New LIFE Groups Starting this week!

Summer is over, and here we are in the first days of fall. It's time to transition into our fall schedule for LIFE Groups. You've been waiting... you've been wondering... and here are the details!

Tuesday LIFE Group: 5:30 pm - hosting: Allen Ewing-Merrill & Dean Richardson

Wednesday LIFE Group: 6:00 pm - hosting: Michael & Maire Trombley

Thursday LIFE Group: 5:30 pm - hosting: Erica Tobey & Sara Ewing-Merrill

Please take a minute and let us know which group you're planning to join.

The Tuesday & Wednesday groups start this coming week (Sept. 29 & 30). The Thursday group will start one week later: Oct. 8.

Here's to fall, with cooler nights, beautiful colors and crunching leaves!

New LIFE Groups Starting!

New LIFE groups are starting this week and next. Below is information about when and where each group is meeting. If you are not sure what group you are in, or would like to join us for one of these groups contact us at 899-2435 or by e-mail at erica@newlightportland.org

Sunday LIFE Group

• 5:30 pm at Hope.Gate.Way. (185 High Street)
• starts Sunday, June 21
• Focus: "Questions of Faith" - We will explore some of the big questions of faith, including the questions you're think about!
• led by Allen & Sara and Dean Richardson
• Childcare will be provided.

Tuesday LIFE Group

• 5:30 pm at Allen & Sara's house
  
• starts Tuesday, June 30 (note: this group starts a week later than the others)
• Focus: "Questions of Faith" - We will explore some of the big questions of faith, including the questions you're thinking about!
• led by Allen & Sara

Wednesday LIFE Group

• 6pm at Jaegil & Eunkyong's house
  
• starts Wednesday, June 24
• focus: spiritual practices, like contemplative prayer, lectio divina, and meditation, including some exploration of spiritual practices that originate with other religiouis traditions
• led by Jaegil Lee

Thursday LIFE Group

• 5:30pm at Erica Tobey's house
  
• starts Thursday, June 25
• focus: service - reflecting on what it means to be a servant, and especially practicing service in various ways throughout the city
• led by Erica Tobey

Kick Off to Summer-Visioning Party!

Tuesday, May 26 at 6pm
at Hope.Gate.Way

All LIFE groups will meet on Tuesday this week for an evening of summer fun and visioning. We will meet at 6pm at Hope.Gate.Way. for a potluck dinner-bring your favorite summer food, lemonade and watermelon will be provided.

Following dinner we will play some fun summer games and spend some time visioning as a community. This is an important time in the life of New Light, as we think together about what our hopes and dreams for our community are. Every one's voice will be heard, and we hope to leave with some goals for the next 12 months. Do you have some cool idea's for New Light? Bring them along...if not, we'll have some prompts to help you think about what you want your community to look like!

Everyone is encouraged to attend, rather you're a new comer or an old timer or you haven't come in months.

Justice, Power, and the Kingdom

We have been spending some time in LIFE groups reading and watching bits from Brian McLaren in preparation for his visit here in Portland. Recently groups had some excellent reflection on this clip. McLaren says "Worldly systems are unified by their love of power. The Kingdom of God is about the Power of Love." How can we, as Christians, show our unity in the power of love? When is this easy? When is it more difficult?

Find Your Purpose: Exploring Spiritual Gifts

The "F" of our LIFE group acronym is "Find Your Purpose." An important part of finding our purpose is discovering, affirming and using our spiritual gifts. The Bible tells us that we each have God-given gifts that are to be used in our work and service. When we act out of our own unique gifts, we are more likely to be effective in what we do, and are more likely to enjoy it! For the next four weeks, we will be talking about spiritual gifts in our LIFE groups. We'll learn more about what they are, take some time for each of us to learn what our unique gifts might be, and explore some ways we might put our gifts into practice. Be sure to join us, and invite a friend!

Coming in January: new LIFE Group configuration

Starting the first week in January, this new schedule for LIFE Groups takes effect:

• Monday LIFE Group at 5:30 pm, generally meeting at Ashley & Eric's house
• Tuesday LIFE Group at 6:00 pm, meeting at Allen & Sara's house
• Wednesday LIFE Group meeting later (probably 7:30 pm, but wait for confirmation on this) at Paul & Carlie's house

We'll be offering more details about this new LIFE Group configuration in the coming days, but plan to stay connected by participating regularly in one of these weekly New Light gatherings.

New Light this week

Just one LIFE Group this week

Monday evening ~ 5:30 pm ~ O'Naturals

If you're around this week, we hope you'll join others from the New Light community for a single LIFE Group, meeting Monday, Dec. 29 at 5:30 pm at O'Naturals restaurant, 83 Exchange Street in Portland.  Grab your favorite meal from the O'Naturals yummy menu, and then head downstairs to the community room on the lower level.  Erica will be leading, first in catching up after all the Christmas festivities, and then in a time of reflection as we anticipate the arrival of a new year.

Join the Advent Conspiracy!

This week in LIFE Groups, we're continuing the conversation we started a few weeks ago about Advent Conspiracy. With the Season of Advent just around the corner and Christmas only about six weeks away, now is the time to be making those decisions about how to celebrate Christmas differently, in a way that truly honors Jesus' birth. For starters, how about this...?

• Worship fully.
• Spend less.
• Give more.
• Love all.

We've issued a challenge: to celebrate Christmas more simply this year by spending less on Christmas gifts for friends and family -- and then to match that amount, dollar for dollar, with a gift to help provide clean, safe, reliable drinking water to people in a developing country. It looks like we're going to help build a well for a school for orphaned children in Uganda... more about that project coming soon.

In addition, we're talking about ways to be in service right here in Portland in the month of December. It's going to be fun, we promise.

So here's our Christmas pledge:

Believing in the true spirit of Christmas, I commit myself to:

• remember those people who truly need my gifts
• express my love in more direct ways than gifts
• examine my holiday activities in the light of my deepest values
• be a peacemaker within my circle of family and friends
• rededicate myself to my spiritual growth

Join the Advent Conspiracy!

Contemplative Practices

Tonight we spent some time reflecting on our own Contemplative Practices. We used this tree from The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society to imagine where the practices we currently engage in fit in the larger scheme. We also enjoyed seeing all the options there are for what contemplative practices look like. Thanks to Wanda for sharing this image with us.

What practices do you enjoy? What on this tree surprises you?

Join the Advent Conspiracy!

As a continuation of our discussions of wealth and poverty, as a community we've decided to respond by making changes in the way we celebrate Christmas this year.

We're joining the Advent conspiracy.

Check out this video we watched in last week's LIFE Groups...



Can you believe that in the United States alone, we spend $450 billion a year on Christmas? As a community, we've committed to the four principles of the Advent Conspiracy:

• worship fully
• spend less
• give more
• love all

As part of our preparations for Christmas this year, we're going to support a project that provides access to clean water for people who have none. Specifically, the challenge we're undertaking is to give to this cause the same amount we spend on gifts for family and friends -- that is, to match our spending dollar for dollar. Most likely, that means spending less on gifts, since few of us can afford to double our typical Christmas spending, but it also means being more generous. We may also support a local cause as well -- that's a conversation we've just begun.

What do you think? Wanna conspire with us? Join the Advent Conspiracy!

The face of poverty

Over the last couple of weeks, we've been exploring issues of wealth and poverty in our LIFE Groups, and thinking about how, as followers of Jesus living in the richest country in the world, we have a reponsibility to care for our sisters and brothers who live in poverty.

In a world where someone dies of hunger or hunger-related causes every 3 1/2 seconds -- 25,000 people a day! -- can we simply go on with our lives as usual?

The situation is enormous, but it's not hopeless. The resources exist to end the suffering. In fact, in September 2000, the 189 countries of the United Nations came up with a plan and unanimously agreed to a solution. As you'll see in this chart, some of the countries are already doing their part. Sadly, the United States has no plan in place to fulfill its commitment.

I think it's important to learn as much as we can and to wrestle with the realities of poverty -- to think about how our own actions, habits, lifestyles, and behaviors impact others, as well as how changes in our own actions, habits, lifestyles, and behaviors might make a positive difference -- rather than simply looking for quick and easy answers or dismissing the problem altogether.

I own a car and a refrigerator, and I'm not wondering if there will be food on my table tonight. That puts me in the wealthiest 5% of the world's population. By the world's standards, I am rich. I have to acknowledge, that's nothing I accomplished on my own. I got the luck of the draw.

I can no longer look upon those who are suffering as faceless commodities. They are real people, our sisters and brothers, with all the same hopes and dreams, needs, and emotions that we have. And they are children of God, loved by God as deeply and passionately and completely as you and I are. If my life has been impacted by Christ, shouldn't my heart break over the things that break the heart of God?

And so I'm praying: What can I do? What can we do together?

LIFE Groups

This week in our LIFE Groups we're spending some time thinking about what LIFE Groups are all about. Hey, if you're going to be in one, you might as well know what you're getting yourself into, right?

So here's the acronym and a little description for each. (Quick disclaimer: We didn't make up the acronym originally, but we've been using it for a while and we can't remember now where we stole it from. If it was from you, well, we hope you don't mind, and let us know so we can give you props.)

Okay, so here it is:

Live in Community
Living in community means that we share life together, celebrating with one another in times of joy, supporting one another in the challenges of life, and sharing resources – all while considering the needs of the larger community.

Invest in Growth
Investing in growth means that we are faithful to spiritual practices like prayer, meditation, worship, and spiritual reading, both individually and with others, in an intentional effort to grow deeper in our walk with Christ.

Find your Purpose
Finding our purpose means that we recognize that God has blessed each of us with unique gifts, and that as we discover and claim those gifts, and then discern where those gifts can best be utilized, we find our unique purpose in life.

Embrace God’s Mission
Embracing God’s mission means that we strive to be part of what God is doing in the world, aligning our efforts with God’s mission to offer hope where there is despair and light where there is darkness, for the transformation of the world.

LIFE Groups are the hub of New Light. They are the heartbeat, the center, the main thing, the focus of our community life. They build relationships, help people grow deeper in faith, and send people out to serve. As we continue to develop ministry, it will happen primarily through LIFE Groups. Even when we begin a weekly worship gathering, we expect LIFE Groups will be a primary entry point, and if someone comes first to a worship gathering, that's great, but we'll do whatever we can to get them hooked up with a LIFE Group as soon as possible.

So, what do you think? Want to be part of one now? We've got two LIFE Groups going (currently Monday & Thursday, but the Monday one may be switching to Tuesdays), and we expect to be multiplying to three sometime this fall. Feel free to get in touch if you want to learn more...