Celebration of the Faithful: Lent Edition

This Sunday, February 26th, we will have a "Celebration of the Faithful." We will meet at Jesse & Kellye's house at 5pm, and will participate in reflections and readings regarding Lent (as led by Brother Curt and Matt). We will also take communion together.

We will continue the "celebration" by enjoying dinner together, potluck style! Everyone is invited to bring  something fresh to share. Please post in the comments if you are coming, and what food item you will be bringing so we can plan accordingly.

This can be a great time for us all to connect, share, pray, and engage not only with each other but with God's Spirit.

To be honest, this gathering may have a bit of a "mourning" sense to it, as some of us have experienced death very close to us recently. I guess this is appropriate, in a way, for the period of the Christian calendar that we are entering.

The High Life

We are all familiar with so-called "mountain top experiences," the "highlights" or "high moments" of our lives. There is a famous mountain top experience in the Bible too, when Jesus takes his disciples to the mountain of transfiguration.

What are your "high life" moments? When you think about your life, what are the experiences that were so good, you will always remember them? These experiences shape our lives in a many ways, and it can be meaningful to share them with each other.

So, this Sunday, at 5pm, at the Schroeder's House, join us for a discussion of the High Life. We'll share stories, sing a few songs, read the story of the Transfiguration, share communion, and perhaps a few "High Lifes" too.

This is a "Celebration of the Faithful," which means potluck - the theme (given the great weather and upcoming football season) is "tailgating." We'll make sure the grill is hot, so bring your favorite side dish, meat or veggie burger, or dessert to share with the group.

Please post that you are coming, and what food you will bring, so we can plan accordingly. 

Celebration of the Faithful: This Sunday

This Sunday, November 7th, we will meet at 5pm at Scot and Mary's house for a "Celebration of the Faithful." This will be a time for us to gather around Scripture, worship, prayer and communion, and then to share some awesome food together!

More details about food and directions will be posted soon. If you want to come and have questions, feel free to email Jesse at schroeder.jesse@gmail.com - (we may also arrange some carpools)

Hope to see everyone there!

An Open Invitation...

...to "See" and "Receive" (an evening of peace, rest, and participation)

Whenever I have the privilege to visit the ocean, see a waterfall, or gaze at the stars on a clear evening, I am struck by the fact that these natural wonders are always there. Constantly, whether I am aware of them or not, the ocean waves continue to crash, the waterfalls continue to flow, and the stars continue shine (even through the bright day when I can't see them). {The picture to the left is from last year's trip to Costa Rica.}

Maybe its a worn-out metaphor, but I think its a good reminder: God is always there too, we just have to take time to notice it. We have to stop, listen, breathe, look around, and notice God. We have to "see" spiritually.

And we have to "receive" spiritually too. We breathe in deeply. We try to listen for the voice of God. We receive a sense of peace, of contentment, maybe even a touch of joy.

I want to invite everyone to a time of "seeing" and "receiving." We will attempt to rest, to notice God's presence around us, and to receive what the Spirit has to offer us. There will be singing, listening to/reading sections of Scripture, some participation and then taking communion together. Followed by some good food and hanging out with friends.

I hope you can join us. Even if it will be your first time, or we haven't seen you in a while.

Please join us, Sunday night at 5pm. (details here)

Sunday's Meeting - Celebration of the Faithful

This Sunday we will be having a "Celebration of the Faithful." This will involve some form of worship (probably some singing), reading selections of Scripture, prayer, and participating in the Lord's Supper together. Jesse & Kellye will be leading this part of the gathering.

Regarding food: Everyone pitches in for a great dinner! We will have a small backyard fire, and have the grill going as well. We will provide turkey dogs, brats and buns. Any other meat you might prefer, feel free to bring. Please comment/post what side dish, dessert or drink you will be bringing to share with everyone. Thanks!!

As always, everyone is welcome. Especially first time visitors! Feel free to contact Jesse (schroeder.jesse@gmail.com) for more information.

5-7:30pm
Jesse & Kellye's House (google map link)
614-875-9736 (house phone number)

Sunday's Meeting - Celebration of the Faithful

This Sunday, March 14th, from 5-7:30pm, we will be meeting at Chris and Julie's house for a "Celebration of the Faithful." This is a gathering that brings us together in worship, celebration of the Lord's Supper, reflecting on Scripture, and enjoying some great food together!!

Everyone is asked to bring some food for the shared meal. This time the theme is "Spring." Please post what food or drink you will be bringing so we can try to have a balance. Thanks!

The Celebration is different every time; and every time it is a blessing. Please join us, even if this will be your first visit to the cohort.

Next Meeting: COTF - May 3rd

This Sunday, May 3rd, we will have a "Celebration of the Discipline" gathering. We will meet a little later than usual, at 6pm at Jesse & Kellye's house in Grove City. We will have the grill hot and ready to go, so please bring your favorite meat and veggies to put on the grill (for yourself) and then a side dish or beverage to share with everyone else. Kellye will be making a strawberry pie, which you don't want to miss :)

We'll eat dinner first, relax and hang out, and then build a fire and have our time of community worship, prayer, spiritual engagement and communion around the fire pit. We will plan to end around 8:30pm.

As always, everyone is welcome, even if this would be your first time visiting the group - looking forward to seeing everyone Sunday evening!!

Post-celebration Post

Just a few things I wanted to throw down after tonight's great Celebration of the Faithful. Thanks, Zack and Eve, so much for hosting and coordinating. It was a blessed and special time.

The last song (that we didn't sing) connects with prayer, and so I thought I would share it on here. The title is "Yes and Amen," and I was thinking about the song as we were closing in prayer, and thinking about how the word "amen" is not only a word we say at the end of prayers, but is also how we live our life of faith. We live our "amens" every day, living out God's kingdom in our life and the lives around us. We pray "your kingdom come, your will be done...amen" and then we step out into the world and make it happen. Our prayers are not just empty words, but are actions that are taken in faith and accompanied by the power of God.

So I found the song on IMEEM, and embedded it below, and you can listen to it and read the words, and hopefully they will encourage you. Have a great week everyone, and know that we are all praying for one another!

Hear Your people saying yes,
Hear Your people saying yes to You.
Yes to anything you ask,
Yes to anything we're called to do.

Hear your people say amen,
Hear Your people say amen to You.
Let Your kingdom come on earth,
Let it be just like we prayed to You.

Yes and amen to everything that´s in Your heart,
Yes and amen to everything that You have planned.
We live to see Your will be done,
And see Your perfect kingdom come on earth, on the earth.

Yes and amen, we're taking up our cross for You,
Give us the strength to take these dreams and follow through.
We live to see Your will be done,
And see Your perfect kingdom come on earth, on the earth.

All the promises are yes,
All the promises are yes in You.
Every good and perfect gift,
Every blessing that we have was You.

Celebration - Sunday at 5

Hey Everyone. Celebration of the Faithful time once again. We will be meeting at Zack and my house (2598 Indianola Ave. Columbus, 43202) at 5:00pm Sunday, Mar. 1st. The theme is prayer so come ready to set aside your ideas about whether or not prayer works and give this prayer thing a shot. For the meal to follow the theme is creative sandwiches. Zack and I will provide bread (marble and 7 grain). We ask that others bring things to put between bread, also some cold sides would be appreciated. Let's build amazing works of the culinary arts. Post what you will bring, try to think outside the bun. Detailed directions in comment. Eve

Just something to think about...

Nancy sent this in an email to me, and I asked her if I could post it on the blog for discussion by everyone in the group. Please offer whatever feedback or ideas you would like - Jesse

"I have thought a lot about what [Nick] prayed last Sunday night
regarding that maybe our group becoming a bit complacent and that we don’t seem to be blogging as much (although in your prayer you said that might not matter and you could be right). But it made me really sad. I just checked and there is no new posting on what is happening this Sunday yet.

With that thought in mind, I wondered if we might as a group really pray about direction and how we can be a light in our very unstable and uncertain world right now.

I e-mailed my nephew a fairly long e-mail and here is a portion of what has been on my mind…

In the loss of my evangelical belief system and foundation, I am coming to realize how difficult it is to love and worship God without it. Do I need to develop a workable belief system again? What do I really believe? What do I really know? This requires a blind trust that God will pull, teach and connect me to beliefs that continually evolve and perhaps change over time…Am I ok with that? This is radical and problematic for most because then it potentially could become all about one individual’s interpretation and perception of God—“cherry picking” so to speak. Can I trust and have faith that the One True God is revealing himself to me?” And so I ask…Can we trust that as a group God is revealing himself to us collectively? How united are we on what we think? Do we need to be united or is it better that we
do not get caught up on anyone’s collection of beliefs (perhaps there is a balance there)?

These are just a few thoughts and perhaps one of you could put something close on the blog. It’s kind of a “where are we now as a group and what do we think” blog or
discussion. Just something to think about."

Next Week's Celebration of the Faithful Ideas

Here are some ideas I threw out at the meeting that we could possible do for our "Celebration of the Faithful" next week, Sun. Aug. 31. Please offer your comments, ideas and suggestions.

1. Visit a "prayer labyrinth" - see wikipedia article for more info - This website lists several in the Columbus area. Adam and Kara mentioned the OSU arboreteum, which looks to have beautiful gardens and a very nice outdoor labyrinth. We could either do the meal aspect of the gathering at someone's house, or we could try a picnic.
   
2. Do some sort of prayer stations. I think at the last "Celebration of the Faithful" Nick and Jane facilitated something very similar (but I wasn't able to make it). Prayer stations are based upon the ancient practice of the Stations of the Cross, which is essentially using visual cues to direct prayer. "Stations" (or a spot to stand and look at a picture) are set up around the room and people move from station to station, being led in prayer. It would be tough for one person to set up many prayer stations, so perhaps different people could design and bring a prayer station, and then we could set them up as one experience. The stations could be interactive in some way, for example having a place to write, a picture to color in or draw, an image to look at, a physical element to touch, something to take away - this would be an opportunity to be very creative. The prayer stations wouldn't necessarily have to have any set theme, although we could agree on a theme, perhaps something general like "Peace" or more specific like praying for those suffering from natural disasters.
   

OK - as Nick said, "Blog it out"

Celebration of the Faithful

This Sunday Celebration of the Faithful will be at Adam and Kara's house, we will come together at 5:30 for the meal, followed by worship and meditation time. Kara will make a poppy seed casserole, and we still have a few adult beverages left from super fun night. Please post to let everyone know what you are planning on bringing. We are looking forward to it!

Planning our Celebration

Hey everyone, this is the monthly "post what you're going to bring post." So...post what you plan to bring to our meal to avoid repeats. Does anyone have theme ideas? Also, we never settled on a time for the meal. 6:00?