THE SEED NEWSLETTER
JULY 9, 2023
Dear Christian Temple,
Summer is in full swing! As the warm days roll on, we wanted to give you a little update on what is happening in our building this summer. If you ride by the parking lot and see the top spaces almost full it is because there is a lot of activity. In addition to the Farmers’ Market on Wednesdays and the Food Trucks on Thursdays outside, we are hosting 3 different camps inside.
Two camps have called Christian Temple home for a number of years. The STARS camp for acting and music is taking place in the Fellowship Hall. These talented students will be performing throughout the summer and using our building as home base. Watson Hall Montessori School is hosting a camp that just started in July and is welcoming students to their two classrooms. They are learning by doing and teaching each other.
The Leadership Camp put on by Dynamic Services is new to Christian Temple. Sharon Tolson is the director of this camp and sought out our space as a centrally located camp offering for students interested in entrepreneurship. This group is meeting in the Chapel and is keeping the space by the offices lively.
What a joy it is to hear these young ones throughout the day. What a gift it is to know that they have found a safe space in our building. Things are going well.
Stay cool!
Much love,
John
VOLUNTEER WITH THE KIDS!
Our children's ministry can't run without volunteers. Please consider volunteering with our children during Children at Worship/Transformers in August or September as we begin sharing Godly Play with them! https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C084CACA928ABF5C34-christian
KIDS ACTIVITIES DURING JULY
During the month of July while Transformers is taking a break, we will offer an activity for children 3rd grade and below in the prayground! We do ask for a parent or guardian to be with their child in the prayground, if possible.
NEW SUNDAY FORUM STUDY
Join the Forum this Sunday for a new study of Diana Butler Bass' Freeing Jesus. We will discuss one chapter a week, but don't let the book be a barrier to joining us! It will be a stimulating discussion.
WEDNESDAY BIBLE STUDY- SUMMER NEWS! ~ A Note from Vaughn Ouellette
Last Wednesday we concluded our most current lecture series, "Understanding the New Testament." It seems to be a logical place to pause for the summer and enjoy the outdoors, the beach, family and friends. We will resume Wednesday Bible Study on the first Wednesday after Labor Day, September 6th, when we will begin a new lecture series entitled, "Skeptics and Believers: Religious Debate in the Western Intellectual Tradition." Our lector is Professor Tyler Roberts, a professor of Religious Studies at Grinnell College. This is a 36-week lecture series beginning at 9:30 to 11:00 a.m. every Wednesday.
The scope of the lecture is, "to ask questions, such as, what are we doing when we profess belief in God? When we pray? When we join with others in church in rituals of worship? Western philosophers and religious thinkers have asked and answered these questions for centuries. But in the 17th century, with the advent of modernity, the nature of these inquiries changed. "Modernity" names a historical period characterized by advances in science and new models of reason and politics. It also marks a new attitude toward the world and our place in it, where intellectual and cultural authority is no longer located in past traditions or in divine revelation but in our exercise of reason in the present and where our sense of indebtedness to the past is replaced by confidence in our ability to shape our world for the future. In this context, Western intellectuals began to ask new questions about God, faith, and religion. How do we know that God exists? Can reason defend any of the assertions about God and the world claimed by our religious traditions? Is religion a force for good in human life, or is it something that belongs to a past age, a symptom of the childhood of humanity?"
I hope you will join us in this new and exciting way to better understand our faith in God and our religious traditions in the modern world.
Enjoy your summer!
BIBLE STUDY ZOOM LINKS!
Lectio at Lunch (12 PM Noon) - Zoom Sessions Only
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86986398860?pwd=Ync1V0MwQ3hNNkV0MmFSV3dvcExPUT09
Nine O' Clock Forum, Sundays (9 AM), Zoom Sessions Only
