Check Your Sources

Image Credit to Alan O’Rourke for this image.

In this third and final teaching from our series, “Hearing Through Noise”, Leah examines the role that outside influences play over how we think and what we might be able to hear from Jesus. In addition to insights from Jesus*, Leah looks again at how the work of 20th Century Philosopher/Anthropologist/Literary Scholar Rene Girard might help us think through these questions.

*Please note that Jesus’ critiques mentioned here of some specific 1st century Jewish leaders should not be understood as critiques of all Jewish leaders or Jewish people, either in ancient or contemporary contexts. Rather, these critiques apply to leaders in any group context, including Christian, who would use their influence in rivalrous ways.

Listen to the teaching below, or check out Leah’s notes here.

Know Your Own Voice

When trying to sort through what we might actually be hearing from God, a classic quandary is the question “Is that God or is that me?”. As Leah points out in this second teaching on discernment, a first step in answering that question has to do with understanding ourselves better, so we are more aware of what our own voice actually sounds like. This teaching includes a look at Jesus’ journey growing in self-awareness. It also considers what tidying (via Maria Kondo) and the Enneagram typology (via Richard Rohr and Christopher Heuertz) might teach us about ourselves.

To learn more about the Enneagram, check out the following resources:

Books -

The Road Back To You by Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stable
The Sacred Enneagram by Christopher Heuertz
The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective by Richard Rohr and Andreas Ebert

Podcasts -

The Liturgists “Enneagram” Episode (Episode 37)
The Road Back to you Podcast

Listen to the teaching below or review Leah’s notes here.

Turn Down the Volume

In this message, Leah starts our first teaching series of the year exploring the theme of discernment. “Hearing Through Noise” will explore how we make space to tune into the voice of the Divine, even when life has a lot of noisy things screaming for our attention. This first teaching in the series starts by exploring what Leah thinks has to be foundational - committing to carving out time for stillness. Includes insights from Henry Nouwen, Pico Iyer, Blaise Pascal, Mary Oliver, and Jesus.

Listen to the teaching below, or review Leah’s notes here.

More to the Story

In this first teaching of Advent 2018, Leah considers the traditional lectionary text for this Sunday from Luke 21, in which Jesus gets apocalyptic. But that might not mean what you think.

Listen to Leah’s teaching below or read the notes here.

In the Company of Others

In this fifth and final teaching in our “Reconstructing Faith” series, Leah considers the benefits and challenges to navigating faith with others in spiritual community. Kim D. also shares some of her story regarding deconstructing and reconstructing faith alongside others, beginning at minute 5:30.

Listen to the teaching below or check out Leah’s notes here.

When We Sing

In this “Reconstructing Faith” teaching, Leah tackles the topic of musical worship, considering what role it might play in a community like Haven that sees to be safe, diverse, and Jesus-centered. Alisa Winkie also shares her story of deconstructing and reconstructing musical worship and worship leading in her journey of faith (beginning around minute 6:30).

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

Let's Talk About the Bible

Photo credit: Coen Peppelenbos found here

A critical piece for many of us in regards to Jesus-centered faith seems to do with how we think about the Bible. In this teaching, Matt Silas shares some of his journey of deconstruction around the Bible (beginning around 7 minutes in), and Leah opens up a conversation around some of the ways we might think about reconstructing a healthy relationship with this set of texts the Christian faith calls sacred.

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

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Who is God Anyway?

photocredit: johnfinn564 http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnfinn64/3278505071/

In this teaching, Leah tackles deconstructing and reconstructing our understanding of the Identity of God, and Izek Champ share’s his own story on topic. (For Izek’s story, listen at 9 minutes.)

Listen to the teaching below or review Leah’s notes here.

Questions In the Dark

In this teaching, Leah kicked off a new teaching series, called “Reconstructing Faith”, exploring the journey of deconstructing and rebuilding our spiritual frameworks and practices. Here she explores where the journey often starts, and looks at a character who appeared in the life of Jesus that seemed to walk a similar path.

Listen to the teaching below or check out Leah’s notes here.

The Exodus

Ancient Egyptian Art that May be Relevant to the Exodus Story

In this final Origin Stories teaching, Leah explores the Exodus story, looking at what it spoke to Ancient Israel and how that might inform what it might speak to us.

Look over Leah’s notes here or listen to the the teaching below.

Joseph

The late Rene Girard.

In this teaching, Leah considers the story of Joseph from Genesis, and what it tells us about envy, rivalry, and how God might consider those things, with the help of the late anthropologist/philosopher/literary critic Rene Girard.

Look at Leah’s notes or download the teaching below. (Please forgive the first two minutes of sub-par audio quality. It does improve.)

Hagar

In this teaching, Leah explores a story from the life of Abraham; one that centers Hagar, a woman caught up in the story of the Ancient Patriarch. In doing so, Leah considers what the inclusion of Hagar's story in Genesis might tell us about God's heart and the importance of our own stories in the community of faith we're building.

Listen to the teaching below or check out Leah's notes here.

The Tower of Babel

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On this special week, guest speaker Rabbi Dorothy Richman opened up the story of the Tower of Babel, challenging the traditional Christian interpretation through a look at Jewish perspectives on the story.

Listen to the teaching below or review Dorothy's notes here.

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Creation Tales

Michelangelo's Creation of Adam on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel

In this teaching, Leah begins a new series re-examining the stories at the beginning of the Bible and what kind of questions we should actually be asking of them. She begins the series by looking at the first two chapters of Genesis and the Creation Tales they tell.

Listen to the teaching below or look over Leah's notes here.

Safe Group/Diverse Group

 In this last teaching in the series "It's Complicated", Leah considers how we go about building Jesus-centered community that's both safe and diverse. 

Listen to the teaching below or review Leah's notes here.

The Spirit in Me/The Spirit in Us

On this Pentecost Sunday, Leah continues her series on complexities of Jesus-centered faith, "It's Complicated", considering the complicated nature of the Holy Spirit and what it's meant to lead us into.

Listen to the teaching below or check out Leah's notes here.

The Now, The Not Yet, and The Necessary

Why did Dr. King and Mother Teresa have such different experiences of hearing from God? Why are some people reportedly healed when prayed for, while others aren't? If God is still active in the world, why are thing so broken and unjust? These are some of the questions Leah wrestles with theologically in this week's teaching from the series, "It's Complicated".

Listen to the teaching below or review Leah's notes here.

Systems are the Best/Systems are the Worst

In this second teaching in the "It's Complicated" series, Leah reflects on navigating both the opportunities and challenges involved with human systems, and what Jesus might say about all of it.

Listen to the teaching below or review Leah's notes here.

It's Complicated: Life/Loss (Easter 2018)

There’s a phrase that’s become a go-to in media and social media, when recognizing that not all questions can be answered in a concise way. “It’s complicated”. In this new series, Leah will be exploring some of the complexities of the life and faith, and consider how leaning into the paradoxes and tensions can actually bring freedom and greater insight in the journey. In this first teaching, she explores the complexity at the heart of the Easter story: the complexity of resurrection.

Listen to the teaching below or review Leah's notes here.
 

Character Matters: High Fidelity

What is fidelity? It’s kind of a word that’s fallen out of fashion these days, but the dictionary definition says it means something like “faithfulness to a person, cause, or belief, demonstrated by continuing loyalty and support”. Often to contemporary ears, that means talking about marriage or long-term partnered relationships, but in this teaching, Leah considers how fidelity can impact all of our significant relationships and what Jesus, who was never married, might have to say about it.

Listen to the teaching below or read Leah's notes here.