Dialogue with the Divine: Hannah and the Prayer for Help

Starting off a new teaching series called "Dialogue with the Divine, Leah leads us in a discussion on prayer. She shares her personal journey, exploring the different forms and meanings of prayer in her life. Drawing from diverse religious contexts, Leah emphasizes the importance of communication in nurturing a relationship with God. Using the story of Hannah as an example, who prayed fervently for a child, she invites viewers to delve into biblical narratives. Through this series, Leah encourages us to deepen our spiritual connection and explore our own unique relationship with prayer and the Divine.

Review Leah’s notes here and listen to or watch the teaching below.

The Building of Mary the Tower

In her Easter Sunday sermon, Leah explores Mary Magdalene’s longing for Jesus, her persistence in finding him after discovering his tomb empty, and her exploration of the mystery of his absence and proclamation of hope that we are not alone; that our spiritual journey can be one of transformation, moving us from grief or loss to hope and acceptance.

Review Leah’s notes and listen to or watch the teaching below.

The Blessing of Being Seen

On her final Sunday at Haven, Jeanne gives a teaching on a famous passage in Mathew, often called "the Beatitudes", in which she speaks directly as a woman of color to the BIPOC folk in the room.

You can view Jeanne’s Paraphrase of the Beatitudes here and listen to or watch her teaching below.

Evolving Systems

In her final teaching in the "Community Evolving" series, Leah take a look at an incident in the early church, as reported in Acts 15, and invites Haven to consider the way a group can work together through a process to pursue growth and change.

Review Leah’s notes here and listen to or watch the teaching below.

Evolving Awareness

This message is the second-to-last of Leah's teachings in the "Community Evolving" series. As the series comes to a close, we're looking at a couple of connected incidents in the book of Acts, with the hope that they may serve as a kind of case study in what collective evolution can look like. This first is a look at an incident in Acts 10, as the Spirit brings together two characters in a surprising way.

Review Leah’s notes and listen to or watch the teaching below.

Evolving Traditions

In this teaching, Leah continues the "Community Evolving" series, considering the role tradition plays in our personal and collective spiritual evolution. Shared in the midst of Advent 2022, Leah focuses on the nativity story in Matthew, and considers how that story is part of an evolving spiritual tradition, as well as how we can continue to participate in our traditions evolving.

You can review Leah’s notes here and listen to or watch the teaching below.

Evolving Models

In this third teaching in the “Community Evolving” series, Leah considers the implications of how a change in thinking impacts how we live and practice faith. We look at the way in which Jesus challenged the models of his day and encouraged his followers to be open to new ones to best serve the new things God was doing in his day, as we consider how Haven can continue to evolve our ways of gathering and practicing Jesus-centered faith.

You can review Leah’s notes here and listen to or watch the teaching below.

Evolving Understanding

Leah shares the second teaching in the "Community Evolving" series, considering one potential model for how people often develop in their worldviews, including their spirituality. She also looks at how we may see that same progression evident in the life of Jesus, inviting us to evolve as he did.

Review Leah’s notes here and listen to or watch the teaching below.

Community Evolving; An Introduction

In this new series, Leah invites Haven into an exploration of how growth and change can be an important part of our spiritual and communal life, considering the ways in which we are individually evolving, as well as the evolving we are doing communally. This first teaching introduces the topic and considers how our tradition points to a faith that grows and shifts over time, using the Apostle Paul as one example.

Review Leah’s notes here and listen to or watch the teaching below.

Return to Purpose

This is the third and final teaching from Pastor Leah Martens in her "Liberating Return" series. This teaching on the "Return to Purpose" looks at how her summer sabbatical and recent current events have impacted her own thinking about her sense of purpose, as well as purpose for Haven. It also draws upon the story of Esther from the Hebrew Bible.

Review Leah’s notes here and listen to or watch the teaching below.

Return to Relationships

In this message, Leah shares the second of three teachings on the "liberating returns" she experienced during her sabbatical. This teaching focuses on the return to significant relationships, and considers how we might adjust the quality of our presence to experience life-giving connection with others we care about.

Review Leah’s notes here and listen to or watch the teaching below.

Return to Self

In this message, Leah shares the first of three teachings on the "liberating returns" she experienced during her sabbatical. The first is focused on the return to one's self, and how that also impacts the return to Source. The teaching ends with an exercise to help each of us connect with self and Source.

Review Leah’s notes here and listen to or watch the teaching below.

Reflecting on the Sabbatical Summer

In this Sunday gathering, the community welcomes Pastor Leah Martens back into the space after a 12 week sabbatical and reflects on what has been learned and experienced during the time this summer.

Loss, Found, And...

Sylvia Williams shares some of her own journey of liberating spirituality.

(We acknowledges that there were challenges with the audio on this recording, but believe it is still worthwhile to provide a record of this teaching, despite these challenges.)

Liberating Spirituality

In this week's talk, Jeanne discusses her liberation journey and invites haven into thinking about what a liberated spiritual community would look like, noting that,

Liberation isn't tied up in a neat bow. It's learning to change that narrative for myself. The hardest thing is that it's full of emotion, but it's a journey that I started several years ago and I commit to it.

Listen to her talk or view the teaching below:

Setting Intentions

In this week’s message, Leah reflects on singing, performance, being ourselves, and setting aside time for restoration and reconnection, as she will be doing on her summer sabbatical:

“Jesus regularly took time to separate from the group. At times he withdrew by himself. At times he brought his closest followers with him. At times he wanted to pray. Other times it seems that he just needed a break from being ‘on.’ He needed to rest, he needed to eat and drink, and have intimate time with his closest companions. We see this pattern throughout his life, including on the last night before his death. As he prepared for what was to come, Jesus withdrew to the garden, needing to separate from the bigger group, and connect with God and his three closet friends.”

Review Leah’s notes here and listen to or view the teaching below:

All Things New

On this Easter Sunday, Leah recognizes the "resurrection moment" we are in as we continue to recover from the losses of the Covid Pandemic, and also reflects on the complicated nature of the life after loss.

Review Leah’s notes here and listen to or view the teaching below.

Being Neighbors

A Traditional Russian Icon of The Good Samaritan. Anonymous artist; dated end of XVIII c. Online source here.

In this final teaching Leah's series on parables, she covers one of the most famous, commonly known as "The Good Samaritan", and considers how a deeper look may make the story more challenging and important than many of us have come to believe.

Review Leah’s notes here and listen to or view the teaching below.