July 24 Meeting Recap

Here are the assignments/homework/prayer request for the week of July 24th - 30th as discussed in our Missional Community Group this evening.

1. Mark your calendar and plan on attending the next Theodore Judah Community Pot Luck ~ Friday, September 9, 2011. Note: there will not be a T.J. Pot Luck in August. Folks who attended the last pot luck said they just keep getting better and better ~ yeah! We are building community! Praise God!
2. Remember to sign up and help out with the Theodore Judah Fundraiser, Saturday August 13, 2011.
3. Think about (and be prepared to share) your vision for our group? To help, Tim suggested we ponder the following questions.....Is the group meeting your expectations? Would you like to see us move in one direction or another? Pray for God's guidance.
4. Regarding Chapter Seven in Untamed, answer the following...."Can I understand my true identity if I am not in community with others?" Perhaps another way to pose the question would be..."How do my relationship's in community affect my understanding of my true identity in Christ?" Read Chapter 8 for next week.
5. It was unanimous ~ we all really enjoyed meeting at the Hooey's home and want to keep the momentum going. So next week, July 31, at 5:30pm. we will meet at my house 169 Briggs Ranch Drive, Folsom. If we know in advance that we will have quite a few kids in attendance, the kids and the child care providers can meet across the street at the Hooeys. As we RSVP and sign up for the pot luck we'll work out the child care needs.
6. Please remember the following in your prayers: Sue's mom, Bernice who is having back surgery at UCD on Tuesday. Also pray for her follow-up care. Pray for our groups vision, may we be in tune to God's calling. Pray for the individuals we have come to know and love through our intentional community (both within and outside our group).

Untamed Chapter 6

I am pretty bummed we didn't get to talk through the second half of Chapter 6 together, though it may be for the best.

Please share your thoughts on the following passage from page 169:

Janet Fishburn, mentioned above, in her book "Confronting the Idolatry of Family: A New Vision for the Household of God", rightly asserts,

"Where a domesticated piety dominates, or where the concerns of the nuclear family becomes the focus of a church, the conservation of middle-class ideals can blind both leadres and people to the prominent concern for social justice found in the Bible.  And even when leaders are committed to seeking social jsutice, they have not been able to sustain a legitimate critique of poverty and injustice in America because the family ideals of the American Dream continue to be linked to democratic values and economic stability... Uncritical loyalty to "the family pew" makes it very difficult to see or comprehend the plight of the poor and the homeless and the oppression of minority persons, as anything but their own fault."

She then goes on to say that it requires courage for any pastor of a mainstream congregation to preach prophetically.  "To ask middle-class Americans to see American culture as Jesus would see it is to ask them to vote against their own privileged position in society."