How was church today?

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jimkenney12 said:
Watched the online service for DRCC yesterday evening. Listening to the reading of the story of Thomas, it felt very fake to me when it finished with the bit about commissioning the disciples to make judgements on people. It felt like an insertion by a church grasping for the authority to do that. Previously I tended to focus on the courage Thomas showed in being away the previous Sunday and when he was first to declare his readiness to follow Jesus when they heard Lazarus had died. The commissioning felt contrary to previous declarations that only the Father can make those decisions.
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Rev Andria at Hillhurst preached a terrific message on this story of Thomas - who has forever been known as 'doubting Thomas'. She commented on how Thomas probably did SO many other things in his life & ministry, yet this 'doubting' is the moment that remains indelibly linked with his image. She wondered what life might be like if WE were to be known by our most challenging/less-than-our-best moments (which we all have!) & that label followed us forever - as it actually does for many of us in Canada & elsewhere in the world. How do we attach labels to others? What labels are attached to us? How does this affect all of us? This is the kind of preaching that I truly appreciate.
 
We had our Annual Meeting Sunday. I generally act as secretary and treasurer chairs as no one else will offer and if we don't prearrange the setup we could be there for a long time. Meeting went well except for calls to increase income from a diminishing populace. The image just doesn't settle well with anyone observing the larger picture.

Years of discouragement to toddlers and youth has its consequences ...

I tell people I am not religious but a scholar of physical, mental and emotional factors that make up life ... there is a faction that would eliminate parts of this triad ... like psyche processing of observations of reality and pure secularism! Thus I am considered out there beyond their wills to control ...

Are there options? I believe so but the masses would like to do the same old thing according to SET protocol by previous tyranny! Any that demand equality in any manner are to be shut out ... church in secular terms is peculiar when devoid of balanced unknown (mystery) and ego (sentient).

Then sentient is derived from the sense of sentinel, watchpoint, or Magellan Tower ... a high observation (science) that great power of will would rather demolish!

Thus it all goes down because of internalized avarice (general non cognizance) because of blinding effect ...
 
jimkenney12 said:
So some of the members are living in a dysfunctional fantasy?
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My thoughts exactly. You've got a bunch of elderly "running out of steam" folk, on limited incomes, generally, and you're just expecting that they're going to conjure up more money; from where?

It's good of you to step up and look after the meeting. It's a talent to let people feel heard while still getting through the meeting in reasonable time.

Our current rev has the sneaky habit of incorporating the Annual Meeting with a Sunday service, followed by lunch. We start at 10 instead of 10:30, but it seems to keep the meeting moving knowing that we're waiting for lunch...
 
Dysfunctional fantasy seems to be endemic ... and yet many deny it can exist ... like the expression if you believe you are sane ... you may not be vs if you believe you are insane ... it may not be as you were told!

Humans have trouble with the Thomas Double as well as the Gestalt ... a shadowy haunting essence hanging in the back of power that appears ... but really isn't a weird manifestation in life?

It is because folk love mystery and do not wish to resolve it ... thus the unknown is extensive ...

I know! It is not to be presented because only the powerful can tell truths --- as claimed by some Western leaders also! You have to believe it ... but some of us don't! Maybe because we knocked about the mystery ... and it opened ... Jesus foretold it!
 
Went to Knox United Church in Grenville today for the first time. Very welcoming church. The minister used her sermon from last week's she was unable to use it last week. She focused on the wounds Jesus retained after his resurrection. We also can take our wounds with us as we join Jesus on the Way. As I was writing this post, I thought of Henri Nouwen's The Wounded Healer. She also lifted up the courage Thomas showed in expressing his doubt.
 
Imagine social justice in a world intent on winners slapping anything else bown and burning the earth as if there were no come back or reciprocating factor like bouncing demos that form large paradigms ... leaving the anonymous powers devilishly insecure ... thus evolution of diabolical polity? Isn't that slick ... some are blind to it because of the shine ... a blinding glow?

After that abstracts ... short versions of the great layout as a prostitution of unspeakable proportions ... by prior arrangements?

Consider the Trumped up situation with the rush in Ukrainica ... all for avarice about the neighbour ... tears ensure and the powers couldn't give a crap! Do such things pile up in the divine log? Thus literacy is discouraged ... as complexity!

What's Lexis originally ... it get slax ...
 
I'm writing this before church today. I am leading worship at a 2 point charge that is 15 minutes or less away from one another, and each congregation will have very small numbers. Today, my sister was supposed to accompany me to play the piano, but her husband is in the hospital in Sunnybrook with surgery complications...unexpected, of course, so I go to the churches solo. There will be no musical accompaniment and I am not the world's best singer, especially when I have a froggy voice after very little sleep. So...stress. I have decided to ask the congregation to suggest hymns other than the ones I've chosen, and to choose familiar ones that they don't mind singing without piano accompaniment. I hope that works. My message is on....suffering. Seems appropriate!
 
Nancy said:
I'm writing this before church today. I am leading worship at a 2 point charge that is 15 minutes or less away from one another, and each congregation will have very small numbers. Today, my sister was supposed to accompany me to play the piano, but her husband is in the hospital in Sunnybrook with surgery complications...unexpected, of course, so I go to the churches solo. There will be no musical accompaniment and I am not the world's best singer, especially when I have a froggy voice after very little sleep. So...stress. I have decided to ask the congregation to suggest hymns other than the ones I've chosen, and to choose familiar ones that they don't mind singing without piano accompaniment. I hope that works. My message is on....suffering. Seems appropriate!
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It's always hard to understand why churches in this position don't consolidate. But I know these things don't necessarily go easy.
 
Nancy said:
I'm writing this before church today. I am leading worship at a 2 point charge that is 15 minutes or less away from one another, and each congregation will have very small numbers. Today, my sister was supposed to accompany me to play the piano, but her husband is in the hospital in Sunnybrook with surgery complications...unexpected, of course, so I go to the churches solo. There will be no musical accompaniment and I am not the world's best singer, especially when I have a froggy voice after very little sleep. So...stress. I have decided to ask the congregation to suggest hymns other than the ones I've chosen, and to choose familiar ones that they don't mind singing without piano accompaniment. I hope that works. My message is on....suffering. Seems appropriate!
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The pain of going on along with only the unknown self ... a mystery to say least about ... lo' such matters! Then the immaterial arises ... as abstract image in the trees ...
 
paradox3 said:
It's always hard to understand why churches in this position don't consolidate.
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Especially when they are already a two point charge, so sharing a minister, and are so close together. It seems to me it should be an easier merger case than some of the ones we have seen in London.
 
Nancy, the most important benefit for worship services for small congregations is seeing each other. As long as your leadership is compassionate, they will not be concerned about the music.

Each small congregation will have one or more peoe who walk there and probably some who have already travelled for fifteen or more minutes to get there. Adding another fifteen minutes will be a real burden.
 
For these small congregations in 2 point charges, how far do members travel to buy groceries, see a family doctor, go the hardware store and so on?

15 minutes doesn't seem like a long trip to me. More than saving travel time, aren't these tiny congregations more about preserving long established relationships in their communities?
 
paradox3 said:
For these small congregations in 2 point charges, how far do members travel to buy groceries, see a family doctor, go the hardware store and so on?

15 minutes doesn't seem like a long trip to me. More than saving travel time, aren't these tiny congregations more about preserving long established relationships in their communities?
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Thus diverse into diversity as God is distributive in areas other than those that state that they have God collected exclusively ... a wild extant expression that can blow a number ... like Pi ed*the piper in the stew! Ed*the???? Sometimes edifying .... sometime snot ...

There are folks that despise snotty urchins ... the children of the offspring ... expect a few words missing as to enhance the mystery!
 
Word search may involve lexicons ...

Others disagree with me because of the belief in know how about such extents ... extensively out there as OBI Ke Nobi ... thus universal gathering ... in principle as we drop due to fallacy ... Eire is ide ...
 
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