Join us Sunday’s at 11am (March: 9, 16, 23, 30)

No matter when you are able to join us, you are right on time. You will find everything you need below.

In a world often marked by division, fear, and uncertainty, this series invites you into a
journey of rediscovery—a journey toward a deeper connection with God, yourself, and
others. Through the wisdom and reflections of Parker Palmer, these four sessions explore
themes of hospitality, grace, and hope as pathways to wholeness in our lives and
communities.

Together, we will consider:

● How welcoming the stranger transforms not only the other but also ourselves.
● The small, faithful habits that sustain hope amid life’s challenges.
● The creation of spaces where grace and connection can flourish, fostering healing
and trust.
● The paradox of wholeness, where holding the tensions of life with love expands our
capacity for compassion and renewal.

This Join FCCPomona as we slow down, reflect deeply, and engage with both heart and mind.
You will be encouraged to notice what stirs within you, to explore how these themes
intersect with your own life, and to respond to the Spirit’s gentle nudging toward growth
and transformation.

Together we will watch and discuss “A Hidden Wholeness”.  Please consider these
sessions as a sacred space—a space to receive wisdom, share insights, and participate in
practices that help bring forth new realities of love, grace, and connection.

As you begin this journey, may you carry with you the assurance that you are deeply loved,
intricately connected to others, and uniquely invited to help co-create a world that
reflects the heart of God.

Let’s begin.

A Larger Welcome – This session explores the transformative power of hospitality. Parker
Palmer reflects on how welcoming the stranger—both spiritually and civically—deepens
our humanity, enlarges our worldview, and strengthens the bonds of community. Drawing
from Scripture and lived experience, Palmer invites us to consider hospitality as a radical
act of faith and connection.

Watch Here:    https://www.theworkofthepeople.com/premieres/3070

Habits of Hope – In uncertain times, hope is sustained through small, faithful practices.
Parker Palmer shares how cultivating habits of the heart fosters resilience and
strengthens the fabric of community. This session invites participants to explore how
intentional acts of love and courage can bring healing to both individuals and the world.

Watch Here:  https://www.theworkofthepeople.com/premieres/3071

Spaces of Grace – Spaces of grace are environments where safety, trust, and love create
the conditions for transformation. Parker Palmer reflects on how such spaces foster
healing, nurture connection, and enable people to flourish together. This session offers
guidance for cultivating grace-filled spaces in our relationships, communities, and the
wider world.

Watch Here:  https://www.theworkofthepeople.com/premieres/3072

Wholeness and Hospitality – Wholeness emerges when we embrace life’s tensions with
love and compassion. Parker Palmer explores the paradox of brokenness leading to
greater capacity for connection, inviting participants to consider how holding tensions
with grace can lead to healing and renewal. This session ties together the series’ themes,
highlighting the relationship between hospitality, healing, and transformation.

Watch Here:  https://www.theworkofthepeople.com/premieres/3073

Jesus “did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking
the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled
himself and became obedient to the point of death-even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:6-8)

Kenosis is the Greek word for empty/emptying. Empty has negative connotations in our acquisitive culture.
Emptiness is treated as undesirable in a society that craves distraction from boredom and difficult emotions.
Emptying one’s self to the point of obedience is a distinct disadvantage in this time when power over other
people is made into an idol.
In the book Biblical Social Values and Their Meaning, John Pilch notes “Western culture socializes individuals
to develop a metaself as a critical observer who monitors and comments on experience got me wondering
about giving up the “inner critic. The metaself does not allow the total absorption in lived experience that is
the very essence of alternate states of consciousness”. Altered states of consciousness are common in 90%
of the world’s people so Western culture is an outlier. Altered states like meditation, contemplation,
daydreaming, prayer and more are viewed as unproductive in Western culture, yet these kinds of practices can
also be the means by which we participate in the kenosis of Jesus.
The season of Lent is upon us and there is talk among Christians about what to “give up” for Lent. The point of
some sort of fast (giving up something) is to focus on one’s relationship with God. The reflections noted on
“metaself” and “a critical observer who monitors and comments on experience got me wondering about giving
up the “inner critic”: emptying oneself of this false ego. There is also the “inner braggart” I suppose, but my
experience is that people who have this kind of false ego aren’t aware of it.

The season of Lent is, I believe, not a time for giving up. It is a time to return to the healing work God
is trying to do with and within us: individually and even collectively. This requires our willingness to
be humble and gentle with ourselves and others. It requires a combing through what the masks are
that obscure our true identity as Beloved of God and emptying these false faces we wear to protect
ourselves.
May you learn the freedom that can come to you from emptying, from being empty so that you
become more and more aware of the infinite presence of God that has been with you the whole time.

The Work of the People:
Return with Kelly Ann Hall

God, here we are—
showing up, sinking in, getting still,
becoming aware of our presence, and yours.

We’re remembering our unbroken union.

Our hearts within your heart,
Our breath within your breath,
Our story within your story.

We gather as people in progress
to share, listen, observe.
To increase our awareness of Holiness, yours and ours.
To get in on who you are and what you’re up to—to together become fertile, sacred ground.
so that the burdened, hidden inner work becomes Light,
so that death is transformed into Life.

Thank you that we don’t have it all figured out to be useful,
and we don’t have to be useful to be loved and belong.
Thank you for making us good first, for loving who you made when you made us.

We return to you to keep being made whole.
we return for more God, to reconnect with our Soul, to deepen our togetherness.
we return with hope that our lives would be meaningful and matter.
we return for more love, more truth, more liberation—
we return to open and to become a conduit of your Spirit everywhere we go.

People often talk about the congregation they belong to as their church home; it’s a place of centering, of getting one’s bearings, of deepening one’s understanding and commitments to live the gospel of Love. It’s no secret that the church, and other religious institutions are declining in Western-European countries, including the U.S. People write books about who to blame and how to “correct the course”. One pressure that often does not make the list is market forces.

Denominations and free-standing congregations gave in to the market forces out of desperation. There were workshops and webinars on “marketing your church”, “finding your brand”, and “creating your congregation’s niche”. As a culture and country, the notion of “home” has also succumbed to market forces.

Marc Roark is former member of FCC Pomona who teaches property law (in Oklahoma now) and advocates for polices that benefit people without shelter. When speaking once to ICON leaders, Marc talked about how the commodification of property has been one of the market forces that continues to shape the housing landscape (market) today. Yet, he also said, when people have a home, what are the pictures they frame and put on the wall? It’s not a copy of their mortgage agreement.

As people who follow the way of Jesus, we support a place from which to express the love of God, yes, in word, but also in deed. We provide a place for people to find solace and comfort AND a place for us to gather, learn and act together with others to push back against the dehumanizing forces of greed and apathy that leave people hungry, without shelter, lost in mental distress, and more. When we live the love of Jesus and love our neighbor, this is what makes a place sacred.

The time of sabbatical begins on May 24. It will also a time for the congregation to embrace a way of being together that embodies sabbath rest. Sabbath is a time for seeking those connections and experiences in which our true identity as God’s beloved is nurtured. For instance, Mike and others are planning a monthly breakfast for the entire congregation. It is an opportunity to connect with other people of faith at FCC Pomona and create new experiences of community.

I leave for a contemplative retreat on May 24 in Oregon at the Oregon Extension at Lincoln in the Cascades. After that, plans are still unfolding for where I might find spaces of connection and restoration, with God and with people who are part of my life outside church. Many of you know that our daughter, Sharon, and her husband, Thomas, are expecting a baby in July. I’ve been asked to be present and helpful for the first two weeks after the birth. Thanks to this sabbatical, I am available to be fully present.

It is my hope to return to you restored for what lies ahead, as together we endeavor to provide a place of “Christ hospitality” in and from our community of faith we call First Christian Church of Pomona.

Practices are those actions that deepen our understanding of our faith, help us connect with God, and give focus to our collective expression of God’s love in the world. Join us in hearing from members of our congregation about why a particular practice is important to them, how it shapes their life of faith, and how it helps us extend the hospitality of Christ.

One of the primary admonitions of the webinar leader AND the book is not to rush through a transition. Even before the pandemic shut-down orders were lifted, our society was rushing to “What’s next”, “Let’s just get over this”, etc. When individuals and societies don’t really face an end and do the work of transition, genuine beginnings are hard to come by. There is a tendency to simply go back to what we knew, what we did, and what we considered normal.

Instead, we need to allow time in what the author calls “the neutral zone”. Most people do not want to inhabit this space because it is uncomfortable. It is filled with uncertainty, tensions, and the sin of sins in our society – unproductivity. The leader of the webinar urged us to embrace this in-between time and space.

She said things like: Put the should on the shelf. Notice versus conclude. Ask hard questions and answer truthfully. What is essential? What is the need for the now? What is ending? What has ended? (even before the pandemic)

Christian Women’s Fellowship (known as Disciples Women in the rest of the denomination) ended a long time ago. Or did it? It is still alive in the imaginations of those who participated and appreciated that ministry. As a different approach to bringing women together begins to emerge, will some of us be tempted to revert to familiar and comfortable ways of gathering and naming that demonstrate we haven’t really transitioned to a new beginning?

Even as we re-imagine a ministry of spiritual formation for children of a certain age grouping, I wonder if we are going back to something that ended or really re-imagining something that is a beginning. It is in large part staff-driven, but it wouldn’t be possible unless there were lay people ready and willing to be part of the planning and implementation. I hope and pray it is a genuine beginning and not a reverting.

Personally, it feels like my entire life has been one big transition. It is so tempting to want a time that is settled and secure. Maybe this is what Sabbath is for. The space and time to simply be and remember that God is God, life is a gift, and the journey is the destination.

It is good to pause and celebrate how far we’ve come by faith. Included in those remembrances were statements of hope about what we are building for the future, for the people who will serve God and their neighbor from this community beyond our time. May the memories of that time strengthen us to orient our living around the good news of Christ more deeply with each day of our lives.

IMPORTANT: We are assembling pictures from the 140^th Anniversary Celebration into an album on Facebook! If you have pictures that you’d like to contribute, please email them to fcc@fccpomona.org.

Failure, however, is a necessity for success. James Dyson, inventor of the bagless vacuum cleaner, created over 5,000 prototypes before finding the ingredients for the vacuum that changed the market. Thomas Edison was asked by a reporter why he kept trying to create the light bulb after failing over 1,000 times. Edison replied, “I haven’t failed; I’ve found 1,002 things that don’t work.” My fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Smith, blew my mind one day when I was so upset about getting something wrong. “Failure is the way we learn,” she said in her soft and kind voice.

Mrs. Smith also sang soprano in the church choir. My parents sang in the choir, and by the sixth grade, I got to sit next to the irrepressibly patient Mrs. Smith. What made her so wise, so free-flowing with grace? She is the only teacher I can recall who pointed out failure as something positive. Fortunately, most of my teachers were encouraging, for which I am grateful. I wish I’d had more reinforcement for the lesson Mrs. Smith taught me that day, though.

There are good reasons to be risk-averse: potential loss of limb or life, being publicly shamed, and the biological and psychological stress are just a few reasons. But too much risk aversion can make people and organizations stuck. Churches tend to be very risk-averse, and I think fear of failure is one of the reasons.

If we are to continue to grow at all, some risk is involved. It means trying new things, new ideas, new activities. It means being willing to learn from what isn’t working. Most of all, it means exercising grace, for ourselves and for each other. And isn’t grace really at the heart of the hospitality of Jesus?

“Our epidemic of loneliness and isolation has been an underappreciated public health crisis that has harmed individual and societal health. Our relationships are a source of healing and well-being hiding in plain sight – one that can help us live healthier, more fulfilled, and more productive lives. Given the significant health consequences of loneliness and isolation, we must prioritize building social connection the same way we have prioritized other critical public health issues such as tobacco, obesity, and substance use disorders. Together, we can build a country that’s healthier, more resilient, less lonely, and more connected.” (Our Epidemic of of Loneliness and Isolation)

I hear the grief felt by some that people don’t come to church in-person or online. I chime in about how people find other things to do that are episodic, distraction-oriented, or just trying to get the chores done. However, I still believe that the gospel of Christ and the community of the church are antidotes to the epidemic of loneliness. All the people healed by Jesus were isolated by their illness; surely, they were lonely. The multitudes who came to hear him preach had their days filled with hard labor and lived in precarious economic circumstances. They experienced a powerlessness that can lead to greater isolation and loneliness.

Congregations have been communities of belonging and care for centuries, even millennia. Perhaps one of the greatest actions in which we can engage is simply being and becoming a grace-filled community of belonging. What does this mean?

It means:

• when people show up for the first time, we are gently curious and glad they are there.
• we invite people to a church event without any strings or expectations that they will do more than simply attend; it could be a meal, a retreat, a zoom prayer experience.
• when people show up for the first time in a long time, we are simply glad to see them; they often feel awkward enough without someone saying, “Wow, we haven’t seen you in a long time.”
• contacting someone we haven’t seen in church or at a group gathering for a few weeks to simply say hello and how are you.
• finding, creating, and participating in opportunities that put us in the way of other people relationally.

All these things take time. In our time-obsessed, get in as much fun, work, down time, chore time society, it is a challenge to take the time needed to create communities of belonging and care. As Barbara Holmes said, “there is no drive-by (or drive thru) loving.” The primary teaching of Jesus is love; it is foundational to the Christian life. Love requires time. Sometimes love is interesting and sometimes it is boring. Always it is a choice, and it is the choice to create something that lasts beyond a life.