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To Villagers:
Sunday: news and notes
Important:
Blanca and Joel . . . its your turn to cook the chicken. I hope to have the chicken delivered to you by Friday. Note: Please do not cook it in milk, butter, or tomato sauce - we have people who are allergic to these products. With these considerations in mind, you may cook the chicken anyway you like. Once it is cooked, you will need to cut it into little pieces to be put into he salad.
- Villagers - if you would like to bring something to add to the meal on Sunday - feel free to do so. For example: you might bring a few bags of rolls.
Stuff
July 15(Saturday) - the game(2:00pm at the Seneca house); Social Justice Movie(The Crawford house 6:00pm{people signed up - McCulleys, Karen, Dennis, Eric, Layne, James M})
July 21(Friday) - Godly Play presentation at the Cromer house *see last weeks postcard for info
July 22(Saturday) - Epistemology Lecture(8:00pm) - at Ron Layman's house (People signed up - Michael, Lorie A, Russ, John and Patti Cepin, Eric)
Mission
A different way to look at churches and denominations . . .
Recently, I've been reading up on Buddhism. It is something I have always intended to do, but often found other more interesting things to read. In Buddhism there are different schools of thought on how to apply the teaches of Buddha. So, if you are a Buddhist, you might subscribe to the "Narrow way" or may be you follow the "Middle way." Each "Way" has its gurus and teachers, and they believe that their practices are the proper way. I'm sure some Buddhists would disagree with me, but it seems like the schools don't define themselves by how they are different, but by who they are and how they read and understand the teachings of Buddha. I think these ideas from Buddhism could be helpful to us at the Village when are trying explain who we are. I am often asked how the Village is different than other churches. The question often feels like people are asking me the what the difference is between Target and Wal-Mart(A better question might be - How is the Village different from the world). I think if we were to image church and denominations as schools of thought and practice - it might help us better describe who we are and what we do. The Village is who it is because we read the bible a certain way, and we have particular values that shape our practice. Of course all this is informed by the different schools of thinking and practice within the orthodox faith through history.
So, when someone asks me how the Village is different from other churches - I would answer by saying I'm not sure but - and begin to talk about why we write our own music, why we use the open audio license, what a community sermon is like, what Godly Play is, Pilgrim Groups, Art in worship, or I'd talk about the importance of beauty and healthy sexuality. The list goes on and on. The Village is a "Way" of following Jesus. Maybe it is "The Reconciling Way," but it is not an isolated way of following Jesus - hopefully we are striving to be in the world but not of the world - trying hard not to define ourselves by how we are different, but by what we think about God and how we practice following Jesus in the Kingdom of God.
Eric |
