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Action Academy | Replace The Job You Hate With A Life You Love
1 How To Replace A $100,000+ Salary Within 6 MONTHS Through Buying A Small Business w/ Alex Kamenca & Carley Mitus 57:50
Alex (@alex_kamenca) and Carley (@carleymitus) are both members of our Action Academy Community that purchased TWO small businesses last thursday! Want To Quit Your Job In The Next 6-18 Months Through Buying Commercial Real Estate & Small Businesses? 👔🏝️ Check Out Our Action Academy Community Schedule A Free 15 Minute Coaching Call With Our Team Here To Get "Unstuck"! Check Out Our Bestselling Book : From Passive To Passionate : How To Quit Your Job - Grow Your Wealth - And Turn Your Passions Into Profits Want A Free $100k+ Side Hustle Guide ? Follow Me As I Travel & Build: IG @brianluebben ActionAcademy.com…
Dr. James Hawkins:: EFT and Racism
Manage episode 267655558 series 2362156
Contenuto fornito da Cascade Church Portland. Tutti i contenuti dei podcast, inclusi episodi, grafica e descrizioni dei podcast, vengono caricati e forniti direttamente da Cascade Church Portland o dal partner della piattaforma podcast. Se ritieni che qualcuno stia utilizzando la tua opera protetta da copyright senza la tua autorizzazione, puoi seguire la procedura descritta qui https://it.player.fm/legal.
Dr. James Hawkins brings a fascinating perspective at the intersection of emotionally focused therapy and racism.
100 episodi
Manage episode 267655558 series 2362156
Contenuto fornito da Cascade Church Portland. Tutti i contenuti dei podcast, inclusi episodi, grafica e descrizioni dei podcast, vengono caricati e forniti direttamente da Cascade Church Portland o dal partner della piattaforma podcast. Se ritieni che qualcuno stia utilizzando la tua opera protetta da copyright senza la tua autorizzazione, puoi seguire la procedura descritta qui https://it.player.fm/legal.
Dr. James Hawkins brings a fascinating perspective at the intersection of emotionally focused therapy and racism.
100 episodi
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×This is age appropriate theology specifically written for Pre-K kids that is fun and engaging while learning about Jesus. At the end, you will hear Sarah ask a line that is intentionally said at the end of every kids lesson at Cascade, "using your skill of curiosity, what are some questions you have from the story?" We hope this invites you to curiosity and wonder with your kiddo around the Christmas story.…
This is age appropriate theology specifically written for Pre-K kids that is fun and engaging while learning about Jesus. At the end, you will hear Sarah ask a line that is intentionally said at the end of every kids lesson at Cascade, "using your skill of curiosity, what are some questions you have from the story?" We hope this invites you to curiosity and wonder with your kiddo around the Christmas story.…
This is age appropriate theology specifically written for Pre-K kids that is fun and engaging while learning about Jesus. At the end, you will hear Sarah ask a line that is intentionally said at the end of every kids lesson at Cascade, "using your skill of curiosity, what are some questions you have from the story?" We hope this invites you to curiosity and wonder with your kiddo around the Christmas story.…
This is age appropriate theology specifically written for Pre-K kids that is fun and engaging while learning about Jesus. At the end, you will hear Sarah ask a line that is intentionally said at the end of every kids lesson at Cascade, "using your skill of curiosity, what are some questions you have from the story?" We hope this invites you to curiosity and wonder with your kiddo around the Christmas story.…
This is age appropriate theology specifically written for Pre-K kids that is fun and engaging while learning about Jesus. At the end, you will hear Sarah ask a line that is intentionally said at the end of every kids lesson at Cascade, "using your skill of curiosity, what are some questions you have from the story?" We hope this invites you to curiosity and wonder with your kiddo around the Christmas story.…
Kurt Kroon talks through Nehemiah 2 and what we do with criticism. Do we internalize or reject it? What tools do you use to discern your areas of growth?
Kurt Kroon introduces the book of Nehemiah and talks about rebuilding in deconstructed spaces and what we do with power and privilege.
Kurt Kroon shares about pep rallies, Shamrock Runs and the ever present cycle of death and resurrection pulling us into the present.
This Sunday we hear from Harriet Congdon, Andrew Chang and Kendra Wenzel on their experiences with polarization and what has been helpful and harmful in that process.
1 Theological Polarization 1:06:06
1:06:06
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1:06:06Sarah Swartzendruber shares about a recent social media experience dealing with theology on her Parenting After Deconstruction Instagram page and how she processed it.
Chelsea Gerlach shares some incredibly practical next steps for engaging in polarizing conversations. In this conversation Chelsea references Loretta Ross, and you can find her work here
Kurt Kroon shares on the story of Jonah about the tendencies we have to idealize and demonize folks as a means of feeling safe and God's movement to reconcile all people.
Kurt Kroon shares about Paul, Colossians 2 and how Christ moves us to end gatekeeping.
Leroy Barber joins us to share about the US's history of reparations and how the scriptures talk about making repairs.
This Sunday Kurt Kroon interviews Alvin Hayes about the link he sees in the Civil Rights movement and Jesus Christ.
Kurt Kroon looks at Luke 8 and the parable of the sower within the context of how we interpret parables today and some of the context around what Jesus in his context.
Kurt Kroon discusses wisdom and how Jesus and John the Baptist are bringing this to us via radical inclusion through very different methods.
On this Sunday Kurt Kroon shared about how Jesus negotiates the sacredness of who each person is and the potential of who we can become. This comes with a look at Luke 13:11-17 and the healing of a woman in the synagogue on the sabbath.
Shelby Hanson leads us in a new message series that can give us fresh eyes on the parable structure and make unfamiliar what we've made familiar.
On Sunday January 29th Kurt Kroon talked about different lenses for viewing the Scriptures and how taking experiences from non-dominant folks and interpreting them through a dominant worldview can fundamentally change the message.
Chelsea Gerlach shares a message about the planet, our relationship with it and how we hear the voice of God to move towards the healing of the land and ourselves.
Kurt Kroon takes a look at comparisons between the story of Jesus birth and the origin stories of Horus, Romulus and Remus, Alexander the Great, and Augustus Caesar. We 'll see what the similarities and differences tell us.
Sarah Swartzendruber talks through the role of grief in Mary's song both as a look forward to the life of Jesus and a reflection after the death of Jesus.
Kurt Kroon talks through Luke 1:46-55 and the impact of Power Dynamics.
Kurt Kroon talks about how our interpretation of Ephesians 6:10-17 is impacted by living in the world's largest military country and how that compares to the military factors in Paul's day.
Harriet Congdon discusses the history and harm created by Ephesians 5:21-6:9, while suggesting various lenses for liberative interpretation.
Kurt Kroon talks through sexuality, language and greed and the ways those topics can be shared for shame/oppression or freedom/liberation.
Kurt Kroon talks through the Paul's problematic "othering" language and how we can call one another forward to growth and liberation.
Leroy Barber, Sarah Swartzendruber and Kurt Kroon discuss the inherent problems with Christian calls for unity in a post-election climate.
Insil Kang closes our Acts series with an intersectional look at Paul and how that informs the good news of Jesus.
A message from Pastor Sarah Swartzendruber on Acts 19 and the way money and the church interact.
A message from Michelle Lang Raymond on Acts 17.
A message from Leroy Barber on Lydia's table and the foundations of the church from Acts 16.
Jason Fileta is with us to talk about Acts 13 and how people seeking after God can be led astray by letting their fear grab after power.
Pastor Sunia Gibbs shares with us a look at Acts 10 and what we can learn about human tendency to call assimilation inclusion and its consequences.
This week we take a look at Acts 3 and how history can connect us to ourselves and those around us.
We take a look at Acts 2 and how American individualism shapes our view of church community.
Here's an introduction to the book of Acts and why we're taking a look at it in this particular moment in history.
1 Spiral Dynamics:: A Chat with Mike McHargue 1:07:57
1:07:57
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1:07:57Kurt has a chat with Mike McHargue about how Spiral Dynamics functions in our world today.
This week we take the Spiral Dynamics model and look at what healthy and unhealthy relationships to all of the stages can look like.
This week we go into Spiral Dynamics, which is an emergent cyclical theory of adult human development (I know!). Take a listen as we hope to add this system to our collective tool bags in the hopes of growing in compassion, empathy and communication with people around us.
Dr. James Hawkins brings a fascinating perspective at the intersection of emotionally focused therapy and racism.
One of the best sermons I have ever heard. Effortless weaving together of the Biblical narrative and what is happening in our world right now. Give it multiple listens to let it all soak in.
in the previous message Krispin Mayfield shared on attachment theory and phew(!!) it was good. Getting curious about the tactics we employ to feel connected to the people closest to us and how they are doing the same thing can be a game changer. We can start making choices instead of just reacting when we tune in to the frequency of connecting to others. And how this relates to the narratives we've been handed about connecting to God? Shoot dang. In this message Krispin builds on previous themes of attachment strategies to talk about yield states, self-evaluation and what communion with God and others can look like.…
For my first job at a church I worked at a nationally registered historical place . I loved to joke that I was part-time youth director and part-time tour guide. People would stop by to check out a church building built in the 1860's and I would walk them through the building and share some of the stories that I had collected over the years. Every building tells a story. It tells a story of when and how it was built. It tells a story about who labored to build it and who funded the building. It tells a story of design trends of the time and available resources for its construction. We tell the stories of the past to remember where we came from and how it informs where we're heading. This Sunday we're going to be sharing the story of Cascade. The places we've come from and where we hope we'll be in the future. While we've held consistent values as a church, how we've demonstrated those values has evolved in really beautiful ways over the past 4 + years. I hope you enjoy hearing from the folks on our board, from Sarah and me as co-pastors as we imagine what our future can be.…
Have you ever partaken in a meal that felt like holy space? Great conversations, a feeling of warmth and the abundance of options. For some, maybe that’s a family dinner, others that’s at fun restaurant in Portland. After my hip surgery, I was given a Sunday off and was determined to participate in Portland’s brunch scene after working most Sundays of my adult life. Let me tell you, it did not disappoint. We waited in a long line that day at Jam with a big group of friends, drinking unlimited coffee which was necessary for those of us figuring out pain killers for the first time to stay awake, and attempting to navigate with my crutches. I found it thrilling being apart of what most people have a choice to do on a Sunday and declared it one of my favorite Sundays ever. The excitement, laughter and fun if that day are forever my scene of what the last supper thought it would be until pivotal statements Jesus makes about a betrayal and his presence no longer being possible. I’ve always wondered if anyone started stress eating or asked for more wine in the tension of the moment. Did anyone cry? Did anyone suddenly not feel hungry at all or desire to take a nap in their grief and confusion? It’s this moment that we are talking abut this week as we look at Mark 14 and the first supper. No, it’s not lent, and it does feel a bit like we just got to the birth story as Christmas lights are still on our house as I write this (thanks Oregon rain). But the last supper is the story that much of our church history creates denominational decisions over who can or cannot take communion, when it’s the appropriate time and what to even do with the bread once you have taken it. For some, communion is a routine, a ritual, even a holy experience. For others, it’s just something we do.…
Confession:: If I walk into a room where I just saw someone and they're no longer there, I will make a rapture joke. It's as involuntary as breathing or having my heart beat. Growing up it wasn't uncommon to see "In Case of Rapture This Car Will be Unmanned" bumper stickers and to see copies of the Left Behind book series in homes. Images of piles of clothes on the ground from a rapture are locked in my brain from TV, movies or book illustrations (which begs some questions. Do we keep jewelry but not clothing? What about fillings? What's the policy on dental work staying or going?). This obsession about the end of the world has created a complicated relationship with the Bible. We've been taught that when we read apocalyptic passages in the Bible (which is a literary form common to the ancient world) they are really clues for how the world is going to end. If we interpret the clues correctly than we will have a marked advantage over every other human being when the world really does come to the end. The Bible becomes less of a text about the heart of God and humanity, and more of a book of riddles to be solved (ie: Revelation) In our series on Mark we reach chapter 13, which is very much apocalyptic literature. We're going to look at the cultural impact of interpreting these writings as a rapture event, walk through the history of rapture-esque readings of the Bible (hint:: not as ancient as you might expect) and what these passages could really be talking about.…
Ever get a text from a friend about seeing a famous person or being at a place you share a mutual love for? My favorite response is "Pics or it Didn't Happen". I love the compounding aspect of disbelief. By asking for visual proof I'm agreeing that the thing they're seeing or doing is amazing. It feels playful and linked to my friend's experience. The other side of that coin is that it can be construed as dismissive. That I fundamentally don't believe them and have placed a burden of proof on them to convince me that they're not a liar. I wonder what the first century equivalent of this would have been? If you had been present to a miracle of Jesus would you have been met with a "Scribal Account or it Didn't Happen" from your friends? Would you have been believed or doubted and would it even matter? One of the fallacies that influences us is the "happily ever after" nature of our modern storytelling. We can believe that we are one undeniably miraculous event away from being a true believer in God. I understand and validate the appeal of having a personal experience beyond just a learned experience, but what if you play that scenario out over decades? Would you be compelled by a 70-80 year old's miraculous encounter in their 30's? I think it would make me sad for the 40-50 years of responding to a singular event. I'm more drawn to individuals with vibrant experiences that aren't just in the rearview, but are tied to this present moment. I think there's something that feels true about their engaged life here and now that isn't centered in the past, no matter how incredible it was. If we can read the stories of Jesus while understanding the the truth of the narrative isn't centered on proving or disproving that these events, I believe it would better inform this present moment.…
Kurt Kroon preaches on Mark 7 and the story of the disciples eating without ceremonially cleansing their hands.
Danielle Mayfield shares from Mark 5 and the ways that Jesus re-centers the narrative of who's lives matter on those who have been marginalized and excluded from public spheres.
This Sunday we're going to be talking about the Parable of the Sower, or as I knew it as a youth "AM I GOOD SOIL WILL I DIE TONIGHT OH PLEASE DONT LET ME SUFFER FOR ETERNITY". Ok,maybe that was a little bit dramatic, but the parable really did fill me with a low level of anxiety. The story Jesus tells is about someone throwing out seed on soil and only one particular patch of soil actually goes on to flourish while much of it never gets started or quickly dies. I was really interested in discovering how I could be good soil and how I could maintain my place in the "Good Soil Society". The ultimate Christian aim in the world I grew up in was to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. This is beautiful in so many ways and is still a reason we take the bread individually when we do communion at Cascade. There's a very personal aspect to our faith journey. One area of faith that can be ignored in that world is the communal nature of faith. How does my understanding of Christianity help me understand my place in this world and relationally to other people? I'm starting to explore Jesus and Christianity in relationship to the social, corporate and political structures of our current context and of Jesus' context. What if there are structures in this world that serve as a kind of soil that we often don't choose but currently find ourselves in? Can these systems choke out a spiritual life that is all around us? Could God's design of the peaceful thriving of all people be compromised in certain systems in relationship to others? I think about the spirituality many of us observed in the film "Harriet" this past week about Harriet Tubman. How did being a slaveowner impact your understanding of Christ vs your understanding as a slave? Maybe this rotates the conversation to include personal relationship with Christ as well as illuminating the cultural and societal impacts we're sitting in every day.…
Just the other day I had a friend reference the story of Peter walking on water to Jesus. I'm very familiar with the story. I grew up with images of a sinking Peter in the waves and a gracious Jesus reaching out a hand to lift him up. I remember dreaming of the ability to walk on water and hearing people snidely say, "So and So thinks they walk on water." But as I return to the story I'm struck with how beautifully constructed it is. There's the unexpected return of Jesus in a miraculous way. There's a devoted follower of Jesus who believes that this kind of miracle could be one of participation and not just observation. There's a thrill of joining Jesus and then failure when the insanity of the moment sinks in (*fist pump* - nailed it). The story operates as a striking metaphor for so many aspects of faith, doubt, courage, success and failure. How do we respond when hope joins us in a moment of struggle? Do we stand in awe or join in? Where are the places we're sure we don't belong? How can we be searching for proof we don't belong and allow that to sabotage us? This story isn't one isolated example of the power of the Biblical narrative to help us reinterpret the world around us. There are so many stories that help us see God and ourselves in a new light. This impact can be lost if we spend all our time laboring over the events as either being literally true or literally false. It can strip the power from the narrative so fully that it's no longer worth engaging. I hope you've been with us through this series and I hope the topic of Biblio-Idolatry has been one that offers freedom. This message finishes up with Harriet Congdon. I really hope you find a hand offered to pull you from a sinking relationship to the Bible to one of engagement and hope.…
Talk a listen to this incredible message from Insil Kang as she draws the most graceful Bible and Keanu Reeves metaphor ever constructed.
In my late high school and early college years I listened to one album more than any other album in all the years before and since. "Through Being Cool" by Saves the Day was on constant rotation day and night. 33 minutes and 22 seconds making up 12 songs of pure emo-punk perfection. I was sure it was the greatest feat of musicianship and lyrical content ever created. What kind of transcendent lyrical content am I talking about? How about; "And my spleen is dripping from my pants." If you're not sold by that little nugget, I'm not sure what you're doing with your life. If that album came out today exactly as it was back in 1999 would it still be the monolith of music in my life? Very doubtful. It's hard to be as angsty and driven by frustrated heartbrokenness when you have a mortgage, a minivan and you're coaching 6-7 year old soccer. The reason that album holds such a special place in my life is due to it's timing and what I was experiencing. I'm not a static institution that remains unchanged throughout life. The ability of different kinds of art to deeply connect with us changes as we change. Often we identify pieces of art for their transcendence without ever acknowledging half of the equation. We talk about the book, film, music or painting for all that it possesses without ever acknowledging that thing that it is being processed through. Us. This message continues to go through our Biblio-Idolatry message series led by Scott Erickson. He helps us uncover half of the equation of the Bible's impact by posing the question, what do you want from the Bible? I hope you enjoy! (And yes, I did listen to "Through Being Cool" again while writing this)…
When we attempt to make an argument one of the best strategies involves pointing out historical evidence to support your claims. If I can find individuals or large groups of people who've "successfully" negotiated the world operating with an assumption I hold true, then my belief can be justified. And this makes sense when you think of humans as pack animals. Individual thoughts, actions or behaviors are inherently dangerous because that differentiation can threaten your survival. Wolves can easily take out one lone sheep, but a flock of sheep is much more difficult to attack. This is why we dress, talk, and consume media in alignment with some number of people who currently or have previously existed. There can certainly be change in people's behaviors, but only when enough people move together to create it. What makes this concept interesting in Biblical interpretation is that 2,000 years has created millions of ways to view the various parts of the Bible and what it is saying. Now, that statement probably doesn't feel true because people like to talk about the Bible with only one dominant lens of interpretation. When we grow up in one Biblical culture it doesn't even feel like a lens, but rather the Bible. We want to zoom out of our last couple hundred years to see the ways that the Bible has been interpreted historically. The hope is that experiencing a diversity of Biblical lenses can give us all permission to acknowledge the lens we're using at any given moment. When we gain awareness of how we've interpreted the Bible it gains a new voice that it hasn't been able to have before.…
When I hear "The Bible says.." my ears immediately perk. That's a pretty lofty claim regarding 66 books covering a 1,600 year span originating 3,500 years ago. The Bible is the key sacred text of Christians, so it makes sense that there would be a lot of emotion and authority wrapped into it. Culturally, when we try and make a point or win an argument we often go to the highest shelves of language and thought. Skipped breakfast? You're starving. Woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't fall back asleep? You're dead. Someone cut you off in traffic? You'll kill them. Step in gum? The worst. Every conversation is prone to extremism to make a point, but all of this extremism takes a toll on our relationship with the things we place at the peak. Our relationship with America gets strained when all political disagreements end with "Love it or Leave it." Our relationship with Justice gets strained when all issues are this age's holocaust. And our relationship with Faith gets strained when everything gets litigated through various interpretations of the Bible. We want to explore our relationship with the Bible and the ways that we've elevated it beyond God.…
Prophets and the prophetic voice exist throughout the entirety of the Bible. There are prophets throughout the First Testament like Jonah, Elijah, Jeremiah, Amos and Hosea. Many of them got full books named after them. The New Testament has the prophetic voice of John the Baptist, Paul, John and Jesus Christ. The nature of prophets and has become a bit co-opted today to mean the people who are putting forward an ideology that we agree with. Across political and religious lines people would point to very different individuals as prophets of truth. But one of the key roles of prophets throughout the Bible isn't just to call out injustice, but to remind the people how these injustices are the result of forgetting who we are. War, violence, pollution, exclusion and financial inequity are the product of losing sight of who we are and how we best operate in relationship with one another. The prophet holds up a mirror to illustrate the cost of participating in systems that benefit some at the expense of others. So, who are our prophets today and what are the ways that we try and silence them? What are areas of reminding others who they that we're avoiding because of the potential costs? When the tool of shame grows dull, the work of holding up a mirror to remind people of who they are is even more important. And this action begs participation that moves beyond simple critique.…
For the past 6 weeks our church has looked at the topics of fear, grief & sadness and shame. The summer of bummer. Ok, I don't think those emotions are a bummer, but it definitely causes us to access a place that many of us put effort towards avoiding. And these are conversations that are desperately needed in the church, because they aren't likely to come up otherwise in our culture. But this Sunday we're going to be exploring the tension we hold in the midst of tough emotions. We're going to be looking at the nature of hope. Hope is a popular word in the Christian world, and for good reason. The Jesus narrative is all about hope in the face of suffering and injustice. That the difficulty of the current situation is not the forever reality. It was this hope that inspired the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and is resonant throughout his "I Have a Dream" speech. What we want to explore is the complexity of hope and how to hold it in tension instead of a using it to avoid hard times. Hope is never meant to mask pain, but rather give us the strength to be in the pain. Take a listen to a phenomenal woman willing to share her story of pain and the promise of hope she's been able to live into. I loved this conversation with Lisa Schmidt (aka The Sober Hipster)…
One of the most destructive aspects of shame is it's baked-in certainty. Shame can feel like a really squishy and uncertain emotion, but it has such a predictable outcome for every person who runs across it. Some aspect of your being isn't enough. You don't have enough intelligence. You don't have enough training. You don't have enough patience. You don't have enough love. You don't have enough discipline. You don't have enough physical strength. Most of us structure our lives in such a way that we never have to face the areas of our lives that we don't feel "enough" in. We don't speak or sing in public. We don't do games. We don't engage in conversations outside of our area of expertise. We don't speak up in our area of expertise in case we're exposed for not being expert "enough". "Enough" is a myth. And when shame enters the picture "enough" always moves just out of reach to expose us for what we don't have. So what if we heard the voice of God celebrating what we are instead of what we aren't? What if we felt a swell of joy for the way our brains, bodies and souls did operate when we faced the areas we don't thrive in? The hope in acknowledging and releasing that repetitive voice of shame pointing to our "not enough-ness" is that we can enjoy and celebrate what is. On the other side of everything you're not is something that you are. Your unique mix of skills, gift, insights and perspectives is desperately needed in this world and facing our shame can help allow that awesomeness flow more freely. To let the voice of shame paralyze those amazing gifts would be like a fish not swimming because it couldn't walk around on the land.…
I have a love/hate relationship with small talk. I know that it's pretty popular to despise small talk, but I can't get fully on board with that movement. I've had too many great conversations and connections come from chatting about work, the weather and the location of people's current or former home to completely write it off. I'm also aware that it can actually inhibit true connection. Sometimes it's just a swirl of information swapping and never gets to anything people are passionate about. One of my least favorite aspects of small talk is when it comes to vocation. I never quite know how to ask the question. 1. I never want to assume that people are currently employed somewhere. It can deeply sting to have your identity reduced to employment and asking it as a first question can do just that. 2. There is this strange dynamic in the U.S. where we assume that you need to be passionate about what you do for work. In small talk I'm trying to discover the other person's passion and talk about work can sometimes do the opposite. This can expose a strange guilt in people that they've done something wrong by not earning money via their greatest passion. 3. I don't want to keep reinforcing the narrative that people's value is found in what they do for work. If this is consistently one of the first things we ask each other, we are saying that what we do for work is one of the most important aspects of our identities. One of the places that this becomes most evident is in the crisis of identity that people feel in changing jobs, losing jobs or being without jobs that financially compensate us. We've wrapped up our identity in our jobs, which has about as much to do with our identity as our clothing or vehicle choices. They are all areas where our identity can find expression, but they are definitely not to be confused with our identities. This message is a transition in our Liturgical Flow message series from Grief & Sadness to Release of Shame. We have the great privilege of hearing from Lindsay and Koes Bong, who share so much with us about seeing and letting the shame within us go.…
As human beings we sure are funny about routine. If you sit in any public space long enough you'll hear someone complain about the monotony of life. "Another day, another dollar" "Same stuff (or some variation of that word), different day" "I just want one day where I don't have to sit in traffic for an hour" It makes sense. A lot of our television, movies and books center around ordinary folks being pulled into extraordinary circumstances. We long for aliens to arrive, super powers to be bestowed or portals to another dimension to appear. We want there to be some break in the ordinary and expected outcome of our days to remind us we're still alive. But how do we (and the characters in TV, film and literature) usually respond when the regular rhythms of life break into a drumroll? We long for the boring! We want to be returned to routine and met expectations. We long for the mundane to remind us that life isn't just wild chance and chaos. In the midst of these competing desires is a truth to sit with. We need to mourn the loss of our expectations and dreams. We need to observe their passing and sit with the hold they had on our lives. Whether the things we lost were incredibly painful and really beautiful, there is still a loss. Whether we lost the regular routine of our days or the dreams instantaneous adventure. Life has a way of exposing our expectations and these moments require some reflection and hospitality.…
One of my least favorite stereotypes is that only Type A personalities like control. Type A personalities might be more inclined to take charge, but they are not any more inclined than the rest of us to be in control. Most every person is trying to gain control of their circumstances through their tool of choice. Some use passive-aggressive avoidance Some use humor Some use others-focused service Some use effusive praise. The desire to be in control is deep within all of us. We live in a wild and unruly reality and attempting to tame it is vital to our survival. It is the desire to control that leads people to feed the hungry, clothe the naked and shelter those living outside. To surrender trying to control the world around us is to surrender to a passive fatalism that is equally problematic. The error is to believe that we've succeeded. When our desire to control convinces us that we have control, we stop showing up to parts of our own reality. We start eliminating information that demonstrates that we aren't in control and we start surrounding ourselves with people, places and things that support our illusion of control. All of this is ultimately in service of keeping our fear at arms length. Control feels like the antidote to fear and it works for long stretches of life. But what happens when events like broken relationships, natural disasters or grim doctors consultations occur? We are forced back into a wild and unruly reality we've convinced ourselves doesn't exist.…
It was Father's Day when this sermon was preached. For some of us the weekend is a flood of good memories and a happy childhood. For some of us it is loaded with harsh memories and deep wounds. For some of us it is a combination of them both. What's tricky is that the emotions around our fathers gets attached to our picture of God as father. This can become a really helpful pathway to understand and engage with God, or it can become a barrier. As far as barriers to God, this is one that is really common and entirely unnecessary. Jesus talks about God as His father. There are parables where Jesus tells about the nature of God through the metaphor of father. There are reasons why we think of God in terms of an older man up in heaven. But what do we lose if we keep the parental metaphor and drop the link to gender? If God is a good and loving parent do we miss something because he's not male? Can we hold space for people who love God as father and for people who love God as mother and for people who connect with a God outside of gender?…
Listen in to our new liturgical flow in action as we create space for grief, the release of shame and a celebration of joy. ((Some moments of silence have been edited out of the podcast to avoid confusion on if the podcast was still playing))
When I started officiating weddings I was shocked to learn that none of what we traditionally associate with weddings are necessary for people to get married. Vows? Nope. 1 Corinthians 13? Nuh uh. I do's? You don't. "I now pronounce you"? Nein. All that you need to do to make it official is fill out the paperwork with a couple of witnesses. You could wrap it all up at a courthouse in the time it takes any of our bureaucracies to stumble along. It reminds me of what we do with our church services. We think that they have to look a particular way because of what we have seen or experienced before. While this tradition is helpful in many ways, it can actually keep us from getting to the heart of what we could be doing.…
1 Good Friday:: Leroy Barber, Donna Barber, Sunia Gibbs, Andru Morgan, Treneil Washington and Mark Charles 1:32:12
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1:32:12Hear this amazing reflection on Good Friday with Leroy and Donna Barber, Mark Charles, Sunia Gibbs, Andru Morgan and Treneil Washington.
If you've ever walked through the Home section in a Target then you'll probably recognize the collection wall decals and nick nacks that feature the "true enough" sayings. These are the quotes and sayings that have a sliver of truth in them, but require specific circumstances to be true. On a number of occasions I've dreamt about hovering 4 feet by the power of my mind off the ground and it's yet to happen. If how badly you want something is the key to unlocking life, I would have conquered eating an entire sheet cake by now. There's still truth in both of these statements, so I'm not trying to invalidate the power of dreaming of realities that don't exist yet or the power of eliminating certain desires when I realize how weak the drive behind them is. The problem is that when we consume true enough, we usually end up deeply disappointed in the complexity of life. If we sit with deep wisdom we find truth that can negotiate this complexity. I think the Jesus story and Easter Sunday is deep wisdom that's been packaged as true enough wisdom. We've been sold calligraphy on a wood pallet and a decal for our wall, when it's always been meant to expose the deepest truths of life, loss, fear and hope. My hope is that we'll sit with deep truth this Easter Sunday in ways that illuminate the ways we individually and collectively have settled for the good news of true enough.…
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. James 5:16 This one Bible verse filled me with so much hope and so much dread early on in my faith. The hope was linked to the feeling that my prayers could be powerful and effective. Power and effect meant that I would have the ability to enact real positive change in the world. Cancer could be miraculously healed, relationships could be restored and pain could be avoided if I could unlock this whole "righteous" conundrum. And that's where the dread came into the picture. There's a terrifying lack of specificity to being "righteous". What was I doing or not doing that could compromise this identification? Had I lied too often? Had I neglected to serve and help enough people? I was pretty sure I was a devout person that loved God, but the elevation to being righteous always felt just out of reach. Honestly, I thought that if you had ever considered yourself righteous it would immediately disqualify you from being righteous. It was like being humble. The only way to be righteous was to be afraid you weren't. The ultimate effect of this kind of relationship to prayer was that it all depended on me. If God was all powerful and was all good, than the only reason good things weren't happening was my lack of righteousness. That's a real easy place to pray from, honestly. I was praying all the time because more prayer equaled more righteousness and this was the best path towards getting my prayers to be answered. The content of my prayers is what was the problem. It was filled with fear and anxiety. My prayers cycled around trying to find the right combination of self-doubt to unlock the righteous achievement to get my prayers answered. I think it's time to start declaring there are versions of prayer that shouldn't exist. Prayers to a petty and indifferent God shouldn't be prayed. Prayers that require anxiety to be answered can't possibly be prayed to a good God who created all things. This is such the antithesis to what we read about the character of Jesus who was demonstrating the nature of God in tangible ways.…
When I was growing up yoga and voodoo were synonymous. Anything Eastern was to be mistrusted and it was a way that the devil could infiltrate your soul. While that language sounds over the top, I can promise you that is a direct quote. Where does this kind of fear come from? Why would people in relationship with the One God of all people be scared of other religious practices? If your faith requires isolation to be safe, then what kind of faith do you really have? This isn't to say that I think that every idea is neutral or beneficial. I think there are very real dangerous thoughts that lead to all kinds of very real dangerous practices. The way that I know these ideas are dangerous is because we've seen the harm they've created in the world. The key difference was that the mistrust of Eastern practices and ideas I was exposed to was rooted in ignorance. Could you really say that yoga and meditation has created harm in our world? This is the same culture that taught me to consume products at an unsustainable pace for sake of the economy, but people who focused on breathing while stretching were evil?? This message is the wrap up to our message series on prayer and contemplative practices. I think it's important to evaluate barriers in our history that are keeping us from helpful prayer practices for no discernible reason. I hope this message meets you ready to open to a wider definition of prayer to get the core of connecting with a good and loving God.…
I was recently reading an article about stand-up comedians who were processing jokes they told early in their career that they now regretted. Jokes have been a powerful tool for perpetuating harmful thoughts and ideas about people in our world. A joke allows you to share offensive stereotypes without taking any accountability. The person who is offended is the one who needs to "lighten up" and "take a joke". The typical response is to laugh or shake your head disapprovingly with a smirk. I find articles like these interesting because even though there aren't a lot of pure apologies (a lot of justifying and caveating instead) there is an awareness that we change over time. I actually think Christianity should be leading the charge in these kinds of conversations. We're a community with a specific word and theology for changing ideas and behavior. Repentance is one of my favorite phrases. It literally means to turn around and go the other way. It's already assumed that there will be times when we gain new insights and awarenesses and our reaction is supposed to be change. The idea of "doubling down" on ignorance or bad information is foreign to the language of the Bible. This Sunday my friend Cara Meredith is going to be sharing about a shift in her life that was led by a relationship and how honoring the personhood of others is key to Christianity. I encourage you to come hear Cara's journey of change with new information and the freedom that comes from repentance. May we be the kind of people that model growth and utilize repentance in that journey.…
In the midst of this message series I decided to explore a new prayer practice (which is also the subject of our new Sunday morning class). I've been using a drawing workbook ( found here ) as the centering activity for my prayer time. Praying through drawing and art isn't something that I would have assumed I would ever do. In our culture of excellence and specialization we rarely pursue activities we don't demonstrate skill in. Drawing only has value if you can utilize it for financial gain, and I have never demonstrated even the tiniest skill in drawing. But what if the value is found in letting new activities bring to surface beliefs about God, self and the world around you that you couldn't have accessed otherwise? I have been finding such freedom in activities that aren't centered on productivity. It breaks the spell of viewing myself only as a commodity that needs to perform tasks to have value. I'm the same person who turned my nose up at the adult coloring books trend as a colossal waste of time. That judgement was all rooted in a worldview that values the most direct line to productivity. While drawing has proven to be a helpful tool for prayer for me, maybe your activity is physical activity, baking/cooking, reading, quiet meditation, or praying through a Psalm. Whatever activity you end up praying through isn't as significant as what the prayer time is doing in and through you. One of the goals of prayer is to connect God and the spiritual realities of the world around us. Because God and spirituality are all around us, we can enjoy the freedom of exploration because there isn't just one way to get there. So, what is your new prayer practice in the next few weeks or months? New insights or breakthroughs rarely come through old patterns, so what could be waiting for you on the other side of the risk of learning a new path to talk to God?…
Prayer is weird. I've heard enough stories about voices, visions, physical sensations and trances to know that prayer creates some real oddities. Even though I like to think of myself as a person who can accept the testimony of others while reserving judgement, I rarely do a good job of it. I think I know why. There was a time in my life where people sharing spiritual experiences was an exercise in asserting spiritual dominance. Had a crazy vision of swans swimming in the ocean and delivering fish to babies? You were a present day Joseph! You might as well get outfitted for that technicolor dream coat. The voice of God told you personally to go tell that stranger that you've seen them surrounded by an orange light? You're probably the next great prophet, in the lineage of Elijah and Elisha. These stories were shared at times with me to highlight a spiritual superiority that they had. It caused me to doubt my own relationship with God and deeply desire some kind spirituality oddity to call my own. I was stuck in a cycle of doubting and desiring weird spiritual moments. While I've let go of a desire for unexplained spiritual experiences in prayer, I haven't let go of my doubt. I still hold onto a resistance to hearing and believing in the oddness of spiritual experience, even when the person sharing it doesn't do so from a place of power over my experiences. It's strange to have so much resistance in the way that prayer has worked in someone else's life. We project our doubt onto other people's experiences and can even cause them to doubt or hide their experiences. I wonder if experimenting in prayer can help us all be more generous in our acceptance of the oddness of faith, without prioritizing it over the experiences of others. Let each person share what they've heard, seen, not heard and not seen in a way that is excited for the diversity of our paths to Christ.…
Often when people talk about prayer they say that it "just isn't working anymore." We want to take a look at what "working" means and ways that we can confuse the form and function of prayer. This is a discussion about the ways that prayer can be a space for dreams, despair, remembrance and surrender.…
Prayer used to be easy. I can remember how quickly and easy conversations with God used to come. As a child I would talk to God every night as I fell asleep. I would climb up into my treehouse and talk to God. I would talk to God while I played with my G.I. Joe action figures or while I rode my bike around the driveway. I would talk to God about my day at school. I would talk to God about what I hoped being a grown-up would look like. I would pray for my dogs or I would ask God to help me find a toy that I had lost. As the youngest child in my family by 8 years, God was like my invisible friend. God was my constant companion who would always offer an open ear for whatever felt significant to me. Over the years everything has become a lot more challenging. I've prayed fervently for people in dire situations to be healed on mission trips that never happened. I've prayed for friends and family members who never recovered. I've prayed for signs and clear directions that have never come. The simplicity of prayer has been replaced by the complexity of life. Prayer used to feel like stepping into a warm bath and now it feels like stepping out onto a high wire. It's enough to make me want to avoid it altogether. I'd prefer to read about God, talk about God and think about God instead of engaging with God. What used to feel so safe now feels really uncertain. Over the years I've learned that my story isn't unique. Maybe some of you have had a similar journey with prayer. I truly hope it is a powerful and ongoing part of your life, but if it's not, have we got a new message series for you! We want to acknowledge all the complexity and potential difficulties with prayer while learning more about the varied contemplative practices of people around the world and throughout time. I hope you'll join us with an open mind and an open heart for what prayer and contemplation could be. I know I'm preparing to be stretched and challenged for the 6 weeks we travel through this series.…
When I was 18 years old my favorite activity was to go buy clothes at thrift stores. Some of my favorites included; A shirt for "Ben Toilet Rentals" that had a bear and an outhouse on it (since it wasn't "Ben's" I liked to imagine there was a man somewhere named Ben Toilet) A shirt that had iron-on felt letters that read "I'm Going to be a Daddy" (I wore this shirt for my eldest son's birth) A shirt with several quilt pieces that read "The One Who Dies With the Most Fabric Wins" I also found a shirt that read "Straight Pride" and had the classic male and female silhouettes from restroom signs holding hands. I wore it several times until an older friend told me to stop. I couldn't see what the problem was. The LGBTQ+ community could be proud of their sexual orientation, so why couldn't I be proud of mine? He told me that being in the majority meant that you don't go around flaunting it. This was new information for me and it started down a very slow path of wrestling with the explicit teaching from my youth that anyone in the LGBTQ+ community was living outside of God's best. After engaging in homophobic joking throughout high school and college I transitioned to indifference and avoidance. For years I would have told you that I just didn't know what I thought about the Bible and the LGBTQ+ community. It wasn't until seminary that I started to see the privilege in this position. I didn't seriously wrestle with the conversation because I didn't need to. My close friends were heterosexual, so there was nothing urgent driving me forward. With an understanding that Jesus pushes us past the conversations that impact us, I looked more closely at the the 6 (or 7) verses in the Old and New Testament that were said to deal with LGBTQ+ people. What I discovered in the process was that we should do as much study of how our culture of origin influences how we read the Bible as our study of the Bible itself. I found a path of love and acceptance that takes the Bible incredibly seriously. I found equality and justice. In this message we look at 3 of New Testament passages (all written by Paul) that have been used to condemn the LGBTQ+ community. We study some Greek words, look at context and take Paul seriously. We also talk with some friends who have been seriously harmed by the church and these verses. Their stories help us hold together theology and humanity in the way that Jesus invited us to integrate.…
Last week I sent out this newsletter with a "your" where a "you're" should be. This is embarrassing, specifically because I put some real effort into these newsletters. I come up with the ideas, type it out, re-read and edit. There are times when I start with a premise that really captures what I'm trying to communicate and there are times I really stink up the joint. Now, imagine you have something that you've written, you care about and it starts to take on a life of it's own. Imagine people take a work memo or letter you wrote and break it down into chapters and verses. Imagine they start quoting it and start putting sections of what you wrote on coffee mugs, t-shirts and inspirational posters. That may feel amazing, but it may also fill you with a deep sense of dread. That level of scrutiny could take some of your thoughts completely out of context. Even within this email so far you could quote me as saying; "I really stink up the joint" - 1 Kurt 3:6 Ultimately this doesn't mean that we don't read, study and enjoy things that are written, but that we always hold them in tension with where they were written and the larger themes that frame them. Paul's writings were used to justify and prop up slavery for hundreds of years. Even though it isn't a debate we're waging today, knowing that Paul was part of that conversation can really cut the legs out of wanting to read and study his writings. In this message we want to put Paul's conversation back together and see how the trajectory of his writings inform the specifics.…
This Sunday is the Super Bowl and I can really enjoy a game where I don't care about the two teams playing. I'm just here for the commercials, halftime show and the food! If your watching the game with a lifetime of fandom for one of the teams playing it will likely be much different. You'll likely view every penalty against your team as a gross violation of justice. Fans of two opposing teams can watch the same play and have vehemently different interpretations of what happened, usually through the lens of their fandom. The energy and anxiety levels of a person just watching the game for the love of the sport is hopefully more balanced and fair. They don't have the same lenses impacting their version of events and can really just celebrate the quality of the game and the impressive feats of any player. There's no reason to feel defeated by a great play by the opposition, because there is no opposition. I wish I could say that this kind of anxious or defensive participation was just limited to sports. Sadly when it comes to any number of "teams" there is a lens that we carry that can impact our version of events, Whether these are the "teams" of country, ethnicity, gender or political affiliation. One of the great hopes we carry in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the elimination of a "team" mentality. We can instead experience the whole of humanity as God sees them and hear stories from other perspectives as necessary insights into the story of us.…
When George Lucas first made and released Star Wars in 1977 it was a huge success, far beyond what anybody could have envisioned. It soon became apparent that a second film would need to build upon this success. In interviews that George Lucas gave around the time of releasing The Empire Strikes Back he stated that he actually had a trilogy of trilogies already created. Around this same time "Episode IV" was officially added to "A New Hope". There's something that really captures our imaginations about someone creating a huge epic tale that we've only seen a part of. Game of Thrones and Lost are more recent examples of sprawling epics where we start to ask where things are heading and take some solace in the idea that the full story has already been completed. I wish I could say that was true for Cascade when the church got started in June of 2015. We didn't have a clear picture of where the church would be in 3 months, much less 3 years. There were key values that drove the creation of the church that focused on safety to ask big questions, not having to agree on every point of theology and moving towards engaged spiritual living in the real world. How that would look and who would resonate with that vision was totally up for grabs. I don't think it would have served us then or that it serves us now to have the entirety of the Cascade story written, but it does require us to have regular check-ins as to where we'e at. We need to pause often and make sure the driving vision of Cascade is still what's leading us forward as a church.…
I grew up with a mother who was an adult Sunday School teacher at the church we attended. For some of you, this may not seem like anything worth mentioning. What's the big deal about someone volunteering their time at a faith community to share a gift they have? Within Christian culture in the US some hold that only men should be allowed to teach at a church. This isn't a widely held teaching of the Bible. There are many stories of women teaching and leading throughout the Bible. The belief comes directly from some of Paul's writings (and I would note that it dovetails nicely with patriarchal society norms) So, my Mom would share stories of men walking into the class and walking out when she got up to teach. I was baffled by this because of the unique view I had into her preparation and giftedness. My Mom woke up every morning and had time studying the Bible with her commentaries. She put countless hours into prayer, study and developing what she was going to teach. How is it that because of anatomy my Mom shouldn't be allowed to teach? How is it that half of the population can only receive wisdom from the other half? In this message we look at the verses that helped create this worldview and at context and the broader teachings of Paul. The hope is that by looking directly at the verses that launched millions of exclusionary rules we can discover the heart of God for how we all relate to one another.…
Whooooooooo's ready for a thought experiment!?!? Ok, so imagine you are watching Wheel of Fortune and after a contestant solves one of the puzzles Pat Sajak tells them they are incorrect even though the answer appears obviously correct. He then tells them that while the answer was correct, they forgot to ring the buzzer and frame the answer as a question. Now, most of us would assume this is a classic Sajak and Trabek Face/Off situation, but the rest of us would lead a forceful revolt with pitchforks and flame at Stage 11 of Sony Picture Studios. The rules of Jeopardy cannot be allowed to govern the world of Wheel of Fortune! These are two separate realities and you destroy the fabric of the known universe when you mix the two!! In the words of the immortal bards The Offspring , you have to keep them separated. In a much more subtle way this misapplication of the rules is how many of us were given the Bible. We're imposing the rules of Jeopardy on Wheel of Fortune, so to speak. There were common assumptions about how you write, discuss and debate spiritual realities for the Jewish people during the time of Jesus. These assumptions create the trail guide we need to navigate the truths and conversations of Scripture and you are in danger of doing damage to the Bible, to others and yourself if you don't understand these assumptions.…
Christians have had a complicated relationship with Paul and his writings. It’s amazing to think about the journey of a man who went from attacking followers of Jesus to becoming one of the heroes of the faith. It’s rare that people change that much in the course of their life. But there are also parts of his writings that have been used to support patriarchy and homophobia. We think it would be well worth our time to re-examine Paul and his role in Christian thought and practice. It might be possible that understanding context can shift how we view him and give us fresh eyes on his writings.…
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