Common Ground

Two joys in one service

2008-12-15T06:45:00.002-05:00

Yesterday we headed out to a local nursing home to hand out bears to the residents there. As awkward and uncomfortable as that can be, it was a real joy to see what it meant to some of them. Too soon it was over & we were all heading over to Gerry's. Not that we didn't want to go to Gerry's because that was joy of a different sort! We were honored to take advantage of her generosity while we shared each others company and some amazing treats!

Corporate Guidance

2008-11-24T07:47:00.002-05:00

Yesterday Randy came by for the first time in a long while and spoke with us about Corporate guidance. As we studied Acts 15:1-29 we talked about how the people in the passage listened and allowed God to guide their decision. As we read, we realized that the people making the decisions were very adamantly opposed to one another's viewpoints, but that by listening they came to a conclusion that they all could live with, a compromise that allowed God's work to be done.

Guidance as a discipline seemed to us to begin with a determination that we would choose God's direction over our own desires. That determination needs to be followed up with a willingness to listen & finally, the thoughts and advice of other people need to be thrown into the mix.

We followed up our discussion time with some group prayer and then moved onto the next room to eat and hang out. Overall our time together yesterday was typical of what our time together usually is. There is a unity that can not be described as we learn from one another and share our lives. Its a beautiful thing.

Outward Disciplines

2008-11-03T07:26:00.002-05:00

Yesterday at CG we talked about the outward disciplines, focusing mainly on simplicity. And as usually happens with us, everything seemed to come together seamlessly in a God driven way. Even our band was simple that night.

As we began to discuss what it meant to live a simple life, all different kinds of thoughts and ideas poured out. Things like cell phones and the internet were called out for being huge time suckers in our lives, even keeping us from LIVING our life. But as we neared the end, we came to the conclusion that it wasn't necessarily the thing, the the value we gave that thing in our life, and the priority that we gave it over God. Thats a huge and important difference.

We finished out the service with Communion, as we always do on the second Sunday of the month. Its always cool to share that together because we are really sharing and serving one another.

Next week we'll be doing our service project, but we have yet to pin down exactly what that is. Check the website later in the week to find out!

5 days, 15 mins of Meditation

2008-10-27T09:01:00.003-04:00

Yesterday at CG we dived into the Spiritual disciplines by spreading out across the room and taking time to meditate. As we were doing this, we went through a process which was intended to help us give up our fears and accept peace from God. We also tried opening our hearts and minds to hear what God would have to say to us. Whether we hear Him as a small voice or just a "knowing", all of us are capable of hearing from Him. It sounds strange, but its totally true.

Before heading into another room to hang out and snack, we wrapped up with a challenge: take 15 mins M-F to read a Psalm & spend time with God, focusing on it. Those of us who wanted to participate told someone else so that we could share our experiences with them. It should be cool to hear what everyone's experiences were like next week!

Spiritual Discipline

2008-10-20T07:16:00.004-04:00

In the church world, phrases like "Spiritual Discipline", that mean pretty much nothing to the majority of the population, are pretty common. If you've never heard it before, it kinda sounds like a scary boot camp kind of a deal, but really it just boils down to exercises that we can do to help us grow closer to God. And if we leave out the whip cracking mentality of Legalism, it can actually be a pretty enlightening experience.

Yesterday we talked a little bit about what different spiritual disciplines there are and what ones we could do as individuals & what ones we could do as a community. Theres too many to list (or even remember!) but our focus for next week is going to be on the ones that are individual and internal. Those include fasting, meditating, praying and studying. Each of these are important in their own way and for different reasons. Even the ones that we find personally distasteful (like fasting!) hold value and merit and provide and opportunity for us to learn something we wouldn't otherwise. Its all in the way we look at it, and if we approach it, not from a "I have to do this" standpoint, but from an open heart looking to experience closeness with God, then we have much to gain.

Join us next week to explore what these are all about!

Service of Service J-Life

2008-10-13T11:17:00.002-04:00

Yesterday at CG we went over to J-life for our Service of Service and painted their garage. With so many of us there we got it done pretty quickly and surprisingly enough, it was a relatively warm day & great for painting. It was a lot of fun & I'm sure we're all looking forward to our service projects for the future.

The "Call"

2008-10-06T06:46:00.002-04:00

Yesterday at CG, we Read Ephesians 4:1-14 and discussed what it meant to have a "call" or a purpose for our life. For some of us it is very clear, for others, its more murky, but there is no mistaking the fact that God has a plan for each of us and that giving Jesus, to each other and the world, is a part of that.

At the end of the talk we were asked to think about what God's call is on our lives. If we know generally, then to think about specifics, and if we just have no idea whatsoever, then to think about what direction it might be in. A challenge for all of us, that definitely puts us in the right frame of mind.

The speech was followed by Communion, which is always cool, and then we went out to eat. Getting to know one another is an important part of the CG experience as we are big on supporting one another and being a real community.

Next week we'll be meeting at J-life to have our service service. Should be fun!

What is the Bible?

2008-09-28T19:34:00.002-04:00

Today we had an amazing discussion that centered around an important question: What is the Bible? Is it "the Word of God"? Is it a group of inspired books? Are we literalists? What to we believe inside it? Many of us seemed to fall along the same lines of thinking, but ultimately, we decided that it didn't matter if we didn't agree. What did matter was that we could look past our differences and get along. This concept is a core part of who we are at Common Ground and what we want our community to be.

We ended our discussion with an AMAZING time of worship. It was really awesome to sing together, totally celebrating God. After that we ended the more structured part of our get together and moved on to an adjoining room to pig out on some good eats. Thank you Gerry for feeding us all!

The Missing Piece

2008-09-22T09:32:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was truly amazing. Its hard to even find the words. In our discussions it became very apparent that we are all of one heart and one mind regarding the direction we want Common Ground to go in. We all want to be of service to others. We all want to live in an attitude of love and acceptance. We all want to have a close-knit community with one another. We want to be family, we want to be friends.

And we have a plan! We are setting all these things in motion in practical ways. We have several service projects in the works and ideas for community building. And as a given, we are all here to worship God. It will be very exciting to see all of this taking shape over the next few weeks and months.

The reVision of the Church

2008-09-15T06:10:00.002-04:00

This was my first week back after a three week hiatus & I have to say that it was a good week to come back. We looked at II Cor 4 which is just packed with all kinds of stuff. After reading through the chapter we broke up in small groups to discuss the things that jumped out at us, and there was a lot to talk about. The things that people noticed ranged from the clay jars in verse 7 to verse 2, which talks about renouncing "secret and shameful ways".

After awhile we moved on to talk about how this chapter could apply to the church as a whole and started a list of the things the church was both good and bad at. On the good side we listed things like helping people in financial crises and providing a place of sanctuary for people to run to. On the bad side we talked about things like mixing politics into Christianity and not providing a balance between the collective and the individual relationship with Christ.

After closing our discussions we moved onto worship, and then to a time of prayer. Overall it was a great service that provided a time for us to share our thoughts on important issues with one another & find a sense of commonality. On the surface, we don't look like one another, but in our hearts we are very much the same.

no information available

2008-08-27T08:08:00.002-04:00

Sorry guys, but I missed last week. But come back next week for some great stuff!

What is Worship?

2008-08-18T07:27:00.002-04:00

Yesterday we talked a lot about worship, trying to determine, for us, what worship is. There seemed to be a lot of different opinions on styles of music, with people on both extremes, but I think we all felt that that really didn't matter. What did matter was that it was about focusing on and connecting with God. And we agreed that music wasn't the only way to do that. That we could live a life of worship, appreciating God for who He is and the things we see Him doing in our lives.

Many of us felt that we worship when we are out in nature, being floored by His creation and how amazing it really is. Some worship through discussion, and others through prayer. But in the heart of it all was that worship is a lifestyle. Its something that you do throughout your entire life, in all the little moments when you take a second to be alone with God, thanking Him for who He is and what He has done.

The other side of the Beatitudes

2008-08-11T07:16:00.002-04:00

Yesterday we hit the Beatitudes again, this time focusing on verses 6-9 (from Matthew chapter 5). Where Mark put the focus on others, Randy had us thinking about us, and who these verses were saying we should be. We talked about both sides of each verse, exploring both what we should be doing and what the return would be. Interesting stories came out, especially about mercy, and how acts of kindness were returned in an interesting web of cause and effect, which ultimately resulted in life changing choices in people's lives. Its hard not to see God at work in these stories. The way He uses small events in our lives to lead us down paths & how they culminate into beautiful things is amazing.

We were given homework again. This time we are asked to interview people who we think represent God and have the characteristics described in the later Beatitudes. It should be interesting to see how this turns out!

The needs of the Geographical Community

2008-08-04T05:49:00.004-04:00

There was a lot packed into yesterday's meeting. We started out with reading Matthew 5:1-12, which is known as the Beatitudes, and learned that the word translated as "blessed" meant something along the lines of "Joy of the Gods". What Jesus was saying to His disciples was that when they are in the places of spirit and heart He described, they would have a joy that was more than human. Thats pretty incredible.

After that we moved onto the main point, which was to take a look at the people in our area who are "poor in spirit", "in mourning", "meek", etc. We talked about what each of those things meant & were given some hardcore homework which entails not only thinking things through, but also conversing with people we think fit that bill.

More than just a message, yesterday at CG was a very full experience. Its hard to put into words or define what that fullness was like, but "a joining of spirits" begins to paint the picture.

Jesus, Jesus, Everywhere

2008-07-28T11:15:00.002-04:00

Yesterday we talked about Jesus. No way! Jesus in church? Yeah, but we talked about how Jesus can be found OUTSIDE of church, which is an interesting perspective that isn't usually discussed. God is at work in lives everywhere. If Hes at work, it means He is present, with those people. That work doesn't necessarily have to take place within a formal Christian organization. In fact, most of the time it doesn't. Church is just where people come after a lot of the work has already been done.

So were were challenged this week to find places where we see God working in people's lives outside of a formal Christian organization. For those of us who aren't used to seeing things this way, it should be quite an exercise! For those of us who are used to this idea, perhaps it can push us to be more aware than we already are.

Thorny ground

2008-07-21T10:39:00.002-04:00

Yesterday at CG we talked about the Parable of the sower & more specifically the ground that was thorny and concerned with the "cares of this world". The conclusion we came to from our discussions was that there is a constant tension between our responsibilities and the things of the Spirit. God gave us this life here to live, and we should enjoy it, living as best we can, but not to the detriment of our spiritual lives. And in the reverse, we shouldn't focus so much on the spiritual that we neglect our responsibilities and hurt the people around us. Go too far one way or the either and a part of your life suffers from the neglect.

We become aliens when we join forces with God. The things that guide us are totally different from the things that guide us before we met Christ. Its not something that others can understand. If the things that are guiding you look too much like the things that guide everyone else, maybe its time to take a second look at your priorities. It could be that the normal, everyday concerns of your life have been allowed to take over and determine the course and direction your taking.

Fruit for Everyone

2008-07-14T09:03:00.002-04:00

Yesterday we had a great time singing some upbeat songs together & then Mark shared a children's story he wrote about a fruit tree. Basically, the story symbolized God's gift of life (the fruit on the tree) and how many times people of the church want to enclose that gift behind a wall, deciding who gets to enjoy it & who doesn't. He used a stick "of truth" made from the tree to symbolize the way we use the truths we find in the Bible to beat people down, telling them they aren't good enough to enjoy God and all He has to offer. Thankfully, there was a happy ending to the story since the person beaten down had tasted God & couldn't stay away despite what the church had done. There was also a woman who decided to tear down the walls the church had built and make sure the gift was shared with everyone.

Mark paired this story with Romans 5:1-11, creating quite a contrast between what should be going on in the church, and what often is. As we all talked together, exploring the story and verses, a variety of thoughts came out ranging from where we feel we are at in our own life to what it means to escape the "wrath of God" and what that says about Him. We seemed to agree that the parent analogy fit here as a mother talked about loving her children, but being angry over their actions and having to step in. Too bad the church tries to be the parent so often!

All in all it was a very thought provoking meeting & a time where God really spoke to people in their hearts. Heres to more of the same!

Our Story

2008-07-07T06:35:00.003-04:00

Our discussion from last week continued as we talked about our stories and how they relate to evangelism. Whether our story is hardcore or fluffy it makes what Jesus is all about real in a tangible way. It becomes something more than a religion and it's follower's ideas. It becomes personal and real. Instead of beating people over the head with ideas, we can share our experiences. We can show just what God is capable of by what He has done in our own lives.

Yesterday I shared my story, starting with a breakdown of my tattoos and what they mean to me. Its the seemingly random things that can be a door to sharing what God has done in our lives. We just have to be willing to be open and honest about them.

Evangelism as the individual

2008-06-30T07:02:00.004-04:00

Yesterday at Common Ground we talked about that dirty word "Evangelism". Its a word that for many of us holds preconceived, cringe-worthy ideas. Its becoming quite apparent that as a group we don't believe in hitting the streets and smashing people over the head with our Bibles or cramming them down their throats. So far, as individuals, we have been quietly and naturally sharing our faith with those who care to listen. We've been sharing our story and building relationships with PEOPLE instead of salvation projects. We all seem to agree that this is the right thing to do.

As we broke up, Randy encouraged us to think about what it means to us as a collective group to evangelize together. I think its safe to say that whatever we come up with, it won't be anything like what you've seen before!

Up Till Now

2008-06-27T10:28:00.001-04:00

Whew! Common Ground has been meeting together for just over 4 months now & so much has happened already! We've gone out on the street picking up trash, figured out the direction we're going in & defined what we believe in. We've gotten to know each other on a deeper level & hopefully we will continue to do so because Common Ground is about more than just going to church. Its about family. Its about supporting each other through the hard times, not matter what our differences and no matter what we believe in. Its about acceptance & most of all its about love.

If you haven't yet experienced what its like to be totally accepted for just who you are, come down and hang with us. We'd love to see you there!