A New Church Bible Study Website Project That's Gaining Some Steam

Back in March of last year I first heard from Brian David about a concept for a New Church Bible study website that he was working on with a couple of other people. One of the early experiments with the concept from around that time was internalword.com.

The project has now had a lot more thought put into it and they've done some presentations to try to get funding for it. And so now, rather than have me try to explain the concept behind the site, I can just tell you to watch the fun, short, RSA Animate-Style video that they put together.



You can also find a bunch of documents about the project on PittsburghNewChurch.org, including some images of what the user interface might look like. A note about those images: they look like a bad site from the 90s but, never fear, Brian assures me that they were just to try to explain the concept and, when they make the site for real, they'll get professional design and UI help.

Anyway, I think it's a cool idea and I hope that they get the funding that they're looking for so that they can give it a try. It's definitely one of those projects that will only work if a lot of people get involved so, if it sounds interesting to you, be sure to like the New Christian Bible Study page on Facebook.

P.S. They also entered into the debate that Rob Bell's book has stirred up with a little video about the New Church idea of heaven and hell.

Everything to Do with "Pause: Make Space for God"

The most recent New Church spiritual growth program, "Pause: Make Space for God" just launched last week so I thought I'd let you know about all the different resources that are available for this program.

The main URL for all things Pause is newchurchpause.org. Almost everything is there I just want to highlight some of the things that you might not find otherwise. In particular I want to let you know that there are ways that you can participate even if you're not near one of the participating congregations.

Videos

First, here's a little video introduction to the program:

New Church LIVE So Far

Here's my understanding of where things are at this point and what you can find online.

Last Sunday they finished their first 4 week series, "Creation Works." You can watch the first 3 weeks of it online. They have a YouTube channel and a Vimeo channel. You might think that you might as well stick with YouTube because that's what you're familiar with, but Vimeo is actually better. Vimeo allows them to upload longer videos so you can watch a whole week's message in one video instead of in a series of 3 or 4 videos on YouTube. They have organized their YouTube videos into playlists now, which makes it easier, but Vimeo is still better because you don't have to watch through (or skip through) a minute of graphics at the beginning of each of the "Creation Works" videos. Also, because they don't have to chop things up they seem to put things up on Vimeo first.

Here's what you can currently watch online:

• "The Road Ahead" - This is their introduction to New Church LIVE.
• "Creation Works" part 1: "Light"
• "Creation Works" part 2: "Expanse"
• "Creation Works" part 3: "Heart"
• Kids LIVE promo - Kids LIVE is their kids program which is starting up in August sometime.
• Greg Simons Profile - This is a short video about one of the guys that volunteers in the parking lot.
• "Down to the River to Pray" - The music at New Church LIVE is awesome. Currently this is the only video online of the music.
• There are also two old promos - Pen Pals and another one.

Their new series, "A Tale of 3 Cities," started today.

That's about all I know. If you want regular updates follow them on Twitter (twitter.com/NewChurchLive) or check out their Facebook page (www.facebook.com/NewChurchLive).

A Facebook Group for Swedenborgian Project News and Support

I just ran across a new Swedenborgian Facebook group, Swedenborgian Christian Project News and Support. It was started by Mike Weber. The purpose of the group looks pretty cool.

To get out news about books and other writing, translation efforts, videos, events, marketing, outreach efforts, web activities, and other projects within and about Swedenborgian Christianity. To encourage, motivate, and inspire each other and lend expertise. To enable us to meet and communicate about our projects during and after development. To enable new collaborations to develop among us.

My experience with Swedenborg-related Facebook groups (and Facebook groups in general) is that I join them and then forget to ever go back. Here's hoping that this one will be different.

If you're interested, here are a couple of other Swedenborg-related Facebook groups: New Church, Swedenborgians are the bomb diggity, Take it Easy, and A Holy Conversation (read a post about this group).

Follow Swedenborg on Twitter (sort of)

If you want a sort of Daily Inspiration-like* quote of the day in your Twitter feed you might like to follow SwedenborgToday.

I'm not sure who set this up. Maybe it's the same person who's Swedenborg on Facebook.

* Daily Inspiration provides daily short quotes from the Writings. Subscribe for free in the bottom left corner of www.newchurch.org's homepage.

Documentary About the Bright Future of the New Church in Africa

In the summer of 2008 Ron Schnarr and Caleb Schnarr traveled to West Africa to film a documentary on the New Church in Ghana and Togo. You can now watch the documentary they made, "Bright Future - A Documentary about the New Church in West Africa," online. They posted the videos to a Facebook group with the same name as the documentary. Whether you're on Facebook or not you can view the group by following that link. You can also go straight to the videos using the links below.

The documentary is 25 minutes long and has been broken up into 4 videos: video 1, video 2, video 3, and video 4. (Once you view video 1 you can click the Next button just above the top right corner of the video to see the next video.)

If you are inspired by the documentary, there's something you can do.

Want to support the New Church in Africa? You can start by buying our movie at the Bryn Athyn Cathedral book room or by writing us with a request for a copy. All proceeds will go to projects in West Africa such as a clinic and a vocational school. Send all donations and requests to:

Yes Africa Bright Future Documentary
Box 277
Bryn Athyn, PA 19009

Thanks for supporting Africa!

A Prayer Challenge

Rev. Mac Frazier started a Facebook group called "A Holy Conversation" with this description:

John Burke of Gateway Church came up with an idea: pause to connect with God every 60 waking minutes for 60 days. It's been bouncing around in my head to try this, and this past week I decided to just jump in. ... I'm trying to make prayer in my life less like a ritual and more like a conversation. I want to get to know the Lord, the Divine Human, in a way I don't feel I currently do. In Secrets of Heaven it says that prayer is speech with God. I want to start having a conversation. ...

Here's how it works: Create reminders for yourself--sticky notes, pop-up reminders on your computer, hourly beeps on your watch, alarms on your cell phone, or whatever works for you--so that you are regularly... reminded to pray.

Now, the way I'm doing it, I'm not necessarily praying FOR anything, and I'm not "saying a prayer". Every hour, what I do is say silently to myself, "The Lord is always with me," and then taking a second to reflect on my current thoughts, feelings and behavior. I share with the Lord whatever's going on with me, no matter how silly, embarrassing, painful, wonderful--whatever--it is. And then I LISTEN. I still my mind and wait a bit.

That's how I'm doing it. You can do it any way you like! AND, if you like, you can use this FaceBook group to share reflections, experiences, joys, discoveries, etc., with others who are doing this experiment.

Mac talked about this at contemporary service yesterday. I decided to take the challenge after that.

UPDATE: Mac's talk is now available online. You can listen to it here. Jump to 13:46 for the talk itself.

Also, I've discovered that you don't have to have a Facebook account to view Facebook groups so I added a link to the group. Click on "A Holy Conversation" here or above.

Keep Up to Date with New Church Live

If you're wondering what New Church Live is or what they're doing these days, there are a couple of new ways to get information.

They have a Facebook profile. You can access that here if you don't have a Facebook account. There are 3 videos there—a welcome video from the new pastor, Rev. Chuck Blair and 2 promos/advertisements. There are also details about an upcoming event on May 31st and you can ask any questions you have by posting them on the Wall.

You can also follow New Church Live on Twitter.

A Good Summary of the Difference Between the Teachings of the New Church and Mainstream Christianity

A while ago I discussed Troy Brooks explanation of why Emanuel Swedenborg Was Definitely Unsaved. On that site he actually provides a pretty good explanation of the difference between the teachings of the New Church and the teachings of mainstream Christianity—having copied most of it from John Odhner's web site.

I recently read about a similar thing in a Facebook note by Jordan Cooper. Jordan writes,

In 1996, Darryl Dash (the pastor of Richview Baptist Church in Toronto) gave a sermon on the fallacies of the General Church of the New Jerusalem. .... He posted a chart on the internet comparing this religion to mainstream Christianity.

[H]is description of our beliefs is one of the most accurate and concise I have ever seen. In explaining our inaccuracies from his point of view, he describes our doctrine in a way that is clear to an outsider.

Take a look at it here.