Advent 3: Joy Coming to Loneliness

Advent is Latin for "coming" and has traditionally been understood by the church as a time to prepare our hearts, spirits, and minds for the remembrance of Jesus' first coming at Christmas, as well as the coming we look ahead to. This year, Leah will be asking what it means in this present moment, the Bay Area in late 2017, to experience God's "coming" in practical terms, along with the gifts that coming brings.

This third Sunday of Advent, Leah considers the traditional gift reflected in the first Sunday of Advent: the gift of Joy. What did "joy" mean to the writers of the Bible? What was it connected to? How was it expressed? And how might Jesus' coming connect with this concept and joy and give us an invitation to connection, particularly in a world marked by loneliness.

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

Advent 2: Peace Coming to Fear

Advent is Latin for "coming" and has traditionally been understood by the church as a time to prepare our hearts, spirits, and minds for the remembrance of Jesus' first coming at Christmas, as well as the coming we look ahead to. This year, Leah will be asking what it means in this present moment, the Bay Area in late 2017, to experience God's "coming" in practical terms, along with the gifts that coming brings.

This second Sunday of Advent, Leah considers the traditional gift reflected in the first Sunday of Advent: the gift of Peace. What does the coming of peace actually look like in our present time? What might it mean for the climate of fear and division we're witnessing today? These are the questions Leah considers, with more help from the Prophet Isaiah.

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

Advent 1: Hope Coming to Discouragement

Advent is Latin for "coming" and has traditionally been understood by the church as a time to prepare our hearts, spirits, and minds for the remembrance of Jesus' first coming at Christmas, as well as the coming we look ahead to. This year, Leah will be asking what it means in this present moment, the Bay Area in late 2017, to experience God's "coming" in practical terms, along with the gifts that coming brings.

This first Sunday of Advent, Leah considers the traditional gift reflected in the first Sunday of Advent: the gift of Hope. Is hope just a hallmark sentiment? Wishful thinking? Naiveté? Or is it something essential to moving forward in faith and community, particularly in trying times? These are the questions Leah considers, with inspiration from the Prophet Isaiah.

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

The Importance of Intergenerational Faith Communities

Jill Gidlund has over 20 years in the area of nurturing children's spirituality.  On this Sunday, Jill spoke to Haven about the value of intergenerational worship, and how Haven could grow in thoughtfully engaging with the children in our community.  

In February 2018, Jill Gidlund accepted a position as the Pastor to Children and Families at Haven Berkeley.

Relational Currency

What might economics have to do with how we relate to one another? What do financial matters have to do with our relational conflicts, and how we navigate them? Are we always required to forgive one another when we've been wronged, even in circumstances of abuse or oppression? All of these are questions Leah tackles in her latest teaching on  "A Generous Faithfulness".

Review the notes or listen to the teaching below.

What Does It Mean to Be Human?

On October 29th, we kicked off a new teaching series, titled "A Generous Faithfulness", about the kind of experience of Jesus-centered faith we're trying to move towards. Rather than focusing on what we're breaking away from (as in "Smashing Idols") we're turning our focus on what we're living into. This first teaching in the new series features reflections from Leah's middle school years, insights from Brené Brown's latest book, and a challenging parable of Jesus. 

Look at Leah's notes or listen to the teaching below. (Be aware, the audio is somewhat unclear the first four minutes of the teaching, but improves significantly after that.)

What Happens When We Pray?

In this third teaching from the "Back to Basics" series, Leah opens up a conversation around prayer. Does it work? What would "work" even mean? How might both the Bible, as well as secular science inform our perspective on this ancient practice?

Read Leah's notes here or listen to the teaching below.

What's the Big Deal About the Bible?

In this teaching, Haven's own Luke Wassink shares his thoughts about wrestling with and getting the best out of a library of ancient documents we've come to know of as the Bible. Check out his notes or listen to the audio, included below.

Why Jesus?

This image depicts one way we might consider the practice of faith, described in this teaching.

In this first teaching in the "Back to Basics" series, Leah considers a question pretty fundamental to Christianity: why Jesus? What's the big deal? She examines some of the traditional answers Christians have offered and their weaknesses, and opens up a conversation about another possible approach, including a review of the Blue Ocean model of Centered Set.

Read the notes here or listen to the recording below.

Walking the Prayer Labyrinth

The Labyrinth at Land's End in San Francisco.

In this teaching, bringing back our series on "Soul Care for Seasons of Stress", Leah reflects on an ancient practice of prayer and meditation that draws upon the tradition of Pilgrimage for inspiration. Look over Leah's notes here or listen to the teaching below on the Labyrinth as a practice for Soul Care.

Generations Together

In this teaching, our own Connie Barker opens up a conversation on Generational Theory, considering how the call to be intergenerational might enhance and help fulfill the greater mission of Haven. Only the first 20 minutes were recorded; the rest of the time was group discussion. Listen below for a sense of what Connie brought for us to consider.

What We Mean By...Safe

Is safety a Jesus-centered value? If so, what might that mean? How might it impact the way we gather? In this teaching, Leah explores the third of three Haven core values and invites the community to consider how it might live further into becoming a safe spiritual home for all. And she gets there considering sheep, of all things.

Review the notes or listen to a recording of this teaching here.

What We Mean By...Diverse

Art by Connor Lucock, Creative Commons License

In this teaching, Leah continues the series on vision, by considering what we mean when we talk about being "Diverse" as a core value of Haven. Leah appeals both to the greater story the Bible tells, as well as one particular encounter, to reflect on God's valuing of diverse community.

Read the notes or listen to the teaching below.

What We Mean By...Jesus-Centered

The view of the Trinity most Christians consider to be Orthodox.

In this teaching, Leah explores the 1st of the 3 Haven Core Values Identified in the recent teaching on Envisioning Haven Together: Faith that's Jesus-Centered. As Leah explains here, part of what has traditionally set Jesus-Centered faith apart from other understandings of cosmic reality is the relationship the person of Jesus has to God, a relationship Christians have long described through a group of relationships called the Trinity. How is the Trinity best understood, and how is it not?

Read Leah's notes, or listen to the teaching below, as she explores these questions and their implications for Haven.

Envisioning Haven Together

This image communicates the vision Leah describes for Haven throughout the teaching.

"A vision has power...I think at certain points in our growing and maturing as people we need those fresh pictures that can resonate with us; they gel with what we've already come to know is true, but they help us see where it might take us forward...I’ve had a sense lately that Haven, as a community, is in a similar place of needing fresh vision to further grow and develop."

In this important teaching, Leah seeks to synthesize conversations that have been happening through Haven in recent months in regards to the vision for our community. The teaching revolves around a call she senses to live into the tension of three core values, represented by the Venn Diagram pictured above. Listen below or read Leah's notes, and see how she spells out the implications of these values, the tensions they present, and the invitation Jesus seems to be extending our community to live in the center of those tensions and find him there.

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Together With Kids

"Jesus didn't have kids; [he was] not a dad. But he seemed very fond of them. He seemed to really be into kids and he seemed to continually try to center the attention of his followers on them; on what was going on with them. Why was that? If we're gonna think about what it means to do life together, it's important that we think about what is the role all of us play - not just the parents, but all of us... in the next generation of what God is doing."

This teaching takes a look at how God seems to be inviting his people to think about life together with kids, by taking a broad look at the advice on parenting, child-rearing, and relating to kids given throughout the Bible. In this teaching, Leah makes the case that these are questions that are not just relevant for parents, but for all who seek to live out Jesus-centered community.

Review Leah's notes or listen to the audio below.

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Together With Immigrants

What did Jesus mean when he encouraged his followers to "welcome the stranger"? How might that encouragement inform our own perspective on the welcome of vulnerable immigrants in our communities, particularly in a time when those immigrants are at heightened risk? As our guest preacher Pastor Tita Valeriano shares, "Hospitality is not just about opening our door and being nice until they leave our house. For Christ, it is truly more than that."

Listen below for more of Tita's words on Jesus' view of hospitality and the implications of "Celebrate Together" on our inclusion of immigrants.

Together with Our Neighbors

"How might our faith open up helpful connections with our neighbors? (Like…our literal neighbors. Or our coworkers. The people we shop next to at Berkeley Bowl….) How might Jesus be inviting us to think about the places we actually inhabit and our connections to them?"

In this teaching, Leah invites us to think about life in our local communities, outside of church. Read the notes or listen below as she explores how an encouragement to the people of God in the Hebrew Bible, might have resonance for us today.

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Stars or No Stars?

Photo Credit: Sandor Weisz. Creative Commons license.

Dr. Seuss' classic children's story The Sneetches explores the arbitrary ways groups define themselves against each other. As Dr. Christena Cleveland points out in her book Disunity In Christ, sadly the church is not immune from this phenomenon. But is that the only way it has to be? Or did Jesus, and the early church intend something better? In this teaching Leah explores Paul's hope for the early church to be a community that could hold diverse unity, and considers how we might continue to live into that hope.

First watch the video (or read the book), then you can read the notes or listen to the teaching below.

A New Way to Relate

"All of us are wired for relationship. We’re wired to be with other people. We come from tribal ancestors who found safety, security, identity, and developed a plethora of amazing cultures that span the globe by associating in groups.

"We often feel the need to define and defend our group against other groups... But for those of us who are trying to live lives of Jesus-centered faith, hunkering down and only taking care of our own doesn’t really seem to be an option..." 

For Easter, we started a new series on all of the relationships in our lives, whether as group members, partners, parents, friends, or colleagues. What wisdom does Jesus (as well as thinkers of today) have for us about living well in the midst of all these relationships? Listen below or check out the notes here, and tune in next week for more!