115K
Downloads
635
Episodes
The work of the people. Our weekly rhythm of being together as a larger community to worship and confess, to engage scripture and prayer, to celebrate eucharist, and to be sent back into the city with a benediction each and every week.
Episodes
Thursday Apr 25, 2019
Thursday Apr 25, 2019
As we celebrate Easter, Gideon Tsang invites us to consider what resurrection means for us and why we tell this story over and over [John 20:1-18].
Reflection
- Awakening begins while it is still dark. How can we be present and patient with our slow awakening?
- What does it look like to live out of abundance this week?
Resources
- Video: Dax Shepard Interview on Recovery
- MWG: Discussion Guide
Spiritual Practice
- Catch a sunrise. Be present for the entirety of the sunrise. Remind yourself of the gentle slowness of healing & awakening.
- LOVE says unmerited, “I’m so happy you exist”. Tell a neighbor you’re so happy they exist. Once a day this week, tell someone, I’m so happy you exist.
Thursday Apr 18, 2019
Thursday Apr 18, 2019
As we continue in the season of Lent, Jason Minnix invites us to reflect on what is bringing us transformation into our lives right now [Luke 19:28-40].
Reflection
- What is bringing my transformation now?
- How am I being converted into gentleness?
Resources
- Podcast: Hidden Brain - One Head, Two Brains
- Podcast: On Being (Jean Vanier)
- MWG: Discussion Guide
Spiritual Practice
- Godly Play. Where am I at with new meaning today? Opening. Insight. Scanning. Articulation. Will to Closure.
- Create a metaphor for your transformation. What’s my changing journey/ transformation like? Reach for stories that are like what you’re being invited into.
Wednesday Apr 10, 2019
Wednesday Apr 10, 2019
As we continue in the season of Lent, Liz Schepel invites us to explore and embrace our needs that we sometimes push aside [Psalm 63].
Reflection
- What emotion has been dominant in your life? What personal need might be at the root of those feelings?
- What do you tend to put ahead of your own needs?
- In what ways can we respond empathetically to our own needs this week?
Resources
- Song: After the Storm (Mumford & Sons)
- MWG: Discussion Guide
Spiritual Practice
- Feelings and Needs. Find ways to slow down and discern your dominant feelings and name the need. See if you can find different ways to meet that need.
- Safe love. What does safe love feel like for you? What is it inviting you to receive? What do you need to receive?
Wednesday Apr 03, 2019
Wednesday Apr 03, 2019
As we continue in the season of Lent, Melanie Jones reflects on the relationship between our faith and suffering and how Jesus is in it with us [Mark 10: 28-31].
Reflection
- How am I being invited to access salvation?
- What does it look like to follow Jesus in a meaningful way now?
Resources
- MWG: Discussion Guide
Wednesday Mar 27, 2019
Wednesday Mar 27, 2019
As we continue in the season of Lent, Gideon Tsang reflects on what maturation looks like for us personally and collectively [Exodus 3:1-15].
Reflection
- How can you sit with a part of you that might be flaring up, ready to mature?
- What can you do to listen to the parts of you that need healing this week?
Resources
- Podcast: Experts on Expert - John Gottman
- Art: Brown State of Mind
- MWG: Discussion Guide
Spiritual Practice
- What do you sense flaring up in your life? Sit with it like a campfire without judgement. How might it be a part of you, ready to mature?
Wednesday Mar 20, 2019
Wednesday Mar 20, 2019
As we continue in the season of Lent, Jason Minnix explores the role of permission in our journey and reflects on the ways we may have been stuck in our faith [Luke 13:31-35].
Reflection
- Who have I given permission to love me?
- Where does my trust need healing today?
- How am I being invited in a gathering love?
Resources
- Video: The Natural History of Chickens
- MWG: Discussion Guide
Spiritual Practice
- Four Responses to our Demons. Acknowledge, Validate, Compassion, Share
- Attending to the Craft of Spiritual Intimacy. What creates movement now towards spiritual intimacy for you? What was once helpful that you’re now finding no longer helpful and need to let go of?
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
As we enter Lent, Matt Inman explores the temptations of Jesus and what that means for how we engage our own temptations and vulnerability this season [Luke 4:1-13].
Reflection
- What role does shame play in your current temptation?
- Where might your vulnerability in life right now lead you to acts of courage and love?
Resources
- Podcast: Inefficiency
- Video: SNL - Devil Can’t Write No Love Song
- MWG: Discussion Guide
Spiritual Practice
- Jump into Barton Springs.
- Pick a temptation or fantasy and extend it out from the point it usually ends. What comes of it?
- Journal about a relationship where you get stuck consistently testing the other person. Find solitude and reconnect with the part of you that feels threatened.
Friday Mar 08, 2019
Friday Mar 08, 2019
As we near the beginning of Lent, Gideon Tsang invites us to consider what we hope for in our maturity and transformation [2 Cor 3:12-18].
Reflection
- What are your hopes for Lent?
- Who allows you to be fully who you are when you are with them and what does that feel like?
Resources
- Book: A Hidden Wholeness (Parker Palmer)
- Video: Jim Carrey - What it All Means
- Video: Yayoi Kusama - Infinity Mirrors
- MWG: Discussion Guide
Spiritual Practice
- List the characters you’ve played. How did the characters begin? Which characters are you ready to let go of?
- Consider fasting. How does this restriction lead to freedom? How does this reconnect me to myself and God?
Wednesday Mar 06, 2019
Wednesday Mar 06, 2019
Dominique DuBois Gilliard explores the history and foundation of mass incarceration. And, reflects on how Christians can pursue justice that restores and reconciles. [Acts 16:16-40]
Reflection
- What is our relationship to the good news when it comes at a cost to our ability to offer participation?
- How can you take a step in using your privilege to hold systems and structures accountable that dehumanize others?
Thursday Feb 21, 2019
Thursday Feb 21, 2019
Kelly Cutbirth reflects on how it’s easy to lose heart and our connection with who we really are, and invites us to look at what it means to turn our hearts towards God and reconnect. [Jeremiah 17]
Reflection
- How are we hiding our hearts from ourselves, God, and each other?
- When was the last time your heart felt nourished by someone?
Spiritual Practice
- How am I hiding my heart from myself, God, and my community?
- When was the last time someone gave you the gift of nourishing? Remember what that felt like. What did they do?
- How might you offer that to someone this week?
Thursday Feb 14, 2019
Thursday Feb 14, 2019
Chris Morton encourages us to look at the nets we are caught in and to consider the nets we can weave together of love and abundance. [Luke 5]
Reflection
- What net are you caught in?
- What net do you want to be caught up in?
- How can we weave a net together?
Resources
- MWG: Discussion Guide
Wednesday Feb 06, 2019
Wednesday Feb 06, 2019
Jason Minnix invites us to acknowledge our need for love and how receiving it helps us to see others as they are. [1 Cor 13]
Reflection
- What am I being invited to receive today?
- What younger places in me need love this week?
Spiritual Practice
- Acknowledge our Need and Receive:
- Name an area where you get stuck in your thought world, an emotionally raw place and/or a bodily addiction.
- Confess your need for God’s help, for grace today.
- Receive acceptance.
- Listen for and receive the words of love you most need today.
Thursday Jan 31, 2019
Thursday Jan 31, 2019
As we celebrate and give thanks for our new home, Gideon Tsang invites us to consider how we are all an indispensable part of Christ’s body, both in our strengths and weaknesses. [1 Cor 12]
Reflection
- How can you remind yourself this week that your being is pre-approved?
- What does it look like to embrace your limitations in order to participate in collaboration?
Resources
- Book: The Enneagram: Understanding Yourself and the Others in Your Life (Helen Palmer)
- Homily Slides: Our Body As Christ’s Body
Spiritual Practice
- Pick a body part as a reminder of your pre-approval this week.
- Try entering a conversation from or about weakness.
Friday Jan 25, 2019
Friday Jan 25, 2019
Jason Minnix reflects on the deep and little welcome that creates spaces of belonging and hospitality [John 2:1-11].
Reflection
- What does receiving welcome look like for me today?
- How am I being invited to engage in small welcomes?
Resources
Spiritual Practice
- Welcome someone to Vox in the next couple weeks.
- Host your expectations. a. Consider an area of disappointment right now. b. Welcome any emotions here (grief, sadness, etc) c. Am I getting too overwhelmed? Take a 1/2 step back. d4. Have I pulled too far back and need to re-engage a little? Take a 1/2 step in. How can we live in the tension of what we hoped for and what is, together?
Thursday Jan 17, 2019
Thursday Jan 17, 2019
Virginia Cumberbatch and Gideon Tsang dialogue around what it would be like to see our city of Austin as a beloved community [Luke 3:15-17, 21-22].
Reflection
- How can we continue to ask questions about our city with intention and humility?
- How can we enter spaces of discomfort to form connection?
Wednesday Jan 16, 2019
Wednesday Jan 16, 2019
As we continue the Advent season, we’re invited to explore the Scriptures through the contemplative practice of Lectio Divina [Luke 1:46-55].
Reflection
- What words or phrases stood out to you from this passage? Why?
- How does this text speak to you in your current situation and environment?
- What is the text calling you to do or become this week? (How do I need to live in light of this scripture?)
Wednesday Jan 16, 2019
Wednesday Jan 16, 2019
As we prepare for the new year, Jason Minnix explores what we put on in our lives and how we can be dressed in the essence of God [Colossians 3:12-17].
Reflection
- What have I received that I need to let go of?
- What small part of God's essence would I like to receive and extend in the year to come?
Resources
- Podcast: On Being (Walter Brueggemann)
Spiritual Practice
- Putting On a Little Bit.
- Grow quiet and take a couple deep breaths
- Listen for one bit that really resonates with you.
- Take your word and breath it in. Let it fill your whole body as a gift from God.
- Let Go of having to manage any of it on your own.
- Set an intention to receive this once a week in the year ahead.
Wednesday Jan 16, 2019
Wednesday Jan 16, 2019
As we start the new year with our first liturgy in our new building, Gideon Tsang invites us to consider how we might need to expand our spiritual vision to see love in ourselves and others [Matthew 2:1-12].
Reflection
- What if God continued to expand our vision of love for ourselves and others?
- How can I welcome all parts of myself?
Spiritual Practice
- Vesper. Remind ourselves nothing can add to our intrinsic value.
Thursday Dec 27, 2018
Thursday Dec 27, 2018
As we continue the Advent season, Matt Inman reflects on how the love of God brings us the peace of God [Philippians 4:4-9].
Reflection
- Who has loved you really well and helped you appreciate your real self?
- Who in your life is out beyond their comfort zone right now and needs gentleness and love?
Resources
- Video: Humans of New York
Spiritual Practice
- When you feel like yourself or a family member is close to their edge, introduce a gentle mercy into the dynamic.
- Take the emotions and thoughts you had during today’s clip and bring that into your prayers this week. Where might the love and acceptance of God bring a greater sense of peace?
- Where do you feel the peace of God in your life? Write out a list of who and what helps you turn your focus back on what is good and true.
Friday Dec 14, 2018
Friday Dec 14, 2018
As we continue the Advent season, Jason Minnix reflects on the invitation to interior preparation to get ready for eventual peace and a return to who we really are [Luke 3:1-6].
Reflection
- What would it look like to let go of who I think I am (unworthy, selfish, controlling, etc.) and reconnect with my deep self? (loved, compassionate, curious)
- How can I relax into the flow of God loving me today?
Spiritual Practice
- Welcoming Practice.
- Breath deeply .
- Notice emotions, thoughts, body sensations & sink in.
- Welcome anything you notice.
- Let Go of having to manage any of it on your own.
- Become aware that everything is being held and accepted.
- Listen within the spaces you feel lost and empty.
- What is my wilderness now? (It may be a change, good or bad, that you haven’t processed yet: someone you miss, or something you miss, maybe your body has changed. Name and acknowledge what’s hollow.)
- Take a minute to feel what’s there.
- And in this space of grief, listen, see what else is there.
- Receive transformation through curiosity and compassion.
- What emotions arise as I consider this season?
- Practice validating and having compassion for the presence of those emotions and thoughts.