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Sign Up for Fall Faith & Life Groups
September 22, 2021
Led by First Church members, Faith & Life Groups are designed to encourage meaningful connections through shared interests, whether exploring a spiritual practice, opening our eyes to the beauty around us, delving into a challenging social issue, or attending to significant life stages (parenting, aging, job transitions, etc.) Faith & Life Groups involve making a short-term commitment (a single session to several weeks, depending on the group) to something that might be delightful, deep, or even transformational. At the same time, you can get to know First Church friends who share your interests.
We need each other now more than ever. If you are looking for a way to dip your toes into the life of our church and stay connected outside of Sunday Worship, this is for you!
Questions? Please contact Lexi Boudreaux or the leader of the group directly.
Deadline for registration is Wednesday, October 13.
Art Symbolizes Faith
Sunday, November 7, 12:30 p.m., MJH and Harter Room
Henry Gates
Henry Gates will lead you in a creative project to enable you to draw from your memory matters which challenge and enable faith to bring in this new Christian year on ALL Saints Sunday. Henry will speak to the power of art over the ages, and how you can use simple color and form to symbolize your faith. You shall have a board, color paper, tape; and use of art pastels shared together. Get over your prior experience with art, and start anew today.
EcoFaith Group
Thursdays, October 14 and November 18, 5:00 – 6:00 p.m., via Zoom
Jim Brown and Jaz Buchanan
Join the Earth Stewardship community for a discussion of John Philip Newell’s book SACRED EARTH SACRED SOUL. This book is written by “a leading spiritual teacher who reveals how Celtic spirituality—listening to the sacred around us and inside of us—can help us heal the earth, overcome our conflicts, and reconnect with ourselves.” There will be two meetings to engage in a discussion of this book and how it relates to our faith. All are welcome to both meetings.
Exploring Our Relationship with the Bible
Tuesdays, October 19 & 26 and November 2 & 9, 6:00 – 7:30 p.m., via Zoom
Lexi Boudreaux
If the Bible isn’t a science book or an instruction manual, then what is it? What do people mean when they say the Bible is inspired? If you are looking to explore some of these questions in a supportive community of care and/or are new or are feeling new to First Church please join us in reading the book: Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again By Rachel Held Evans.
Group Spiritual Direction
Dates and Time TBD by group gathered
Alex Steinert-Evoy
“When asked by a friend how she prayed for her, a thirteenth-century anchoress, Julian of Norwich responded, ‘ I look at God, I look at you, and I keep on looking at God.’ “
Are you interested in seeking an awareness of God in all of your life? Would you like to listen to God in a group setting? Would you like to be supported and support others as you seek your responsiveness to God? If you have answered yes to any of these questions, then perhaps you would like to gather together in Group Spiritual Direction. This is a process in which people gather regularly to help each other move towards a continuous awareness of God. These seekers support each other through prayerful listening and responding as they open themselves up to one another’s spiritual journeys.
This group will be no bigger than six people and will meet for ninety minutes-two hours depending on the size of the group. Dates, place (church, zoom, hybrid) and time TBD by group.
Embodied Psalms
Meeting Times and Dates Sundays, Oct 17, 24, 31, Nov 7, 14, 21, 9:30-10:30AM, Hybrid mtg in the Harter Room
Bruce Hoppe and Amy Matias
What if every chapter of the Bible was a song composed for your body to sing? With this faith and life group, we hope you might deepen your spiritual appreciation for your body and expand your awareness of opportunities to practice prayer and worship in an embodied way. We will read one Psalm each week, paying attention to how the poetry, liberated by our spontaneity and imagination, resonates in our bodies. We will then convene in person and on zoom in a hybrid format to reread the Psalm of the week. Before getting to the Psalm, we will check in and share an embodied prayer, sitting and noticing sensations inside our bodies. Then we will reread the Psalm and share our experiences in a structured process of reflective dialogue.