The Gathering

Some of us loved our childhood.  Others?  Not so much.  But for all of us, childhood and children hold an almost sacred place.

Jesus shared a very high view of little ones - he called it being childlike.  What is so special about that?  This is the question Mike Gathright considered this Sunday at Storyline's Gathering.

For the past two weeks at the Gathering, Mike Gathright has explored the echoes of God in the world, in our life, and in our hearts.
This Sunday, Paul Knapp picked up where he left off and pondered two questions:
What is beauty? 
How do we find it? 

For many reasons when we think of God, most of us in the West think of a male deity.  Father.  That isn't wrong, but are we missing some essential aspects of the character of God when we limit "Him" to being a male?

This Sunday is Mother's Day and Mike Gathright considered what we might learn from considering mothers and motherhood with God's approach to each and every one of us.  

Plato said, "All learning is remembering."  What did he mean by that?  Could it be that we know things, that we don't know we know...universal "truths" that resonate with all human hearts?  Where in the world did this come from?  Or didn't it?

This Sunday at Storyline's Gathering Mike Gathright will begin a month long exploration of the echoes of God in the world, in our life and in our hearts.  Do we know more than we know we know?  Do we believe more than we believe we do?  Jesus seems to think so.

Winston Churchill once said, "Democracy is the worst form of government - except for all the others that have been tried."  To some extent, the same could be said of living with hope and living by faith...tough stuff. But certainly better than the alternative.

This Sunday at Storyline's Gathering Mike Gathright considered what flows out of living with hope and living by faith that can transform life into the abundant life, Jesus is inviting us in to.

This month as we consider how to respond to Easter - the miraculous news that Jesus has risen from the dead - Mike Gathright explored the challenge of living by faith in an age of science and reason.  Are they totally incompatible?  

Our world is full of reasons to be cynical. When we stare at the facts, pessimism becomes easy and hopefulness becomes not only a choice, but a challenge. So, the question becomes: is having hope virtuous? Is hope necessary?

This Sunday at Storyline's Gathering, Wesley Rieth explored how choosing hope—or not choosing it—can influence everything we know about the world around us. 

When things get complicated, when we get confused, it is often a good reason to keep a safe distance.  Easter can get like this.  It is easy to acknowledge it without really doing much with it. 

This Sunday at Storyline's Gathering Mike Gathright looked at the one thing everyone is already doing that could make Easter a turning point in our life.

Life, oh boy.  So awesome and so tough. We love it, and yet...there are times, aren't there?

There are only so many ways to deal with all of these paradoxes.  

The next two weeks Mike Gathright will explore how the life and death and resurrection of Jesus can lead us and empower us into a uniquely meaningful way to experience and embrace all of life.

“When we share our stories, what it does is, it opens up our hearts for other people to share their stories.  And it gives us the sense that we are not alone on this journey.”
-Janine Shepherd

This week at the Gathering some friends from Storyline opened their hearts and shared their story.