Wits End Church

Phil Nellis — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:56:08 +0000

Wits End Annual Business Meeting

Phil Nellis — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 18:56:17 +0000

The Troublemakers invite you to the Second Annual Business Meeting of Wits End Church. We will review with you the church narrative of 2009 and take votes on our direction and allocation of resources for 2010 as we are led by the Holy Spirit. All are welcome, only Covenant Participants are eligible to vote.

The meeting will take place at Haller Lake Baptist Church on Sunday, 2/28/2010 at 4pm during our regular service time.

The Troublemakers

Ash Wednesday and the Beginning of Lent

Phil Nellis — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 21:21:21 +0000

As the minister places ashes upon the foreheads of the faithful, the words “Remember, from dust you came, and to dust you shall return” are spoken as an invitation to travel light. We clutter our lives with baggage we are not meant to bear, we burden ourselves with our own addictions to excess and our entitlement to commodity. Lent is season to embrace the lighter yoke of one who is gentle and humble in heart. Freedom comes to us as we begin to identify with and take on the rhythms of the life of Christ. In Lent, we specifically live into his suffering and his death so that we can ultimately increase our capacity for the Easter-feast of his resurrection. I look forward to this journey with you. It begins on Ash Wednesday as we say with many believers around the world and throughout history, “Repent, and believe in the Gospel.”Ready yourself for the journey by reading this witty and poignantly truthful article:

Living Lent- a reading by Barbara Cawthorne Crafton

Updated: Some have asked for the prayer that was given at the placement of Ashes on Wednesday:

Gracious and merciful God,
you see into the secret places of our hearts,
where we mourn our sins.
As we turn again to your grace, receive our prayers.
Repent, ___________, and believe in the Gospel again.

Amen.

2010

Phil Nellis — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 18:04:46 +0000

How do we mark our experience of time? Perhaps it is appropriate to say “Happy New Year” (and I do wish you the best in 2010) but the church calendar began this year on Nov, 29- the first Advent Sunday. Most of us experience time as regulated by the academic calendar and draining cycle of the 40 hr work-week. Ancient agricultural societies marked time by the seasons of harvest and planting. Both of those are cycles defined by what Abraham Heschel calls the realm of “space.” They are metered by occurrences in the physical world and aim at the conquest of the physical realm. Judaism was unique in that it paced itself by marking historical events where God interacted with creation or his people by commemorating those events- reinforcing them in the communal consciousness: Sabbaths (God’s rest in creation), Passovers (exodus from Egypt), Feast of Weeks (Torah given at Sainai), Feast of the Booths (Israel’s dwelling in the wilderness). Heschel writes in The Sabbath, “To Israel, the unique events of historic time were spiritually more significant than the repetitive process in the cycle of nature” (2003, xv).

As Christians, we continue that tradition by marking the church calendar with the events of the life of Christ- Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, Easter, etc… The God of Israel is a God of events, a God of history (not things or places). Currently, we are towards the end of the season of Christmastide, the 12 days following Christmas in which we celebrate the coming of Light into the world. I invite you to join our community in an exploration of what it means to pace ourselves by something other than a paycheck or a degree or even another year. What does it mean to join with others in a communal memory of the events of the life of Christ on our behalf? How can we be shaped by taking on his faithfulness each day, each season- in joy and sorrow, death and resurrection?

We remember our story. Remain present with one another. And look forward with hope.

“We have seen his glory…”

Phil Nellis — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 17:40:18 +0000

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to he light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. - from the Gospel according to John

Merry Christmas and Peace on Earth!

Bizarre Holiday Bazaar

Phil Nellis — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:14:34 +0000

An invitation: This Friday, a few artists from our community will be doing this with Church of the Beloved. It’s a great place to find quality, local and affordable art for Christmas gifts. Come on out!

Advent

Phil Nellis — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 22:15:34 +0000

This is a late invitation to join us for what is left of the Advent season, the beginning of the church calendar. Advent is a season marked by longing, anticipation and hope as we live between the times- Christ has come and will come again. What does it mean to navigate the time that the theologians call “the already-not-yet”? What does it mean to be a people pregnant with a redemption that is not yet complete? It is no irony that the Advent season begins only days before Dec. 1st- World Aids Day- we have the experience of war, suffering, struggle and death. Yet death is not the end of the story- we wait and bear the hope of fools. We would be delighted to have you join us.

Phil Nellis, pastor.

the Story is in the Story

rgillgrist — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 00:15:18 +0000

by Phil Nellis

Have you ever reflected upon the meaning of the sequence of Holy Week? One can say that it is perhaps the story at the very center of the Christian’s life. And because we process life through the categories of narratives and sequences, it is within the story-structure of Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday that we can engage our own stories in such a way that the meaning we create around our experience of life is reflective of truth, goodness and beauty. (click here for more)

encouraging generosity and charity

rgillgrist — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 23:32:33 +0000

I found this story about how a church planter in Boise, ID encouraged generosity and charity in his community to be inspiring! I met Dusty at a recent meeting of pastors and he is a kind, resouceful and creative individual.

Church of the Beloved release “Hope for a Tree Cut Down”

Phil Nellis — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 22:56:08 +0000

Some highly creative and generous friends over at Church of the Beloved have recorded a fantastic set of worship music. It is encouraging to see this work that has come out of a faith community that is deeply in touch with their creativity. Thanks for sharing it with us!

Hey. This music is free for you.
Of course it was a lot of hard work and cost a lot of money for us to make this album. But for you, it’s free, because we have been shocked by God’s grace… that is to say, God’s gift; because we are discovering what our community’s gifts are; And because we want to give. - Ryan Marsh, Beloved Architect