We know that not everyone fits traditional church. Hell, most of us don’t fit traditional church. But most of us also want spirituality in our lives. Friends Church can help you find your unique spiritual journey: a journey that will not only connect you to something More but will change your entire life (and hopefully your entire world) …for the better.
Throughout history, as long as we have records at least, people like us have been dedicating places in their world to do spiritual work. From piles of rocks for the earliest humans to the largest cathedrals to a spot in our homes where we focus on our spiritual lives. We believe that spiritual space matters for humans. Not because the space is fundamentally different, but because we as humans often need to designate those spaces so we do the spiritual work we want to do.
We’re finding that there are many of us who are profoundly impacted by our weekly, in-person, Sunday gatherings. For these people, the live music and messages and socially distanced connection with others brings a calm and focus, inspiration, and growth that the livestream just doesn’t give them – something they say they desperately need right now.
And so we want to have the Spiritual Gym, what we call our spiritual space, open to you as long as we can do it safely. So we are exceeding the Alberta Health Guidelines for churches, our crowd size limitations are strictly monitored, we sit 6 feet away from anyone not in our household, and we clean the building before every service. We think it’s about the safest place you can go outside of just staying home.
And so, for the sake of the spiritual work we want to do, in the safest manner we can, we invite you to come to this sacred space, to do the work you want to do, with all of the rest of us.
At the heart of most conceptions of Christianity is sin. Something bad. Maybe even we are bad. “All have sinned” and all of that. And so many throw away the word “sin” as a relic of traditional Christianity that is no longer needed, or maybe even damaging.
What do you call that? Does the word “sin” fit there? As a guiding principle to lead us to a more fulfilling life that has more purpose?
Our recent and ancient spiritual ancestors have thought a lot about the word “sin” and have thoughts about how it can be a positive guiding force for the way we live our lives today, and inspire the world of tomorrow.
“I’m caught in a maze and can’t find my way out, blinded by tears of pain and frustration.” ~ David.
Psalms 88:8 (The Bible)
Why is it that many of us have an almost allergic reaction to certain emotional expressions? For some it’s emotions like sadness or despair, for others it’s anger. Some even react negatively to excessive happiness.
Have you ever avoided someone whose emotional expression made you feel uncomfortable? It’s quite natural to conclude there’s something wrong with people like that. It’s much more difficult to ask why it is that we’re uncomfortable with the emotion they’re feeling. Why do we tend to avoid feeling certain things?
The growing science around emotion is fascinating. More and more experts are telling us that leaning into our feelings and the emotions of others can be healthy – very healthy. And conversely, when we refuse to acknowledge them or when we run from or block certain emotions it actually weakens us and our relationships in different ways.
What if we could learn to be more comfortable…to react differently to those problematic feelings within us and others? Our hunch is that it could lead to healthier lives and a better world.
For 4 weeks, beginning April 11th, we’re going to explore the spirituality of emotion – both from our spiritual ancestor’s perspectives and from that of modern science. Our goal is to get more comfortable with all of it.
We hope you’ll invite a friend and join us.
© 2021 Friends Church - WHC. 10:30am Every Sunday, 900 - 47th Ave SW