Introducing a new resource: GPS

Introducing a new resource: GPS
Grow through Prayer and Scripture

As we enter the fall season, we're refocusing LIFE Groups a little bit and putting together some new resources and experiences that we hope will help you grow deeper in your faith, primarily through reading and reflecting on Scripture and prayer.

Starting this Sunday, we'll be e-mailing out a brief Scripture passage each day, along with a thought-provoking Question of the Day. We hope you'll pause for a few minutes sometime during the day to read and reflect, and then to spend some time in prayer. Most weeks when we come together in LIFE Groups, we'll explore more deeply one of the passages that came up in the daily reading. We hope this continuity between the daily reading and the discussions in LIFE Groups will provide a forum for deeper reflection and sharing.

If you are not currently active in our community, but would like to receive our GPS e-mails each day please send Erica an e-mail at erica@newlightportland.org, and she will gladly add you to the list!

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?

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...

Our Way of Approaching the Spiritual Life

New Light strives to be a community where we grow deeper in our faith through an inward journey as well as an outward journey. This cross image illustrates, on the horizontal axis, how our faith life calls us to both public and private practices. As shown on the vertical axis, a balanced faith also involves works of mercy (actions of world transformation) and works of piety (actions of personal transformation). For our community, this image provides a guide for a balanced faith - a faith that seeks to love God more deeply and love others more fully.

Some actions fit neatly into one of the four quadrants, but many overflow from one to another. Here are some examples of spiritual practices we encourage:

• Acts of Devotion: personal time spent with God reading Scripture, praying, dancing, listening to music, or writing in a journal. This may include personal disciplines like fasting or meditation.

• Acts of Worship: any time we gather together to give thanks and focus on God's love for us and our love for God.

• Acts of Compassion: volunteering time to care for the needs of others. This might include working at a soup kitchen, giving to someone else from your own possessions, or spending time listening to someone else.

• Acts of Justice: writing letters or calling legislators to advocate for justice for the poor and the oppressed, or to promote peace; making choices to not purchase goods that were made by persons in oppressive conditions.

What do you think about this model for a balanced faith?

Welcome to Journey through the Season of Lent!

We've just begun the journey through Lent -- a season of 40 days (not counting Sundays) beginning with Ash Wednesday (super early this year... February 6) and continuing through Holy Week until dawn on Easter Sunday.

For some people, Lent is all doom and gloom -- depressing with its emphasis on giving things up, its focus on repentance and sin and self-denial. We want to suggest a new approach to Lent, though: not doom and gloom, but rather a season filled with opportunity -- opportunity for self-reflection and renewal and recommitment to the way of Jesus and to living a Christ-centered life.

Instead of giving something up this Lent (or in addition to!), how about taking something on? How about taking on a more faithful practice of prayer? How about commiting to a regular practice of reading and reflecting on Scripture, using the Guide to Daily Devotions that we offer here on this blog, or following some other plan for Scripture reading that works for you? How about taking on a practice of spending some time in silence each day -- in a quiet room, going for a walk, even in the car while driving without the radio or CD playing blaring (but keep your eyes open and focused on the road, and your hands firmly on the steering wheel, please!)? These are just a few ways to make this a meaningful season of spiritual preparation.

This is the season in which we remember, on one hand, Jesus' 40 days in the wilderness at the beginning of his ministry, and on the other hand his journey to the cross. Both were times of great difficulty and struggle for him. But for us, the point of Lent isn't, after all, to wallow in misery or suffering or to beat ourselves up for our sinfulness, but rather to look inward in order to prepare our hearts for a deep and joyful experience of Jesus' resurrection on Easter Sunday! Lent invites us to live abundantly!

Here are a few other suggestions for making this a meaningful Season of Lent:

• Skip one meal a day (or fast one day a week) and donate the money you save on food to help feed hungry people through a hunger relief organization.


• Start a prayer “rhythm.” Say a prayer every time you brush your teeth, see a commercial on television, or check your e-mail.


• Read from the Bible every day. (Use the Guide to Daily Devotions.)


• Forgive someone who doesn’t deserve it — maybe even yourself.


• Give up soda or chocolate or TV or something else that will create a hunger in you, as a way of focusing on your hunger for God.


• Spend thirty minutes a day in silence.


• Write someone a thank you letter.


• Plan to visit a home-bound neighbor, a nursing home resident, or an elderly friend weekly during Lent.


• Invite a friend, neighbor, relative, or co-worker to come to a New Light gathering with you.


• Pray for help in resisting racial prejudice, and for the courage to oppose it.


• Tithe: as an act of worship and an expression of gratitude, return 10% of your income to God during this 6-week period.


• Volunteer one afternoon a week at a local shelter, a tutoring program, a feeding ministry, or some other worthy organization.

This Week's Spiritual Practice

In line with our first week of Living the Questions: Invitation to the Journey and the begining of The Season of Lent (a time of spiritual preparation before Easter) we are going to be walking a labyrinth.

Trinity Episcopal Church Portland will be hosting public Labyrinth walks on:
Wed., February 6th, 11am - 8pm

Take advantage of the hours during the day or in the evening to walk, pray, meditate through the path.

We'll be going at various times through the day. Hope to see you there.