Three more notes for the day. Referrals:
The United Methodist Reporter is still around and it is on the web. You can even set it up as your homepage. Go to http://www.umportal.org.
I especially enjoyed Sara's writing piece entitled "After Midnight, We go Walking" Her writing site is on my links. Check it out!
Park Church is a model welcoming congregation at the Igniting Ministry website.
www.ignitingministry.org and then look under the model welcomers.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Redistricting
FYI
in both of these models Brainerd would be in the "Big Waters" district. In model "B" we are the upper northwest corner of that district. So what do you think?
The number listed in each district is the number of churches.
Redistricting
Here are two of the models of redistricting proposed by the Bishop and Cabinet.
Annual Conference voted at its last session to go to 5 districts. You can read the Bishop's blog on this and also go to to the link above.
in both of these models Brainerd would be in the "Big Waters" district. In model "B" we are the upper northwest corner of that district. So what do you think?
The number listed in each district is the number of churches.
Redistricting
Here are two of the models of redistricting proposed by the Bishop and Cabinet.
Annual Conference voted at its last session to go to 5 districts. You can read the Bishop's blog on this and also go to to the link above.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
More class notes
The Habit of Serving Oct 28 Spiritual life Class
Jesus gives us "real eyes" to "realize" where the "Real lies."
Richard Rohr, Jesus' Plan for a New World
Barbara Brown Taylor
“The whole purpose of the Bible, it seems to me, is to convince people to set the written word down in order to become
living words in the world for God’s sake.”
To work in the world lovingly means that we are defining what we will be for, rather than reacting to what we are against. Christina Baldwin
Suzanne Farnham, et al
It is in the here and now, the ordinary situation of normal life, that we find God. A true call is likely to be modest in scope. If we try to save the world, we become immobilized.
There are stories from our lives through which God is trying to tell us things we need to know. We need to identify those stories, tell them, and try to sort them out…. By observing what we do, we can discover what we believe and value. Our past actions, our previous choices, the roads we have taken - all hold clues to who we are becoming. There is a connection between our temperaments and talents, and our call. We are called to work with the gifts we have been given.
Source: Listening Hearts (from inward/outward)
People say, "What good can one person do? What is the sense of our small effort?" They cannot see that we must lay one brick at a time. We can be responsible only for the one action of the present moment. But we can beg for an increase of love in our hearts that will
vitalize and transform all our individual actions, and know that God will take them and multiply them, as Jesus multiplied the loaves and the fishes.
- Dorothy Day
from Loaves and Fishes
Anne Lamott talks about the most important thing that she ever did in her life. She is sitting and is worried about the world and about what we are doing. She said, “And then I did the single most important thing one can do to save the world: I got up off my butt."
Grace (Eventually)
KEEPER OF OUR DAYS, only we can risk the unknown and not cling to the familiar, we will learn of your grace and strength. Amen.
- Richard Morgan Settling In: My First Year in a Retirement Community
From page 30
Jesus gives us "real eyes" to "realize" where the "Real lies."
Richard Rohr, Jesus' Plan for a New World
Barbara Brown Taylor
“The whole purpose of the Bible, it seems to me, is to convince people to set the written word down in order to become
living words in the world for God’s sake.”
To work in the world lovingly means that we are defining what we will be for, rather than reacting to what we are against. Christina Baldwin
Suzanne Farnham, et al
It is in the here and now, the ordinary situation of normal life, that we find God. A true call is likely to be modest in scope. If we try to save the world, we become immobilized.
There are stories from our lives through which God is trying to tell us things we need to know. We need to identify those stories, tell them, and try to sort them out…. By observing what we do, we can discover what we believe and value. Our past actions, our previous choices, the roads we have taken - all hold clues to who we are becoming. There is a connection between our temperaments and talents, and our call. We are called to work with the gifts we have been given.
Source: Listening Hearts (from inward/outward)
People say, "What good can one person do? What is the sense of our small effort?" They cannot see that we must lay one brick at a time. We can be responsible only for the one action of the present moment. But we can beg for an increase of love in our hearts that will
vitalize and transform all our individual actions, and know that God will take them and multiply them, as Jesus multiplied the loaves and the fishes.
- Dorothy Day
from Loaves and Fishes
Anne Lamott talks about the most important thing that she ever did in her life. She is sitting and is worried about the world and about what we are doing. She said, “And then I did the single most important thing one can do to save the world: I got up off my butt."
Grace (Eventually)
KEEPER OF OUR DAYS, only we can risk the unknown and not cling to the familiar, we will learn of your grace and strength. Amen.
- Richard Morgan Settling In: My First Year in a Retirement Community
From page 30
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Spiritual Life class notes for Oct 21
“All your love, your stretching out, your hope, your thirst, God is creating in you so that (God) may fill you….God is on the inside of the longing.”
Maria Boulding Quoted in Soul Feast p. 31
When God breaks in…a new generosity emerges, one that is joyous, spontaneous and free… A new stewardship that cares deeply for all of Gods created order, including the earth and its fullness – people, animals and things.” Edward J. Farrell . 105 in Habits
When we let go of money we are letting go of part of ourselves and part of our security. But this is precisely why it is important to do it. It is one way to obey Jesus' command to deny ourselves… . When we give money we are releasing a little more of our egocentric selves and a little more of our false security… . Giving frees us to care. It produces an air of expectancy as we anticipate what God will lead us to give. It makes life with God an adventure in the world, and that is worth living for and giving for. Richard J. Foster, The Challenge of the Disciplined Life
It is more blessed to give than to receive, but then it is also more blessed to be able to do without than to have to have.
Soren Kierkegaard's Journals and Papers
Money often costs too much.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
For those who want to save their life--cling to it, try to protect it--will lose it; and those who lose their life--who give away themselves--will find life.
Billy Graham:
If a person gets his attitude toward money straight, it will help straighten out almost every other area in his life.
Make all you can,
save all you can,
give all you can.
- John Wesley
But, here's the thing: Jesus' essential message seems to be that the joyful life, the fulfilled life, is a life of generous self-donation.
Maria Boulding Quoted in Soul Feast p. 31
When God breaks in…a new generosity emerges, one that is joyous, spontaneous and free… A new stewardship that cares deeply for all of Gods created order, including the earth and its fullness – people, animals and things.” Edward J. Farrell . 105 in Habits
When we let go of money we are letting go of part of ourselves and part of our security. But this is precisely why it is important to do it. It is one way to obey Jesus' command to deny ourselves… . When we give money we are releasing a little more of our egocentric selves and a little more of our false security… . Giving frees us to care. It produces an air of expectancy as we anticipate what God will lead us to give. It makes life with God an adventure in the world, and that is worth living for and giving for. Richard J. Foster, The Challenge of the Disciplined Life
It is more blessed to give than to receive, but then it is also more blessed to be able to do without than to have to have.
Soren Kierkegaard's Journals and Papers
Money often costs too much.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
For those who want to save their life--cling to it, try to protect it--will lose it; and those who lose their life--who give away themselves--will find life.
Billy Graham:
If a person gets his attitude toward money straight, it will help straighten out almost every other area in his life.
Make all you can,
save all you can,
give all you can.
- John Wesley
But, here's the thing: Jesus' essential message seems to be that the joyful life, the fulfilled life, is a life of generous self-donation.
Friday, October 19, 2007
New Link added
I just want to point out that I added a link to my daughter, Sara's, writing site. She has a few short stories on there. I think some more poetry would be enjoyed as well Hint,hint!
I also added a link to her travel notes on our 2006 trip to the UK etc., but I put the link on my sermon site.
I also added a link to her travel notes on our 2006 trip to the UK etc., but I put the link on my sermon site.
Monday, October 15, 2007
just because I can
I send puns to my daughter's e-mail about once a week...here is one she is getting today; and I thought I would put it here as well "just because I can."
A couple of hunters from Prague are out hunting, and an enormous bear runs up and in a single gulp devours one of the hunters. Miraculously, the swallowed hunter remained alive, trapped in the belly of the grizzly. The other hunter runs back to town and organizes a rescue party which heads back to the woods armed with torches, guns, spears, etc.
Soon they spot two bears on the horizon and everybody starts shooting at the bear that's closest to them.
"No, not that one," shouts the surviving hunter, "That's the female."
"The Czech is in the male."
(I could try to use that in a "stewardship' sermon" ....something like "now that I've got you thinking about 'checks'...let's talk about the checks in the offering plate " ...but the groaning and booing would be too distracting...so trust me not to try this!)Sunday, October 14, 2007
Oct 7th and 14th notes from the Spiritual Life Class
Oct 7 Notes
What is it at the center of your life? Carefully examine where you spend your attention, your time. Look at your appointment book,our daily schedule… this is what receives your care and attention – and by definition your love.”
Wayne Muller p. 65 in Habits of the Heart
We wait in the quiet for some centering moment that will redefine, reshape, and refocus our lives.”
Howard Thurman quoted on p. 73 Habits….
The two disciples whom Jesus joined on the road to Emmaus recognized him in the breaking of the bread. What is a more common, ordinary gesture than breaking bread? It may be the most human of all human gestures: a gesture of hospitality, friendship, care, and the desire to be together. Taking a loaf of bread, blessing it, breaking it, and giving it to those seated around the table signifies unity, community, and peace. When Jesus does this he does the most ordinary as well as the most extraordinary. It is the most human as well as the most divine gesture.
The great mystery is that this daily and most human gesture is the way we recognize the presence of Christ among us. God becomes most present when we are most human.
Henri Nouwen
If you doze off, don't give it a second thought. A child in the arms
of a parent drops off to sleep occasionally, but the parent isn't disturbed
by that as long as the child is happily resting there and opens its eyes
once in a while.
--Thomas Keating, Open Mind, Open Heart
A room devoted to silence honors and invites the unknown, the untamed, the wild, the shy, the unfathomable — that which rarely has a chance to surface within us.
— Gunilla Norris in Sharing Silence
It is a commonplace of the spiritual masters that the deepest part of the soul likes to go slow, since it seeks to savor rather than to accomplish; it wants to rest in and contemplate the good rather than to hurry off to another place.
— Robert Barron in Heaven in Stone and Glass
I am a place where God's love turns up in this world.
— M. Basil Pennington in Listening
It only takes a moment for God to enrich you.
— Thomas Keating in Open Mind, Open Heart
GOD OF THE GOOD NEWS,
in the fullness of my life,
empty me of distractions.
Still my busyness.
Quiet my chatter.
Sing your song of grace to me
until the tune rings
in the core of my being
and my life resonates
with your good news.
- Alive Now
From page 36 of Alive Now, November/December 2000, quoted from Upper Room website
LOVE IS THE CAPACITY TO SEE both the good and evil in people but to love the good; to see both the excellent and mediocre but to encourage the excellent; to see the wellness and the sickness and to strengthen the wellness. Before all else, love is the capacity to see everyone and everything as interconnected, “held together” in one cosmic embrace.
- Robert Corin Morris; Provocative Grace: The Challenge in Jesus’ Words
From page 31 (see Upper Room website)
The Purposes of Christian Spiritual practices
1)Paying Attention to God
2)The formation of Christian identity and character
3) Nourishment
4)Compassion and Justice
5) Living “the way”
Marcus Borg The Heart of Christianity
p.189 HarperCollins
’
Oct 14 NOTES
SIMPLICITY
The question for us is always 'how can we turn information into transformation?' How can we use the sacred texts to lead people into new places with God, with life, with themselves?"
Richard Rohr
All the truly deep people have at the core of their being the genius to be simple or to know how to seek simplicity – Martin E. Marty
WHEN WE BEGIN TO LIVE a spirituality of simplicity,
our primary concern ceases to be success and becomes faithfulness.
We are called to live with integrity, to express the truth as we perceive it, and to trust in God’s ability to use what we offer.
- Elizabeth J. Canham
Heart Whispers
From Heart Whispers: Benedictine Wisdom for Today by Elizabeth J. Canham. Copyright © 1999
Simplicity is giving yourself the freedom to pursue that indestructible impulse to do good in the world, to go toward the best.
Robert Smith quote on p. 87 Habits
Simplicity means saying "no" to some things so we can say "yes" to others; making room in life for the things that really matter
The spiritual discipline of simplicity means singleness of purpose toward God. Kierkegaard said, 'Purity of heart is to will one thing,' and by that he meant it is to will the good, which is God. Simplicity is not first a lifestyle. It is an inward spiritual reality that results in an outward life-style. (Richard Foster)
Frivolous consumption corrupts the soul away from…service to God and injures neighbors as well.
Dallas Willard quoted by Marjorie Thompson in Soul feast . P.73
St Augustine once said that God is always trying to give good things to us, but our hands are too full to receive them. If our hands are full, they are fullof the things to whioch we are addicted. And not only our hands, but alos our hearts, minds and attention are clogged with addiction. Our addictions fill up the spaces within us, spaces where grace might flow… The spiritual significance of addiction is not just that we lose freedom through attachment to things, (But) that we try to fulfill our longing for God through objects of attachment
Gerald May quoted by Marjorie Thompson p. 76 Soul Feast
All Forms of spiritual discipline help us to make more space for God in our lives.
Marjorie Thompson p. 80 Soul Feast
Simplicity, like all virtues,
is valuable because it is useful. I have come to understand that making life simple does for our minds what getting in shape does for our bodies. It makes us feel mor ein control, more centered, more effective,…I have found that simplicity is an indispensable ally in giving ordinary life extraordinary meaning. R Smith in Habits p. 89
‘Tis the gift to come down where you ought to be.
And when we find ourselves in the place just right
‘Twill be in the valley of love and delight.
When true simplicity is gained
To bow and to bend we shan’t be ashamed
To turn, turn will be our delight
‘Till by turning, turning we come ’round right.
What is it at the center of your life? Carefully examine where you spend your attention, your time. Look at your appointment book,our daily schedule… this is what receives your care and attention – and by definition your love.”
Wayne Muller p. 65 in Habits of the Heart
We wait in the quiet for some centering moment that will redefine, reshape, and refocus our lives.”
Howard Thurman quoted on p. 73 Habits….
The two disciples whom Jesus joined on the road to Emmaus recognized him in the breaking of the bread. What is a more common, ordinary gesture than breaking bread? It may be the most human of all human gestures: a gesture of hospitality, friendship, care, and the desire to be together. Taking a loaf of bread, blessing it, breaking it, and giving it to those seated around the table signifies unity, community, and peace. When Jesus does this he does the most ordinary as well as the most extraordinary. It is the most human as well as the most divine gesture.
The great mystery is that this daily and most human gesture is the way we recognize the presence of Christ among us. God becomes most present when we are most human.
Henri Nouwen
If you doze off, don't give it a second thought. A child in the arms
of a parent drops off to sleep occasionally, but the parent isn't disturbed
by that as long as the child is happily resting there and opens its eyes
once in a while.
--Thomas Keating, Open Mind, Open Heart
A room devoted to silence honors and invites the unknown, the untamed, the wild, the shy, the unfathomable — that which rarely has a chance to surface within us.
— Gunilla Norris in Sharing Silence
It is a commonplace of the spiritual masters that the deepest part of the soul likes to go slow, since it seeks to savor rather than to accomplish; it wants to rest in and contemplate the good rather than to hurry off to another place.
— Robert Barron in Heaven in Stone and Glass
I am a place where God's love turns up in this world.
— M. Basil Pennington in Listening
It only takes a moment for God to enrich you.
— Thomas Keating in Open Mind, Open Heart
GOD OF THE GOOD NEWS,
in the fullness of my life,
empty me of distractions.
Still my busyness.
Quiet my chatter.
Sing your song of grace to me
until the tune rings
in the core of my being
and my life resonates
with your good news.
- Alive Now
From page 36 of Alive Now, November/December 2000, quoted from Upper Room website
LOVE IS THE CAPACITY TO SEE both the good and evil in people but to love the good; to see both the excellent and mediocre but to encourage the excellent; to see the wellness and the sickness and to strengthen the wellness. Before all else, love is the capacity to see everyone and everything as interconnected, “held together” in one cosmic embrace.
- Robert Corin Morris; Provocative Grace: The Challenge in Jesus’ Words
From page 31 (see Upper Room website)
The Purposes of Christian Spiritual practices
1)Paying Attention to God
2)The formation of Christian identity and character
3) Nourishment
4)Compassion and Justice
5) Living “the way”
Marcus Borg The Heart of Christianity
p.189 HarperCollins
’
Oct 14 NOTES
SIMPLICITY
The question for us is always 'how can we turn information into transformation?' How can we use the sacred texts to lead people into new places with God, with life, with themselves?"
Richard Rohr
All the truly deep people have at the core of their being the genius to be simple or to know how to seek simplicity – Martin E. Marty
WHEN WE BEGIN TO LIVE a spirituality of simplicity,
our primary concern ceases to be success and becomes faithfulness.
We are called to live with integrity, to express the truth as we perceive it, and to trust in God’s ability to use what we offer.
- Elizabeth J. Canham
Heart Whispers
From Heart Whispers: Benedictine Wisdom for Today by Elizabeth J. Canham. Copyright © 1999
Simplicity is giving yourself the freedom to pursue that indestructible impulse to do good in the world, to go toward the best.
Robert Smith quote on p. 87 Habits
Simplicity means saying "no" to some things so we can say "yes" to others; making room in life for the things that really matter
The spiritual discipline of simplicity means singleness of purpose toward God. Kierkegaard said, 'Purity of heart is to will one thing,' and by that he meant it is to will the good, which is God. Simplicity is not first a lifestyle. It is an inward spiritual reality that results in an outward life-style. (Richard Foster)
Frivolous consumption corrupts the soul away from…service to God and injures neighbors as well.
Dallas Willard quoted by Marjorie Thompson in Soul feast . P.73
St Augustine once said that God is always trying to give good things to us, but our hands are too full to receive them. If our hands are full, they are fullof the things to whioch we are addicted. And not only our hands, but alos our hearts, minds and attention are clogged with addiction. Our addictions fill up the spaces within us, spaces where grace might flow… The spiritual significance of addiction is not just that we lose freedom through attachment to things, (But) that we try to fulfill our longing for God through objects of attachment
Gerald May quoted by Marjorie Thompson p. 76 Soul Feast
All Forms of spiritual discipline help us to make more space for God in our lives.
Marjorie Thompson p. 80 Soul Feast
Simplicity, like all virtues,
is valuable because it is useful. I have come to understand that making life simple does for our minds what getting in shape does for our bodies. It makes us feel mor ein control, more centered, more effective,…I have found that simplicity is an indispensable ally in giving ordinary life extraordinary meaning. R Smith in Habits p. 89
‘Tis the gift to come down where you ought to be.
And when we find ourselves in the place just right
‘Twill be in the valley of love and delight.
When true simplicity is gained
To bow and to bend we shan’t be ashamed
To turn, turn will be our delight
‘Till by turning, turning we come ’round right.
Friday, October 12, 2007
Prayer and Freedom
MESSAGE OF THE DAY 10-10-07
from A Daily Spiritual Seed
http://shalomplace.com
But you have to pray.
You have to listen to the voice who calls
you the beloved, because otherwise
you will run around begging for
affirmation, for praise, for success.
And then you're not free.
- Henri J. M. Nouwen
Thursday, October 11, 2007
At length, now and forever
I got this sent to me on a Quote of the day;
World of Quotes mailing,
for Oct 10, 2007.
"The only things one can admire at length are those
one admires without knowing why." ~Jean Rostand~
I admire the quote but I don't know why!
The dictionary, for "admire" says:
"To regard with wonder, pleasure, and approval"
The root of the word refers to "wonder'
Perhaps I hear something in there about an innate yearning,
mystery, essential beauty; and spiritual wonder..
....admiring that which is beyond my rational knowing.
Life...at length..
Love...at length
The movement of God called "church".... at length
This congregation I serve; its faces and names...at length
All that is around me...at length
This day.... at length
My wife, Beth, my children;Sara and Nick,...at length
Jesus Christ...at length
God ....at length
Prayer... now ...at length
The gift of it all...at length
Is that what eternity and endless praise is about?
Infinite...everlasting.... admiration....
Rambling on....
Rory
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Money and the inner life
"If money touches our relationships with family members as well as the world beyond our home, it also reaches into our inner life.”
Henri Nouwen
"Stewardship season" is upon us and this quote from Nouwen might be a thought to work on;
how does it reach my inner life?
Henri Nouwen
"Stewardship season" is upon us and this quote from Nouwen might be a thought to work on;
how does it reach my inner life?
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Another blog referral
Link on over to Pastor Jeffrey Ozanne's blog entry on competition and the church!
Monday, October 1, 2007
More Quotes for Spiritual Life Class
Quotes from The Spiritual Life Class
“The first, wildest, and wisest thing I know is that the soul exists and it is built entirely out of attentiveness” Mary Oliver quoted by Parker Palmer in A Hidden Wholeness
“To look at something as though we had never seen it before requires great courage”
Henri Matisse
“ If we get our information from the biblical material there is no doubt that the Christian life is a dancing, leaping, daring life.”
Eugene Peterson
Love is at the center of Christian spirituality because Christians share the simple yet profound conviction that “God is love” I John 4:8
The unfathomable mystery of God is that God is a Lover who wants to be loved. The one who created us is waiting for our response to the love that gave us our being. God not only says ‘You are my beloved.” God also asks: Do you love me?’ and offers us countless chances to say yes.”
Henri Nouwen quoted on page 48 in Habits of the Heart, Abingdon Press 2006
“True religion is loving God with all our heart.
And our neighbor as ourselves;
and in that love abstaining from all evil
and doing all possible good to all.”
John Wesley
God looks at the world through the eyes of love.
If we, …as human beings made in the image of God also want to see reality
…as it truly is, then we too, must learn to look at what we see with love.
Roberta Bondi quoted on p. 57 Habits of the Heart
The rare moment is not the moment when there is something worth looking at,
but the moment we are capable of seeing.
Joseph Wood Knotch, The Desert Year
True, whole prayer is nothing but love.
St. Augustine
Prayer is the inner bath of love into which the soul plunges itself.
St John Vianney
“The first, wildest, and wisest thing I know is that the soul exists and it is built entirely out of attentiveness” Mary Oliver quoted by Parker Palmer in A Hidden Wholeness
“To look at something as though we had never seen it before requires great courage”
Henri Matisse
“ If we get our information from the biblical material there is no doubt that the Christian life is a dancing, leaping, daring life.”
Eugene Peterson
Love is at the center of Christian spirituality because Christians share the simple yet profound conviction that “God is love” I John 4:8
The unfathomable mystery of God is that God is a Lover who wants to be loved. The one who created us is waiting for our response to the love that gave us our being. God not only says ‘You are my beloved.” God also asks: Do you love me?’ and offers us countless chances to say yes.”
Henri Nouwen quoted on page 48 in Habits of the Heart, Abingdon Press 2006
“True religion is loving God with all our heart.
And our neighbor as ourselves;
and in that love abstaining from all evil
and doing all possible good to all.”
John Wesley
God looks at the world through the eyes of love.
If we, …as human beings made in the image of God also want to see reality
…as it truly is, then we too, must learn to look at what we see with love.
Roberta Bondi quoted on p. 57 Habits of the Heart
The rare moment is not the moment when there is something worth looking at,
but the moment we are capable of seeing.
Joseph Wood Knotch, The Desert Year
True, whole prayer is nothing but love.
St. Augustine
Prayer is the inner bath of love into which the soul plunges itself.
St John Vianney
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