Orchard Ridge United Church of Christ

January 28, 2007

This is the first in what I hope will be many posts throughout the year reflecting on some of the discoveries and insights from our intentional “exploring.” At our annual meeting, we adopted the report of the Next Generation Mission Team which invited us to see 2008 as a year of exploration and experimentation. While we are creating four Explorer Teams to examine our program life in the areas of music, spirituality, faith in action, and children-youth-and-families – I hope we will all keep our eyes and ears open to what the Spirit is doing around us – in our lives, in other churches, in other communities we value, etc.

Last night I went to a fascinating church in Grand Rapids, MI called Mars Hill Bible Church (www.marshill.org). I learned of it through the videos they have produced called “NOOMA,” which we have used in Java and Jesus for three weeks. Because I had a free evening between a workshop in Kalamazoo and Indianapolis, I decided to drive an hour out of my way to see this church in person. Let me tell you what I saw and heard. I do this without prejudice, but just as a way of sharing how another congregation seems to operate. Continue Reading »

Faith Engaging Science

From John Thomas, UCC President

I am pleased to send to you an advance copy of our Pastoral Letter on Faith Engaging Science and Technology – A New Voice Arising . This is the result of a collaboration with the Science and Technology Network of the UCC. Dr. Ron Cole-Turner was the major collaborator on this. Continue Reading »

In his book, Velvet Elvis (Zondervan, 2005) Rob Bell, pastor and author writes about one of the first times he felt truly in awe of God.

“I remember surfing Trestles, the legendary beach between Los Angeles and San Diego – for the first time. I paddled out on a gorgeous day, and as I sat there on my board, a couple hundred feet off shore, surrounded by blue and green and sunlight and quiet, a dolphin jumped in the water next to me. I thought my heart was never going to start beating again. Beauty can be crushing at times, can’t it? (p.72)…

But it isn’t just extraordinary experiences when this happens. I was with my friends at one of our favorite restaurants the other night. We had been there at least three hours when I noticed we were the last ones in the place. The employees were starting to stack chairs and vacuum the floors, and we were still talking. I was looking at my wife, whom I just adore, and our friend Shauna, who may be one of the best storytellers on the planet; Tom, who I would take a bullet for, and Tom’s wife, Cecilia, who is one of the most loving, authentic people I have ever met. And I’m sitting…looking around the table, soaking it in, totally overwhelmed with the holiness of it all. The sacredness of the moment. That sense that in spite of everything awful I have ever seen, we are going to make it. I know that sounds like it’s from a greeting card, but I know you know what I’m talking about. Ordinary moments become infused with something else. With meaning. Significance. Hope. (p.73)…

Whatever those things are that make you feel fully alive and like the universe is ultimately a good place and you are not alone. I need a faith that doesn’t deny those moments but embraces them. I need a spiritual understanding that celebrates those kinds of transcendent moments instead of avoid them…a spirituality that is real will have to make sense of them and show us how they fit. They are expressions of what it means to live in God’s world. (74)”

Winton Boyd used these reflections as part of his sermon on January 13.  For a copy of the full sermon, see category on left.

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Preached by Winton Boyd on January 13th, 2008

1 John 2:15-17

15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. The love of the Father is not in those who love the world;
16 for all that is in the world–the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches–comes not from the Father but from the world.
17 And the world and its desire are passing away, but those who do the will of God live forever.

Background: In the fall of 2006, Dave Myers purchased the right to choose a sermon topic or passage at a ORUCC fundraising auction. Earlier this fall, the Tuesday night Bible Study group (of which Dave is a part) approached me with this passage from First John and asked for a sermon on it. One of their questions was, “Are we all to be monks or nuns?”

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