Fabric Podcast

Is There Room for Wonder? Luke’s Christmas story in the Bible ends by telling us Mary treasured the words of the shepherds and pondered them in her heart. That is a bible-sort-of-way of saying, “What the h@// is going on?!?” She was wondering. Wonder is good. It invites our heads to go where our hearts already are. But is it real? All I know is that I don’t think I’d want to live in a world without wonder. Today we will experience our time together with a little wonder; kind of like our kids do.
A short excerpt of our Middle School leading us on our writing prompt of "I wonder..." is included. If you do some writing, share it with us with Facebook or email.
You can find the "Murmuration" video at this LINK. Watch it. It's worth it!
Links to the Message Outline and GroupLife Discussion Guide can be found at www.jacobs-well.net/leftovers.
You can support Jacob's Well as a community and help to bring messages and experiences like this to more people at jacobs-well.net/give. Thank you!

Chris and Chris catch up about seeing God in our daily lives. Is that a thing? 

If God’s Not Real, Is It Me? Despite what some may claim, there is nothing anyone can point at or say that simply proves once and for all that God exists. God gets real not by being a fiery idol on a mountain top, but through our eyes seeing God in the world around us, and our lives manifesting God’s presence in the world. Which begs the question, “Whose fault is it that God doesn’t feel real?” Ok, it’s not about fault, but what if God has done God’s part and now it’s our turn. Hmm…
More resources can be found at www.jacobs-well.net/leftovers,including the outline to this message on the back of the Sunday Paper and the GroupLife discussion guide. 
 
You can support Jacob's Well as a community and help to bring messages and experiences like this to more people at jacobs-well.net/give. Thank you!

Greg Meyer, Melissa Lock, and Chris Tripolino reflect on some of the questions and concepts Greg raised in his message this week about God and, specifically, the Bible. Is it worth it to dive into the archaic, confusing, constantly misused collection of writings? Maybe it could be a place where we see God get real. 

December 4: Was God Real Back Then? A virgin having a baby, angels talking to shepherds, kings getting mystical messages and following a star across a continent, a baby born in a stable… We learned it all so early that it just became the story… until someone ruined it by making us hear it with grown up ears. But our ears aren’t just grown up, they are 21st century ears. What did happen back then? Are we letting our different worlds rob us of mystery that needs to be told in new ways today? Let’s listen again.
More resources can be found at www.jacobs-well.net/leftovers,including the outline to this message on the back of the Sunday Paper and the GroupLife discussion guide. 
 
You can support Jacob's Well as a community and help to bring messages and experiences like this to more people at jacobs-well.net/give. Thank you.
 
The song used for the writing prompt ("So I'm told, so the story goes...") at end of podcast is "Christmas Song" by Dave Matthews. Listen HERE. If you're inspired to write something by the prompt please share it with us at info@jacobs-well.net. Thank you!

Greg talks with Melissa Lock and Chris Tripolino about the continuum of belief in God that he laid out in week one's message. What number are you?  

God, Just a Good Idea? Christmas is cool, it’s full of great things that bring out the best in people. (Ok, some of our not-so-great traits too, but we’ll overlook that for the moment.) Christmas being about God and Jesus and all that stuff, however… not so cool. One could say that claiming God’s presence in the world has become the territory of fanatically religious people and if you don’t want to be one of them, then you are left with God, the Good Idea. Are those really the only two choices? Or are we trying to answer the wrong question. Thanks for listening!
More resources can be found at www.jacobs-well.net/leftovers,including the outline to this message on the back of the Sunday Paper and the GroupLife discussion guide. 
 
You can support Jacob's Well as a community and help to bring messages and experiences like this to more people at jacobs-well.net/give. Thank you.
 
The song used for the writing prompt at end of podcast is "Real" by Nichole Nordeman. Listen HERE. If you write something to the prompt please share it with us at info@jacobs-well.net. Thank you!

This podcast is an experiement! We love those.
Listen in as Greg Meyer and Melissa Lock discuss some insights about 'The Journey to Better Than Compromise' on Monday morning that didn't make it into Sunday's message. They are exploring how creating the sort of relationships we need for BTC rely on strong social capital*, and what that is and how it happens. They also link it to our Jacob's Well ideas about creating a Growth Zone between our Comfort and Danger Zones**.
Listen in and leave us your thoughts: Right here in the comments, email us at info@jacobs-well.net or on our Jacob's Well Minneapolis Facebook page.
*Hat tip to Robert Putnam's book, Bowling Alone, NY Simon & Schuster, 2000.
**More on the Comfort/Growth/Danger Zones at PrecariousPastor.net.