Last Week, This Week

It was a joy to be with y’all this past Saturday at our annual Parish Retreat. For the first time, we met at our own property! While it was a lot of work, it was also a lot of fun (though I’m still smarting from a defeat in the finals of the corn hole tournament). A huge thank you to the staff and volunteers who served to make it a time of fun, connection, prayer, and learning. 

Our retreat speaker, Sara Joy Proppe, helped us think more deeply about the built environment of the church and our own neighborhoods. She was fantastic! If you’re interested, you can check out more about her work with the Proximity Project and on her podcast, The Embedded Church (our own David Taylor was recently on an episode). Also, Mark Lopez’s short documentary “Segregated by Design” (which we’ve highlighted before) relates to some of what was discussed on Saturday, especially in the second session. You can also check out this other video of Mark’s that creatively relates to our shared life together in Christ.

This coming Sunday is the fifth of the month. As is our practice at COTC, we’ll be adapting worship to create space for an extended time of prayer and worship following the sermon. I’d encourage you to come ready on Sunday to pray with others and to receive prayer. This is often a powerful time of experiencing God’s presence together. 

This Sunday, we’ll also be hosting a Lunch & Learn related to the Thanks Be To God campaign. If you have any questions or have missed our communication through Neighborhood Groups and other gatherings, do go ahead and register. In addition to hearing more about the campaign, we will hear from architect Gary Wang as he shares about the process and potential outcomes related to building renovations. Lunch and childcare are available. 

Lastly, this week and next we’ll be making physical Commitment Cards available through the bulletins. We will submit our commitments together in worship on Sunday, November 6th. Also, be sure to plan on staying after church on the 6th for lunch and a celebration of the Thanks Be to God Campaign. Thank you for engaging and prayerfully considering how God is inviting you to participate. 

In Christ,

Peter+ 

Ps. Join in tonight (7 to 8:15 pm) for a concert with the band Ordinary Time at our building.