Awaken Community

What do you do when you come face to face with the possibility that what you believe is NOT true. When your beliefs come under attack, what might be born in this space?

Joshua spent 40 years preparing to lead the people into the promised land. He was ready at 40 and yet had to wait a generation to go into the land.

Joshua and the 11 spies sent into the promised land for 40 days. Do we have the capacity to see what God is preparing us for and wanting to give us even in the face of odds that seem insurmountable?

The life of Moses is often studied in three 40-year spans - 40 years of becoming, 40 years of formation, and 40 years of doing the work. Throughout his life he goes through these spans or phases or seasons of something being born and something dying. 

What connects all the 40's in the bible? 40 days in the wilderness, 40 days of fasting, 40 lashes as discipline. 40's a big deal. In our lives and also in the bible, there's a lot of meaning behind it. 

What comes to mind when you hear the words "repent" and "sin"? Guesses are not much positivity. This morning, we dive into the biblical meaning behind these words and not necessarily the American church's meaning. 

Jesus was among the marginalized for a majority of the time he ministered. What does this say about the kingdom? How does it influence our lives and our community when we say we want to look like Jesus?

What does a life lived under the influence of the kingdom look like? How would it guide our decisions from day to day? And what does Jesus say the kingdom of God is like? This is one more thing that we center Awaken around, another piece of Jesus' life and teachings.

Jenna speaks this morning about Mark 2 where the religious leaders of Jesus' time once again question his disciples and their seeming snub at the rules and practices of the time. 

This morning, Micah shares about how we can see the thing behind the thing. For the Pharisees, it was washing your hands that made you clean. But what Jesus worked to change was the religion for religion sake; you can wash the outside of a cup and it's still dirty inside.

Pastor Kelly Chatman joins us this morning to continue our series on the Life & Teachings of Jesus.

For our second week of the series, we're talking about the third way; non-violence and peace making. It's the way of Jesus and of his kingdom.   ***This week we made the hard decision to be back online for a few weeks due to the surge of covid cases.

At Awaken, we say we're about the well and not the fence. We prefer to gather around the well instead of building a fence to decide who's in and who's out. Which begs the question - what's in the well? What do we center ourselves around? Starting this week, we'll name those things that we center our community around. 

As a community, we reflect on 2021 and share some of the ways we saw God working in our lives through the year. 

We invite you to consider the arrival of Emmanuel. God with us. 

This Sunday, we had the treat of hearing from Pastor Jenna. She shared what it might look like to have the author of Peace with us here and now in this time. 

The word “father” can be complicated. It can be discomforting. It can bring up bad memories. It can also be reassuring and warm. However you come to that today, there’s a place for you.   We had an original sketch written by Tiffany Cornwell, Directed by Joy Donley, starring Tiffany Cornwell and Mike Donley during the gatherings.

This second week of Advent, the week of Joy, we continue on in Isaiah 9 on the names of the Lord - Almighty God. The Lord's might is different than the typical might; the way of the Lord doesn't fight fire with fire, violence with violence. So what does the Lord's might look like?

For the first Sunday of advent, we continue our tradition of the Advent art series with Vanessa Lucius brining her painting and Brienna Rossiter, a poem. This season, we'll be going through Isaiah 9:6 where it's prophesied the coming of Jesus and the names that he will be known as; Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

In addition to Jenna's prayer and reflection practice, we have Micah's teaching he would have taught on Sunday should he have been able to make it. He closes out the Faith & Doubt series with John the Baptist who asks "are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?"    Meditation music by: Signa (feat. John Mark Nelson)

We have a bit of a change of pace this week. Micah wasn’t able to make it Sunday morning so we did a prayer and reflection practice during the gathering. You can follow along with the prayer and reflection questions to participate. Micah’s sermon will be posted separately.

What does the role of memory play in our faith journeys and in that of a community? Psalm 77 gives us a window into that journey and how we hold it all as a community.

Throughout the gospels, Jesus teaches by saying "You have heard it said...but I say unto you..." as a way to show there's more. There's a deeper, fuller view than you've seen so far. What if we carried this on as a community? What would that look like?

This morning, we continue our series on Faith & Doubt with the quintessential doubter of the scriptures - Doubting Thomas. But could "Doubting Thomas" actually be someone to look up to instead of an example of what not to do?

The stories of Nicodemus illustrate the ways in which a question or a doubt can be the opening of a path to a deeper spiritual life.