Boot Camp | Ordinary Days. A couple of weeks ago I attended a conference called New Church Start Boot Camp. I’m normally not a huge fan of conferences – it’s hard to guarantee quality, and scheduling long (and sometimes overnight) days away from my family is never a fun thing to do. But I decided to attend this one with the encouragement of my friend Royce, and with the vague hope that I might leave with a nugget or two of useful information. Oh. My. Goodness. This conference was AMAZING. One of the things that was most rewarding for me personally in attending this conference was that these people have DONE IT. To a lot of people I talk to, the work we’re doing in Norton is so unusual they can’t even find the words to express it. ”A church re-start? I have a whole new outlook on conferences. Whose We Are: Two UU Spiritual Autobiographies « Soul Seeds.
Today’s sermon was a collaborative effort by Rev. Anthony David and Rev. Marti Keller. Marti, in a sermon from several weeks ago, you defined spirituality as “that which makes us feel individually whole, authentic, and connected to the source of life”—and you talked about how summertime is a time for taking risks in doing just this, for counteracting the habits and patterns in our lives which shrink our souls and keep us in a state of forgetfulness. So we take risks, and since we are holistic beings of body and mind and heart and spirit, the risks can be physical (like braving the Daredevil ride just opening at Six Flags), or cultural (you mentioned buying a ticket to a summer film in a genre you usually detest, say the fourth installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise) and also theological (like exploring—from a place of curiosity–a belief that you absolutely don’t get).
Today you and I engage in such risk-taking, in the special form of spiritual autobiography. Whose are we? Towards a Holy Theatre. Ft. Boise weblog, June, 2011. Dueling postcards We returned home to find our mail included a somewhat overgrown baby bear postcard, a quite sizeable mama bear postcard, and a REALLY big daddy bear postcard for our ID-02 congressional race. The baby was paid for and authorized by Bryan Smith for Congress, Inc., which is to say the Club for Growth challenger to the sitting moderate Republican, Rep. Mike Simpson. He is (and they are) for "Repeal Obamacare entirely," which yeah, Simpson voted for 4 dozen times already. It's actually mostly calm and positive and sure, there's the Brigham Young University wink and nudge, and a nice view of the candidate with ripe wheat in the background, because he's... well, a lawyer.
Big mama postcard emphasizes that Bryan Smith's stock in trade is not just being a lawyer, but a personal injury lawyer, OMG. Big daddy postcard came from Club for Growth Action, features ugly colors and a really big photo of Nancy Pelosi. Bunkerville Christi Turner's report on the rancher v. For real? "1. Spirituality and Sunflowers | Matt Kinsi's guide to Unitarian Universalism, spirituality, Millennials and the Quarter-Life Crisis. Seeking Divinity. City of Refuge. Syracusan in Seattle. Boy in the Bands - Scott Wells on the practice of Christian faith.