New Wineskins

Feb. 5 Gathering: Salt and Light

“You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its saltiness, how will it become salty again? It’s good for nothing except to be thrown away and trampled under people’s feet.”
Matt. 5:13 (CEB)

It’s a theological question for the ages: What does it mean to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world?

For many, this passage from the early verses of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7) has been read as a call to evangelism…to convert people to an intellectual assent to a belief system focused on Jesus as the existential purveyor of eternal fire insurance.

But what if we deconstructed that belief? What if we saw Jesus’ opening salvo in what has often been termed his “Kingdom Manifesto” not as a call to proselytize the heathens, but to redeem the church?

This week at New Wineskins, we’ll continue our 2023 theme of Deconstructing Liturgy by peeling back the layers of this often-misunderstood passage to reveal a deeper call to justice, liberation, and the thriving of human dignity.

We’ll also kick off our celebration of Black History Month by considering how Christians have for centuries misused the biblical themes of light and darkness to discriminate against humans with dark skin, and how it may be time for the salt that has lost its saltiness to be trampled under our collective feet.

Please join us this Sunday, Feb. 5, in our New Wineskins Virtual Theology Pub powered by Zoom for a stimulating conversation on what Jesus may have actually meant by calling his disciples to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world, and our prophetic task as a liberationist community to break the holds of systemic racism and other types of discrimination that have for too long been rooted in what pastor, author, and organizer José Humphreys calls the “colonial project” of American Christianity.

Click here to view this week’s discussion video “Unconscious Enmeshment” with José Humphreys

6:00pm EDT: Happy Half-Hour (informal meet & greet time)
6:30pm EDT: Presentation & conversation begin

New Wineskins Virtual Theology Pub powered by Zoom

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Jan. 29 Gathering: It’s exhausting to be angry

In a climate of political partisanship, economic hardship, social inequity, and theological divisiveness, there’s a lot for us to be angry about.

The mistreatment of LGBTQI+ people, the expansion of white Christian nationalism in our boardrooms and statehouses, the arrogance and callousness of the rich toward the poor…all of these and more certainly seem justifiable reasons for our anger.

But doesn’t it make you tired? Are you exhausted from being angry all the time?

This week at New Wineskins our year of Deconstructing Liturgy turns toward our propensity to let our anger over the injustices of the world overwhelm us. We’ll focus our discussion through the Beatitudes, this week’s Revised Common Lectionary text from Matthew 5:1-12, and consider how this stunning introduction to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount might give us a way to channel our anger away from giving us ulcers and toward the redemption and salvation that comes through liberation.

Please join us this Sunday, Jan. 29, in our New Wineskins Virtual Theology Pub Powered by Zoom for a conversation about the exhaustion of anger and how our anger might be redirected toward acts of justice and mercy that transform the world.

Click here to view this week’s discussion video featuring author and recovery expert Dale Ryan on “Appropriate Anger.”

6:00pm EDT: Happy Half-Hour (informal meet & greet time)
6:30pm EDT: Presentation & conversation begin

New Wineskins Virtual Theology Pub Powered by Zoom

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Feature image by freestocks.org on Pexels.com

Jan. 22. Gathering: What’s Your Story? A conversation with Drew Willard

When it comes to being a part of the New Wineskins community, what’s your story? Why does this community ”click” with you? What motivates you to attend our gatherings, read these blog posts, listen to the Accidental Tomatoes podcast, or engage in conversations on our social media channels?

All of the ways we participate in a community are a part of the liturgy of that community. Because in the most literal terms, “liturgy” simply means “the work of the people.”

This week at New Wineskins, our own Drew Willard will lead us through a conversation to help us all examine more deeply the stories behind the stories that bring us together as a community. Using his own unique biblical storytelling techniques, he will help us deconstruct some of our liturgy of community to help us move even more deeply into what it means to be a people of justice and liberation.

Please join us in the New Wineskins Virtual Theology Pub Powered by Zoom this Sunday, Jan. 22, as Drew takes us on a journey of identity and belonging.

6:00pm EDT: Happy Half-Hour (informal meet & greet time)
6:30pm EDT: Presentation & conversation begin

New Wineskins Virtual Theology Pub Powered by Zoom

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Jan. 15 Gathering: “We have found the Messiah”

This week’s gospel reading from the Revised Common Lectionary is John 1:29-42. In the passage, John the Baptizer (who is not the same John credited with writing the gospel) sees Jesus for the first time and remarks to his own followers that he has seen “the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”

Two of John’s disciples then follow Jesus along the road, and one of them, Andrew, goes to tell his brother Simon Peter that ”we have found the Messiah.” A footnote in the text notes that the word “Messiah” might also be translated as ”Christ” or ”anointed one.”

There seems to be an embedded implication that these followers of John (the baptizer, not the gospel writer) are expecting this “Messiah,” this “Christ,” this ”anointed one.”

Which begs the question: what exactly were they expecting?

This week at New Wineskins we’ll continue our 2023 theme, ”Deconstructing Liturgy,” by taking a close look at exactly what it is we mean when we say we’ve either encountered or are expecting to encounter this Christ. We’ll talk about how our views of Jesus’ messiahship have been formed—and often limited—by our inherited religious structures, and how an expanded view of the Universal Christ can help us see ourselves and the world we live in as already anointed for goodness, for justice, and for liberation.

Please join us this Sunday, Jan. 15, in our Virtual Theology Pub powered by Zoom for a conversation about what it means to find the Messiah and more closely follow the Christ.

Click here to view this week’s discussion video featuring Fr. Richard Rohr on “The History of the Christ” (we’ll cover the first 6 minutes of the video during our gathering, but feel free to watch the whole thing!).

6:00pm EDT: Happy Half-Hour (informal meet & greet time)
6:30pm EDT: Presentation & conversation begin

New Wineskins Virtual Theology Pub Powered by Zoom

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Feature image: Traditional site of Jesus’ baptism on the Jordan River near Jericho (photo by Joe Webb)

Jan. 8 Gathering: Deconstructing Liturgy

While we may not all use “deconstruction” language to describe our spiritual journeys, folks in the New Wineskins community certainly identify as spiritual/religious exiles of some sort. Whether we’ve left the institutional church altogether (or never joined in the first place), or we remain there for our own reasons, most of us feel a profound disconnect between much of how the modern church behaves and what we believe to be the way of Jesus.

Still, many of us continue to find meaning in the rituals and rhythms that help us remember and retell our spiritual autobiographies. Whatever our relationship to “church,” we remain connected to those liturgies—literally, “the work of the people”—that enliven our spiritual experiences.

For 2023, our theme for New Wineskins will be Deconstructing Liturgy. Together, we’ll examine those rituals, routines, and rhythms that continue to give significance to our spirituality as individuals and as a community. Specifically, we’ll be asking the following questions:

How can we infuse our liturgies with new meaning?
How can we engage tradition through fresh eyes focused on justice and liberation?
What spiritual practices can help us connect more deeply to the Divine and to one another?
How do we encounter Divine Presence through our rituals, routines, and rhythms?

This week at New Wineskins, we’ll kick the year off with an introduction to the concept of Deconstructing Liturgy, what it means, and how we’ll journey through it together.

Please join us this Sunday, Jan. 8, in the New Wineskins Virtual Theology Pub powered by Zoom for a conversation about how we can engage our liturgical practices in fresh ways that inspire us to do the work of justice and liberation to which we are called.

Click here to view our video for this week, ”What’s Saving Your Life Today?” featuring Barbara Brown Taylor.

6:00pm EDT: Happy Half-Hour (informal meet & greet time)
6:30pm EDT: Presentation & conversation begin

New Wineskins Virtual Theology Pub Powered by Zoom

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Feature image by Monstera on Pexels.com

Christmas:Reimagined

Is our celebration of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth just a religious observation? Or is it the beginning of a story about overturning the powers and principalities of empire?

Is it a cozy tale of a happy family and their newborn baby, or is it a counter-narrative to a culture of exploitation and oppression?

Along with our friends at Justice & Jubilee, the New Wineskins community reflects together this year on incarnation as an act of liberation.

As you celebrate this time with the people you love, may this short visual liturgy awaken and inspire you to acts of justice and mercy, to solidarity with the marginalized among us, and to liberation for all.

No gathering Dec. 25 & Jan. 1

Our regular Zoom gatherings are on hold until Sunday, Jan. 8. Enjoy your holidays with friends and family, and join us as we kick off 2023 with a brand new series based on deconstructing liturgy.

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Dec. 18 Gathering: Love

Advent:Reimagined Week 4

Institutions like the church thrive on data. How many people attend? How much money has been raised? How many projects have been completed? How many people have been served?

The problem, of course, is that over time the data becomes the driving force. But what often gets left behind is the transformational narrative of what happens when people encounter Divine love.

This week at New Wineskins we’ll celebrate the fourth Sunday of Advent:Reimagined by exploring the theme of Love, and how the way we love creates stories of divine encounter that change people’s lives. Our discussion video features a conversation between theologian Walter Brueggemann and community developer Peter Block about the power of transformational narrative within a community to debunk the scarcity-based narrative of empire.

Our candle-lighting liturgy this week will be led by Nancy Stephens and will be based on the Lectionary gospel text for this week, Matt.1:18-25. You are invited to have a candle or Advent wreath handy to participate.

Please join us this Sunday, Dec. 18, in our New Wineskins Virtual Theology Pub powered by Zoom for our Advent conversation about love, narrative, and the power of transformation.

Click here to view this week’s video on The Work of the People.

6:00pm EDT: Happy Half-Hour (informal meet & greet time)
6:30pm EDT: Presentation & conversation begin

New Wineskins Virtual Theology Pub Powered by Zoom

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Dec. 11 Gathering: Liberate

Advent:Reimagined Week 3

He has scattered those with arrogant thoughts and proud inclinations.
    He has pulled the powerful down from their thrones
        and lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things
    and sent the rich away empty-handed.
Luke 1:51b-53 (CEB)

What does liberation mean to you?

For much of recent Christian history, liberation has come to be associated with delivery from sin and death and the postmortem disposition of our disembodied souls.

But that rather whitewashed interpretation comes largely from reading scripture through the lens of privilege. From the side from which many others are seeking liberation.

The problem, of course, is that the Bible is literature by the oppressed for the oppressed. People for whom liberation was an immediate, material need rather than a future, spiritual desire.

This week at New Wineskins we celebrate the third Sunday of Advent:Reimagined by examining liberation through the context of The Magnificat, Mary’s song of praise found in Luke 1:46-55 that boldly declares God’s timeless preference for the poor, the exploited, the marginalized…those without power or privilege in society on whose backs empires are built.

For our Advent candle lighting liturgy, our own Drew Willard will offer his interpretation of Luke’s accounting of the annunciation and Mary’s song. We’ll also experience a visual and musical version of The Magnificat by Phuc Luu from The Work of the People.

Please join us in the New Wineskins Virtual Theology Pub powered by Zoom this Sunday, Dec. 11, for an Advent conversation about the biblical call to liberation and our part in bringing the divine vision for liberation to life.

Click here to view this week’s video treatment of The Magnificat.

6:00pm EDT: Happy Half-Hour (informal meet & greet time)
6:30pm EDT: Presentation & conversation begin

New Wineskins Virtual Theology Pub Powered by Zoom

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Dec. 4 Gathering: RENEW

Advent:Reimagined Week 2

Can we have peace without first having renewal?

And can renewal come without repentance?

This week at New Wineskins we’ll celebrate the second week of Advent:Reimagined by talking about how living repentantly opens the door to renewal of relationships and allows us to conspire freely from all our various perspectives to embody the Beloved Community.

Our video this week will feature anti-apartheid activist and Anglican priest René August with a challenging message about repentance by both oppressors and the oppressed, and how our collective redemption is always wrapped in reconciliation.

We’ll also have a brief reflection and candle-lighting liturgy led by Steve and Carol Peck based on this week’s gospel text from the Revised Common Lectionary, Matt. 3:1-12. Please feel free to have a candle or Advent wreath handy to participate in your own space.

Please join us this Sunday, Dec. 4, in the New Wineskins Virtual Theology Pub powered by Zoom for what promises to be a deeply meaningful conversation about repentance and renewal.

6:00pm EDT: Happy Half-Hour (informal meet & greet time)
6:30pm EDT: Presentation & conversation begin

New Wineskins Virtual Theology Pub Powered by Zoom

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Nov. 27 Gathering: Guest speaker Dr. Thomas Jay Oord

We are beyond thrilled to begin our Advent:Reimagined season together by welcoming Dr. Thomas Jay Oord as our special guest speaker this Sunday, Nov 27, for a conversation about open and relational theology and its relationship to community formation!

Dr. Oord is an ordained Nazarene elder and an award-winning author with more than 25 books to his credit. He directs the doctoral program in open and relational theology at Northwind Theological Seminary and is also the director of the Center for Open and Relational Theology.

We hope you’ll join us this Sunday in our New Wineskins Virtual Theology Pub Powered by Zoom to be part of our dialogue with Dr. Oord!

BONUS: Click here to download a FREE sampler of Dr. Oord’s work! This sampler includes partial chapters from five of Dr. Oord’s most popular titles.

Advent:Reimgagined Week 1 — EXPECT

In addition to welcoming Dr. Oord this Sunday, we’ll begin our Advent:Reimagined season with a reflection on the Revised Common Lectionary Gospel Text from Matt. 24:36-44 for our Advent Candle Lighting Liturgy. If you like, you may have a candle or set of Advent candles handy to light as part of our shared experience.

6:00pm EDT: Happy Half-Hour (informal meet & greet time)
6:30pm EDT: Presentation & conversation begin

New Wineskins Virtual Theology Pub Powered by Zoom

Invest in our community!

Donate now!