1 時間10分
Belonging Orleans United Church
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- キリスト教
Living in meaningful relationships with other followers of Jesus as partners of a dynamic faith community.
It really feels good to “belong” to a caring community, where people are excited to be together, are genuinely interested in each other, and are always looking out for one another. Add to that a shared belief in the transforming and unifying love of Christ, and that’s what connects us as a faith family. At OUC, we take belonging seriously.
BITS OF PRACTICAL ADVICE FOR THOSE STRIVING TO BELONG
One of the things the United Church of Canada never figured out about me, was that in the first 20 years of ministry in the Moravian Church, I was one of the “go to” resource people to that denomination’s youth ministry program, leading youth retreats and summer camps for young people across North America. To be honest, I didn’t make a big deal about it when we moved to Ottawa; it’s a ministry that’s as exhausting as it can be rewarding, and subconsciously, in my 40’s I probably figured it was about time I grew up anyway.
So, sometime in the early 90’s, in the never ending search for yet another Jr. Hi summer camp theme, I stumbled across this passage in Romans 12, a few instructions on how followers of Jesus should live their faith in everyday life. And I thought, hmmm, I could make this reading last a whole week of daily Bible teachings with the camp kids. And that’s when I reframed them as 15 Bits of Practical Advice for Christians Just Trying to Carry On. The idea was to focus on a few of them every day and encourage the teens to try to model that day’s focus for each other. I took 4 different translations of Romans 12 and wove them together into a list that I put it in a frame and also printed as mini-versions, which I rolled into little scrolls, put a rubber band around them and told the teens to keep them close by for the week (something similar to what you’re receiving right now). They actually read along with me from those little scrolls … but they were a lot younger and had better eyesight then most of us at our age.
For today I renamed them these verses from Romans: 15 Bits of Practical Advice for Believers Striving to Belong.
9 Let your love be genuine; don’t fake it.
Run for dear life from evil and hold on for dear life to good.
10 Be good friends who love each other deeply.
Work hard at honouring others and practice putting their needs first.
11 Be enthusiastic and spirited, ready to serve God by caring for others … but don’t burn out.
12 Be cheerfully expectant and patient in uncertainty.
Don’t quit in hard times; persevere in prayer.
13 Be helpful to those in need among you and inventive in hospitality, especially to strangers.
14 Ask God to help you bless those who mistreat you – not curse them.
15 Laugh with your friends when they’re happy; share their tears when they are down.
16 Work together and cooperate.
Don’t be stuck up and act like you are smarter or better than others.
Make friends with the everyday people around you.
17 Don’t mistreat someone who has mistreated you.
Discover the beauty in everyone.
18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, try to get along with everybody.
(Woven together from four different translations of
Romans 12:9-18: The New Revised Standard Version,
The Contemporary English Version, Eugene Peterson’s
The Message, and Glen Stoudt’s Storyteller’s Version)
In the verses leading up to this list, the author of Romans uses the human body as a metaphor for belonging. “For as in one body we have many parts, and not all have the same function, so we who are many are one body in Christ, individually belonging to one another.” Belonging is a basic reality of life; and being connected in Christ makes a difference in faithful living. God is with us,
Living in meaningful relationships with other followers of Jesus as partners of a dynamic faith community.
It really feels good to “belong” to a caring community, where people are excited to be together, are genuinely interested in each other, and are always looking out for one another. Add to that a shared belief in the transforming and unifying love of Christ, and that’s what connects us as a faith family. At OUC, we take belonging seriously.
BITS OF PRACTICAL ADVICE FOR THOSE STRIVING TO BELONG
One of the things the United Church of Canada never figured out about me, was that in the first 20 years of ministry in the Moravian Church, I was one of the “go to” resource people to that denomination’s youth ministry program, leading youth retreats and summer camps for young people across North America. To be honest, I didn’t make a big deal about it when we moved to Ottawa; it’s a ministry that’s as exhausting as it can be rewarding, and subconsciously, in my 40’s I probably figured it was about time I grew up anyway.
So, sometime in the early 90’s, in the never ending search for yet another Jr. Hi summer camp theme, I stumbled across this passage in Romans 12, a few instructions on how followers of Jesus should live their faith in everyday life. And I thought, hmmm, I could make this reading last a whole week of daily Bible teachings with the camp kids. And that’s when I reframed them as 15 Bits of Practical Advice for Christians Just Trying to Carry On. The idea was to focus on a few of them every day and encourage the teens to try to model that day’s focus for each other. I took 4 different translations of Romans 12 and wove them together into a list that I put it in a frame and also printed as mini-versions, which I rolled into little scrolls, put a rubber band around them and told the teens to keep them close by for the week (something similar to what you’re receiving right now). They actually read along with me from those little scrolls … but they were a lot younger and had better eyesight then most of us at our age.
For today I renamed them these verses from Romans: 15 Bits of Practical Advice for Believers Striving to Belong.
9 Let your love be genuine; don’t fake it.
Run for dear life from evil and hold on for dear life to good.
10 Be good friends who love each other deeply.
Work hard at honouring others and practice putting their needs first.
11 Be enthusiastic and spirited, ready to serve God by caring for others … but don’t burn out.
12 Be cheerfully expectant and patient in uncertainty.
Don’t quit in hard times; persevere in prayer.
13 Be helpful to those in need among you and inventive in hospitality, especially to strangers.
14 Ask God to help you bless those who mistreat you – not curse them.
15 Laugh with your friends when they’re happy; share their tears when they are down.
16 Work together and cooperate.
Don’t be stuck up and act like you are smarter or better than others.
Make friends with the everyday people around you.
17 Don’t mistreat someone who has mistreated you.
Discover the beauty in everyone.
18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, try to get along with everybody.
(Woven together from four different translations of
Romans 12:9-18: The New Revised Standard Version,
The Contemporary English Version, Eugene Peterson’s
The Message, and Glen Stoudt’s Storyteller’s Version)
In the verses leading up to this list, the author of Romans uses the human body as a metaphor for belonging. “For as in one body we have many parts, and not all have the same function, so we who are many are one body in Christ, individually belonging to one another.” Belonging is a basic reality of life; and being connected in Christ makes a difference in faithful living. God is with us,
1 時間10分