​
​
Saturday, March 2
10:00am
​
SPOT is a monthly Faith Formation offering that focuses on various spiritual practices we can use to grow deeper in our faith and relationship with God.
​
Have you ever wanted to go on a pilgrimage but weren’t able to get away? Come journey with us as we travel through Holy Week in Buffalo, MN. We will explore the basic parts of pilgrimage and use the events of Palm Sunday through Easter as a backdrop for our time together. Join Lisa Ellwoods on Saturday March 2, 2024 at 10am in the Fellowship Hall for our virtual pilgrimage.
​
Thursdays
7:30 am
Online
Rachel Held Evans is widely recognized for her theologically astute, profoundly honest, and beautifully personal books, which have guided, instructed, edified, and shaped Christians as they seek to live out a just and loving faith.
At the time of her tragic death in 2019, Rachel was working on a new book about wholeheartedness. With the help of her close friend and author Jeff Chu, that work-in-progress has been woven together with some of her other unpublished writings into a rich collection of essays that ask candid questions about the stories we’ve been told—and the stories we tell—about our faith, our selves, and our world.
This book is for the doubter and the dreamer, the seeker and the sojourner, those who long for a sense of spiritual wholeness as well as those who have been hurt by the Church but can’t seem to let go of the story of Jesus. Through theological reflection and personal recollection, Rachel wrestles with God’s grace and love, looks unsparingly at what the Church is and does, and explores universal human questions about becoming and belonging. An unforgettable, moving, and intimate book.
Thursdays
10:00 am
In person
​
The Spring Quarter introduces the ministry of Old Testament prophets. A diversity of people are used by God to be God’s spokespersons to Israel and Judah. Prophets have messages that are meant to effect social change that conforms to God’s desired standards as described in the Law. Unit I looks at why prophets were necessary in Israel’s history. Moses gave the people God’s promise of a Promised Land; Joshua, Huldah, and Elijah illustrate the fulfillment of God’s promise given through Moses. Unit II reveals the compassion of God during times in Israel’s history when the people forsook God’s ways. Isaiah’s writings and the Gospel of Luke are used on Easter to portray Jesus as the Suffering Servant. Prophecies in Ezra, Nehemiah, and Lamentations further show the faith of the prophets as they present God’s hope to the Israelites. The third unit shows the boldness of God’s prophets in First Kings, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Jonah. Prophets called the returning exiles to restore their covenant with God.
​
STARTING APRIL 2024
​
​
Thursdays
5:30 pm
Online
This volume by a Cherokee teacher, former pastor, missiologist, and historian brings Indigenous theology into conversation with Western approaches to history and theology.
Written in an accessible, conversational style that incorporates numerous stories and questions, this book exposes the weaknesses of a Western worldview through a personal engagement with Indigenous theology. Randy Woodley critiques the worldview that undergirds the North American church by dismantling assumptions regarding early North American histories and civilizations, offering a comparative analysis of worldviews, and demonstrating a decolonized approach to Christian theology.
Woodley explains that Western theology has settled for a particular view of God and has perpetuated that basic view for hundreds of years, but Indigenous theology originates from a completely different DNA. Instead of beginning with God-created humanity, it begins with God-created place. Instead of emphasizing individualism, it emphasizes a corporateness that encompasses the whole community of creation. And instead of being about the next world, it is about the tangibility of our lived experiences in this present world. The book encourages readers to reject the many problematic aspects of the Western worldview and to convert to a worldview that is closer to that of both Indigenous traditions and Jesus.
​
​
STARTING APRIL 2024