Practicing Our Faith: A Retreat for Young Adults (20s and 30s) at Lost River, May 17-19 2013

drawing by Joel Winstead

  What practices, prayers and traditions help to enrich and deepen our daily lives and make us more open to the work of the Spirit in the world around us?  Come away and relax with other Young Adults (20s and 30s) in a beautiful setting as we learn from each other about what makes for a lively and grounded life of faith.  The retreat is held at the Lost River Retreat Center in West Virginia, May 17-19, 2013.  Leader will be Kathy Staudt.  Contact her at kathleen.staudt@gmail.com for more information or to register. 

 

Here's a tentative schedule of the weekend: 

Friday Night:

Dinner on your own

Arrive between 6:30-9

9:00 Opening Gathering

Saturday:

8-9 Breakfast

9-10:15 Gather for Session I

10:15-10:30 Break

10:30-12 Session II

12:30 Lunch, followed by free time all afternoon

7:00-9:00 Session III

9:00 Saturday Evening -- relaxation (bonfire?)

 Sunday

8:30 Breakfast, followed by closing session

10:00 morning worship

11:00 Brunch and departure

Post about last year's retreat:

http://youngadultpathfinders.blogspot.com/2012/05/thanks-for-great-retreat.html

Pictures from past retreats:

 http://youngadults.shutterfly.com/

More info about the retreat center:

http://www.vbc-va.org/lrrc/

Reflecting on our Mission: Generous, Open-hearted, "Out of the Box"

       I've now been facilitating this group for over 3 1/2 years, taking over from the previous leader, Bill Sykes, who led the group for 9 years before me.   I'm posting these reflections partly in  gratitude to our sponsoring congregations, Vienna Baptist Church (VBC)  and Little River United  Church of Christ (LRUCC)  who have had the vision to think "out of the box" to sponsor a group like this -- and partly just to kind of put out there my sense of what this group is about and has become. 

            I was drawn to this ministry because of its creative vision and structure.  The idea was that two congregations from different denominations would co-sponsor a gathering of 20's and 30's that would be open to  an ecumenical, inclusive  and progressive vision of the Christian life.  The hope was that other congregations might join in over time and that may yet happen.    We meet biweekly (on the first and third Tuesdays of the month) at the home of Tom and Mary Johnson, members of Vienna Baptist who have generously opened their lovely home to the group.    Young adult members take turns bringing dinner, and we enjoy fellowship and conversation over dinner before moving to an hour of Bible study.  From the beginning, the group members have been  eager to focus on Bible Study, and I have been delighted and energized, myself, at the invitations to look at Scripture through traditions of interpretation that emphasize a generous, open-hearted Christianity, rooted in relationship with God and turned toward the needs of the world.   We end each evening with prayers and we pray for one another between sessions.

            What makes the vision unusual is that it is an ecumenical group -.  We have 5 or 6 different denominations represented in the 6-8 Young Adults who attend regularly, but they share a desire to claim and explore Christian identity at a formative time of life.  Part the group’s mission is to be open to whoever comes along, and we have had several young adults join us because they have found us online, either at here our website or on facebook. 

            At a time when an increasing number of Americans are listing their religion as “none,” I am excited to be convening a  flexible and ecumenical Young Adult ministry.  I think it  offers a fresh way for people explore and embrace the traditions of Christian faith and discipleship and to invent and rediscover new ways of being Christian community.  If you're a young adult in your 20s and 30s,  reading this and new to the group and its concept , I hope you'll think about joining us at our biweekly meetings (the first and third Tuesdays of the month, 7-9) or at our spring retreat, now scheduled for May 17-19.  Watch this space for more information!    And feel free to contact me at any time at kathleen.staudt@gmail.com

Next Meeting Tuesday February 5 at 7

Hi everyone.
We will be meeting next Tuesday, February 5 at the Johnsons -- back on our every first and third Tuesday schedule.  And we'll continue our wrestling with Romans by looking especially at Romans 3: 21-31, and probably into Romans 4.  These ten verses of Romans 3 pack a lot of familiar but sometimes puzzling Christian theological language and this will be our chance to talk about what is really meant by "law" v. "faith," and how do we understand anything about who God is through the ideas expressed by "justification," "redemption" and "atonement."   And what does it mean for our understanding of how to live our lives, if we identify ourselves as followers of Jesus?  Bring your thoughts and your questions and yourselves.  And bring a friend if you like! Heidi is cooking.  See you all on Tuesday. 

Jumping into "Romans"

Hi everyone -- I'm looking forward to seeing you this Tuesday night from 7-9 at the Johnsons'.  Having had a bit of introduction last week to Paul, etc., we will continue our reading of the first 3 chapters of Romans.  If you dip in ahead of time, you'll find much there that is disturbing and may seem harsh.  Paul is contrasting what he calls "the righteousness of God" to the world that he and the early Christians lived in, dominated by imperial Rome and by the attitudes and habits of Roman culture.   To get ourselves into his context it might be interesting to think about our own time:  what are the things about the world we live in that you just know are "all wrong" .  That are not supposed to be this way.  Thinking about this may help get us closer to what Paul meant by "the gospel of God" and "the righteousness of God".   But you don't have to prepare anything -- as usual, just come.  It's always interesting!

Lindsey is cooking, if I remember correctly -- hope to see you all Tuesday!

January Meetings Jan 8 and Jan 22: Introducing Paul!

Hi everyone! Happy New Year

Because of New Year’s Day I suggested we flip to Tuesday January 8 this month, and since we have 5 Tuesdays in January it works well to just make our next meeting January 22.  After that we’ll revert to 1^st and 3^rd Tuesdays for the rest of the spring.  I’m looking forward to being with you.

We agreed that we would spend the spring with the book of Romans -- Paul’s letter to the church in Rome.  This is a challenging and beautiful book of the Bible with lots to engage, disturb, puzzle and enlighten us.  I am going to be using a guide to Romans by my VTS colleague Katherine Grieb -- The Story of Romans (Westminster John Knox Press).  It is scholarly in its approach but it is geared toward bringing Romans to a wider audience within the church and I will be using her chapters to guide my teaching. If you want to commit to a pretty in-depth study of Romans in between our sessions I do recommend her book. I’ll also have some ideas for other commentaries but mostly we’ll do what we usually do:  Bring our questions to the text, and try to sort out what we can learn from reading deeply and carefully.

At our first session I will spend some time just introducing Paul.  You might think about what you know/think/have heard about Paul/ St. Paul and the new testament.  It is the case that the letters of Paul are actually the earliest books of the New Testament, written before the gospels.  So coming to understand Paul can really help us to understand even more fully who Jesus was to his early followers, and what the gospel story means - meant for them, and means for us.

I’m looking forward to our study this spring.  Bring yourselves, your prayers and your questions and we’ll begin - As always, if you’re new and want to join us feel free to email me at kathleen.staudt@gmail.com for directions and further information.

Meeting Tuesday December 4: Psalms and "Advent"

      Hi everyone. This week concludes our conversations about the psalms.  Looking over the psalms in “Book Five”,  psalms 107-150 I am struck by two themes we can reflect on, the desire to be faithful -- especially expressed in the different portions of Psalm 119, which I’ve been reflecting on slowly over the last 2 weeks. It is an example of a “wisdom psalm,”  of which there are many -- reflecting on what it is like to follow the way of God not out of fear of punishment or desire to be special, but just out of trust that it is a good way to live.   So we may reflect on what it might mean for us, in our time, to think in terms of “committing our way” to God’s way?  What does that look like?

Of course it all involves  praise, and we will not let the evening go by without looking at some of the wonderful praise psalms that conclude the book of psalms, as well as Psalm 139, another of my favorites which combines, I think, wisdom and praise.  Should be a rich time. I look forward to being with you.

       I also want to mention that this Sunday, December 2, marks the first Sunday of the season of Advent.  For those of us in more liturgically oriented traditions his is a season of expectation, of quiet confidence and waiting for the coming of Christ -- it is one of the times when Christianity is at its most ‘counter-cultural.  While in our daily lives and often in church life we are rushing around getting ready for Christmas, Advent practices encourage us to slow down, rest in darkness, wait for the light,  begin a new “church year” in a spirit of renewal.    Depending on the tradition you were raised in Advent may be a new concept or a familiar concept to you.    You can see a great summary of what it’s all about online on the “Busted Halo” website at http://bustedhalo.com/video/advent-in-two-minutes    ( a website worth checking out generally, I think).

            And speaking of Advent.  I will be in Northern Virginia on Saturday December 8 to lead an Advent Quiet Day at Holy Comforter Episcopal Church from 9-12.  The day will combine some short meditations with sharing and time for quite, solitary reflection on the Advent themes of promise. I’ll probably be using a couple of favorite poems as well as Advent Scripture readings and prayers to focus our time.  My hope is that it will be for all of us a time to enter the spirit of the season, in quiet and hopeful reflection on God’s promises in our lives.  See basic information on the church's website here

Our meeting on Election Night November 6, 7-9 PM

Hi everyone -- I'm looking forward to seeing you all on Tuesday night.  Looking over the psalms in Book III of the psalms (73-89) I am struck by how appropriate they are for election night, when I think as people of faith we must struggle to balance our politics with our confidence in God's reign.   I hope we can talk about the way God  is called on in these psalms as a tribal God, the "God of Israel" -- and what God has to do with the community of Israel in the book of psalms.   Many of these psalms are also written in the voice of David, the King who is also "beloved of God" and a man of prayer.  It is interesting to remember that and imagine the "I" of these psalms as the ruler, e.g. in psalm 74, or 77, or 86 and 88.   And there are the beautiful psalms, 80 and 84 -- we may start with these, where trust in God is combined with a sense of God's relationship to the nation.  I hope we can explore how the psalms open up a wider and longer view of faithfulness in the political order, at a time when we've been so focused on this one election, this one moment in history.  

Anyway - we can also talk about other things, but I am going to spend the next couple of days \with this part of the book of psalms, reflecting on what it means to be part of the "people of God" l and what that has to do with my life - I invite you to do the same!

Heidi will be cooking - come join us for dinner, fellowship and prayer --  and bring a friend!