We are pleased to welcome Neal Plantinga on March 6. Here is the flyer.
Clothed with the Virtues of Christ
In Colossians 3 the Christian life is positively described as a set of characteristic “clothing” worn by Christians. The idea is that certain virtues fit Christians especially well—compassion, for example, as well as humility, patience, forgiveness, and “love that binds these virtues together in perfect harmony.” What are these virtues like? What are their counterfeits? How would a person hope to get them? How many Christians receive the counsel to “clothe yourselves with the virtues of Christ” not simply as moral duty, but also as glad invitation?
Saturday, March 6, 2010
9–9:30 Coffee and fellowship
9:30–10:15 Opening worship service, Clothed with Patience
10:15–11:15 Session #1 Clothed with Humility
11:15–11:30 Break
11:30–12:30 Session #2 Forgiving Those Who Have Hurt Us
12:30–1:30 Lunch
Growing Virtue in Local Congregations
Cost is $15
RSVP at smikel@granitesprings.org (916) 645-9620 x13
PDF Flyer
January 23, 2010.
Schedule:
8:30am – 9:00am – coffee and pastries
9:00am – 10:15am- Band-aids for a Broken World? Click for mp3
10:15am – 10:30am – Break
10:30am – 11:45am – Dignity, Depravity, and Desert Maturity Click for mp3
11:45 – 12:30 – LUNCH
12:30pm – 2:00pm – Pastoral Ministry on the New Exodus Journey Click for mp3
(Optional Session)
About Chuck De Groat:
I have enjoyed a fluid combination of pastoral ministry, clinical counseling, and seminary teaching for the past 12 years, most of it spent in Orlando, FL. In 2008, I took a position with City Church (San Francisco), where I serve on the pastoral staff. Together with my colleague Scot Sherman, I am working to develop a Reformed, ecumenical, and missional seminary here on the West Coast. We call it The Newbigin Seminary Project. Within it is an exciting initiative called Wilberforce Fellowship, a lay training program in worldview, spiritual formation, and community. I also direct City Church Counseling Center, which serves a wide range of spiritual and emotional needs for the church and city, and facilitates a lay counselor training program for the church.
I hold a PhD in Psychology with a special emphasis in the psychology and theology of soul care and spiritual formation.
Ron Nydam of Calvin Seminary will come and present a seminar “Psalms in the Pits of Living”
I. Understanding the Wounded Heart
In this conversation we will seek a deeper understanding of what happens when the human heart is wounded by the hurts and losses of everyday living. Special attention will be given to the process of grieving and the importance of putting sorrow in words. We will be challenged to develop an emotional vocabulary as a resource for personal growth and pastoral ministry.
II. The Healing Power of Lament in a Psalm
The Scriptures offer us a way to “get over” and “get through” and “get out of”the pits in our lives. We will review the way in which psalms of lament are constructed and how they “work” to bring healing to suffering ans restoration to faith in God. Several psalms of lament will be presented for review.
Here are the details:
Saturday January 24 from 9:00am to 2:00pm at Granite Springs Church, 1170 E. Joiner Parkway, Lincoln CA 95648
Cost: $15 a person (includes lunch). Make checks payable to Granite Springs Church. (payment at the door or by mail)
Rsvp: smikel@granitesprings.org by 1/21
Talk 1: Songs of God’s Holy Spirit This discussion focuses on the nature of the Psalms. We will take a look at what John Calvin says is the genius of the entire Psalter, its (attracting) nature. Calvin says the Psalter is “the songs of God’s Holy Spirit, given to the Church, and to be sung (with the Son) back to the Father.” This is a remarkable insight that is pregnant with spiritual potential.
Talk 2: Trumpets, Ashes, and Tears: Epiphanies of God in the Psalms In this discussion we will examine the range of human emotions captured in the Psalter, indicating that the collection of psalms is, as Calvin says, “an anatomy of the entire soul.” We will discuss the Psalter’s breadth and scope, and how we may bring our entire experience, with its immense range of thoughts and feelings, before our Lord’s face.
Talk 3: Praying the Psalms…as Persons, as Families, as a Church During this discussion we will talk a bit about the “how to” for using the Psalter to optimal spiritual benefit and advantage in the several settings of our lives, whether when we’re alone as persons before God’s face, or whether we’re with others (within a family, among strong friends, or among fellow believers in a church).
You can find the flyer at this address: http://sierraleadership.org/flyers/09_Dale_Cooper_Praying_the_Psalms_Flyer.pdf
