Vox Veniae Podcast

David Wallace reflects on our practice of prayer and our invitation to contemplative prayer [Psalm 34:1-8].

Reflection

How might you see prayer as a relationship with God?

What specific areas of life require you to seek refuge in God?

Why does silent prayer seem inviting or fearful to you?

Resources

Vox Workshop: Introduction to Centering Prayer

Nic Acosta reflects on pain and trauma and how we’re invited to explore and engage the tension and mystery that comes with it [Job 38].

Reflection:

How can we bring our full selves to the table, both our joy and our pain, and still seek connection?

What does it look like to lean into the mystery of Christ, leading us on our bright days and in our darkest hours?

Resources:

Video: Doctor Distracts Baby from Shots

Book: Hillbilly Elegy (JD Vance)

Podcast: The Bruenigs

Gena St. David reflects on the center of the Christ story and what it means to be saved. What are we saved from? How are we saved? What are we saved for? [Mark 10:17-31]

Reflection

How does your body respond to the image of nonviolent forgiveness in Jesus?

What or who was Jesus trusting, and how did that trust enable him to respond nonviolently?

What might become possible for us if we spent more time in embodied trust?

Weylin Lee reflects on how we are invited to center ourselves and our community around Christ in this next season together and we navigate reconnection and transition [Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-12].

Reflection:

How can we center ourselves around the embodiment of Jesus' life and teachings?

Where can we let go of power and privilege to embrace downward mobility?

Whom are the suffering that we can be in solidarity with?

Practice:

Reflect on who we center ourselves around.  Who are the people we have intentionally or unintentionally chosen to center ourselves around? How can Vox be centered around embodying the life and teachings of Jesus?

Downward mobility.  Let go of power and privilege that you normally lean on. Experience a humiliation for your ego

Resources:

Book: A Church Called Tov (Scot McKnight)

Book: The Cross and the Lynching Tree (James Cone)

Virginia Cumberbatch reflects on what it looks like to praise in the midst of the difficult season we have all been enduring [Psalm 124].

Reflection:

How are you giving yourself permission to share and express gratitude for God's preservation, presence and protection?

How will you express praise this week/in this season?

Resources

Song: Good (One House Worship)

Song: You Keep On Getting Better (Maverick City Music)

Song: In Your Nature (Zoe Worship)

David Wallace reflects on how our need for belonging can lead us to experiencing being othered and how Jesus invites us to see ourselves and others [Mark 9:38-50].

 

Reflection:

Reflect on a time when you felt "othered" and a time when you "othered" someone else.  What feelings come to the surface for each?

Recall a moment that contributed to masking over the child-like nature of your True Self? How might you see your innocence and release its burden on you?

Gena St David reflects on where we might find comfort in the Christ story when we suffer rejection for living what God invites us into [Mark 8:31-37].

Reflection

Which relationships help us endure rejection?

Where might the Spirit be inviting us to risk rejection and wage “good conflict”?

How might the Christ story comfort us when we suffer rejection?

Practice

Name your five people – who helps us endure rejection?

Name your loving reason – why is rejection sometimes worth it?

Name your hope – what about the Christ story comforts us when we suffer rejection?

Weylin Lee reflects on our invitation to practice ordinary faith that's grounded in mercy as we push against celebrity culture [James 2:1-17].

Reflection:

What does it mean for us to push against celebrity culture in our community?

How can we make space to reflect on and receive mercy in our lives?

How are we integrating the teachings and life of Jesus as an expression of our faith?

Practice:

Examine our culture. Reflect on the culture of our Vox community and who it is that we welcome and engage.  How have we shown preference for certain types of people at the expense of others?

Reflect on God’s mercy.  Make space to reflect on the ways we have recognized and received God's mercy toward us.  How might we need to unpack and process the barriers that keep us from fully receiving mercy in our lives?

Resources:

Podcast: The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill

https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/podcasts/rise-and-fall-of-mars-hill/

Simone Talma Flowers reflects on Jesus' invitation to examine our hearts and to experience healing through God's love [Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23].

Reflection

Are there areas of my heart that are hardened and shut off?

How do I invite God in my life and heal my heart?

How can God’s love be central in my heart?

James Alison reflects on what Jesus is inviting us to when he asks us to eat the bread and drink of the life that he offers us [John 6:51-69].

Reflection

What is the difference between the Manna in the desert, and what Jesus offers in the Eucharist? 

Do Jesus’ words scandalize you?

How do you understand “coming to be persuaded” that Jesus is the Holy one of God?