MLK Day of Service at Circle Thrift

On Monday, more than 30 people came out to Circle Thrift Broad to do some serious cleaning, organizing, and repairing. It was an ant farm of activity. There were children, teenagers, and adults of all ages and from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds, some of who grew up in Philadelphia and others who were transplants. There were volunteers who had connected to the thrift store through our various Circle of Hope congregations, as well as many new faces who had discovered the event on the MLK365 website.

This holiday, we were making one small attempt, around our city, to channel MLK as he once channeled the work of Jesus. It was a busy group that hopefully looked a lot like the beloved community that Dr. King described in his speeches and writings. It was a beautiful expression of how it is when brothers and sisters, following in the way of Jesus, live together in unity and work for the better good (Psalm 133). Not to mention all the fun that was had. Pizza Brain, a local business owned and operated by Circle of Hope partners, even donated pizza for the lunch pizza party (pictured above).

To shop, donate, or volunteer at Circle Thrift Broad, visit circlethrift.com or stop by the store. We also have a store located in the Fishtown/East Kensington area. More information can be found at the website.

Let's Talk About Growing

Is Your Cell Too Small?

We are a cell church. Our hope is that circles of 10 (we say 7-12) spread out all over the region to extend the Kingdom of God in relational ways. In Matthew 13, Jesus says: “The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.” Our cells are like mustard seeds… pervasively (even invasively) spreading. On Saturday, at our monthly cell leader training we asked the question, “Is Your Cell Too Small?” The only concrete answer we came up with was, “If your cell has less than 3 people in it, then yes.” Beyond that, there are a lot of factors that have to be discerned in order to answer the question.

At their hearts, cells are about connection and connecting. They are about connection to each other and about connection to Jesus. And…they are about connecting other people to Circle of Hope and connecting other people to Jesus. Each cell has connection going on (for example there are 45 relationships simultaneously occurring in a cell of 10!). Each cell also has the potential for connecting the next person. Every person in a cell can prospectively connect someone else (most of us know more than one other person!). When we ask, “Is your cell too small?” the real question might be, “How seriously does a cell take Jesus’ Kingdom expansion call?” A cell of 8 might be too small if they’re not interested in expanding the Kingdom, while a cell of 3 might be just fine (for a time being) if they have the passion and perspective of Kingdom expansion.

We’re always working it out, of course. One thing we want to do in 2014 is grow. We’re honestly evaluating our cells to see how to do that well. Pray for us and with us! -Nate Hulfish

Find a recording of the talk here.

New Circle of Hope Album, "Patiently Impatient"

 















The Circle of Hope Audio Arts Team has just released their second album! Read about it from their press release here below:

We excitedly announce the release of our second album, Patiently Impatient! Circle of Hope Audio Art brought together over 50 musicians and a dozen songwriters from all four Circle of Hope congregations to offer this collection of 17 original and transcultural worship songs plus two spoken word reflections.

We hope it is useful for our worship leaders - to learn the songs and how to lead them. We hope it builds up the Body of Christ - as a tool for personal worship, a soundtrack for your commute, and something that fosters a sense of gratitude for all the creativity God has given us. We hope it helps get Jesus (and Circle of Hope) into new places - sharing the music via your social networks can help people know more about what Jesus is about and what the Spirit is doing.

Even though many of the concepts of the album explore the tension of the already/not yet Kingdom Coming, we waited until after Advent was over to respect the spiritual longing for Jesus. Now that we’ve celebrated his birth, let’s celebrate the gifts!

You can stream or download Patiently Impatient and our first release Resist & Restore: Spring 2013 on every music website we could think of.

We recommend you go to http://circleofhopeaudioart.bandcamp.com/ so you can make a tax deductable donation of your choosing to further the work of the team and get the .pdf with extensive liner notes. We have hard copy cds and booklets of the first record at every Public Meeting site, we hope to do likewise with Patiently Impatient in the next month.

Please let us know if you have any questions.
Enjoy!

http://circleofhopeaudioart.bandcamp.com/album/patiently-impatient

http://facebook.com/CoHaudioart
circleofhopeaudioart@gmail.com

Take Back Vacant Land

The Campaign to Take Back Vacant Land has been hard at work over the past few months to get a land bank bill community members can trust. Our Compassion Team working with the campaign has been showing up at council regularly, sharing testimonies, and fighting to win the version of the bill that Philadelphia neighbors can benefit from and be invested in. Among the 100 people that gathered in council last week, Jonny Rashid, one of our pastors, spoke to the vitality of the land bank. An amended version of the bill has been passed and with some more effort will be won by the end of 2013! Keep praying with us and our neighbors for our communities across the city.

See Jonny speak at City Hall here.

Reporting: Sara Semborski

Organizing for Environmental Justice

On Saturday, 70 people came out to Broad & Washington to be inspired by Lisa Sharon Harper—Director of Mobilizing for Sojourners—to organize for environmental justice. Lisa explained that environmental justice is beyond just caring for creation. It is mobilizing for clean air, water, and land for everyone, not just those who can afford to live wherever they want to. She explained that in the United States, the poor consistently live in areas that contain higher rates of environmental toxins and less access to fresh food, resulting in lower life spans and more disease.

In the face of this racist and classist policy, Lisa encouraged us with evidence that people of faith are fighting for change. Our work with the Land Bank Bill here in Philadelphia is evidence of that change. Lisa helped us to identify "core spiritual lies" that keep people accepting of the status quo here in Philadelphia. Some of the lies that groups identified included "affluent people deserve better" and "without a commitment to profit we won't survive" and "it doesn't matter what I do—I'm too small to change the system." Lisa said that if we can confront spiritual lies with spiritual truth, we can unlock a movement. She gave us spiritual truth to stand on from the Bible that is confirmed by the movement of the Holy Spirit among us. Reporting: Rachel Sensenig

Multiplayer Mode

Joining the international fundraising efforts of Extra Life for the first time, Circle of Hope Marlton & Crescent hosted a Sponsor-a-Nerd 24-hour gaming marathon on November 2. Twenty-one gamers registered online as part of the Circle of Hope team and then raised money for the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (and a couple of other children’s hospitals) by finding donations through sponsors, just like their more athletic counterparts might do for a charity run.

On the day of the event, participants started arriving at MC at 8am where we had repurposed the space into a gaming haven. We brought in extra couches, hooked projectors up to gaming consoles, set up several tables for board games, and created an area for the computer gamers. The variety of games stretched from bestselling titles to bins of obscure tabletop games to stacks of NES cartridges that still smelled like the 80s. People were free to play whatever they wanted at any given moment, but we also held tournaments for which participants competed for donated prizes and tried to unlock achievements. If you would have walked in Saturday night, you would have seen a room of forty to fifty people variously watching the Power Rangers Movie projected onto a wall, battling it out in Super Smash Brothers, demoing the Occulus Rift, facing off in Magic the Gathering, concluding a five-hour Settlers of Cataan tournament, or trying to destroy one others’ towers in the PC game Tower Wars. And many of these gamers were playing with/against people they had never met before.

By the time we emerged with blurry eyes at 8am the next day—actually 25 hours later thanks to Daylight Savings Time—there were only about ten of us still standing. The more important number, though, was the $2,330 our team ended up raising to help kids at CHoP receive treatment regardless of their family’s ability to pay. And remember, we weren’t doing this alone. Through the collective efforts of other gamers in the region, CHoP raised over $71,000. And as if that number isn’t mind blowing enough, over $3.8 million dollars was raised for various children’s hospitals throughout the world as a result of the Extra Life event in a simple reminder that what we can do alone pales in comparison to what we can do together. Reporting: Randy Ribay

October Love Feast

On Saturday, October 26th, Circle of Hope celebrated its October Love Feast, a time of looking over the past quarter as well as celebrating new people who have decided to partner with us through making a covenant. 

Before the Love Feast began, several people—John Geating, Brianna Serrano, Anna Rhoades, Stephanie Carter, Cameron and Becca DeWhitt—were baptized in the cold waters of the Wissahickon.

The Love Feast was a time of celebration where we worshiped Jesus with original songs by our music leaders, pop songs, and songs from around the world. We also heard from Aaron Foltz and Tricia Fussaro. Aaron shared a story in his life regarding a time he saw great gentleness in a co-worker, and Tricia shared a personal account of anxiousness due to pregnancy, all of which was related back to a theme of overcoming fear and seeing beauty around us by resting in and celebrating Jesus.

The night of celebration and sharing ended with Communion, a breaking of bread and serving of juice, for those who attended, and a emotional finale of worship and prayer.

All told, 10 people covenanted with Circle of Hope, which included:

From Broad & Washington: Brianna Sérráno, John Geating
From Frankford & Norris: Stephanie Carter and Cameron DeWhitt, Becca DeWhitt, and Lindsay Li
From Marlton & Crescent: Stevie Neale and Juan Rodgriguez
From Broad & Dauphin: Tori Hayes, Donovan Hayes