Tuesday, September 02, 2008
golf marathon for Interfaith Hospitality Network
100 Holes for the Homeless Golf Marathon for Interfaith Hospitality Network
David Loar will be playing the 100 holes marathon to raise money for IHN, which is a ministry to house homeless families. You can pledge one amount or per hole. The marathon will be Monday, September 22nd at Rosemont Country Club. Last year $22,000 was raised! This is the major fund raiser for IHN. Fairlawn West is a host church and we hosted 3 families last week in our building each who had a number of young children. You can pledge by contacting David at deloar@yahoo.com.
Labels: Fairlawn West, IHN, Interfaith Hospitality Network
Friday, April 18, 2008
how can I change? The Bible & the 12 Steps of Recovery
Join Fairlawn West United of Christ on Sundays at 11:00 am in the Music Room of our building for a gathering of people who are using "The Bible and the Twelve Steps of Recovery."
One of the major struggles for most people who are part of church life is how to transform what they learn about being a disciple of Jesus Christ into their regular living. Over the years things have been dumbed down and reduced down to simply being a "good Christian." There is no such animal. Rather, we are called to give up our lives and to follow Jesus Christ.
But many people are frustrated in church. They hear and read about how they should be, but cannot find the tools to help them shape their life or to turn it over to God so it will be that which they read about in scripture.
The 12 Steps of Recovery as originated through Alcoholic Anonymous have become relegated by too many of us to "helping those kinds of people" and unfortunately, many of us don't realize we are "those kind of people." We need help in turning our lives around. In making our lives more consistent with what we say we believe and are our personal values. So we begin to fudge and give ourselves credit for really only having a small percentage of our life fitting with what we believe. Or we just look at our lives and whitewash it to say we think we are doing pretty good the way we are. The 12 Steps will help us in a fellowship of others seeking to make their lives live up more to our calling from God to live who we truly believe and know God wants us to be. No more excuses or whitewash. And then, we can truly accept God's forgiveness for the ways we know we are not perfect, and to realize God is perfecting us through this spiritually transforming way.
One of the major struggles for most people who are part of church life is how to transform what they learn about being a disciple of Jesus Christ into their regular living. Over the years things have been dumbed down and reduced down to simply being a "good Christian." There is no such animal. Rather, we are called to give up our lives and to follow Jesus Christ.
But many people are frustrated in church. They hear and read about how they should be, but cannot find the tools to help them shape their life or to turn it over to God so it will be that which they read about in scripture.
The 12 Steps of Recovery as originated through Alcoholic Anonymous have become relegated by too many of us to "helping those kinds of people" and unfortunately, many of us don't realize we are "those kind of people." We need help in turning our lives around. In making our lives more consistent with what we say we believe and are our personal values. So we begin to fudge and give ourselves credit for really only having a small percentage of our life fitting with what we believe. Or we just look at our lives and whitewash it to say we think we are doing pretty good the way we are. The 12 Steps will help us in a fellowship of others seeking to make their lives live up more to our calling from God to live who we truly believe and know God wants us to be. No more excuses or whitewash. And then, we can truly accept God's forgiveness for the ways we know we are not perfect, and to realize God is perfecting us through this spiritually transforming way.
Labels: Fairlawn West, recovery, UCC, United Church of Christ
Monday, February 04, 2008
Labyrinth available on March 22
Our Chartres style labyrinth will be available the day before Easter - Saturday, March 22nd, 5:00 to 7:00 pm. This will be an opportunity in the midst of Black Saturday to begin the journey of resurrection to life in Jesus Christ.
Fairlawn West United Church of Christ, 2095 W Market St, Akron, OH 44313
http://www.fairlawnwest.org
Fairlawn West United Church of Christ, 2095 W Market St, Akron, OH 44313
http://www.fairlawnwest.org
Labels: Fairlawn West, labyrinth, UCC, United Church of Christ
Monday, January 07, 2008
Taize service returns to Fridays
The Taize worship service is returning to Friday evenings at Fairlawn West United Church of Christ, 2095 West Market Street, Akron, OH. It will be at 6:30 pm in the parlor. It will start on Friday, January 11, 2008.
This service grew out of the ecumenical monastic community in Taize, France which hosts 100's of thousands of youth from around the world annually for a week at a time. They function as an intentional community for that week in sharing meal preparation and clean up and other tasks around the site. But the center is small group discussions on faith and the world AND the daily worship services. These services use songs in prayer form where the whole congregation sings over and over in almost a chant form the songs. Here is a link for short slide show from this past summer's experience at Taize http://www.youtube.com/v/PJrxn5Wkp_g&rel=1
Here is the Wikipeida description of Taize
At Fairlawn West we do a 40 minutes service with Taize songs, prayers, scripture readings, silence and meditation. It has been described often by those who share in this service that it feels like a cleansing and letting go from the toils of the previous week.
This service grew out of the ecumenical monastic community in Taize, France which hosts 100's of thousands of youth from around the world annually for a week at a time. They function as an intentional community for that week in sharing meal preparation and clean up and other tasks around the site. But the center is small group discussions on faith and the world AND the daily worship services. These services use songs in prayer form where the whole congregation sings over and over in almost a chant form the songs. Here is a link for short slide show from this past summer's experience at Taize http://www.youtube.com/v/PJrxn5Wkp_g&rel=1
Here is the Wikipeida description of Taize
At Fairlawn West we do a 40 minutes service with Taize songs, prayers, scripture readings, silence and meditation. It has been described often by those who share in this service that it feels like a cleansing and letting go from the toils of the previous week.
Labels: Fairlawn West, Taize, UCC, United Church of Christ, worship
Monday, November 26, 2007
Advent Conspiracy at Fairlawn West UCC
Have you joined the Advent Conspiracy yet?!
Labels: Advent, Akron, Fairlawn West, UCC, United Church of Christ
Jack Michael ordained on Sun Dec 16 2 pm
Jack Michael of our congregation will be ordained to the ministry of the Gospel of Jesus Christ on Sunday, December 16, 2007 at 2:00 p.m. in the Fairlawn West worship sanctuary. This service is hosted by Fairlawn West United Church of Christ and the Eastern Ohio Association of the United Church of Christ.
Jack presently lives in Minneapolis, MN and has accepted a call as Minister of Youth and Young Adults at First Congregational United Church of Christ in San Jose, CA.
Jack presently lives in Minneapolis, MN and has accepted a call as Minister of Youth and Young Adults at First Congregational United Church of Christ in San Jose, CA.
Labels: Fairlawn West, Jack Michael, UCC, United Church of Christ
Friday, September 21, 2007
Church Picnic Sept 30
Our church picnic will be at The Octagon shelter of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park on Truxell Road Sunday, September 30, 2007 at noon. Please bring your own table service and a dish to share.
Labels: Akron, Fairlawn West, UCC, United Church of Christ
