It is all in a weeks work at Solomon’s Porch, a church conversation holistic community in Minneapolis, MN. Here is what is on the menu for the week:
This Week’s Opportunities to Participate in the Solomon’s Porch Community
Tuesday, April 21th
Men’s Breakfast
8:00am at The Sunnyside Up Cafe (2704 Lyndale)Sermon Discussion Group
7:30pm at Solomon’s Porch. Join to collaborate and discuss next week’s sermon. All are welcome.
So imagine this Trucker Frank (a real guy) and Joe (probably someone real) and Tom, Dick, and Harry can come and collaborate on a sermon. No need to study, dive into the Greek, strain over words and phrases and commentaries…no, come one come all and collaborate. One week I was there the sermon collaboration team came up with Muslim/Jewish/Christian Iconography, which was demonstrated comparing Jesus’ life with pictures of her (the preacher’s) child. Toss the Bible out, and you can call anything a sermon!
Wednesday, April 22th
Porch Play Group
10:00am-1:00pm at Sovereign Grounds Coffee Shop. Please let Mimi Schirber know if you are coming.
First Wednesday of each month: in the kid’s room at Solomon’s Porch
Second Wednesday: we’ll join other families at the Parenting Oasis (3901 Chicago Ave)
Third Wednesday: Downtown Library in the kid’s section
Fourth Wednesday: Sovereign Grounds, a coffee shop (with a huge kids area) on the corner of 48th and Chicago
If you have any questions or suggestion please contact Mimi- mimi@smsbuilders.com or 651-338-0633.No Community Dinner Planned
Thursday, April 23th
Peacemaking Circles 7:30 – 9:00 pm. Peacemaking Circles, hosted by Theresa Cecka. Meets Thursday night, April 23rd, at Solomon’s Porch from 7:30 to 9:00. This exercise has been practiced for centuries and has been adopted by the Native American culture as a way to resolve conflict, make tribal decisions in a consensus format, and enter into a trusting, open, and confidential space. Join in with us to reach places in communication that our culture seldom reaches.
Theresa Cecka, who lists her favorite books as the Arab-Israeli Conflict and Koran, (this is fascinating for someone who claims to love Jesus…Shouldn’t the Bible be at least in the top two?) And doesn’t the Bible have guidance about how to communicate with one another and solve conflicts within a church? Like in the Red Letters of Jesus where he tells us in Matthew 18:15-17 15 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as s a Gentile and a tax collector….I suppose this is part of the holistic missional community, to throw out the Bible as useful ( as Doug Pagitt says…who uses the Bible for Stress Relief? ) for, as Paul says in 2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.
Gays With Faith
7:00pm – 9:00pm in the Study (library) room at Solomon’s Porch. This is a study/support group for those struggling with what “Gay Christian” means for them.
Gays with faith in what? There is no struggle, here. If there was a struggle as a Christian, these people would be fighting their sin with every ounce of effort instead of relying on Tony Compolo, Tony Jones, Brian McLaren, and other emergent false prophets to tell them that being Gay is A-OK. I wonder if Tony Jones is moderating this group with quotes from his blog like this:
I now believe that GLBTQ can live lives in accord with biblical Christianity (at least as much as any of us can!) and that their monogamy can and should be sanctioned and blessed by church and state
Sorry, Tony, that is not what the Bible says.
1 Corinthians 6:9-10 9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
But the next verse gives hope for all those listed:
11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
So, instead of lying to these people who are trapped in sin, and instead of allowing them to have conversations about what being a gay christian false convert means to them, why not tell them the truth in Christ that they can be born again, and be washed, sanctified, and justified!
Transform: Our Abolitionist Group
7:00pm at Solomon’s Porch. All are welcome. We meet every first and third Thursday of the month. Transform Group meets to respond to the current problem of Global slave trade and human-trafficking, locally and internationally. Contact Daniel at 763.923.1220 or transform@solomonsporch.com. Check the Transform blog for frequently updated news from the abolitionist movement! http://transformaai.blogspot.comSaturday, April 25th
Men’s 12 Step Group
8:00-9:30am at Solomon’s Porch. Come talk with other men about our struggles and addictions. If you have questions contact Steve at 651-503-3010Mukti Event starts at 6:00! Mukti (Hindi for freedom/liberation/deliverance) 6:00 pm this Saturday, April 25th a benefit for victims of sex slavery in India at Solomon’s Porch. A Transform sponsored event to invite your friends and acquaintances. This will be a very special event!
6 pm Reception
7:30 pm Speaker (Debbie Walker from Freedom Firm)
8 pm Film
and more…(Indian food, music, art, henna…)
We are almost through a week, and the Bible is not yet mentioned. We are through a week, and there is no prayer time mentioned. We have play groups, we have breakfasts, we have conversations until the cows come home. But no Bible Study? No time of even contemplative prayer? Nope. Instead we have idolatry in practice:
Sunday, April 26th
Yoga & Prayer 9:30 – 11:00 am. in the Movement Studio at the Porch.
As Doug Pagitt stated after an interview with Larry King and John McArthur- he believed that reading the Bible is no way to reduce stress, he prefers Yoga. He cannot say with David that he loves the law, that he pants after God like a deer longing after water. No, instead he must twist himself into positions that are used to worship pagan deities. I guess holistic means pantheistic.
Worship Gathering
5:00 & 7:00pm at Solomon’s Porch.
Finally, a worship gathering. The question, as you look at the walls and the time spent in this missional community doing everything but studying God’s Word, Evangelizing, and praying…you have to wonder….what or who are they worshipping. It cannot be the amazing, all powerful God of the Bible, for if it were, He would transform the church and the people within it so they would not put up with this nonsense.
Monday, April 27th
Art Discussion Group
7:00pm at the Porch. Contact Luke at lukehillestad@gmail.com for more info or visit http://porchart.blogspot.com.
Nope, instead we worship art, beauty, poetry, pagan deities, our selves and our processes. It is the worship of self in any way that you cut it. It is the oldest lie in the book. And Solomon’s Porch in Minneapolis is perpetrating it.
