Stations | Labyrinth

We've been talking about doing a station worship or labyrinth. Check out this link. You can virtually walk the labyrinth that Jonny Baker, Grace, and YFC created. This is the same labyrinth that we have in the paint can in my office. What do you think? Could we do it?

Holy Week and Easter

If we're going to keep with the 2nd and 4th Sundays for our gatherings - we have a small kink in the operation. The 4th Sunday of March is Easter Sunday. Are you going to be out of town? Would you rather meet on Palm Sunday? Have a gathering during Holy Week?

Also... during February and March we are going to meet in the chapel. Down the hall from the offices. Let us know what you think.

Temptation - 13.February.2005

Hello All!

We're putting together the outline for our gathering on the 13th. These are the scripture verses that we are looking at: Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7, Psalm 32, Romans 5:12-19, and Matthew 4:1-11. From the sounds of our meeting last night, we're going to focus on the scripture from Matt - honing in on tempation. Temptation surrounds us everyday. From simple and harmless - "Do I want that Oreo from that bag on the counter?" to "Do I want to cook the books so that my mega-million business will look even better?".

Jesus was tempted three times in the desert by devil - food/sustenance, self-importance, and power.

We're not quite sure what the gathering will look like yet. Suggestions?

Time and Date Issues

Read this post below. It has some good thoughts that we can use in our discussion on Sunday. Do we need to be on Sunday?

I miss Church (pt 2) - "but I like my Sundays..."

Following on from the last post, I was chatting about this stuff with a friend last night who has also been spending a bit of time away from traditional church, and was also surprising herself by thinking about returning sometime.

And as much as I hate to admit it, one barrier between returning to 'normal' Church is that Sundays are just too damn precious and valuable! Now I hate how that sounds - as if anything were too valuable to give to God - but in this busy era that we live in, Sunday mornings are rare periods of quality time. Time to go out for breakfast with the family, go riding with friends, get up and do that study, reading or home project you've been putting off all week. And church can really wipe out over half of Sunday in most circumstances. Now perhaps if you're in a church you love with great relationships that might be a good thing, of course!

I also have to admit that I'm increasingly a fan of weeknight church. Both for these reasons but also because I feel that church on a weeknight actually more closely relates to and integrates with our normal lives, rather than creating a 'separate' space where you can almost live two distinct lives... on a weeknight people come to the gathering with the stories of the day, the emotions and stresses, and then their interaction with God and his people has to work with that and through that, which I think is a great thing, rather than creating an isolated and distinct space where little has to reflect the reality of our working lives.

I found it on the Breathing Space blog.

Vision

I want to invite everyone to give us their vision of what they want EPIC to be. Part of the reason we started this whole thing is because there was an unrest in the church. A longing of something more. We still have that unrest - what is the vision of the next part of our journey?

A thought about the chapel...

Hello All on this chilly morning.

I've been thinking about our space. While I love the upper room - the soft lighting, the skylight, etc. It really is a big classroom. And we have to take everything down and re-create it every two weeks.

If we were to use the chapel - we could create an altar, prayer corner, whatever we want to call it. But it could be a holy space that anyone could use throughout the week. Plus, this would cut down on our set up / take down time. We could easily get rid of the horrible couches and out of tune piano.

On another note... check out the willzhead blog. He mentions Alias (one of my favorite shows) and that they are trying to get away from the self-contained episodes to a more "narrative" approach. Will asks how can we do this for the church? How can we do this for EPIC? Should we have "self-contained" episodes or a "sprawling narrative" that connects all our worship gatherings?

Enough for now. Stay warm and be good.

...The EPIC Journey... 

Just because I'm in the kitchen and your in the hall doesn't mean we're not at the same party

A concept church design. Start with a party and add God, as opposed to start with church and try and make it fun.

It might be better to have a party that is redemptive than having a boring service that has moments of drama/fun. More on this later. Its really important. Many of my friends start with a "service" that is, in its kernal, BORING and then try to add the fun element. But house church people start with a party in the living room - that is indeed fun and relational, and make the party work, make it useful, add purpsose and direction to the party.
If church is a party . . .
Andrew Jones

Coffeeshop church? Maybe lets do little clusters of chairs around small (preferably round or square) tables. It gives us a place for our cider;)

Conversation spaces. It seems like those who attend EPIC feel a little uncomfortable. Everyone is always very quiet. Is there a way to encourage comfort, conversation/decrease anxiety and still be reverent. My first inclination is to set the room as "cocktail party": (semi)loud music, pretty lighting, a host and a room small enough to make it feel like there are a lot of people. Maybe our room is too big.

Lets try stuff in the Chapel. Its smaller. We could have one hell of a God party in there...

This is what I missed while I was away

We were talking about the tsunami and what we could do to help. We decided to do a coin drive for UNICEF. They were excited to give money to help kids. So, during the discussion I pull out "The Word on the Street" and read Mark 12:41-44

Jesus takes a break, sits down opposite the collection boxes. He watches the loaded wafting their big notes around so everyone can see how much they're giving to God's charity. He doesn't miss the cash-strapped widow who sneaks up and tries to get two measly little coins in to the box without them clattering around and giving her away...

Nudging his team, Jesus points her out and says, "Truth is, this woman's put in more than the rest put together! If we're talking percentages, they give a tiny fraction of their vast disposable income - she gives all of it, 100 percent."

Some of the kids, say stuff like "that sounded different", etc. I say it is a new translation, interpretation of the bible. Ian Hess says "No wonder I understood it then". You missed a pretty hot and heavy discussion about America’s role in the world – “why should we give to them, if they don’t appreciate it” “what happens if these countries end up bombing us” etc. We have to be above all the crap that happens in the world and be compassionate and generous because that is who we are as Americans.

So... this is what we're going to do. Amanda is going to make an announcement in church and challenge the church, Sunday School kids, and themselves to collect coins. For example...

1¢ for each window in your house

5¢ for each room in your house

10¢ for each door

25¢ for each family member or roommate

$1 for your house (Chris suggested $1 per square foot – I told him that was only for the big givers)

50¢ for each can of pop you were going to drink today.

Just wanted to let you know what our awesome kids are doing.

Have an awesome day on the beach today.