November: A Holy Conversation about Suicide

Examine those nagging spiritual questions
that keep you up at night.
Challenge your ideas.
Transform your life.

Join us from 7 pm to 9 pm at St. John’s MCC on the last Wednesday of every month for Holy Conversations. This month, however, the next conversation is on Wednesday evening, November 17th when we will share our feelings about Suicide.

Bring your burning questions for future discussions. We will meet in one of the downstairs classrooms. Please see Worth Lancaster, Richard Haas, or Jim Manchester for details.

To help everyone at St. John’s focus on the quarterly themes that will help us to truly “Live OUT Loud,” the Discipleship ministry has selected books for personal reading and reflection that will help to amplify the quarterly focuses.

For the first quarter of 2010, our theme – Live OUT Loud – focuses on worship. In the second quarter, our theme shifts to Laugh OUT Loud and will focus on fellowship. The third quarter’s focus will be on service with the theme Love OUT Loud. Discipleship will be the focus of the fourth quarter and the theme will be Learn OUT Loud.

We invite everyone to check the website and the bulletin boards in the church parlor to learn what the book of the quarter is. We also encourage the formation of small groups for discussion and in-depth study.

Also see: The Dangerous Act of Worship , 11 Indispensable Relationships You Can’t Be Without!, The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical, The Life You’ve Always Wanted: Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People, and “Are You Ready to “Read” OUT Loud in 2010?”

A new and thorough examination of the cause and consequences of Bible abuse that is directed at homosexuals can be found at this link. First researched and compiled as a presentation for a local community group, the study has two goals: 1) to look at who it is that commits abuse of specific biblical passages and then directs it toward homosexuals – and why and 2) “to try to determine what the original biblical texts actually say.” Remarkably, it is not the goal of the study “to debate the relevance or infallibility of biblical scripture or to proselytize.”

In its refreshing conclusion, the writer shows that there is more biblical evidence that God loves everyone God created than the spurious notion that God wants to condemn and reject us.

The piece is chock full of notes and interesting facts, making it an enjoyable and fascinating read. I found it well worth the few hours it takes to read all the material.

This study takes a different approach to the Problem of Bible Abuse by religious conservatives. Some of you have taken my class called “Freed from Guilt • Freed from Shame: Overcoming Bible Abuse about Homosexuality.” You will find this study complimentary to that class. I recommend it with two thumbs up.