What's Brewing at Morning Blend February-March 2014? One Thousand Gifts!

For the next few months, we'll be taking a look at How Do You Find Joy? {One Thousand Gifts Small Group DVD Study} by Ann Voskamp.

Each session invites participants to explore further the transformative spiritual discipline of chronicling gifts and provides a Scripture, prayer, and between-session activities inviting you to go deeper into the concept of grace.

“How do we find joy,” Ann Voskamp wondered, “in the midst of deadlines, debt, drama, and daily duties?” When your days are filled with the mundane, disappointment, or even darkness, how can you break the bondage of self-hatred and fear that has white-knuckle control on your life and instead embrace the everyday blessings that will immerse you in Christ’s fullness? How can you live your life with a heart overflowing with delight?

For more information, including the first session of the study, see Ann Voskamp's website: A Holy Experience.

You can listen to/watch more of Ann Voskamp on her youtube channel: Ann Voskamp - YouTube. 

Preparing for Discussion - Church: An Imperfect Family

This week's video challenged us to think about why we go to church and what the church really is. Naturally then, the first question to ask ourselves is why do we go to church? Why do YOU go to church? Have you had periods of time in your life when you have chosen not to attend church? Why or why not? Where do your ideas of what church is and what it should or shouldn't be come from?

A 2007 gallup survey gives us some interesting information about church attendance in the United States. Check it out here: Just Why Do Americans Attend Church?

There is a strong relationship between age and church attendance, with older Americans much more likely to attend than younger Americans. There is a strong gender effect, with women of all ages more likely than men to attend. There are region-specific effects, with residents of Southern states and of Utah much more likely to attend than New England or West Coast residents. There is a race effect, with black Americans much more likely to attend church services on average than white Americans. And there is an effect within specific religious denominations, with members of evangelical non-Catholic Christian denominations and Mormons more likely to attend than those who identify with traditional mainline Protestant denominations.

Another interesting article on church attendance can be found here: Here is the Church, Here is the Steeple, Open the Doors and... This article is cited in the facilitator guide and references the nursery rhyme on p111 of the journal book.

Atheists and agnostics, Jews and Mormons are among the highest-scoring groups on a new survey of religious knowledge, outperforming evangelical Protestants, mainline Protestants and Catholics on questions about the core teachings, history and leading figures of major world religions.

How do you feel about Bruce Reyes-Chow's statement on page 105 of the journal book, " Whether new to the church, a longtime member, or even the pastor - there are times when not being part of a church seems like the best option for expressing and living one's faith." Does that ring true for you?

Pages 104 & 105 of the journal book ask us to write on both sides of a scale the pros and cons of attending church. Take some time to write those things down for yourself.

How does Hebrews 10:23-31 speak to our need to meet together in community? What is the role of church community, according to this passage? Why does the author encourage people to continue meeting together?

Further explore WHAT the church is intended to be using these passages:
1 Corinthians 12:1-11
1 Corinthians 14: 1-5, 26
Ephesians 4:11-16

How do church buildings contribute to how we view the church? Look at the drawings on pages 110-111 of the journal book of different types of church buildings? How does the building contribute to how we understand church? What does it communicate about who is welcome, who has authority, and what role the church plays in the community?  For extra credit, imagine how you would design a church building! :) What would be different and what would be the same as your current church building?

Bruce Reyes-Chow mentions a number of metaphors for the church: social club, classroom, sporting event, theater, hospital... Why are the pros and cons of each metaphor? Look up these scriptures for more metaphors (listed on p111of the journal):

1 Corinthians 12:12-27
John 15:5
Ephesians 5:25-27
Matthew 18:20
Ephesians 2:17-22

What metaphors appeal to you most? What about church as family? In what ways does the church resemble family for you? Has the church been a place of love and support? Of mess and dysfunction? Both? What would your ideal church family look like (see p112 of the journal book)?

It has been said that you can choose your friends but you can't choose your family? In what ways does this apply to church as family? Do you think it ought to apply more? We do have the ability to choose our church, but that seems to have led to a lot of division within the church. It is said that there are over 41,000 Christian denominations around the world (wikipedia). What if we treated church more like family? How would that change things?

Who is Bruce Reyes-Chow?

Bruce Reyes-Chow is the presenter of the 7th and final session of Animate: Faith, entitled "Church: An Imperfect Family."

Bruce was the founding pastor of Mission Bay Community Church, San Francisco, and was the moderator of the 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA). He now earns his keep as a writer, speaker, and consultant/coach with the Center for Progressive Renewal.

He is the author of the eBook, The Definitive-ish Guide for Using Social Media in the Church and "But I don’t see you as Asian": Curating Conversations about Race.

Five fast facts

1. Lives in San Francisco and has three daughters
2. Started an online church in 2012
3. Contributes to Patheos and The Huffington Post
4. Rides a motorcycle
5. Has a BA in Asian American Studies, sociology, and religion from San Francisco State University, and an MDiv from San Francisco Theological Seminary

(Bio from: http://wearesparkhouse.org/adults/animate/faith/voices/bruce/)

See Bruce Reyes-Chow's own website here: http://www.reyes-chow.com/

Preparing for Discussion - Bible: A Book Like No Other

Bible: A Book Like No Other

·         Let’s take a look at what the Bible, itself, tells us about the Word of God. What adjectives are used to describe scripture in these passages?

o   Psalm 119:103-105

o   Isaiah 40:8-9

o   Hebrews 4:12

o   2 Timothy 3:16-17

·         What has been your experience of Scripture reading, both personally and in church? Lauren Winner describes the way that her church community reads the Bible ove rand over again, and she couldn’t figure out why. I’m not sure that this has actually been my experience of church? Has it been your experience that the church reads the Bible over and over again? Have you ever read the Bible all the way through? 

·         Page 94 in the journal book references Lauren’s experience of reading scripture in locations other than church or home. Have you ever done this? Did it change how you thought of that passage of scripture to read it in a new place?

·         If you have not ever had that experience of “dislocated” reading, where might you consider taking your Bible to read it? What passages might you choose for this new location?

·         Page 95 of the journal book pictures an egg, like the one Lauren Winner speaks of in the video. If you were to write a scripture passage on a egg, symbolically “injesting” that scripture, what passage or verse would you choose? What scriptures are that meaningful to you?

·         Have you had powerful experiences with scripture, experiences that seem to move it our of the realm of being just an ordinary book? On pages 96-97 of the journal book, we see the Thomas Merton quote from the video: “By reading the scriptures I am so renewed that all nature seems renewed around me and with me. The sky seems to be a pure, a cooler blue, the trees a deeper green. The whole world is charged with the glory of God and I feel fire and music under my feet. ” 

·         Lauren Winner asks, “So, is the sky bluer?” Do we have that experience of scripture? Why or why not?

·         Pages 92-93 of the journal book suggest some of the baggage that might come with scripture for people that might help answer the question above. Scriptures have been used “as a word of hope, a warning sign, a weapon, and a status symbol,”  both to “liberate and oppress.”  When have you seen scripture used in these ways? 

·         How might we go about our lives “singing” the scriptures, as suggested in the video? How do we make the words of God part of our daily lives and who we are? How might it change us to do that?

When Truisms Are True

This New York Times article takes an interesting look at how our experience of something changes depending on our surroundings, just as Lauren Winner suggests that our understanding of scripture might be changed or challenged by reading in a new location. Check it out:

When Truisms Are True

Interview with Lauren Winner

For anyone who wants to see more of Lauren Winner and what she's all about:

Bible: A Book Like No Other

Lauren Winner is the presenter of the 6th session of Animate: Faith, entitled "Bible: A Book Like No Other."

Lauren broke onto the Christian scene with her 2002 book, Girl Meets God, in which she chronicles her conversion first to Orthodox Judaism, then to Christianity. She is an assistant professor of Christian spirituality at Duke Divinity School, and a priest associate at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Durham, North Carolina.

She has appeared on PBS’s Religion & Ethics Newsweekly and has written for The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post Book World, Publishers Weekly, Books and Culture, and Christianity Today.

Five fast facts

1. Lives in Durham, North Carolina
2. Can usually be found with a novel in hand
3. Owns 30 pairs of cat-eye glasses
4. Fellow at the Institute of Sacred Music at Yale University
5. Has a BA from Columbia University, an MPhil from Cambridge University, an MDiv from Duke Divinity School, and a PhD in history from Columbia University

(Bio from: http://wearesparkhouse.org/adults/animate/faith/voices/lauren/)

Visit Lauren Winner's own website here: http://laurenwinner.net/

Preparing for Discussion - Cross: Where God Is

There's no intro necessary for the 5th speaker of the Animate: Faith series. We met Nadia Bolz-Weber already when we studied Animate: Bible. If you missed the post, check it out here: Who is Nadia Bolz-Weber? Check out more info about her here: Interview, Blog & Sermon Links. 

In the Animate: Faith series, Bolz-Weber presents the session entitled, "Cross: Where God Is." In this session we are challenged to think about what the cross really symbolizes, in contrast with the human messages and explanations we may have traditionally used to understand the cross.

What is your experience with various representations of the cross? Is there a cross in the room with you right now? Do you wear a cross? How do you feel about the way the cross is used in pop culture? If you have the journal book, take a look at page 75, and answer the question about which crosses you find appealing & which you don't.

Then flip over to pages 76 & 77 in the journal and take a look at the 4 views of the cross (atonement theories) presented there. For more information on each of those interpretations (and a few others), check out the following link:

Atonement of Christ

For reference, these are the theories listed in the journal book along with their corresponding "titles" in the Atonement article (linked above) and the person most responsible for developing that theory:

• Ransom Theory - held by many of the early church leaders, further developed by Gustav Aulen, Origen of Alexandria and Gregory of Nissa
• Moral Lesson/Moral-Example/Moral-Influence - Peter Abelard
• Substitution/Scapegoat/Satisfaction/Commercial - Anselm of Canterbury
• Transformation/Recapitulation - Irenaeus

Do you see the differences in these views of atonement? Do you see the differences and similarities between these perspectives and that of Nadia Bolz-Weber?

It seems to me that Bolz-Weber is more interested in making a point about the ways in which we put our human characteristics and understandings on God than in the exact correct interpretation of atonement (though the way we understand the cross changes how we view God).

Pages 78 & 79 of the journal book depict a movie projector and a screen, and we are left a blank space on the screen to write about the human images we project onto God. What "images," both positive and negative, do you see people (including yourself) projecting onto God? Bolz-Weber talks about the "Angry Daddy" image of God and the "Cigar Chomping Loan Shark" image of God. What are some others?

The facilitator guide invites us to explore further the idea of an angry God. Is God ever angry? What kinds of things do/should make God angry?  What is the difference between God's anger at the injustices of the world and God's anger toward individual people? How do God's love and God's anger fit together? Can we be satisfied with the idea of God sending Jesus to the cross to mediate his anger toward humanity?

Find scriptural support for both God's wrath/anger and God's love.

What images or beliefs about God have been used by Christian people to justify particular events, beliefs and actions? How have these ideas contributed to both the positive and negative actions of Christian people over time?

Pages 80 & 81 of the journal book encourage us to think about "our own twisted roads of faith" and the "symbols and ideas that become sacred to us." We are asked to draw our own icons and symbols into the picture on page 80 and to add our own life events that have shaped our faith and our "image of God" to the road on page 81. Think about where your ideas have come from, how they have developed over time, and what it might mean to challenge some of those long-held beliefs and ideas.

For an interesting debate on roadside memorials, such as the one drawn in the journal book on page 80, check out this forum hosted by the New York Times:

Should Roadside Memorials Be Banned?

After a pretty thorough exploration of our own thoughts and beliefs, of what scripture has to say about who God is, and of the various schools of thought on atonement, consider the following scriptures in a discussion of what it really means to live a "cruciform"  life?

• 1 Corinthians 1:18-21
• 2 Corinthians 4:5-12
• Galatians 2:15-21
• Philippians 2:1-8
• Luke 9:18-26 

Atheist Churches

Here's a link to the article Beth mentioned about atheist churches:

Athiest 'Mega-Churches' Take Root in the US, World

During the service, attendees stomped their feet, clapped their hands and cheered as Jones and Evans led the group through rousing renditions of "Lean on Me," "Here Comes the Sun" and other hits that took the place of gospel songs. Congregants dissolved into laughter at a get-to-know-you game that involved clapping and slapping the hands of the person next to them and applauded as members of the audience spoke about community service projects they had started in LA.

At the end, volunteers passed cardboard boxes for donations as attendees mingled over coffee and pastries and children played on the floor.