As we have re-articulated our five values/practices here at Southside we have also adopted a fresh set of language. Passionate Spirituality will now be known as ‘Heart’ around Southside or better said: Loving God with all of our hearts. I’ll be putting the PS blog and web to rest and be writing and resourcing in the are of ‘Heart’. Inspired by Dallas Willard i’ll be titling a new blog ‘Heart Reno’. Follow it if you fancy. http://heartreno.wordpress.com/

Grace and Peace.

I subscribe to a few blogs and feeds out there – one is Inward Outward a publication of Church of the Saviour in Washington DC. Many days they post insightful and challenging reflections. Here’s one:

By Elizabeth O’Connor

The primary purpose of the disciplines, structures of accountability and mission of the Church is to build life together, to create liberating communities of caring. To each of us is given a gift for the building of a community of caring, a community in which we can learn to embrace our pain and to overcome all those oppressive inner structures that would keep us in bondage and make us protective and anxious for our own futures.

Source: The New Community

Sunday October 25, 2009 :: Pentecost 21

WBYFG :: TK4A :: ‘People ‘of the Kingdom
Teaching: Cam
MCs: ???, ???
WBY Band :: Craig, Shelley, Brad, Zach, Alissa, Deb
FG Band :: Craig, Alissa

ETCRP :: TK3B Round Table :: ‘Stories of the Kingdom’
Teaching: Roubd Table
MCs: ???, ???
ETC Band :: Dan, Cailey, Kyson, Myles, Evelyn
RP Band :: Dan, Cailey, Kyson, Myles, Jason, KristyF, Carmen

Full Schedule

Morning and Evening Prayers

Loving God with all of our heart…

Morning Prayers

A moment or time to set the direction of our hearts for the day. Simply this can just be a moments of brief prayer such as:

• Lord to whom shall I go. You have the words of eternal life and I have believed and have come to know that you are the holy one of God.
• This is the day the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it.
• God show me what you are doing today and how I can be a part of it.

A next step in prayer would be to take to to still yourself and think through your day offering your appointments, business, opportunities, schedule, and events to the Lord. Pray about people you will see by name and ask the Spirit to equip you in those moments to worship and be his witness. Pray also for the unplanned or divine appointments that will come your way this day. Pray you would recognize them and serve the Lord well.

Scripture reading is a great complement to morning prayer as well.

Evening Prayers

The end of day is also a great moment for our souls. Simple end of day prayers can be prayers of thanksgiving for the day, for the work accomplished, for provision and that the Lord watched over you.

A next step would be to practice the prayer of examine. This involves reflecting on two questions: What brought me life today? What took life from me today? Reflect on your day and ask the Lord to bring revelation in this questions. Pray with gratefulness thanking God for the life giving moments. In praying in response to the moments that took life it may require prayers for perseverance, pleading with the Lord to change things, prayer to know God in the tough moments, prayer for healing or other appropriate responses of prayer.

Journaling your evenings prayers would also give you the opportunity to look back and follow what God is doing in your midst and how you are growing in him.

God, show me what you are doing today, and how I can be a part of it.

The Church gathers weekly. This has been a core practice for hundreds of years. It is both epic and pathetic. Epic in the sense that God, the Lord of Lords, Jesus of the cross and resurrection, the Holy Spirit, meets us. Pathetic in the sense of the offerings we often bring (if we bring any). One of my favourite moments of our gathering is the the call to worship. I don’t think worship begins with the call to worship for as people even begin to gather in a place, begin to setup, serve, pray corporate worship is being offered. But there is this moment. When we stand together and hear a call to worship. An invitation to all turn our hearts and faces towards the Lord. And in the moment that follows many people enter in, and many people withdraw. There are hands raised, hands open, and hands in our pockets.

As I’ve been reflecting upon this I have also considered the fact that the gathering, while a significant moment of the week, is really a small portion of the week. We spend a lot more of our week in coming and in going. Though we need to work together and mature in our corporate practices of gathering, what are the practices of coming and going that we are developing.

The gathering of God’s people is a gift. A gift of unity. A gift of the word. A gift of space to worship. A gift of ministry. A gift of grace. One of the questions I am wondering is are able to receive and carry these gifts into our lives. My dream is that the gathering of God’s people in a place is the celebration and remembering of a week that has past (that we had gone into), and a week that is coming, that we are invited into.

My thoughts are still developing and I would appreciate feedback or questions of clarity.

We believe that the world God created is good, that He creates people in His image,

and that no amount of darkness can erase that divine imprint.

Because we believe that all of life is sacred, we look for God’s fingerprints everywhere.

We celebrate the divine in the daily, pursuing lives of

hope,

gratitude,

and worship.

God invites everyone, everywhere into this way of life,

and we believe it is the best possible way to live.

When a journalist asked Thomas Merton to diagnose the leading spiritual disease of our time, the monk gave a curious one-word answer: efficiency. Why? From the monastery to the Pentagon, the plant has to run… and there is little time or energy left over after that to do anything else.

Praying Selflessly

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The psalms teach us to pray as a fellowship. The Body of Christ is praying, and as an individual one acknowledges that his prayer is only a minute fragment of the whole prayer of the Church. He learns to pray the prayer of the Body of Christ. And that lifts him above his personal concerns and allows him to pray selflessly.

Friday April 10, 7pm through Sunday April 12, 7am.

36 hours of Worshipping, Praying, Listening and Ministering together. Please be in prayer as we lead up to this important weekend and consider which time slots you might sign up for.

Sat April 11 from 7-10 am the Elders will be available to pray with people. If you are carrying a burden, struggling spiritually, sick, or simply desire a fresh move of the Spirit in your life sign up to pray with the Elders. Contact info@southside.ca to get a time.

Weekend schedule and info about the weekend can be viewed here. Sign up by commenting on the blog or emailing the office – info@southside.ca.