During the outdoor service on 10/17/21, Leah teaches on the story of Ruth and Naomi and the hope of friendship that might be easy to miss, as we continue our series on "Friendship Matters".
Friendship Takes Time
In this second teaching in the "Friendship Matters" series, Leah explores the various circles of friendship and how they are built up, and we hear a special story from four friends who have been there for each other for decades.
Review Leah’s notes or take in the teaching and story through audio or video below. (To watch only the DeWitt and Jensen story, start at minute 29.)
Friendship Matters: An Introduction
This is the first teaching in a new series, called "Friendship Matters". In this first gathering, we explored a little of what science, voices from history, voices in Haven, and Scripture have to say about friendship. What does "friendship" even mean? Why is it important for us to think about? Why is it challenging? And how might God interact with the whole idea?
Listen to the teaching or watch it below.
Sacred Worship
In this hybrid Sunday gathering, Leah shared her last teaching from the "Recovering the Sacred" series, inviting the Haven community to consider the practice of worship and how it might connect us with the Divine and help us experience the sacred.
After the teaching, those in attendance were invited to interact with a number of worship experiences. A couple of those experiences have been included in a virtual format on this video of the entire service.
Listen to or watch the teaching alone below.
Sacred Commitments
In this teaching from our "Recovering the Sacred" series, Leah considered the ancient practice of making covenants, and how it might be useful in our day as we think now about making commitments.
Read Leah’s notes here and listen to or watch the teaching below.
Sacred Texts
In this Zoom-only Sunday gathering, Leah teaches on the theme of "Sacred Texts" and considers how reordering our relationship to the Bible might be an important part of our recovering of the sacred.
Review Leah’s notes and listen to or watch the teaching below.
Sacred Space
During this hybrid outdoor gathering, Leah and Jeanne give a joint teaching on the idea of "Sacred Space", and why it might be relevant to think about the ways that places can connect us with the Divine.
Listen to or watch the teaching below.
Sacred Heritage
In this teaching from the "Recovering the Sacred" series, Leah explores how we might handle stories and texts from our sacred tradition that we find problematic, and what it might mean to "include and transcend" as we seek to rebuild and recover our spiritual practices.
Review Leah’s notes here and listen to or watch the teaching below.
Sacred Vision
Photo by Dubwise Version.
In this teaching, we continued our "Recovering the Sacred" series with a conversation around "Sacred Vision". Leah joins with Ginny Prince to consider how God might impart encouraging vision to a community, which can be vital in the work of "reorder". The gathering included a collective listening prayer practice, but that has been omitted from the video out of respect for attendees' privacy.
Listen to or watch Leah and Ginny’s presentation below.
Recovering the Sacred (Introduction)
In this teaching, Leah gives an introduction to our new summer teaching series, "Recovering the Sacred". In this introduction, she lays the groundwork for exploring the part of the Biblical narrative about how a community rebuilt after a time of great disruption, and considers how Father Richard Rohr's framework of growth happening through the pattern of "Order, Disorder, Reorder" might be instructive for us in this season.
Read Leah’s notes here and watch the teaching below.
Exploring the Journey
The Labyrinth we drew at Washington Elementary.
In this hybrid Sunday gathering, Leah gave a brief teaching, reflecting on life as a journey and inviting our community into an ancient spiritual practice to invite God into that journeying. She introduced our community to the practice of walking a prayer labyrinth, which those gathered then had the opportunity to do.
Read Leah’s notes here and watch the teaching below.
Being Seen
During this virtual-only service, Leah shares a teaching inviting Haven to reflect on another element of cultivating intergenerational community: how we respond to the youth and young adults increasingly in the Haven space. She looks at what we might learn from Jesus in this area, with a story from early in the gospel John.
Read Leah’s notes here and listen to or watch the teaching below.
Reflections on Seasons
As part of the hybrid service on June 13, 2021, Jeanne led a reflection with the children on the seasons of the year. Leah followed it with a brief teaching about one of the places the Bible speaks most explicitly about the seasonality of life, and led us through a prayer experience to reflect on the seasons we find ourselves in now.
Read Leah’s notes here and view both teachings below.
On Wearing Masks and Eating Meat
In this teaching, Leah reflects a bit theologically about some of the complexity of gathering in this coming-out-of-Covid season, and considers what insight some instruction to the early church might bring.
Read Leah’s notes here and listen to or watch the teaching below.
Pentecost 2021
The group gathered for our first Hybrid outdoor service in 2021.
This brief teaching from Leah was part of Haven's first hybrid service held on 5/23/2021, Pentecost Sunday.
Review Leah’s notes here and listen to or watch the teaching below.
Rebuilding Intergenerationally
Leah and Jeanne lead another conversation in preparation for the return to in-person services. This conversation focused specifically on what it means to build a community that is intergenerational and supports the needs of adults and kids.
Planning to Rebuild
Leah and Jeanne open up a community discussion about the next phase of Haven life, as we look towards beginning to hold in-person gatherings outdoors, currently scheduled to begin May 23.
Envisioning Again
In this Sunday gathering, Lead Pastor Leah Martens and Connections Pastor Jeanne Wong lead a conversation around revisiting the vision of Haven as we prepare to begin meeting in person once again.
Breaking Down My Lens of Binary Thinking
Image by Alan Levine
In this teaching by Connections Pastor Jeanne Wong, Jeanne shares some of her story and her process in moving beyond dualistic thinking and the way it impacts the journey of faith.
Listen to or watch her teaching below.
Revealing Resurrection
On Easter Sunday 2021, Leah concluded our series on The Stories That Sustain Us. In this teaching Leah reflects on the way resurrection is revealed in the New Testament stories and what it might teach us about experiencing resurrection in our current circumstances.
See Leah’s notes here and listen to or watch the video of her teaching below.