We end our summer series by looking at one of the few stories found in all four of the New Testament Gospels. It’s typically called the feeding of the 5000, but the text tells us there were many more than that.
What do we learn from this story about the way we approach life’s problems and challenges?
Deb shares her story – including what it is like to navigate a life filled with many moves, loss, and belonging.
The audio quality is lacking in parts; you can also view the live video on our YouTube page.
Three of our recent graduates share some of their spiritual journey – what it has been like to grow up in the church, what their personal journey’s have been like and what they might hope for in the future as they move away from home and begin their adult lives.
Dale shares his recent adventure (in retirement) of starting a new company focused on building net-zero homes. What is a net-zero house? Dale will fill us in — and share something about how we remain hopeful in the midst of overwhelming challenges.
CJ and Elizabeth share their experience of growing up in the church, falling in love, and coming out as an LGBTQ couple.
You may be wondering where June’s podcasts are.
In June we are engaged in Group Sundays, which do not include a sermon — hence, no podcasts in June 🙂
We’ll be back in July with stories from the lives and experiences of Branch folks.
If you want to learn more about Group Sundays, click here.
On 5/19 we took a good part of the morning to have a conversation about our vision – breaking into groups, debriefing each other, and collectively identifying what it could look like if we worked together to see our vision become a reality. Because of the unique nature of the morning, we do not have an audio recording; however, the entire morning can be viewed on our YouTube channel.
The spaces through which we are changed tend to be experiences of great love or great suffering. Peter’s life is an example of both.
It may seem like growing in our faith would mean that we would end up more certain. That may be true of some things (for example, God’s love for us). But an important part of transformation involves putting on humility; admitting that we don’t have all the answers (and may never have them); even embracing mystery.
God is always present.
And it is in the present moment – no where else – that we experience God (and, each other).
Growing, maturing, deepening our faith requires us, therefore, to be present – a very very difficult challenge for humans to believe and live.
The created world is a gift, teaching us things that are true about God and about ourselves. This week we consider what trees teach us about our growth and maturity.
Week 2: The end of the rope is a beginning.
The story of Jacob and Esau points us to a number of important truths about growth and transformation:
We begin a new series in which we look at important principles related to our spiritual transformation (and transformation in general).
Week 1 considers the truth that in order to grow we must learn to embrace BOTH death AND resurrection.
The six stories we’ve considered so far fall short of their promise. They give us something, but it is not what we really want. We need a seventh story.
We see aspects of the seventh story in the hours before and after Christ’s death and resurrection — and we see it clearly in the resurrection itself. This story is hard to believe, if we’re honest, but it is the story that leads to life.
The Story of Accumulation is everywhere. There isn’t a day that we’re not inundated with the message that we’ll find our happiness and security in more (fill in the blank).
But does this story give us what it promises? What is the alternative?
The Story of Victimization is a challenging one. It tells us that when we’ve been harmed we should let our pain define us. It’s a story that encourages us to get stuck in our pain — sometimes even fueling us to harm others while feeling righteous in doing so.
But getting stuck in our pain — allowing our pain to define who we are — does not move us toward life. Instead, we must courageously face our pain and move toward it — almost certainly with the help and care of others.
Teresa leads us through the Story of Isolation.
Teresa and Chris (from Palestine) share thoughts on the third story in our series — the Story of Purification.
The second story is one of Revolution/Revenge. It is the belief that the only way we’ll be secure and ultimately happy is if we repay pain for pain, harm for harm.
We begin a series for Lent that considers six stories we encounter regularly in our day to day lives — a series that ends on Easter, which is a seventh story of sorts.
These six stories promise us happiness, security and fulfillment but rarely deliver. As we move through Lent we’ll be asking ourselves which of these stories do we believe and might we want to leave them behind for a better story.
Week 1 is the story of Domination.
