June Meeting Recap

We had a record high attendance of 13! Not bad for our third meeting. J.D., Phillip, Alan & Rachel, and Steve & Susan came for the first time. Kasey got the conversation going by talking about her growing interest (okay, pun intended) in community gardening. From there we touched on the ethics of working with neighborhood associations (is it better to ask forgiveness or permission?), various sources of free gardening advice and stuff, the impact of high energy costs on our neighborhoods, how to minister to neighbors who are on the brink of losing their homes (Phillip said that about 18% are already there locally), and how emerging churches and non-emerging churches are equipped to deal with the changes we are seeing in our culture.

If I left out a theme, please post a comment to add it to the list.

Steve suggested some websites related to community gardening:
http://www.pathtofreedom.com/ - urban homesteading
http://www.freecycle.org/ - source of free stuff
http://www.craigslist.org/about/sites.html - source of low cost or free stuff

Terry mentioned that his church has a ministry providing free furniture to families in need. Contact Terry at terryc_11855@verizon.net if you have furniture to donate, if you know of any sources of free furniture, or if you know of any families in need. There is always a demand for children’s furniture.

If you want to stay in touch with Alan & Rachel Howell after they return to Montepuez, Mozambique in mid-July, their blog is http://howellsinmoz.blogspot.com/, their email is Africahowells@yahoo.com and their team web is http://www.makuateam.org/

If you are interested in learning more about David Hawkins’ Power vs. Force, email Joseph at whitner@sbcglobal.net Also, Joseph is going to work up a PowerPoint presentation about his model of integrative spirituality. E-mail Joseph for more information.

Next time: Kasey and/or J.D. will get the conversation started by discussing how history is always written by the victors and what liberation theology can teach us. J. D. suggests these readings on liberation theology:
-The Powers trilogy of Walter Wink
-The Co-liberation thought of Brian McLaren in Everything Must Change
-Miguel de la Torre Reading the Bible from the Margins and Doing Christian Ethics from the Margins
-A series by Fortress Press called A People's History of Christianity
-Christ and Empire by Joerg Rieger
-Jesus and Empire and The Message of the Kingdom by Richard Horsley
-Also, James Cone, Desmond Tutu, Leonardo and Clovis Boff, Oscar Romero, and Gustavo Gutierrez.

It should be a great conversation. See you July 31st.