West Hills Friends

We have been in survival mode for the last 15 months. We have been holding on to things tightly. What will it look like for us to come down from this state of survival? In this message Mark explores what it feels like to release, to surrender and to trust that we are lovingly held.

It sounds simple, huh? You are worthy of love. But darn it, we doubt that all the time. For this message Mark offers us a reminder of our worthiness and uses music from David Bazan (Trouble With Boys) at the end to drive home the point. The video of David Bazan's song can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHah0WT8EtQ

For his first word, Friend Chris L. explores the concept of "minimal viable product" which he picked up while working at a software company. While the concept sounded bad at first, Chris breaks down a minimal viable product in the context of his current life and explores how it is helping him see the world.

As a Quaker community, we value the tradition in which we gather. Over the next year, we will spend time exploring various "testimonies" of Quakerism. For this installment, we hear from our Friend Mica about the Quaker use of Queries.

We invited Friend Lloyd Lee Wilson to speak to our community about the Quaker testimonies. What is at the core of Quaker faith and practice?

Lloyd Lee Wilson, visiting from Friendship Friends Meeting of North Carolina Yearly Meeting, offered a message on Waiting Worship. Waiting Worship appears outwardly as silence, but inwardly is waiting upon God for immediate inspiration.

On one of the most emotionally complex Sundays of the year, Mother's Day, klarissa offers a message on alloparenting and chosen family.

For the next few months, we are going to be diving into the depths of our Quaker tradition. Quakerism is still alive, and we are intrigued by the ways in which it continues to inform the way we live our lives. For our first part, we invited our Friends Pat & Carol to share about simplicity.

On Sunday morning, Mark worshipped in a cathedral with a million-dollar bell tower, and on Sunday evenings he pulled food out of a trader joe's dumpster to eat. The paradox of the Christian church in America is that it exists alongside Empire mentality. What does it mean for Jesus followers to bring about the Kin-dom of God in the midst of Empre?

Margie Simmons shared a First Word about the metaphor of juggling glass balls, and about being okay with not being okay.

Mica shared a First Word about the tendency to avoid discomfort. Uncomfortable situations seem to be where the God of the Bible seeks to meet us.

Greg Morgan spoke about authority and the consensual power we give over to others. It has been his experience that the authority of Jesus grows experimentally within him. When you listen for God speaking through others, how do you look beyond the surface to listen for the Spirit of God? Are you mindful to give God inward authority over your own desires and preferences?

Anne Marie Jacob shared a message about her calling to a ministry that supports mothers in exploring their spirituality. Her queries: Where in your life do you most encounter resistance to being beloved by God? When is it hard to accept that you are loved just as you are, with what you bring? Who or what might offer you companionship as you journey through these times and places of disconnection?

Octavia Butler's words, as recorded in her Parable series, are a profound revelation, "All that you touch you change...all that you change changes you...God is Change." Franklin Graham disagrees, as do many other Evangelical leaders. They say that God is unchanging. For this message, Mark wrestles with the contradicting messages.

What happens when we gather together? For this message Graham Reside delves into the history of gatherings, and the way in which we create meaning for our lives by the ways in which we gather.

Perhaps it is time for us to unrest ourselves from the rational, static approach to the Bible. The Black Church has engaged with Dr. Christena Cleveland has called "sanctified imagination" when it comes to the Christian story. What can the white church learn from our brothers and sisters?

In the wake of what took place in our countries capital last week, we invited dr. doreen dodgen-magee to come and speak to us about ways we can be responding while also taking care of ourselves.

Was it "Vulnerability Sunday" at our Quaker meeting or what? For this Message, Mark shares how a recent revelation about his relationship to food has allowed him to access the wisdom found in many spiritual traditions that "power is at its best in weakness."

Is the Christmas story just something that happened 2,000 years ago? Or is it happening now? In you? In us? Klarissa Oh invites us into wondering about where we find ourselves in this story. Do you have expectations and dreams that have broken? What needs to be acknowledged and grieved? Referencing Leonard Cohen's wise lyric: "There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in." Where ha...

Graham has been working with men on deathrow in a Tennessee prison. During this season of Advent, Graham wonders about the gifts of Christmas, and how he has noticed those gifts showing up in the lives of those men.

What if "I Can't Breathe" is the title of 2020? With Covid-19, the continued taking of breath from BIPOC in this country, and wildfires polluting our air, our respiratory systems are under attack. Some scholars think the name for God "YWHW" is actually the sound of our breathing. What if we say the name of God each time we inhale/exhale?

When you were a child, how were you taught to be in your feelings? Were you rushed through experiences of anger or sadness to make you arrive at a more "pleasant" emotional state? In this message, Mark invites us to ponder the expectations we have of others, especially when it comes to their emotional responses. As we listen to the voices of BIPOC, how are we creating expectations that the only wa...

Klarissa Oh speaks about iconoclastic faith—a faith that breaks one frame and creates a new one.  Using the hermit crab as a metaphor for how we are pushed to step out of the homes we have created for ourselves, Klarissa invites us to explore how we might contribute to the shell-shedding and shell-building that nurtures that of God in us and in those whom society oppresses.

Gil George shares a message about self image in light of 1 Timothy 4:4, "For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude." What do I say to myself about what I see in the mirror? Are there things about myself I overlook when I am self-critical? What may hold me back from looking myself in the eye in the mirror and saying, "I am wonderfully made...

Allyn Dhynes delivers a First Word about the bus he drives becoming a spiritual vessel.