Monday, January 9, 2017

Gather Theme Idea Board

Gather C2 2017

Synonyms of Gather
assemble  pick up  band  rally  collect  collaborate

From Congregational Development Materials:
INVITE GREET ORIENT INCORPORATE

Bible passages with Gather
Bible Passages with Greet
Bible Passages with Collect
Bible Passages with Assemble 

Biblical moments that come to mind:
Upper Room
Nativity

Growth Mindset..what is that?

Well here is a link to a good brain pickings article .  Collaboration, reaching out, and making connections are an important part of growth mindset.  The dark side of a fixed mindset is isolation and fear; the light side of a growth mindset is community and relatedness.

  
This image is from a UCC youth conference, however it may be worth imitating if we focus on the weaving aspect more than the fire part.  (Because of forest fires). How is rope or fabric strength increased with more threads?  What other engineering and artistry is collaborative and dependent on being gathered?

Here is a link to the PINTEREST board I have been collecting for a few seasons.  It has a wide array of stuff for program and resource and what not!


Here is a link to her book!  She has a fantastic segment in the Animate Faith series about this topic. 

And this is the Animate Scope and Sequence document.




Friday, October 28, 2016

nb end of october stuff

All of this is also on the FB group page.


Schedule
Here is a current version of the schedule.


Quizzich SAturday Big Game Thing
Here is the old quizzich set of questions. What is in the document is all harry potter, and was for a harry potter themed fundraiser. I want to expand it because, shocker, there are some folks who don't know the HP universe like some of us!!! 
Anyways... the way this works is there is a round and then they get turned in and then some sort of inbetween competive quick game (like minute to win it or cranium type) and then the next round of trivia questions.
old quizzich questions 

HangoutS!   mostly 10am saturday the 29th!!!!

 the gmail identity for myself (for this purpose) is jag.stpww.diospk@gmail.com and my name there is Jane Alice Gober.https://plus.google.com/u/0/114088510945426805278





Please message Jag if you have any further questions!!!


 




  

Friday, October 21, 2016

MEETING SCHEDULE CHANGE MESSAGE

This message was in an email.  If you did not get that email, please message JAG!

The most important thing is that the meeting that was supposed to be TOMORROW THE 22ND is now moved to the following SATURDAY, THE 29TH.  We will do this by videochat from whatever locations you are at, although it would be best if some of us could cluster for the video chat.

I know some of you have other things scheduled then...if so then I ask that you take the time this week to CHECK IN WITH YOUR TASK TEAM AND meet your task and send a HAVE A PLAN TO 'report' to the group.   WOULD 10AM-1230 ON SATURDAY THE 29TH WORK (OR IT COULD BE EARLIER OR LATER)???

TASK ASSIGNMENTS!  PERSON IN BOLD IS MY CHOICE FOR TASK CAPTAIN!!
'CLUB GATHER' Hosts as folks come in, working on nametags, showing them dinner, inviting into group board/card games and 'art' activities.  HARMON, KAITLYN, ETHAN, JO
GROUP GAMES  LIAM, SAMANTHA, DANIEL and MARY..please check in with her about what is feasible at st pauls
THEME DINNER  EWAN GRACE, ROSS, LUCAS, JO
WORSHIP & MUSIC LIAM, ETHAN, HARMON, MARY (MUSIC), JANE
Below are my invitations for talk givers.  We should schedule a time to talk through these (once i have more of the outlines written up). 

If you feel very uncomfortable with the invitation, please email me DIRECTLY and recommend someone else. 

ALL TALKS MUST BE WRITTEN OUT AND SENT TO ME BEFORE NOVEMBER 4TH. 

THEY MUST ALSO ALL INCLUDE YOUR GETTING FEEDBACK AND HELP FROM an EPISCOPAL CLERGY PERSON or Jane or Lucas. 

  1. Welcoming the Stranger: Ross
  2. Recovering Vision: Harmon
  3. Connecting to Neighbor: Sammi
  4. Serving Needs: Liam
  5. Healing Brokenness: Grace
There was only one comment about the schedule on the blogpage...I heard that Ethan was trying to post and didn't...not sure what the issue is there! 

WE NEED YOU TO BE INVITING PEOPLE.

INVITE THE ELIGIBLE 6-8TH GRADE PEOPLE IN YOUR LIFE AND CONGREGATION.
Visit the NEAREST CONGREGATION (IF YOU CAN) AND CHECK IN WITH THE PRIEST THERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT POSSIBLE JR HI MID SCHOOL AGE TEENS IN THE COMMUNITY.

Peace!!!
Jane

NB TALK OUTLINES

WATCH THIS SPACE!!!

  1. Welcoming the Stranger  deut 14.28-29      
  2. Recovering Vision  zeph 3.14-20
  3. Connecting to Neighbor  luke 14.1-13
  4. Serving Needs  Acts 4.32-35
  5. Healing Brokenness  Matt 25.35-40
Each talk needs to include:

  • reference to the provided scripture: 
    • you can use one sentence, 
    • you can use a children's version, 
    • you can use the message version (biblegateway has the best search features)
  • your story
  •  how gathering changes others
  • what the guests need to hear about gathering as a christian community
  • a video clip that connects to the topic and your talk.
  • THE WORD GATHER AND THE WORD BECOME (OR A SYNONYM OF EITHER) 
A few hints on how to get started.  
1. read the scripture.  write down any ideas or words that stand out.  does it bring forth any memories?
1.5  look up the definition of the words gather and become.  also the thesaurus.  write down one synonym for each word.
2. focus on the action word.  how have you known that action word in the world and in the church?  can you quickly tell a story about either of those?  
3. how have you been changed/impacted/improved by a gathered community?  can you write about that?
4. what do our guests most need to know about this that can connect them to the blessings of gathering in christian community?
5. is there a video that connects to this for you??
THEN..
PUT THAT ALL ASIDE.
GO DO SOMETHING ELSE FOR A WHILE.


THEN COME BACK AND WRITE A FIRST DRAFT.
YOU MUST WRITE IT OUT. 
NO EXCEPTIONS. 

If you like quotes try looking for quotes on good reads, or brainy quote.  below are a few quotes I like regarding these topics. many of these would work for many talks.

WELCOMING THE STRANGER
“Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer. And let faith be the bridge you build to overcome evil and welcome good.”
Maya Angelou, Celebrations: Rituals of Peace and Prayer  
“We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community.”
Dorothy Day, The Long Loneliness: The Autobiography of the Legendary Catholic Social Activist 


RECOVERING VISION
“In the company of these friends, questions and doubts were met with sympathy, not fear. No one felt the need to correct or understand or approve. We just listened, and it was sacred.”
Rachel Held Evans, Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church
“Want to keep Christ in Christmas? Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, forgive the guilty, welcome the unwanted, care for the ill, love your enemies, and do unto others as you would have done unto you.”
Steve Maraboli, Unapologetically You: Reflections on Life and the Human Experience   




“But many of us seek community solely to escape the fear of being alone. Knowing how to be solitary is central to the art of loving. When we can be alone, we can be with others without using them as a means of escape.”
bell hooks, All About Love: New Visions 


HEALING BROKENNESS
“This is what God's kingdom is like: a bunch of outcasts and oddballs gathered at a table, not because they are rich or worthy or good, but because they are hungry, because they said yes. And there's always room for more.” 
 Rachel Held Evans, Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church

“A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed.”
Desmond Tutu


Jesus is the thrilling, scary Boyfriend who's going to dare you to do things you'd never dreamed of, shower you with unreasonable presents, and show up uninvited at the most embarrassing times. Then he's going to stick with you, refusing to take the hint when you don't answer his calls.”
Sara Miles 


CONNECTING TO NEIGHBORS

HELPED are those who risk themselves for others' sakes; to them will be given increasing opportunities for ever greater risks. Theirs will be a vision of the word in which no one's gift is despised or lost.
HELPED are those who strive to give up their anger; their reward will be that in any confrontation their first thoughts will never be of violence or of war.
HELPED are those whose every act is a prayer for peace; on them depends the future of the world.
HELPED are those who forgive; their reward shall be forgiveness of every evil done to them. It will be in their power, therefore, to envision the new Earth.
HELPED are those who are shown the existence of the Creator's magic in the Universe; they shall experience delight and astonishment without ceasing.
HELPED are those who laugh with a pure heart; theirs will be the company of the jolly righteous.
HELPED are those who love all the colors of all the human beings, as they love all the colors of the animals and plants; none of their children, nor any of their ancestors, nor any parts of themselves, shall be hidden from them.
aLICE wALKER

“Over the years, I have come to realize that the greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity, or power, but self-rejection. Success, popularity, and power can indeed present a great temptation, but their seductive quality often comes from the way they are part of the much larger temptation to self-rejection. When we have come to believe in the voices that call us worthless and unlovable, then success, popularity, and power are easily perceived as attractive solutions. The real trap, however, is self-rejection. As soon as someone accuses me or criticizes me, as soon as I am rejected, left alone, or abandoned, I find myself thinking, "Well, that proves once again that I am a nobody." ... [My dark side says,] I am no good... I deserve to be pushed aside, forgotten, rejected, and abandoned. Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the "Beloved." Being the Beloved constitutes the core truth of our existence.”
Henri J.M. Nouwen



SERVING NEEDS

There's a hunger beyond food that's expressed in food, and that's why feeding is always a kind of miracle.”
Sara Miles, Take This Bread: A Radical Conversion 

What I heard, and continue to hear, is a voice that can crack religious and political convictions open, that advocates for the least qualified, least official, least likely; that upsets the established order and makes a joke of certainty. It proclaims against reason that the hungry will be fed, that those cast down will be raised up, and that all things, including my own failures, are being made new. It offers food without exception to the worthy and unworthy, the screwed-up and pious, and then commands everyone to do the same. It doesn't promise to solve or erase suffering but to transform it, pledging that by loving one another, even through pain, we will find more life. And it insists that by opening ourselves to strangers,”
Sara Miles, Take This Bread: A Radical Conversion  


the new humanity that is created around Jesus is not a humanity that is always going to be successful and in control of things, but a humanity that can reach out its hand from the depths of chaos, to be touched by the hand of God.”
Rowan Williams, Being Christian 


“Christians will be found in the neighbourhood of Jesus – but Jesus is found in the neighbourhood of human confusion and suffering, defencelessly alongside those in need. If being baptized is being led to where Jesus is, then being baptized is being led towards the chaos and the neediness of a humanity that has forgotten its own destiny.”
Rowan Williams, Being Christian  
 


Monday, October 10, 2016

Draft Schedule Outline nb2016

Here is a draft of the schedule for Nb:Become

friday

team can arrive whenever they can get here

630p    Club Become Guest and Team Arrival
730p     Dinner
830p     Welcome, rules, themes, icebreaker games
930p     Talk & Small Group & Responses (TSGR)  1
11 p      music
             Compline
12p       Lights Out

saturday

8am   wake up
830    breakfast
          Morning worship
          game
         TSGR 2
         music
         group game
          quiet reflection time
12 n  Liturgical Ancient Lunch
1p     Seek and Find in W2 finishing at Climbing Gym
          Pick up at climbing Gym taken to homes for showers
 5p     TSGR 3       
           Group Games
           Music    
7p      Fancier Themed Dinner
         Quizzitch!   Big Geeky Quiz Game
         TSGR   4
         Music
          Compline
12.30a  lights out

sunday

need to be out of classrooms by 9am!!

730   wake up
          breakfast when rooms cleared out (830?)
          music practice song for congregation
          TGSR 5
          Bead Agape Activity
         Reflection Session/feedback
10.30a  worship with congregation
            snacks with congregation
 12n  clean up and depart!


    

     

5 Talk/Scenes for NB: Become!

So...gather. 
Why do we gather?
How are we evolved as Christian people who gather together?
Who are we hoping to become through our gathering?

A few points about GATHER/BECOME theme:
  • all gatherings, including those of Jesus, involve people in a particular vision of society, while also immersing all the people gathered in a vision of what relations among people should and can be
  • Jesus table ministry (all those stories of him eating with folks) was a strategy for rebuilding human communities on holy principles of healing, welcoming, and challenging the unjust structures.
  • In the Eucharist we gather up all our memories of tables - food, fun, tears, laughter, satisfaction, mellowness and silliness - and they become our own bodies.  Gathered round the table we are looking at what we have become.
  • In gatherings around tables we are invited to practice a life of lavish abundance and extravagant service where all may find real food, real rest, real company.
Our five scene topics should connect with the following 5 ideals in no order:
  1. Welcoming the Stranger
  2. Recovering Vision
  3. Connecting to Neighbor
  4. Serving Needs
  5. Healing Brokenness 
WHAT TV/MOVIE scififantasydisneyanimatedseries SCENES could connect with some of these ideals???  Please comment in the comments!

Monday, February 22, 2016

Tenebrae: Service of Shadows

The St. Paul's Youth Group will be offering a unique incarnation of the Tenebrae Service this March 23rd (6pm).
Tenebrae means shadows, and the Tenebrae service begins with light and ends in near darkness.  This is a contemplative service that will be comfortable for a wide audience.
This service is a collection of excerpts and prayers from the devotional book Common Prayer for Ordinary Radicals by Shane Claiborne and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, and Enuma Okoro, as well as a selection of quotes and readings curated by our young people over our time together. 
We hope you will practice a devoted Holy week by dedicating yourself to deeper and more frequent communal worship.