You Are Invited

Beginning on June 24 and continuing on Wednesday evenings through August 5, we invite you to join us for this year’s Christ in the City summer series, which we are calling, “Presence in a Wandering World: People, Pain & Politics”. In a world that is ridden with distraction, endless numbing strategies, and profound division, our invitation comes from Allen Levi’s book Theo of Golden: To sit long enough with someone to see what’s already there. The incarnation of Jesus Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit offers us a profound gospel of presence and proximity, one in which rivers of living water flow from the believer’s heart (John 7:38).

This river of communion is both internal and external: coming from presence to God in ourselves so we have the capacity to see God in another. Therefore, in order to step into our presence to people, pain, and politics, we must first be present to our stories, pain, and political reactivity.

We will take two weeks for each topic: People, Pain, and Politics. The first week will be inwardly focused, looking at ourselves, and the second week will be outward focused, looking at others.

• June 24: Introduction – Presence in a Wandering World – We live in a disconnected and divided world to which we often struggle to be present. How can we re-imagine original sin as disconnection and the gospel as one of proximity?
• July 1: People Pt. 1 – Creating space to sit with our own story and looking for what’s already there.
• July 8: People Pt. 2 – Re-imagining presence with and curiosity about those who are different from us.
• July 15: Pain Pt. 1 – Creating space to sit with our own pain and open it up to healing.
• July 22: Pain Pt. 2 – Learning how to be present with others in their pain.
• July 29: Politics Pt. 1 – Understanding what happens to our nervous systems in political conversations and how that can impair our ability to learn from others.
• August 5: Politics Pt. 2 – Re-imagining the Christian call to unity in a partisan world.

This series will not tell us what to do, how to live, or how to fix ourselves or others. Instead it is meant to give us an imagination for curiosity to God’s movement in and around us. We don’t know exactly what it looks like to live faithfully as yourself, but we know the one who does. This summer will be an opportunity for the Pillar Community to listen to him together, to pay attention to what stirs, and to hold the questions gently and patiently.

Save these dates and invite your friends and family. Each week we will share a meal on the lawn beginning at 5:30pm. Bring a blanket or lawn chairs. Beginning at 6:15, all kiddos (birth – 5th Grade) are welcome to join us in Pillar Kids for faith formation. We will begin our testimony and talk at 6:30 in the sanctuary.  If you have any questions about these events, please email seth@pillarchurch.com.