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April 22 Gathering: Cassie Kile and the Nerd Gospel!

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If this picture heats up your blood and makes you cringe a little, you might be a nerd.

This Sunday at New Wineskins, we dive into Narnia to arrive in The Shire. If we take a step back and look at the fantasy stories that make up our era, we see a mosaic of the Gospel.

Gospel comes from the word, ‘godspel’ and literally means ‘good-story.’ The stories we tell each other at the present time are a representation of where we are as a people. We are piggy-backing off of our last meeting when we talked about some of the Biblical stories possibly being myth and legend and being told and retold to “convey the deepest truths of existence.”

Humanity is still telling those stories, and adding more stories to the mix day by day. In this week’s conversation, we will delve into stories that are made up by humanity, highjacked by The Holy One, and tell us again and again the good news—the godspel—the Gospel.

Cassie Kile will be our guest presenter for this week’s conversation. Cassie is a graduate of Asbury Theological Seminary where she earned her Master of Divinity. She also holds a Master of Fine Arts in Media Design from Full Sail University, is the owner and CEO of Lion Design Company, and specializes in static/dynamic graphics, music, & video for the Church. Cassie lives in Parkersburg, WV, with three fur-kids: Charlie, Sylvester, and Fonzie.

Join us Sunday, April 22, in the 167 Side Room of the Marietta Brewing Company for what should be a lively conversation about the stories we tell!

Happy Half-Hour: 6:30pm

Conversation Begins: 7:00pm

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March 25 Gathering: Palm Sunday–Celebration or Subversion?

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Holy Week Palm Sunday

We often view the scene of Palm Sunday through iconic eyes, imagining Jesus riding triumphantly into Jerusalem to take his rightful place as Israel’s true king on the back of a humble donkey. Our church services invite us to shout hosannas as we wave palm branches, usually led by our children.

It seems ironic in some ways that this raucous celebration leads us into Holy Week/Passion Week, which is arguably the time of Jesus’ greatest suffering and the church’s most somber observance.

So what if we’re missing the point of Palm Sunday. What if it’s less celebration and more subversion? Not so much a shindig as a scandal?

We invite you to observe this Palm Sunday with us at New Wineskins, where we’ll talk about the thoroughly subversive act of Palm Sunday and discuss where we might identify with and re-enact it in today’s world.

As always, we’ll meet in the 167 Side Room of the Marietta Brewing Company. Join us for what we hope will be a lively and informative conversation on the scandalous disruption that is Palm Sunday!

Happy Half-Hour: 6:30pm

Conversation Begins: 7:00pm

Feb. 11 Gathering: Vulnerability

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View the video of Dr. Brené Brown’s TED talk on the power of vulnerabillty.

In the story of the Exodus, Moses encounters a bush in the desert that is on fire but is not being consumed by that fire. In his curiosity, he approaches, and hears a voice from the flames: “Moses. Take off your sandals, for where you are standing is holy ground. I am the God of your ancestors, of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

So Moses hides his face, presumably out of shame, or fear, or both. The voice goes on to tell Moses that the time has come to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, and that Moses is the man to do the job. And in his string of excuses why that can’t possibly be right, Moses finally gets to the key question: “Okay, suppose I do this. Suppose I lead the people out of Egypt. Why would they follow me? Who do I tell them sent me? What if they ask me your name?”

And the voice from the bush answers, “Tell them ‘I Am’ sent you.”

Now, what’s lurking just beneath the surface of this exchange is a sociological norm that was true of ancient peoples but not in our world today, so we miss it. In those days, when you encountered a stranger, you never wanted to be the first one to state your name. It was a sign of subservience. By giving another your name was to give them power over you.

And so for God to give Moses the name, “I Am,” says something more about who this God is than just a name. It implies a level of vulnerability we don’t expect from a deity. It says that God is not afraid to be known.

Vulnerability is something we humans–and especially prideful, individualistic 21st Century Americans–mostly try to avoid. We want to be seen as strong, as independent, as self-sufficient.

But what if vulnerability is actually at the heart of what it means to be fully human? What if, without vulnerability, we are missing out on something that is at the core of our true essence?

This week at New Wineskins, we’ll talk about vulnerability and its place in our relationships with God and one another.

Join us Sunday evening, Feb. 11, in the 167 Side Room of the Marietta Brewing Company as we unpack the power of vulnerability.

Happy Half-Hour: 6:30pm

Conversation Begins: 7:00pm

Jan. 28 Gathering: What’s Our Story?

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OnceUponATime

We may not think about it much, but we are a people of story. What we believe and the way we order our lives are based in the story (or stories) that seem to give us truth.

For those of us who follow the Jesus story, that means we hold to a particular set of assumptions. But even those assumptions are subject to interpretation.

But beyond just following stories, we actually live out stories of our own. Because a story really is nothing more than the narrative of a sequence of events involving characters. It is, according to one definition on dictionary.com, a report or account of a matter, statement or allegation.

As it happens, stories have immense power. And what we do with the power of our own stories in many ways defines who it is that we actually are.

This Sunday at New Wineskins, we’ll talk about the power of story, about how we view our own stories both individually and collectively, and how we can use story more effectively to bring love and life into the world around us.

Join us Sunday evening, Jan 28, in the 167 Side Room of the Marietta Brewing Company for a story about stories!

Happy Half-Hour: 6:30pm

Conversation Begins: 7:00pm

Jan. 14 Gathering: Active Listening

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Listening

We Americans are good at talking. We revel in our right to share our ideas, positions, and opinions. Truth be known, it’s difficult for us to have an unexpressed thought.

What we are not good at, most of the time anyhow, is listening. Our habit is to hear only enough of what someone else is saying to formulate our own response. We avoid conflict by surrounding ourselves only with people and opinions we agree with, and we paint those who say things we don’t want to listen to as enemies at best and downright evil at worst.

The result of all of that is that we often talk past each other rather than with each other. Our dialogues just become multi-part monologues.

But what if we could be better listeners? Could it effect more than just our day-to-day conversations or civic discourse, but actually transform our neighborhoods and communities?

This Sunday at New Wineskins we’ll talk about the art of listening, how being better listeners can improve our relationships, and we’ll experiment with a couple of intentional listening practices through some exercises and guided meditations.

We hope you’ll join us this Sunday, Jan. 14, as we kick off 2018 with this important discussion around active listening. As always, we’ll meet in the 167 Side Room of the Marietta Brewing Company. Come and kick off the new year at New Wineskins!

Happy Half-Hour: 6:30pm

Conversation Begins: 7:00pm

 

Dec. 19 Gathering: Shaped by Gratitude 

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Gratitude Attitude Word Cloud

What are you grateful for?

It may seem like a cliché kind of question as we head into the week of Thanksgiving, but have you thought about how formative a sense of gratitude is to your spirituality ? Could you really have a healthy spiritual life without gratefulness somewhere at its root?

And it’s not just the big things in life where gratitude shapes us…sometimes it’s in the seemingly ordinary that we find our deepest sense of gratefulness. Everyday sights, smells, and sounds that trigger something deep within us that foster a a rich sense of thankfulness in our very core.

This Sunday at New Wineskins we’ll talk about how gratitude forms us to be more Christlike by sharing stories of the ordinary things we’re all grateful for. Come ready to share your story of gratitude!

Join us Nov. 19 in the 167 Side Room of the  Marietta Brewing Company to share your story and hear from others!

Happy Half-Hour: 6:30pm

Conversation Begins: 7:00pm

Oct. 22 Gathering: Is God gendered?

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God in Heaven Set

Oh, those masculine pronouns! Imagery of God as a (white) father figure. “The Big Man in the Sky.”

Even if we don’t believe God is technically male, all the language we use appropriates certain cultural contexts of male-ness.

But is God really male or female? Is God beyond gender? Or is God somehow mysteriously both gendered and not gendered? And does it really matter?

This week at New Wineskins we’ll talk about the issue of God and gender, discuss how patriarchy affects our perceptions of God, and consider the history and importance of the Divine Feminine.

Join us this Sunday, Oct. 22, in the 167 Side Room of the  Marietta Brewing Company for what should be a lively and interesting conversation!

Happy Half-Hour: 6:30pm

Conversation Begins: 7:00pm