Clandestine Fiddling

Clandestine Fiddling 2013 - Watch it now.

A Trip to Conoy

The Compassion Core team and musicians from our network traveled to Elizabethtown to Conoy BIC Church on Sunday. Following Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 25, Jonny Rashid shared why we would care to have compassion on others and Megan Rosenbach gave the details about how we are doing it through our compassion teams. Our musicians shared original and foreign language songs. Our fourteen compassion teams give people fourteen different opportunities to help spread justice and peace in the Philadelphia region and beyond, and the Compassion Core team is working to find creative ways to expand our reach. Sunday was a great start! The good people at Conoy BIC welcomed us with hospitality and even orchestrated a love offering of $300! We are looking for more venues to share the stories from our compassion teams in the coming months.

Reporting: Megan Rosenbach

Missionary Mindset

On Saturday, our cell leaders gathered to learn a bit more about what Paul was really talking about when he told Corinthian women to veil their heads. We concluded that he was really trying to be on a mission, striving to be all things to all people as he had written about just a few chapters earlier. Our cell leaders then brainstormed about ways that we could make connections within our neighborhoods and meet the next person by being cultural sensitive and flexibly presenting the Gospel.

The summary of Jonny's complete talk at the training can be read at his blog: http://jonnyrashid.wordpress.com/ 

Reporting: Jonny Rashid

Creating a Missional Culture

On Saturday, numerous Circle of Hope attenders came together at our Marlton & Crescent congregation to discuss the art of creating a missional culture. Several people got up to speak and helped the group to develop a variety of ideas on the state of present culture and ways in which it spreads and operates. As a primary contributor, Nate Hulfish shared the key components of what creates a culture, from things such as language and narrative to rituals and institutions, and led the attenders in studying these components in smaller, deeper discussions. The training helped to formulate ways of bringing new dynamics to cells, as well as freshening Circle of Hope's perspective of culture and how to be an influential voice within it.  

The Imaginarium | Fun Solving

Twenty-two people got together on Monday night to explore and discuss ways of being creative and introducing fun experiences as a way of engaging and including the people around us. The Imaginarium hopes to help fulfill Goal #2 in our 2013 Map of letting people see Jesus where they live and being good story tellers by generating opportunities for our worship to be more public.

Following several group exercises, Joshua showed a video of an improv group that did a flash mob in NYC wherein hundreds of people froze in a public place for several minutes. With that spark of inspiration, the group held a discussion analyzing what fun consists of and a variety of ideas that would involve a large group action around Philadelphia.

Interested in joining? All our welcome and we need your ideas to make it happen.

The Imaginarium meets every third Monday of the month for 60 minutes (yes, it's timed), 7-8pm. You can join the Facebook page here as a way of continuing the dialogue when we're not in session.

New Staff Person | Luke Bartolomeo

We have just added a new person to our Circle of Hope staff!

Luke Bartolomeo has just joined us as our Network Communications Assistant. He will be assisting the pastors in various office roles, as well as managing a lot of what you see here on our website and in our social networking (Facebook/Twitter/etc). He will also be assisting the Church Planting Core in administration, reporting, and secretarial duties.

Luke is excited for the tasks ahead and is looking forward to adding fresh ideas in how we convey our mission and reach out to more of those around us.

Lent begins

On Wednesday, we began the journey of Lent by wearing ashes on our foreheads (made from last year's Palm Sunday palm fronds). Network-wide nearly 300 of us gathered to being this season of solitude and silence, with fasting, prayer, and almsgiving on our hearts. Journey with us at our public meetings, cells, and even on our Daily Prayer blog.

Moving Toward Our Goals for 2013: Highlights from Rod's Blog

Jesus calls us to help bring the kingdom of God into the present, and that’s why we discern goals together for each new year.  We see how much our world needs it!  Rod White, pastor at Broad & Washington,  has been blogging about our goals---some of the specific ways we'd like to bring hope to the needs in and around us this year.  We're already moving, and here’s a chance to get deeper into the action:

1.  We want to connect with people in our region and learn from them.  Goal: Use our series of six Saturday seminars to feature facilitators from outside of our network who can open our minds and hearts and enrich our diversity.  Blog post:  Fomenting Diversity in the Age of Big Data

2.  People need to see Jesus where they live. We don’t want to hold back from telling the story.  Goal: Generate opportunities for our worship to be more public.  Blog post: Getting Out There in the Face of Fear

3.   We have a burgeoning group of children, tens, and expecting parents in a region full of people who need love, family, and community.  Goal: Develop the capacity and vision for our Network Children’s Team.  Blog post: Children Nurture Us, Too

4.   We want to be people who are known for bringing the hope and justice of Jesus to the streets.  Goal: Charge our Coordinating Groups to connect with people and partnerships who already bless our neighborhoods.  Blog post: Let the Lord Make Your Radical Steps Solid

5.   We have a wealth of resources (gifted people) who direct us to go deep with God.  We want to nurture them and develop more capacity to receive what we need.  Goal: Provide a roadmap for spiritual direction that helps people understand and exercise their options.  Blog post: Spiritual Midwives

100 Stories of Transformation!

Mission accomplished! As of today we have posted our 100th! story of transformation on the website!

(we were pretty excited in the office when we posted our 100th story. Matt Abraham, Rachel Sensenig and Howard Pinder)

As you probably know, one of our goals in our 2012 map was to collect 100 stories of transformation. Here is the goal from the Map:

NEED Our fractured region needs the power of the resurrection in a restored relationship with God. We want to offer the hope Jesus offers. We want to make known and celebrate the adventure of living out a manifest demonstration of life in Christ. 

GOAL Collect 100 stories of transformation to publish on the “Stories” section of website and re-verb the stories throughout our various publications.

Thanks to all the people who put themselves out there and shared their story. It is not easy to share our full selves in a culture that practices irony and sarcasm more than truth telling. Sharing our personal story of how God has transformed us might be the best way to show our faith and love in this era. I have a feeling there are more stories out there waiting to be collected. If you have one you can send it to rachel@circleofhope.net.

Introducing the Housing Share!

We want to introduce you to a new resource this year. It's called the Housing Share. You can find it at circleofhopehousing.wordpress.com (and also above under the "Connect With Us" tab). We think we're responding to a need that we've repeatedly heard. Its purpose is as simple as it sounds: we want to compile available housing options in our Network and give you one place to access them.

We want to help people find housing in our community to better serve Jesus and work toward our common goals and mission. We understand that many people move to our area and look for homes with other community members or with trusted friends. It is often difficult to sift through an onslaught of Emails and Craigslist postings. The housing share is designed to help you find a place to live.

We want you to be able to list available rooms, apartments, and homes available for rent or sublet. You can navigate through available listings on the left sidebar.

Its riding on the coattails of the success of our Jobs Share, so it functions similarly. To post an availability or a request, please Email housing@circleofhope.net. We’ll review it and post it as soon as we can.

Jesus Doesn't Sleep on Racial Reconciliation

On Saturday, January 12 our Church Planting Core team is hosting a seminar at Broad & Dauphin from 9-11am:  "Jesus Doesn't Sleep on Racial Reconciliation and Neither Do We."  Our friend Drew Hart is leading us, and all are welcome.  The seminar will be the first in a series of every-other-month opportunities generated by our 2013 goal to learn from the wise voices in our region.