Christianity For the Rest of Us

Our Lenten study this year is on Diana Butler-Bass’s book, “Christianity For the Rest of Us.” It is a thought-provoking and well-researched expose on the declining mainline church, and how certain congregations have managed to defy that trend through renewed spirituality and Christian practices.

Please go to our website at www.salisburycongregational.org
and find the summary for our first class on the “Pastor’s page” – then leave any comment you’d like on here related to the material.

Blessed Church: Chapter 5

This final chapter of part II of Standish’s book (and of our study, for now) led us into some very interesting converation around issues of the effectiveness of prayer, responsibility of leadership in matters of spiritual formation, and God’s manifestation among us.  See Comment #1 for the summary of this week’s discussion.

Blessed Church – Chapter 4

In this chapter, we discussed how the intentional pursuit of the presence of God in both our worship services and impacts our understanding of “church life.”   (The first comment is the summary for this week’s class.)

Blessed Church – Chapter 3

In this chapter we focused primarily on two issues in our discussions:  discerning God’s voice effectively, and identifying the markers of spiritual maturity in ourselves and among our fellow congregants.  Read Comment #1 for the summary of last week’s discussions.

Blessed Church – Chapter 2

In this chapter, we discussed concepts like “rational functionalism,” “respiratory failure,” spiritual vibrancy, and becoming spiritually “integrated” as a church.  See comment #1 for the summary of our two class discussion, and then leave your own comments or thoughts.

Blessed Church – Chapter 1

Our discussion for both first classes (Tues. and Thurs.) took us to some extended conversation around the issues of Standish’s terms “embracing the sacred” and “becoming transformational.”

The first comment in this post will be a combined summary of those discussions.  I invite you to leave your own reflections on the chapter and the conversations that ensued.

Becoming a Blessed Church: Introduction

For those participating in our Lenten book study on Graham Standish’s book, Becoming a Blessed Church, each chapter will have a blog posting for comments on the reading and questions you either have yourself or think would make for interesting discussion.

For this first post, what are your comments on Graham’s introduction?

General Thoughts on Transition

As we go through this year of transition, it was been suggested and requested that we track our progress, as well as our comments or questions about that progress, by way of an online conversation; i.e., this blog.  This will be a venue for discussion on a host of topics around all that’s happening here at S.C.C.

In this particular post, we are inviting you to share questions, comments, thoughts, and your input on how being in “transition” as a congregation is impacting you, and how you see it impacting the church.

Simply follow the instructions on the “About” page for adding your reply, comment or question.  Your input is needed and most welcome!