Our ordinary lives are given an extraordinary significance when we accept that our lives are about something much larger, our pain is a participation in the redemptive suffering of God, our creativity is the very passion of God for the world. No longer do we need to self-validate, self-congratulate or self-doubt–our place in the cosmos…
Author: thecommonground.church
All are Invited to the Community Thanksgiving Meal!
Thursday, Nov. 22 (Thanksgiving Day): Join in a community Thanksgiving dinner from 11 AM – 1 PM at First Lutheran in the fellowship hall. This meal is free and open to anyone in the community. To make reservations or schedule delivery please call 608-592-4800. Directions
Who are the people living below the poverty line in the United States?
Three First Lutheran Church young people hosted a screening of the short film, “The Line,” on November 4. It featured four stories about families in the United States living below the poverty line. Over 30 adults were in attendance and were led in smaller group discussion by the high schoolers. We are proud of our youth. Way to go, Paul, Grace and Harly!
If you haven’t seen the film, please take a moment to view it this Thanksgiving week to consider God’s call to you and the church in addressing poverty in the US.
“You’re not done until you’re dead.” Craig Groeschel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=raW6tLe3-K0
What if we could recover the sense of “eldership” promoted in this video in our local churches amongst our seasoned generations? What an amazing way to re-purpose and honor a group’s wisdom, experience, presence and voice to stand with those who are in situations that are rife with risk, discomfort, pain and suffering.
Smashing Idols Through Pain
(from The Work of the People)
Barbara Brown Taylor is the Butman Professor of Religion at Piedmont College in rural northeast Georgia. An Episcopal priest since 1984, she is the author of twelve books, including the New York Times bestseller An Altar in the World. Her first memoir, Leaving Church, met with widespread critical acclaim, winning a 2006 Author of the Year award from the Georgia Writers Association. Taylor and her husband Ed live on a working farm in the foothills of the Appalachians with wild turkeys, red foxes, two old Quarter horses and too many chickens.
Advent: Radical Gospel
Shane is the co-founder of the Simple Way, a faith community in inner-city Philadelphia that has helped to birth and connect radical faith communities around the world. His ministry experience is varied, from a 10-week stint working alongside Mother Teresa in Calcutta to a year spent serving a wealthy mega-congregation called Willow Creek Community Church outside of Chicago. Shane is the author of several books including “The Irresistible Revolution”, “Jesus for President” and “Becoming the Answer to Our Prayers.”
A church that doesn’t provoke any crises, a gospel that doesn’t unsettle, a word of God that doesn’t get under anyone’s skin, a word of God that doesn’t touch the real sin of the society in which it is being proclaimed–what gospel is that? Very nice, pious considerations that don’t bother anyone, that’s the way many would like preaching to be. Those preachers who avoid every thorny matter so as not to be harassed, so as not to have conflicts and difficulties, do not light up the world they live in.
A Gospel that Unsettles, Oscar Romero
Love is only love…
Love Is Only Love by Leo Tolstoy Love is only love when it is given in the same degree to outsiders, to the adherents of other religions, and even to the enemies who hate us and do us harm. Source: Unknown
Common Ground Church 