Let’s Go Deeper: Building Beloved Community this Lent 

 

How can we grow as a vibrant, engaged, and joyful community of faith at St. Mark’s? What does it look like for the people of God to be grounded, nourished, and enlivened as we work to embody the love of Christ? JOIN US this Lent as we explore these questions by reading, reflecting, and meaningfully engaging with friends and parishioners together!

We invite you to join ONE of three devotional small groups that will meet at church every Sunday at 11:30am during the season of Lent. Each group will read and discuss a wonderful and thought-provoking book that focuses on one aspect of building and becoming sacred community together.  
 
 
Here’s a brief description of each book/group. As you consider these three options, we encourage you to step out in faith and join a group that might lie outside your usual interests and comfort zones. How might you stretch your spiritual muscles this Lent? Explore uncharted territory? Go deeper in the life of faith? Sign up to tell us which group you’d like to join. 
 
 
Group 1 will focus on what it means to be a community nourished and challenged by the Bible. We will read Rachel Held Evan’s book, Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again. If you’d like to dip into Scripture but don’t know how; if you find the Bible intimidating, irrelevant, boring, or bizarre; if you have lots of questions about the ancient text we call “God’s Word,” then this group is for you!
 
 
Group 2 will focus on what it means to be a community grounded in prayer and spiritual practice. We will read David G. Benner’s book, Opening to God: Lectio Divina and Life as Prayer. If you want to pray but don’t know how, if you have questions about what prayer is and what it’s for, if you’d appreciate some help as you initiate or deepen a prayer practice in your own life, then this group is right up your alley!
 
 
Group 3 will focus on what it means to be a community called to the enlivening work of justice, reconciliation, and peace. We will read Liz Theoharis’s We Cry Justice: Reading the Bible with the Poor People’s Campaign. If you’re curious about Christianity’s essential connection to the work of justice, if you’d like to learn what it looks like to approach the Bible from the perspective of those on the margins, if you want to find practical ways to follow Jesus as a healer, liberator, and “repairer of the breach,” then this group is for you! 
 
 
You can sign up for one of these groups HERE.
 

The three groups will meet separately for the first four Sundays of Lent (February 26th, March 5th,  March 12th, and March 19th). On the 5th Sunday (March 26th), all three groups will meet together, to share what we’ve learned and experienced.

You don’t want to miss this powerful opportunity to “go deep” this Lent, so please sign up for the group that feels right for you. If you have questions or concerns, email Debie Thomas, our Minister of Lifelong Formation, at debie@saint-marks.com

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