Rockford is currently in the planning stages. Be a part of launching
this exciting ministry. Call us today to join the group of churches
and individuals hungry for affirming and live-giving fellowship.
We are meeting at 6PM on the Fourth Sunday's of each month.
Tentative 2008 Fouth Sunday Schedule:
October 12
November 9
December 14
Session One: Our Faith Stories
Session Two: Our Images of God
Session Three: Reconciled in Jesus Christ
Session Four: The Inspired & Inspiring Word
Discussing our diverse beliefs, views, use, and experience of scripture both in our histories and in our daily lives.
Session Five: Making Ourselves Available to God
We all carry negative messages from our culture, and all too often our churches, about who we are and what we should be. We make ourselves
more available to God by bringing those images to the altar and seeking to open ourselves up to His unconditional love and transforming power of
renewal.
Session Six: We Learn to Hear God
As a persecuted people, we often close ourselves off to God as we lives lives in fear and shame. We become proficient and accustomed
to hiding parts of ourselves. It becomes increasingly difficult for us to hear and know God's unconditional love for us and disern His will for
our whole and joyfilled living. We have a powerful ally and lover – Jesus Christ. If we open our wholeselves to God, our persecution both
humbles and strengthens us. It “helps us to know our limits and brokenness”, and teaches us to “rely on God’s boundless strength rather
than our own finite” abilities (Pepper 63-64).
Session Seven: Member of the Body of Christ
Many of us long to reconnect with the churches and church experiences of our youth. In this study we reflect on the feelings those
"emotional ties" evoke and share our struggles to reclaim our place in the Body of Christ. Reflecting on I Corinthians 12, we strategize
how to make ourselves and our gifts more fully available to the whole Body of Christ.
Session Eight: Our Witness to Living in Christ
In this study we will be encouraged to "come out" and live fully and authentically. God created us each with purpose, dignity, and intention.
Boldy come out and use your whole authentic self, including your gender identity and affectional orientation, to witness to the amazing
redemptive power, intimacy of our God, personal strength and peace, and the abundant grace that is found in our awesome God and our
Saviour Jesus Christ.
Session Nine: Witness Inspired by the Holy Spirit
The last study in the Reconciling Journey text. We are each called to share our witness, inspired by the grace of God and empowered by
the gift of Holy Spirit. An intregal part of sharing our witness is sharing our wholeselves including our gender identity and sexual
orientation. When we come out we risk persecution and rejection but the opportunity, through God's amazing power and grace, to inspire,
encourage, and prompt growth and change in our world is abundant. God through Jesus Christ calls us and has specially equipped each
of us to bring justice, peace, and forgiveness to a broken world.
