In this discussion we take a look at the first part of a discussion on how we understand the Bible. Without apology or qualification, we look at the Jewish Story known to most of us as the Old Testament. During this session, we tried to lay aside our "Christian" view of the OT, recognizing that it was first and foremost a Jewish text. If that is the case, how are we to understand the stories and lessons it contains? What do we do with the apparent contradictions between the God of the OT and God who became flesh in the New Testament? Are the two at odds with each other? We intentionally left this week incomplete and will come back to the discussion when we will look at the "Jesus Story" and "Our Story".

Last summer, we took time as a community to brainstorm passages and subjects that would be helpful to discuss in our community. One of those subjects was, "What is the Gospel?" This week Johnny Cisneros brings it home by talking about this subject in an incredible way!

On January 8th we began a two week discussion on Why we are who we are. I showed a Ted video by a man named Simon Sinek, where he discussed what he calls the "Golden Circle". Here's the url to the video - http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.htmlThe video is prmarily business oriented, but it provided a wonderful launching point for our discussion on why we are who we are and why do we do what we do. Watch the video (link is above), then come listen to this week, because the bozo (me) that was supposed to turn on the recording device last week forgot. :)

Another long intro, so advance the recording about seven minutes to get to the teaching. In this Advent study, we talked abou the importance of entering into the story of Jesus' coming in a fresh way. This can only be done if ware are aware of how we are framing the stories of the Bible are willing to let God's love shine through our own lenses, regardless of how we may have seen things in the past.

Continuing our Advent discussion, we looked at the place of joy in our lives, particularly the joy that can be found as we celebrate life by breaking bread together.

During the Advent season, we took each of the weeks of advent and tied them into our community rhythms. In the season of anticipation, it was a wonderful time to add a practical application to our season of waiting. This Sunday we had the privilege of being joined by a long term friend of Matt's who has found great freedom through his practice of comtemplative prayer and lectio divina. He took time to share a bit of his story and how God has met him in this wonderful practice of being quiet and centering his life on God.

Advent - The season of waiting and hoping. Waiting for the day of celebration, though today may not be one of those days. Hoping that the vision of a kingdom where justice triumphs over greed, where peace is more powerful than revenge and where kindness is not seasonal, will eventually come to pass. This is advent! Unfortunately, we live in the midst of a world filled with pain and suffering, not hope and anticipation. So, what do we do? Do we throw up our hands and give up? Or, like the great "weeping prophet" Jeremiah, do we pray in faith..."But there's one other thing I remember, and remembering, I keep a grip on hope: God's loyal love couldn't have run out, his merciful love couldn't have dried up. They're created new every morning. How great your faithfulness! I'm sticking with God (I say it over and over). He's all I've got left. God proves to be good to the man who passionately waits, to the woman who diligently seeks. It's a good thing to quietly hope, quietly hope for help from God. It's a good thing when you're young to stick it out through the hard times." (Lamentations 3:21-26 The Message)

This is a continuation of our discussion about women in leadership of the church. The intro is long as the recorder was started during our announcement time, so fast forware a bit to get to the discussion.

We are super pleased to welcome Lynn Likkel to our community and team. Lynn is a trained pastoral counselor/chaplain and will be a great resource to Mosaic and our city. This message captures her formal installation, as well as her teaching on the role of women and her own personal journey into pastoral ministry. It is heartfelt and packed with insight!

On September 4th, the weather was so beautiful in Bellingham that we decided to hold our gathering at Boulevard park. As part of that morning, we broke into small groups and spent some time thinking about questions we would like to talk about with regard to four areas:Bible passages, people or storiesIssues of the dayQuestions we struggle withTopics we want to talk aboutTodays discussion tackles a subject that showed up on a lot of the sheets that were turned in. What is our response to other religions?