Sacred Worship

In this hybrid Sunday gathering, Leah shared her last teaching from the "Recovering the Sacred" series, inviting the Haven community to consider the practice of worship and how it might connect us with the Divine and help us experience the sacred.

After the teaching, those in attendance were invited to interact with a number of worship experiences. A couple of those experiences have been included in a virtual format on this video of the entire service.

Listen to or watch the teaching alone below.

Sacred Commitments

In this teaching from our "Recovering the Sacred" series, Leah considered the ancient practice of making covenants, and how it might be useful in our day as we think now about making commitments.

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

Sacred Texts

In this Zoom-only Sunday gathering, Leah teaches on the theme of "Sacred Texts" and considers how reordering our relationship to the Bible might be an important part of our recovering of the sacred.

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

Sacred Space

During this hybrid outdoor gathering, Leah and Jeanne give a joint teaching on the idea of "Sacred Space", and why it might be relevant to think about the ways that places can connect us with the Divine.

Listen to or watch the teaching below.

Sacred Heritage

In this teaching from the "Recovering the Sacred" series, Leah explores how we might handle stories and texts from our sacred tradition that we find problematic, and what it might mean to "include and transcend" as we seek to rebuild and recover our spiritual practices.

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

Sacred Vision

Photo by Dubwise Version.

In this teaching, we continued our "Recovering the Sacred" series with a conversation around "Sacred Vision". Leah joins with Ginny Prince to consider how God might impart encouraging vision to a community, which can be vital in the work of "reorder". The gathering included a collective listening prayer practice, but that has been omitted from the video out of respect for attendees' privacy.

Listen to or watch Leah and Ginny’s presentation below.

Recovering the Sacred (Introduction)

In this teaching, Leah gives an introduction to our new summer teaching series, "Recovering the Sacred". In this introduction, she lays the groundwork for exploring the part of the Biblical narrative about how a community rebuilt after a time of great disruption, and considers how Father Richard Rohr's framework of growth happening through the pattern of "Order, Disorder, Reorder" might be instructive for us in this season.

Read Leah’s notes here and watch the teaching below.

Exploring the Journey

The Labyrinth we drew at Washington Elementary.

In this hybrid Sunday gathering, Leah gave a brief teaching, reflecting on life as a journey and inviting our community into an ancient spiritual practice to invite God into that journeying. She introduced our community to the practice of walking a prayer labyrinth, which those gathered then had the opportunity to do.

Read Leah’s notes here and watch the teaching below.

Being Seen

During this virtual-only service, Leah shares a teaching inviting Haven to reflect on another element of cultivating intergenerational community: how we respond to the youth and young adults increasingly in the Haven space. She looks at what we might learn from Jesus in this area, with a story from early in the gospel John.

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

Reflections on Seasons

As part of the hybrid service on June 13, 2021, Jeanne led a reflection with the children on the seasons of the year. Leah followed it with a brief teaching about one of the places the Bible speaks most explicitly about the seasonality of life, and led us through a prayer experience to reflect on the seasons we find ourselves in now.

Read Leah’s notes here and view both teachings below.

On Wearing Masks and Eating Meat

In this teaching, Leah reflects a bit theologically about some of the complexity of gathering in this coming-out-of-Covid season, and considers what insight some instruction to the early church might bring.

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

Pentecost 2021

The group gathered for our first Hybrid outdoor service in 2021.

This brief teaching from Leah was part of Haven's first hybrid service held on 5/23/2021, Pentecost Sunday.

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

Rebuilding Intergenerationally

Leah and Jeanne lead another conversation in preparation for the return to in-person services. This conversation focused specifically on what it means to build a community that is intergenerational and supports the needs of adults and kids.

Planning to Rebuild

Leah and Jeanne open up a community discussion about the next phase of Haven life, as we look towards beginning to hold in-person gatherings outdoors, currently scheduled to begin May 23.

Envisioning Again

In this Sunday gathering, Lead Pastor Leah Martens and Connections Pastor Jeanne Wong lead a conversation around revisiting the vision of Haven as we prepare to begin meeting in person once again.

Breaking Down My Lens of Binary Thinking

Image by Alan Levine

In this teaching by Connections Pastor Jeanne Wong, Jeanne shares some of her story and her process in moving beyond dualistic thinking and the way it impacts the journey of faith.

Listen to or watch her teaching below.

Revealing Resurrection

On Easter Sunday 2021, Leah concluded our series on The Stories That Sustain Us. In this teaching Leah reflects on the way resurrection is revealed in the New Testament stories and what it might teach us about experiencing resurrection in our current circumstances.

See Leah’s notes here and listen to or watch the video of her teaching below.

A Different Kind of Triumph

In this Palm Sunday teaching, Leah considers the spectacle of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem and compares it to other traditions, with the hopes that we might better understand what Jesus was communicating engaging the day the way he did, and how that can sustain us now.

Between Loss and Hope

“Jesus Wept” by Tabitha Kaylee Hawk. Oklahoma City Memorial. https://www.flickr.com/photos/tabithahawk/14384061966/in/photolist-nV55uo-4CFZXW-pff7NE-7cf4p9-229Fs3-3VwEJ-81Gv6r-2ky5x2A-scgA6R-aYLHac-eeGMSC-23BWkof-4x5tHS-7V8K9y-9dsPvL-sd3AmR-gqXTxi-gqXzLE-e51Wer-eaLsz3-278q7bE-4iFh4w-7JJa8E-2iMtEnW-eaLqgL-eaLqBd-eaLr3L-a699p2-eaLrrm-CQhFc-LTV4x-eaLrHm-EDTAh-9y7kwb-ehBV1n-dsmDY7-8YXaNk-7aNp4M-bUadH-4d3Gs3-dKvrip-4S53DD-LTV96-4S53Cp-acqnBj-LTLpN-LTV7x-sctoM-i4P3W-5DH6d7

This is a teaching by Leah Martens to mark the anniversary of a year since the pandemic began. In this "Story That Sustains Us", she revisits a story about Jesus being present to two sisters in the delicate place many of us have been inhabiting this year between loss and hope.

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

Transfiguring Transcendence

Theophanes the Greek, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

In this teaching, Katie Kay helps us pivot in Lent to the latter part of the Stories That Sustain Us from the gospels, by looking at one that has mystified and inspired Christians through the ages. Here she shares her thoughts on the Transfiguration, and how that story may connect with us and sustain us today.

Listen to Katie’s teaching or watch the video below.