the "Advent 1" title in yellow in the box above, which will take you to a site where you can download it as an mp3 file.  If you see no image above or the audio will not play, click here for audio.

We're looking ahead to this Sunday, the first Sunday of the new church year and of the Advent season.  This season is full of expectation, hope, but also anticipation and themes of wonder as we encounter scripture that foretold Christ's coming and also anticipates God coming again to bring in the kingdom and reconcile the whole world.

But what is this season really like for you?
Is it more about the to-do list, or the expectations of all the things we are "supposed" to do and be at this time of year?
Whose message is that?

For this season of Advent, we're joining in on the Advent Conspiracy.  Started a few years ago by a small group of churches, it aims to offer a refreshing alternative to the culture's pressure and stress of the season.  So each week has a theme (see the picture at right) to help us slow down, focus, and open to God working among us. 

So this week our theme is Worship Fully.  What does this mean to you?  What holds you back from worshipping fully?  In this week's podcast, we're discussing what it means to us and how we might challenge each other to be freed from everything else that holds us back and be able to worship fully . . .

Join us for Sunday worship.  You'll notice a couple changes, as we allow some time to slow down, reflect, and also profess our faith and be inspired to use our faith actively in the real world. 

On Wednesdays, at noon we'll continue to offer a brief service of Holy Communion - take it as a gift to pause and relax in worship. 
Wednesdays at 6:45 will be a special worship service for the three Wednesdays in Advent (Dec. 4, 11, 18).  We'll gather in prayer, scripture, discussion, and interactive activities to challenge ourselves and continue to explore our weekly themes. 

Then, tune in here each Thursday as we look to the week ahead and begin exploring together the next theme!

We've got all the answers!

To play the audio, just click the play button above at left.  To download, click the "no pat answers" title in yellow in the box above, which will take you to a site where you can download it as an mp3 file.  If you see no image above or the audio will not play, click here for audio.

It's been an interesting series, of engaging, honest questions. So today we're wrapping it up with a little reflection and looking forward to what's ahead.  So listen in as we reflect together on questions the whole concept of pat answers for questions of faith, questions we've encountered, questions of faith in general, and where we're headed next. 

Which is - into Advent - and we'll be picking up the theme of Advent Conspiracy:

We all want our Christmas to be a lot of things.  Full of joy.  Memories.  Happiness.  Above all, we want it to be about Jesus.  What we don’t want is stress.   Or debt.   Or feeling like we “missed the moment”. Advent Conspiracy is a movement designed to help us all slow down and experience a Christmas worth remembering.  But doing this means doing things a little differently.   A little creatively.

So starting on Thanksgiving day, we'll publish a blog/podcast each Thursday which looks ahead to the following Sunday's theme.  Each week in Advent Conspiracy has a theme -
             Worship Fully (12/1),
             Spend Less (12/8),
             Give More (12/15), and
             Love All (12/22). 
Then Sunday join us for worship - it'll be a little creative - give space for reflection, interactive professions of faith and inspiration to take with you for the week...
Then end your week with a different worship service Wednesday evenings at 6:45 - we'll use some technology, discussion, singing, praying together - and again engaging our weekly theme in a fresh way.

Universal Salvation?

To play the audio, just click the play button above at left.  To download, click the "no pat answers" title in yellow in the box above, which will take you to a site where you can download it as an mp3 file.  If you see no image above or the audio will not play, click here for audio.


The question someone asked us to tackle this week is -

what about universal salvation?

  Is this something that worries you or makes you wonder?  Are you worried for someone specific?  Are you worried about whether in the end you are "right" or whether it matters at all?

How do we interpret verses like John 14:6 "Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."  and John 3:17:  "‘Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.'"
If you're still curious, there's a lot of overlap between this question and one we covered earlier - Is Jesus the only way?

Tune in and listen as we wrestle honestly with this one.

Join us Tuesday at Bowl of Good on Port Republic Rd at 7:00pm.  We can take this topic further or discuss this and other questions of faith...

Prophecy?

To play the audio, just click the play button above at left.  To download, click the "no pat answers" title in yellow in the box above, which will take you to a site where you can download it as an mp3 file.  If you see no image above or the audio will not play, click here for audio.

An icon of the prophet Micah.

People are hungry for answers, hungry to know about the future.  So this week we're tackling the topic of prophecy and prophets - in scripture and in our day.  In scripture God gives revelations and words to the prophets.  We are about to begin a series of readings through Advent which will use themes of prophecy and apocalyptic in speaking of God's coming kingdom and how we wait in anticipation of God's reign.  

But what about prophets today? 

Predictions of the future and apocalyptic themes are popular - we don't have to look too far in movies or books . . .  The Left Behind series has captured a lot of attention and conversation, for one.  Street preachers speak of doomsday - are they prophets? 




Are there modern-day prophets?  Are prophets just opportunists who either after the fact assert "see, I predicted that!" or who use interpretation so loosely (like fortune tellers) that we read into it what we want? 
One documentary, Kumare, tracked this phenomenon that people are so eager to follow someone who says they have the answers.  The filmmaker created a persona of a (guru) prophet out of thin air, as an experiment to see if people would follow him.  And oh, how they followed . . .  He discovered the depth of this basic hunger for answers and acceptance - and then had to tell them he was false.

In any case, we wrestle with these questions in our conversation this week...  Listen in.  Share with a friend.  Join us Tuesdays at 7pm at Bowl of Good on Port Republic Rd for some conversation on these and any other questions of faith.