Zao Church Collective

"I can see people," the man said, after Jesus touched his eyes. "But they look like trees, walking."

 

How do we perceive our world, and the people in it, when we are in the process of being healed? And how can we come to know the walking trees as human beings, made, like us, in the divine image of God?

Sometimes it feels like the haters just won't quit. Jesus actually dealt with them, too - and has something to say about where the hate comes from and where, exactly it can go 

 

Join us for Underground, a new series on the gospel of Mark. We'll trace Jesus's story from beginning to end, as he builds a movement while trying to stay off the grid until the right moment arrives for the showdown with empire at the cross. This is the gospel like you've never heard - tell no one.

How does our understanding of Jesus and the Bible change when we read it from a queer perspective? We'll take a single whole chapter and reinterpret story by story.

 

Not honored in his home town, creating abundance out of crumbs, and rocking a wardrobe so powerful that it'll heal your soul? Sounds queer to us!

 

Join us for Underground, a new series on the gospel of Mark. We'll trace Jesus's story from beginning to end, as he builds a movement while trying to stay off the grid until the right moment arrives for the showdown with empire at the cross. This is the gospel like you've never heard - tell no one.

Empire demonizes the marginalized. Turns the oppressed into boogiemen. What if we have our ghost stories all wrong? Luckily, Jesus knows who the real demons are.

 

Join us for Underground, a new series on the gospel of Mark. We'll trace Jesus's story from beginning to end, as he builds a movement while trying to stay off the grid until the right moment arrives for the showdown with empire at the cross. This is the gospel like you've never heard - tell no one.

Jesus said that not everyone who hears the Good News will be able to let it take root in them and flourish. So how do we cultivate ourselves as fertile ground - especially when systems of oppression grow up like thorns all around us?

 

Join us for Underground, a new series on the gospel of Mark. We'll trace Jesus's story from beginning to end, as he builds a movement while trying to stay off the grid until the right moment arrives for the showdown with empire at the cross. This is the gospel like you've never heard - tell no one.

Jesus was a walking talking paradox: human/divine, Jewish/Jewish lawbreaker, savior/crucified, alive/dead/alive again.... binary breaking in nearly every way. What supposedly contradictory identities do you hold? What if they are the key to the divine image of God in you?

 

Join us for Underground, a new series on the gospel of Mark. We'll trace Jesus's story from beginning to end, as he builds a movement while trying to stay off the grid until the right moment arrives for the showdown with empire at the cross. This is the gospel like you've never heard - tell no one.

Jesus's first followers destroyed buildings to create access for those who were systemically left out. What structures are you willing to bring down out of radical solidarity?

 

Join us for Underground, a new series on the gospel of Mark. We'll trace Jesus's story from beginning to end, as he builds a movement while trying to stay off the grid until the right moment arrives for the showdown with empire at the cross. This is the gospel like you've never heard - tell no one.

The beginning of the good news doesn't start at the temple. It's not even in the city. It's on the outskirts, thumbing its nose at the structures of oppression and hierarchy. In a world where some are insiders and some are outsiders, Jesus is clear to start where the holiest power lies - the margins.

 

This Sunday we kick off Underground, a new series on the gospel of Mark. We'll trace Jesus's story from beginning to end, as he builds a movement while trying to stay off the grid until the right moment arrives for the showdown with empire at the cross. This is the gospel like you've never heard - tell no one.

Let's be honest, most of what the church has taught us about sexual ethics is trash.

 

We're over it.

 

This week, we start fresh! Let's form a new and healthier attitude towards faith and sex - one that is sex positive, queer-informed, feminist, and Biblical.

In the church, sexuality gets reduced to some pretty narrow, heteronormative definitions. This leaves out a lot of sexual expression, and sets the stage for lots of church kids getting very creative so that ']they can remain "pure" in the eyes of God.

This week we'll delve deep into the steamiest scriptures, revisit what it means to be sexual, and find out how physical connection can be holy, Biblical, and not confined to the definitions or even relationships that we've been told about in church.