http://www.thirdwaychurch.org/blog/
CLICK ON THIS LINK and subscribe to the new blog.
Seth
0
The leadership team met last night to talk about 2 things. Should we fully transition to Heart, Soul, Mind & Strength teams, and who will we task with shepherding the covenant group formation and orientation. The leadership decided to keep our existing leadership team, but meet 4 times a year to check in about the overall vision of thirdway. We decided we wanted to move forward with the heart team (pastoral leadership team) and talked about who might serve on that team. We felt that we needed a bit more time to form that group, but did not want that to slow the forming of new groups. Sooooo.. we decided to put a group of 8 folks we thought were either future heart team members, or people who have shown a desire to help small groups form. That task group to help form covenant groups is Brian / Daleen, Eddie, Danny, Amanda, Jessica, Alisha / Tim. They will meet the next three tuesday evenings to get covenant groups started. That’s it for now. Seth
Hey Thirdway Folk – we were thinking since this next weekend is Memorial Day Weekend that we would skip doing our own service (since a handful of people may be out of town or doing family stuff) and join in with the House of Mercy’s service! This is a good opportunity for us to visit the House of Mercy community and check out what is going on there – they will even be serving treats to welcome us! Please join if you can – they are located at 104 Snelling Avenue South, Saint Paul, MN 55105 (Feel free to let me know if you have any questions)! Peace
Hey All,
We are back from the SMC Camp Meeting this past week!
We had a group of 12 head out to Plow Creek farm to set ourselves up in tent villages on the small meadow there. It was a great turn out for our community, and for the event as a whole. With 100 people representing 7 different communities, there was no shortage of conversation to be had. There were young folks to connect with, as well as lots of older folks to learn from. I sat in on several workshops, to learn about a life-transforming creative writing project going on in San Quentin prison, how to sustain community for the long haul, and the differing needs of folks in community who are at different life stages.
Nearly every member of our Third Way representative group remarked how welcomed they felt, how much the event felt like a family reunion, and how much fun they were having! And it did feel like family, too. There were many faces, all friendly, all willing to sit down to conversation with any one of us.
The highlight of the weekend (for me, anyway!) was a “lack-of-talent” show (variety show) that took place on Saturday night. It was long, but amazing. Watching folks make fools of themselves, folks express their hearts through poetry or song, and having fun all together as a big group was a unifying experience. I certainly know what I’m looking forward to at the next camp meeting.
Seth shared with the group on Friday morning, sharing his own story and the story of God, encouraging us as we write our own stories. Some points that stood out to me from the teaching were the ideas Seth shared about how to be a good protagonist. He mentioned that a good protagonist has to want something! A good story includes the protagonist pursuing something meaningful, something worthwhile in his or her own life. Seth also encouraged us to fall in love with Jesus as a person. To love Jesus, not his ethics or the things he believed.
We heard about SMC’s relationship to Valle Nuevo, a village in El Salvador. We saw a slideshow with photos from this year’s delegation group to Valle Nuevo. This relationship is one of the primary reasons that SMC pools resources together. It was encouraging for me to see a very large group of communities sharing resources for more that its own sake!
There was lots of free time to connect with folks–swimming, meals, hikes, campfires, sitting around, shooting the breeze!
At the end of weekend there was an “open mic” time for anybody to share things they had learned, ways they had been encouraged by the gathering. Folks’ observations were very meaningful! In all honesty, I half-expected that time to be lame. But it wasn’t! It wasn’t sappy or boring or drawn out. It was moving, humorous, unifying. Praise God. That “affirmations” time was followed by a chance for each community to offer 2 prayer requests, and to be prayed for by someone in the crowd. We wrapped up the weekend by taking communion together and then sharing the noontime meal.
Hopefully I can get some photos up here! Let me work on that. For now, i hope you enjoyed the update!
Peace,
Natalie
Since so many folks headed to Plow Creek for the SMC Camp Meeting we are taking a Sabbath from the Sunday Meeting. We will meet again next Sunday. Hamline Church 6PM no potluck!
OK, Here is the first draft of a new way of approaching our community leadership. Thirdway org Chart
I said I would have it out last week, but this was a difficult process. Let me know what you think!
Seth
This Sunday we will be joining Hamline Church (1514 Englewood 55104) for worship at 10am followed by a BBQ on the North Lawn. I will be preaching and the youth group is fundraising for their mission trip to the Lacoda Tribe of South Dakota. $5 per person/ $20 per family. So we will have no Sunday Meeting this week.
