Bob Dylan and the Parable of Showing Mercy

I grew up listening to Bob Dylan on 8-track tapes in our Chevy station wagon as we crisscrossed Montana to attend every Noxon HS basketball game, lulled to sleep by the familiar voice and then awakening to it later as we bumped down our rocky dirt road arriving home. My parents had given away all

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Seeing God more clearly through the Gospel of John

Last Sunday Renée wrapped up NCF’s eight-month teaching series on the Gospel of John. All of our teaching series have been sparked by some personal element, but I have to admit our series on John began with my feeling of lack. We kicked off the new teaching series in January, at a time when the many transitions

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Why We Tell Stories

Stories are powerful. During Summer Small Groups this year and last we’ve shared stories that span the ages of our lives and bridge the spaces between us. Hearing a new story from an old friend, or a familiar story from a new acquaintance, we bond, and we feel a lot less of that “no one

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Looking Back, Looking Ahead

The notion of “plateaus” in life came up in some of the story-telling that took place in our 2015 Summer Small Groups – those moments in life when we can look back and see how far we’ve come and at the same time can look ahead and see how much farther we have to go.

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What I was going to say…

If you were in service this past Sunday, you are already aware that I was dealing with a pretty severe episode of depression over the weekend that prevented me from being able to teach. This is not the first time I’ve had one of these episodes since I’ve been on staff, but it is the

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Sacraments and Stories

As you already know if you’ve been around the past few weeks, we’re spending Sunday mornings leading up to Advent discussing the various practices that act as “foundations” for our fellowship (similar to the “sacraments” in Roman Catholicism or the “mysteries” in Eastern Orthodoxy). Since New Covenant Fellowship is a community that holds a variety of beliefs and

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Sabbath

As the end of my first year on staff at New Covenant approaches, I have been reflecting on the routines and habits that I have developed during this time. Many of these have been wonderful additions to my life – meeting with many of you over coffee or meals, meetings with my various mentors, preparing

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Giving

Since we recently introduced an online giving option, it seemed appropriate to take a moment to reflect on our overall approach to giving at NCF:   If you’ve been around long, you know that “Giving” is one among six core values of our fellowship, and within that, we typically emphasize that this includes giving of

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Help!

On the tables at the back of our sanctuary, there are small baskets alongside the communion trays and offering boxes that are simply labeled “Prayers”. Each week after service, when I go back upstairs to lock up the sanctuary, I check each basket to see if anyone has left a note. Depending on which box

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