Crossroads Church

In A Fresh Perspective, dig into topics central to the Christian experience in fresh ways, and (re)discover a faith you can love.

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What’s the Issue Anyway?

When was your last ____________ experience?

Spiritual disconnection, dissatisfaction and deconstruction are the fruit of a Christianity that no longer:

o Exists in the ____________ middle

o Holds the ____________ tensions of both/and that make up reality

o Invites people to ____________ instead of leading people to certainty

o Balances the ____________ of God and Jesus

o Forms an alternative set of loyalties to ____________, ____________ and ____________

o Gives people a sense of belonging to a sacred world of ____________

o ____________ hearts with radical grace and union with the Divine

o ____________ the Gospel in a manner that provides a cosmic and positive vision, where the soul can live safely.

o Allows the individual to ____________ the corporate body to a deeper faithfulness to Jesus We are in a painful ____________ shift within Christianity.

What Wisdom does Scripture offer us?

Jesus knew the ____________ of a paradigm shift. (Mt 9:17, Lk 5:33-35, Mt 5:17)

Don’t Miss This!

Paradigm shifts are necessary for a faith tradition to ____________ history.

Spiritual dissatisfaction, disconnection and deconstruction can become a __________ __________.

How can I live this in my everyday, normal life?

A ____________ ____________ has been emerging over the past 100 years in Christianity.

This fresh perspective is a way of seeing the Bible (and the Christian tradition as a whole) as ____________, ____________, and ____________

This fresh perspective is a way of seeing the Christian life as a life of ____________ and ____________.

Neither paradigm is ____________ Christian Tradition.

How does this make me a better person and the world a better place?

A fresh perspective offers us the opportunity to (re)discover a faith we can ____________ and ____________ with confident hope.

What is God inviting you into today?

1. Sign me up for the 6:30pm Thursday Night Fresh Perspective Conversation Group with Ryan beginning April 27th.
2. Send me information about the online group and other Fresh Perspective Conversation Groups available.
3. I would like to invite a few friends and facilitate my own Fresh Perspective Conversation Group.
4. Send me the link for Marcus Borg’s book “The Heart of Christianity: Rediscovering a Life of Faith”

Thought provoking questions:

1. Think of a time in your life when you came to a realization you knew would reshape your life. What emotions were you feeling in those moments? Was it a sudden realization or did it come over time?
2. Have you ever had a realization that a belief you were taught and believed was no longer serving you well in your relationship with God and in loving your neighbor? What did you do?
3. When you think of Jesus, do you think of a man who had to learn and grow and change his mind about what it meant to be a faithful Jew or do you think of a superhuman who just knew everything about God? Why? Is it hard for you to imagine Jesus having to go through a paradigm shift? Why or why not?
4. Do you resonate with the need for a fresh perspective or does your current faith paradigm sustain your encounter with God? If you don’t feel the need for a fresh perspective, do you think it’s worth understanding why some might need one? What will be difficult about creating space for others to “be Christian” differently than you?
5. What would be the marks of a faith that you could love? What current value or interpretation within your Christian paradigm most hinders your encounter with the sacred?

For Further Reading

1. The Wisdom Pattern by Richard Rohr
2. The Heart of Christianity: Rediscovering a Life of Faith by Marcus Borg

Easter with Crossroads is Where Love Includes Everyone

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What’s the Issue Anyway?

“Isolation is being by yourself. ________________ is not liking it.” Loneliness is an ______________.

Loneliness is a __________.

Loneliness leads to feelings of ________________.

What Wisdom does the Resurrection story of John offer our loneliness?

The Living Christ found and included Mary in the loneliness of her ____________. (John 20:13-16)

The Living Christ found and included the disciples in the loneliness of their ____________. (John 20:19)

The Living Christ found and included Thomas in the loneliness of his ____________. (John 20:26-27)

The Living Christ found and included Peter in the loneliness of his ____________. (John 21:19)

Don’t Miss This!

The Living Christ finds and includes everyone: ______ ____________ __________.

How can I live this in my everyday, normal life?

If you are lonely and feeling lost, open your heart to the ____________ ____________ that sees you and includes you.

If you are feeling spiritually disconnected, dissatisfied or deconstructing explore faith with a ____________ ________________.

If you are following the ________________ path of Jesus, live a life of grace and inclusion.

How does this make me a better person and the world a better place?

____________ flourishes when love includes everyone.

________________ heals our wounds when love includes everyone.

What is God inviting you into today?

1. Explore faith from a fresh perspective by participating in the series starting next week.
2. Send me information about joining a Fresh Perspective Conversation group.
3. I would like to meet with a care minister about my loneliness and how participating in the Crossroads community might help.

Thought provoking questions:

1. Think of a time in your life when you felt the sting of loneliness or lostness. What were some contributing factors to those feelings? If you found your way through them, what helped?
2. John 20-21 tells stories of the Living Christ finding people in their loneliness. Do one of those people and their feelings (grief, doubt, fear or defeat) resonate with you more than another?
3. Have you ever had a spiritual experience where you felt divine love wash over you and remind you that you are included? If so, describe that experience and what it has meant to you.
4. The vison of the historical Jesus and the encounters with the Living Christ are ultimately about a vision of God that loves everyone and includes everyone in the mission to love radically. Who is someone you could intentionally love and include this week? What will you do to love and include them? When will you do it?
5. How can you include someone with the goal of understanding them better?
6. Is there a context in your life (school, work, home, etc.) that you feel a lack of peace? How might finding and including people bring peace to that context?

In Explaining Jesus | Experiencing Christ, we will together explore how understanding the historical Jesus can shape our own faith, actions and experience with him today.

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What’s the Issue Anyway?

If we never experience _______________, we will never experience _____________.

What Wisdom does Scripture offer us?

The Historical Jesus saw _______________ __________ as the perfect time to challenge the conventional wisdom of his day. (Luke 9:51)

That week, Jesus staged two _______________ demonstrations:

The way Jesus entered ______________ was a demonstration against __________ path to peace. (Zachariah 9:9-10 and Mark 11:1-11)

The way Jesus entered the _____________ was a demonstration against _____________ path to God. (Isaiah 56:7, Jeremiah 7:4-11 and Mark 11:15-17)

That week, Jesus _____________ the danger that comes when these two paths collide. (Mark 12-13)

That week, Jesus and his challenge became __________________ to Roman and Jewish leadership.

Don’t Miss This!

Explaining the Historical Jesus as a challenge to his people invites us to experience the living Christ as a source of _____________ to challenge the structures _______________ to Jesus’ way of peace.

How can I live this in my everyday, normal life?

Challenge policies and systems that result in ______________, _______________ and _______________. Challenge structures with _______________ and compassion.

Expect _______________ from those who benefit from the conventional wisdom.

How does this make me a better person and the world a better place?

When we challenge the violent and exclusionary structures of our day we live in __________ with the spirit of Jesus.

What is God inviting you into today?

1. Attend the Good Friday Experience
2. Get baptized as a demonstration of following the peacemaking path of Jesus (April 16)
3. Look for a place of exclusion or violence and actively challenge it

Thought provoking questions:

1. How do you typically respond to having your way of thinking or behaving challenged?
2. Have you ever had someone that challenged you in ways that helped you grow?
3. Does the idea of Jesus planning these events as intentional demonstrations make sense to you? Why or why not?
4. Do you think the historical Jesus thought he would be arrested and crucified that week? Why or why not?
5. Where in your life do you see exclusion or lack of compassion? How do you see it at work, in your neighborhood, at school or even society at large? What could you do to show compassion and inclusion in those settings?

In Explaining Jesus | Experiencing Christ, we will together explore how understanding the historical Jesus can shape our own faith, actions and experience with him today.

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What’s the Issue Anyway?

Failing to change often leads to ____________.

Organizations and individuals can decide what ____________ ____________.

The Tension

There are _________ voices. There are ____________ voices. It’s hard to know _________ voice to listen to.

Not all wise voices of change are ____________.

It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for a bird to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad. –C.S. Lewis

What did Jesus say about change?

Our Anchor Verse: Mark 8:29 “But who do you say that I am?”

The historical Jesus was put into the category of leaders called ______________. A prophet is a person ____________ by God to ____________ for God.

Only about ____% of what the biblical prophets spoke about predicted the future and about ____% was messianic.

The purpose of a prophet was not to ____________ the future but to ____________ it.

If Jesus was a prophetic voice of change...what did he come to change?

1. Their _______________ and _______________ of the love of God. (Mark 12:29-34)

You cannot separate loving God from loving ____________.

If we love God we will love those whom _______ _________. It’s impossible to love God and not love our neighbor because we become _________ _________ what we most love. We are what _______ _________.

The Change: To see that our love for God is not primarily expressed in a ____________ ____________ but rather in service to our _______________.

2. Bring all people _______________ not leave them in their ____________________.

Jesus violated existing ____________ categories and _______________ rules. In any kind of us/them, insider/outsider comparison comes the temptation of _______________ _______________.

It’s _______________ instead of __________________ thinking.

The Change: Become collaborators instead of competitors. See those who we disagree with as _________________ and not ____________—as neighbors not “others.”

If we __________ those who ____________ exclusion, then we’re not loving our neighbors that God loves.

3.The way they _______________ their Bible.

Jesus’ nature is ____________ like God. God’s nature is ____________ like Jesus. (John 14:9, Col 1:15, 19, Heb 1:3)

The Change: We need to interpret this book through _________ and _________ of Jesus, not the other way around.

4.Increase the level of _______ in the world. (John 15:11, 17:13)

The Change: _________ more. ____________ more. Try not to take _______________ so seriously.

What is Jesus inviting us into today?

1. Learn to interpret the Bible through the lens of Jesus.
2. Read A More Christlike God, A More Beautiful Gospel by Bradley Jersak.
3. Initiate a conversation with someone who appears excluded.
4. Play and laugh with a kid this week.

Questions for Further discussion:

1. On a scale of 1-10 (1 = resistant, 10 = fully welcoming) how do you handle change? Tell about a time in your life when you ignored a wise voice in your life (and the result of that) or a time when you followed a wise voice in your life (and the result of that)?
2. If you grew up in or around a church, what were you taught about prophets or prophecy?
3. The historical Jesus came to bring change. Besides the 4 changes from the talk, what else did Jesus come to change and why did he want to change those things?
4. Which one of the 4 changes from the talk do you find the most challenging and why?
5. What is one change that you need to make in your life? What is difficult about making that change? What is compelling about making that change?
6. What is something you’ve been taught about the nature of God that you find difficult to reconcile with the character and nature of Jesus?
7. What have you done (in the past week or two) that has increased the level of joy in your life? If you wanted to laugh more, what would you do to accomplish that?

In Explaining Jesus | Experiencing Christ, we will together explore how understanding the historical Jesus can shape our own faith, actions and experience with him today.

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What was the Cultural Matrix of the historical Jesus?

Sometimes the decision to get INVOLVED brings joy and sometimes it brings pain.

The social world or cultural matrix of Jesus was in CRISIS.

The Roman tax policy created a system of DOUBLE TAXATION for the Jews.

The politics of HOLINESS dominated the Jewish world as a response to Roman occupation.

Three active renewal movements INTENSIFIED the politics of holiness.

These cultural dynamics created a social group called SINNERS and OUTCASTS.

Roman INJUSTICES and LOYALTY to the Jewish politics of holiness were leading to war.

What was the Historical Jesus then amid this Social Crisis?

Jesus was a SAGE who challenged conventional wisdom by teaching an alternative WAY.

Jesus taught an image of reality: ULTIMATELY Spirit that is gracious and understanding.

Jesus ate with SINNERS to demonstrate his image of reality. (Mark 2:16)

To describe this quality of God, Jesus most often used the word COMPASSIONATE.

Jesus used three primary images for his alternative way of TRANSFORMATION.

1. A new HEART (Mark 7)
2. CENTERING on God/Spirit (Lk 16:13; Mat 6:19-21)
3. The way of DEATH (Lk 9:23)

Jesus was the founder of a JEWISH revitalization movement grounded in COMPASSION. Mat 10:5-6; Lk 6:6

Don’t Miss This

Explaining the historical Jesus invites us to experience the living Christ as a compassionate GUIDE on the narrow peacemaking PATH.

How can I live this in my everyday, normal life?

QUESTION conventional wisdom and modern holiness politics.

CENTER your life on the compassionate, caring loving nature of Spirit.

Consider BAPTISM as a ritualized way of choosing the path Jesus invites you to follow.

How does this make me a better person and the world a better place?

Compassion makes suffering UNACCEPTABLE in a community. 

What is God inviting you into today?

1. Consider where in my normal, everyday life I need to give a more compassionate response to others.
2. Read the gospel of Luke through the lens of the clash of a politic of holiness and a politic of compassion.
3. Sign up for Baptism April 16.

Thought provoking questions:

1. What would you describe as the conventional wisdom of American life?
2. Have you ever felt the weight or exclusion of the politics of Holiness in your own life? When and how?
3. Why do you think Jesus felt so strongly regarding his vision for compassion over holiness?
4. What are the implications for those outside of Judaism if the historical Jesus’s message and movement were meant to revitalize and even rescue Jewish life from war with Rome in the first century?
5. How have you experienced the compassion of God that Jesus taught? If you had any kind of upbringing in faith, was it grounded in compassion or holiness?
6. If compassion makes suffering unacceptable, where are we as a culture and even a church not seeing or acting with compassion?

In Explaining Jesus | Experiencing Christ, we will together explore how understanding the historical Jesus can shape our own faith, actions and experience with him today.

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Mark 1: Jesus’ Baptism

In Mark 1:8, John declares to the crowd, “I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” It’s a clear declaration of two things happening at once:

One, a _________________ of our earthly form

Two, a _________________ to a spiritual realm

Mark 1:10 says, “As soon as Jesus came up out of the water he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.

Jesus realized his mission with his vision at the time of his _______________.

He declared he was anointed to ____________ the good news, give ____________ to the blind, and to _______________ the oppressed.

The two realms were not seen as separate but as _________________

Jesus was so clear in his __________ _____________ that he didn’t hesitate to act on the __________ he was given.

Jesus, as a man, was aware of the _______________ ____________ flowing through him.

When he would __________ or cast out ____________, he did so verbally “by the spirit of God.” Jesus was a confirmed wonder-worker.

The World of Spirit

Spiritual mindfulness comes in the form of five things: _________________, _________________, __________, __________ and _________________.

Stillness is the first _________________ to manifest your deep connection to God.

Acceptance is embracing the _____________ _____________ as is.

Flow happens when your inner self is still and you are _________________ of the moment.

Meditation is simply the practice of _____________ and ________-_______________, even against yourself.

Bring awareness to your heart and mentally ask yourself:

Who am I?

What do I want?

What am I grateful for? What is my purpose? How can I help others?

The Challenge

What is God calling you to see and hear about another reality?

In Explaining Jesus | Experiencing Christ, we will together explore how understanding the historical Jesus can shape our own faith, actions and experience with him today.

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What’s the Issue Anyway?

We can be _____________ by faith or reason.

A christianity unwelcoming of reason is a tool to gain ___________, maintain _____________ and impose _________.

What Wisdom does an exercise on the question “Who is Jesus?” offer us today?

Mark 8:27-30, Matthew 16:13-20, Luke 9:18-20

Explaining the Historical Jesus: “How _______________ is it that the Historical Jesus asked the disciples a question about his identity?”

Experiencing Christ: “Who do you say that Jesus is amidst _________ fears, persecutions, ideas of God, and hopes for the future?”

Jesus left behind him _____________ not memorizers, _____________ not reciters, _____________ not parrots.” –Dominic Crossan, The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant

Explaining Jesus and Experiencing Christ is about answering the question, “Who do you say that I am?” while embracing _________ reason and faith.

What will we explore in the weeks leading up to Easter?

Week 02: Explaining that the historical Jesus was a man of the ___________ invites us to experience the living Christ as a spiritual reality today.

Week 03: Explaining that the historical Jesus challenged the politics of _____________ with the politics of ________________ invites us to experience the living Christ as a compassionate guide on the narrow peacemaking path.

Week 04: Explaining that the historical Jesus was a _____________ voice to his people invites us to experience the living Christ as a call to change personally and corporately.

Palm Sunday (Week 05): Explaining that the historical Jesus ________________ his people invites us to experience the living Christ as empowerment to challenge structures that oppose peace on earth.

Experiencing the living Christ while always searching for the historical Jesus:

Empowers us to resist _______________ ________________.

Frees us to boldly ask tough questions of our ________________, our ________________ and ________________.

Gives us permission to live a radical and _____________ faith grounded in compassion and inclusion.

What is God inviting you into today?

1. Attend the next four weeks with an open mind to understand the historical Jesus and an open heart to experience the living Christ.
2. Be mindful of anyone in my network who might benefit from this topic and make them aware of this series.
3. Read the gospels of Mark and John this week, being mindful of the differences and similarities in their stories of Jesus.

Thought-provoking questions:

1. Do you feel you lean more towards faith or reason in your spiritual life? How could you benefit from balancing the two?
2. Do you have any fears in thinking about following Jesus as a combination of understanding the historical Jesus and experiencing the living Christ?
3. Why do you think so many forms of christianity are afraid of reason or difficult questions around the texts of scripture and the life of Jesus?
4. What is the difference between truth and fact? Which do you think is more valuable in our spiritual lives?
5. Have you ever been silenced by someone when you asked a question that you believed was a legitimate, rational question of God, the Bible, or faith?

What does it practically mean to follow the peacemaking path of Jesus? In The Way of Peace, learn about the concept of a rule of life and discover flexible and achievable ways to walk this peacemaking path.

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Rule #01 Choose love, forgiveness and inclusion: Daily choose to follow Jesus: walk the narrow path of loving mercy, doing justice, and living sacrificially.

Rule #02 Listen to Wisdom: Daily listen to wisdom from Scripture, sacred writings and other sources to understand where peace is broken, and oppression is flourishing

Rule #03 Practice Mindfulness: Be attentive of the Divine Presence through unceasing prayer

Rule #04 Gather Together: Weekly join others to learn, celebrate and experience Divine Love

Rule #05 Create Hope: Share faith while unselfishly giving and serving

Rule #06 Intentionally Rest: Receive divine grace and restoration through self-care

To be in someone’s struggle is to be PROXIMATE.

Proximity requires HUMILITY.

Does my PRIVILEGE keep me from being PROXIMATE?

      “True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar, it comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.” –Martin Luther King, Jr.

Jesus reiterates that we are to love GOD and love our NEIGHBOR! (John 10:27-28)

Peter realized that God saw no BOUNDARIES. (Acts 10:28) 

We bring to the conversation some MISGUIDED beliefs. (John 10:29)

The criteria for OUR LOVE is not race or religion—it is NEED. (John 10:30-35)

Humbly Go: CROSS boundaries, LISTEN deeply and LOVE mercy

ACKNOWLEDGE your privilege.

Go where you are UNCOMFORTABLE.

I can choose to walk HUMBLY and be PROXIMATE.

This will help bring PEACE and JUSTICE to the world.

1.      Read the article “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” by Peggy McIntosh.

2.     Make an invitation to coffee or a meal.

3.     Get involved with Partners in Hope through your time, talent and treasure.

1.      Think about your race, gender, ethnicity, religion, primary language, ability, socioeconomic status, education level and sexual orientation. How do these specific aspects of your identity influence how you interact with others?

2.     What are the stereotypes you hold of the “other?” Why do you think you have those stereotypes? Is there room for a different narrative and perspective?

3.     Can you think of some other stories of Jesus modeling proximity and humility? With whom did he “break bread?”

4.    What are examples in which you have experienced people authentically sharing pain with you? What is your natural tendency when someone comes to you in pain? Are you inclined to a) offer solutions; b) say, “God is good, it will be ok;” or c) simply listen and create space for suffering?

5.     When you think about living a proximate life (whatever that might look like for you), what are the sacrifices that you would have to make? How do you feel about making those sacrifices?

What does it practically mean to follow the peacemaking path of Jesus? In The Way of Peace, learn about the concept of a rule of life and discover flexible and achievable ways to walk this peacemaking path.

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Rule #01 Choose love, forgiveness and inclusion: Daily choose to follow Jesus: walk the narrow path of loving mercy, doing justice, and living sacrificially.

Rule #02 Listen to Wisdom: Daily listen to wisdom from Scripture, sacred writings and other sources to understand where peace is broken, and oppression is flourishing

Rule #03 Practice Mindfulness: Be attentive of the Divine Presence through unceasing prayer Rule #04 Gather Together: Weekly join others to learn, celebrate and experience Divine Love Rule #05 Create Hope: Share faith while unselfishly giving and serving

What’s the Issue Anyway?

Weariness is ______________ exhaustion.

Sleep and __________ are not the same thing.

Burnout burns up our relationship with ________________ and with ______________.

What Wisdom does Jesus offer us regarding rest and burnout?

Matthew 11:28-29 Jesus understood that __________ can be exhausting.

Mark 12:30 Jesus understood we were not ________-________________ beings.

Mark 2:23-28 Jesus understood the beauty of the principle of ______________ __________.

“Labor without dignity is the cause of misery; rest without spirit, the source of depravity.” Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Sabbath

The Way of Peace Rule #6

__________________ Rest: Receive Divine grace and restoration through self-care

How can I live this in my everyday, normal life?

Understand where you are rest-______________ and practice the ____________ types of rest. Honor the sabbath principle and keep it __________.

How does this make me a better person and the world a better place?

True rest leads to the ________________ of our whole selves.

What is God inviting you into today?

1. Watch Dr. Saundra Daulton-Smith’s TEDx Talk “The real reason we are tired...”
2. Try and take one day a week and honor the Sabbath Principle.
3. Read “The Sabbath” by Abraham Joshua Heschel’s and/or “Sacred Rest” by Dr. Daulton- Smith

Thought provoking questions:

1. On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being completely exhausted and 10 being completely energized, where are you?
2. What do you think exhausted Jesus? What do you think Jesus would have done to rest?
3. Do you think of resting as a way of receiving divine grace? Why or why not?
4. Which of the 7 types of rest do you think you do well at maintaining? Which do you feel like you need to be more intentional about?
5. Can you think of a time when you felt it very easy to give love away? Do you think you were well rested? Why do you think being well-rested is so important to being able to love others well?

What does it practically mean to follow the peacemaking path of Jesus? In The Way of Peace, learn about the concept of a rule of life and discover flexible and achievable ways to walk this peacemaking path.