"How can this strange story of God made man, of a crucified saviour, of resurrection and new creation become credible for those whose entire mental training has conditioned them to believe that the real world is the world which can be satisfactorily explained and managed without the hypothesis of God? I know of only one clue to the answering of that question, only one real hermeneutic of the gospel: a congregation which believes it. (Leslie Newbigin)
*Be sure to read Genesis 12,14,15,16 (Four chapters?! You can do it!)
*A new kids schedule will be at the info table this Sunday. Find out when you're on and switch dates if you need to.
*If you haven't signed up for a main dish for the Potluck yet, please do. The calendar is at the info table.
*Don't forget to mark Wednesday, January 23rd in your calendar. It's our GutCheck night (where we talk the nuts and bolts of what it takes to make this thing we call theStory work). So if you care about this adventure, make sure you're present.
1. theStory Kids Planning Meeting It's happening tonight (Wednesday the 19th) from 8:08-9:29pm at 179 Christina. If you've been involved with kids stuff in the past or are interested to be involved in the future, be there.
2. Housekeeping Tomorrow morning (Thursday the 20th) from 10:00am to noon we'll be giving the space of much needed clean up. Swing by if you can help.
3. Xmas Eve Next Monday from 7:07-8:08pm. Usually Xmas Eve's are quiet and somber, but if you've ever witnessed a baby being born, it's anything but quiet. With that in mind, we intend to celebrate loudly. Bring an instrument or two.
4. Door The door between our two units is up and functional, but will need a coat of paint asap. Can you help? If so, shoot Joe and email at joe@thestory.ca
5. GutCheck Due to last week's snow storm, we're moving the GutCheck to Wednesday, January 23rd at 7:07pm. If you consider yourself a stake holder, you need to participate. Mark it in your calendar.
1. There are two additions to our December calendar that were not included in the print version: *Games Night: This Saturday starting at 7:07pm at 179 Christina. Bring a game(s) and snacks. There will be a Wii for the kids. *Xmas Eve Gathering: 7:07pm-8:08pm. Bring an instrument.
2. theStory Kids Planning Meeting This Wednesday from 7:07-9:29pm. If you've helped with kids stuff in the past or would like to in the future, you're invited.
3. Clean-Up Looking for a way to help out? Our space needs some help in the cleaning department. Do you have an hour this week to spare? If so, shoot Nathan an email at nathan@thestory.ca
4. Door A big thanks to Don White and Robb Armstrong this week for the donation (Don) and installation of a door between both buildings. The door is up and functional, but will need a coat of paint asap. Can you help? If so, shoot Joe and email at joe@thestory.ca
5. Metal Show If you dare, we're hosting a metal show tonight. I'm scared. :)
This week we talked about Genesis 12:1-3 and how it fits into the book of Genesis thus far, and also how it fits into the rest of scripture from Creation to Jesus to the modern church. You can read the transcript of the message here.
Also, in case you forgot. Board Games this Saturday at 7:00pm and We are doing a Christmas Eve service @ 7pm; bring any instrument you own.
This past Sunday we focused our thoughts on how it is we're telling God's story.
We looked back on historical images of how the church in centuries past have told the story. Often times, they told the tale by facing into the issues of their day, confronting the hard questions and it appears that they were even working out their theology out loud.
From the Second Century:
From the 13th Century:
We also took a look at how the story is being told in some circles today. The images were met with mixed reviews...for some the intent of the artists were seen as pure, for others it made them feel ‘cheap'.
For us, as we tell God's story, the question remains, how will we re-frame it for our context? How do we remain true to the scriptures and still face into the hard questions of our time?
"The methods that make the kingdom of North America strong economic, military, technological, informational are not suited to making the kingdom of God strong. I have had to learn a new methodology: truth-telling and love-making, prayer and parable. These are not methods very well adapted to raising the standard of living in suburbia or massaging the ego into a fashionable shape. But [Sarnia] and suburbia and the ego compose [our] parish..." (S. Horton)
Nov 1 we signed the papers and got a new space for theStory. We got it right downtown where we wanted to be. It's been completely renovated from floors to ceilings to fire code and we couldn't be happier. It's two storefronts side by side. You can see the picture below. We have a sign on order and should be up before Christmas and that will go on the big grey wall there.
The space on the left is where we hold our main Sunday gatherings. It's 3200 square feet. Right now it's full of freshly gathered thrift store couches and a small sound system for our gatherings. I also do all my office work out of the front of this space for Storyboard Solutions too. This way it guarentees that someone is always around and gives us a face with the building downtown. We have a lot of ideas for this space, they are currently being developed. The back area is going to be turned into a massive kitchen for our potlucks and parties. We're hoping to set up a wall to block off the office space and make it a little more secure. Our hope for this side is to give it as much of a living room feel as possible. Making people feel like at home, so they can use it like their home is a big priority for us.
The left side is where the children meet on Sunday mornings. It's 2200 square feet with a nice long strip of carpet down the middle. We are holding our first local concert here on December 14th so we are excited to get into that scene also. We are still debating what to do with this side. Part of us wants to make it the more commercial side of theStory where it would stay a profit venture so we could sublet/rent it out to bands, yoga instructors, artists, recording studios and whoever else to use at any times.
We pay $1375 a month for both space plus GST, tax and utilities which equals about $2000 a month. It's a great space to have and will really serve us well in this community to connect with this side of Sarnia. Joe and I are already loving being able to be here during the day as people walk by and we get to just strike up conversations with people we never would have met if we weren't here. So here is our space, and we are excited and feel blessed beyond anything to be here.
This we we talked to Ron about his story. If you know anything about Ron, you know its quite a story. Growing up in England and then moving over to Canada his story has tons of ups and downs. In fact in a lot of ways you could say that his story represents yet another one of us (or all of us) that are broken and out of order from the way that our lives should be. Follow his story deep enough and you will see some pretty broken moments that were inflicted on him and that were inflicted on others by him, just like all of our own stories. So in some ways his story is a perfect ending for a month where we talk about the way that our humanity is out of order and not the way God intended it.
Next month we are talking about God's relentless goal to put things back into order and bring his order back into his creation. So Ron's story is a perfect starter for next month also. We've all been watching Ron over the last number of years and his life amazes us. He's someone that we all look up to now and want to learn from in all sorts of ways. He's a beautiful example of God's order putting back the way it was supposed to be. God is slowly trying to put us all back into order, because we are all so horribly broken and out of order that we never function the way we are supposed to. So as we go into Decemeber let us remember that we are all out of order and in need to be constantly put back under the order of God on a daily basis. You can watch Ron's video below.
"God undertook the work of creation in such a way as to hand over the ongoing work to the world itself and to humanity in particular. This theme has growing prominence through the account until it reaches the logical conclusion that God can now stop work. God acts like an executive whose special task is to be creative, to initiate something new. When that is finished, she can move on. Or God works like a car manufacturer whose product will function reliably without needing service every few months." --John Goldingay
Looking at the stories of the Flood and the Tower of Babel in light of the previous chapters in Genesis, it becomes painfully clear what happens to the sin found in chapter 3 when it is left to grow and evolve. God's description of the scenario during the flood is that everything intention from man was wicked. No longer is it crouching by the door, as it was for Cain. It has been allowed to become something that has penetrated the hearts and minds of men. Humanity, something created to do so much good, has grown into something so perverse. I imagine that the people of Noah's day did much of the same things we do today, getting married, having kids, working, etc. Scripture doesn't necessarily indicate that what they were doing was bad in and of itself, but that their intentions were bad. They chose not to be apart of God's plan and purpose for creation. So we encounter a very disturbing and troubling text, where we find that God has regret about even created humanity at all. Which is difficult to understand about a God who apparently knows everything. I'm not sure what you do with passages like this that we come across, but sometimes with verses like this there is no tight, clean package that we can wrap it all up and explain God away. However we decide we want to reconcile this mystery, in the end God decides that his best option is to wipe humanity out in a flood and start all over again with Noah and his family. Fast forward to the Tower of Babel and we're in a similar situation. Humanity has found itself in a cycle. Now, however, humanity has congregated in the middle of a plain and decided that they are going to build a tower to heaven and make a name for themselves. So they are doing the opposite of what God told them to do in the beginning: Fill and subdue the earth. You can't fill the earth if you're remaining in one place. The work that God has left for us to take over Him, isn't getting done.
"Readers may well find the dynamics of their own lives reflected in Adam and Eve's [and the flood and the Tower of Babel] story. We too decline to fulfill the vocation God sets before us and decline to accept the limits God sets for us. We too prefer the knowledge tree to the life tree. We too yield to strange blandishments and lead one another astray. We too pay a price in our relationships with God and with our work, with our spouses and with our children. No doubt the storytellers' experience of these realities shaped their telling of their story. But it is here that the image of a once-for-all Fall is of particular significance. These realities are not how it was meant to be and not how it need have been if people at the beginning had made different choices." --John Goldingay
So we're left with the reality that we are faced with the same choices everyday. What happened in the fall is that we decided that it we wanted to decide what was good and what was bad. Instead of taking our cues from God about what is good and what is bad. This is still the case today. We can choose what is good or we can learn from God what is good and obey him and do what he says is good. The stories of the flood and the tower of Babel are a sober reminder of what happens when we continue to insist that we can decide what is good and what is not good. Thus we're faced with the same choices.
Handles Feb 2010 Roundup If Scripture is a means of God’s self revelation, then understanding it (on its terms and not ours) is of primary import ... Readmore...
FORECAST - HANDLES From whisper to print then back to whisper. Living and life giving, the Scriptures are a collection of images, a series ... Readmore...
ROUND-UP - DISLOCATED Jeremiah 29:4-14 tells an old story that intersects with our present day story. Israel’s elite were in exile, God’s divi ... Readmore...
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