Sinopsis
Central is a non-denominational Christian church that meets in the suburb of Port Kembla, Wollongong, Australia. This podcast is a recording of our Sunday sermon. In our gatherings we often have dialogue, ask questions, and listen to each other, not just the preacher. For this reason, what you hear here has been edited to remove bits and pieces of discussion that would otherwise be recorded as 'dead-space'. We hope you enjoy and are encouraged by what you hear. If you'd like to find out more about us you can find us at centralchurch.org.au or www.facebook.com/centralchurchportkembla/
Episodios
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I’m not what other people say about me.
19/03/2024 Duración: 42minWe continue with our lent series sitting with Henri Nouwen’s wisdom. This week Caro unpacks how our self worth can be stuck in what other people say or think about us. We wrestle together being honest with how we struggle with this as well as looking at Jesus and asking ourselves ‘how was he able to live from such a sense of beloved identity?’
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Knowing your belovedness and letting go of control.
15/03/2024 Duración: 55minWe wrap this contemplative service around Henri Nouwen's wise words: "I'm not what I have, I'm not what I do, I'm not what people say about me. I am the beloved of God." Caro leads us in a practice that helps us ground ourselves in our belovedness and Becca shares how needing to be in control or responsible for things has been a challenge in her life, and she leads us in a practice she has found helpful in letting go. **There is a part of Becca's sharing that we have edited out as she shared some personal things she didn't want up on the podcast.
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I’m not what I have, I’m not what I do.
08/03/2024 Duración: 39minWe continue with our lent series sitting with Henri Nouwen’s wisdom. This week Caro unpacks how our self worth can be stuck in what we have or do and how God invites us to live a little more from our belovedness.
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A Contemplative Posture - Contemplative Service
20/02/2024 Duración: 48minThis month we looked at the gift of having a contemplative posture in life.
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The Transfiguration
20/02/2024 Duración: 36minCaro zooms out and in on this strange and wonderful account and we look at what it might have to offer us as a metaphor for our spiritual lives.
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A History of Biblical Interpretation
06/02/2024 Duración: 38minIt is easy to assume that the way we read and interpret the Bible today, with our modern and scientific minds, is the way it has always been done. That the words we glean through scripture from God are the same today as they were for the early church. However, it may be surprising, and perhaps confronting, to realise that our way is a relatively young way of approaching scripture. In this message, Oran looks across seven pivotal stages of biblical interpretation throughout Christian history and discusses what we might gain from a greater hermeneutical awareness.
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Bodies Matter
17/01/2024 Duración: 44minWalking through the lectionary texts Caro invites us to consider the trajectory of God’s presence in Scripture which ends in the high point of our bodies being the dwelling place of God. We then unpack what this means about the sacredness of our bodies and how we might listen to our bodies to hear God speaking to and in us.
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Water, Spirit, Birds
15/01/2024 Duración: 36minIt’s the first Sunday after epiphany and our texts for today have the themes of water, Spirit and birds. We read through the texts and Caro shares some insights around God’s presence hovering over all creation including us.
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Advent Week Two
12/12/2023 Duración: 43minCaro preaches through the lectionary texts for this second Sunday in Advent and we discuss how we hold on to hope when it feels like God is slow.
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Advent - Contemplative Service
10/12/2023 Duración: 46minIn our contemplative service this month we sat in the theme of Light, engaging in an Examen and Lectio Divina to connect us to God this Advent.
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Advent Week One
10/12/2023 Duración: 36minOran leads our community in unpacking the lectionary texts for this first Sunday of Advent centering around the questions of 'what are we waiting for?' and 'how do we wait?'
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The 10 Men with Leprosy - a miracle that happens ‘on the way’
29/11/2023 Duración: 37minThis month we sat with the teachings of Meister Eckhart.
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The 10 Men with Leprosy - a miracle that happens ‘on the way’
24/11/2023 Duración: 37minCaro looks at some of the stranger details of this story including how Jesus liked to wander in ‘in-between’ places; how these men in their physical suffering had found a remarkable social healing; and how this might just be the unsexiest miracle Jesus performed. She finishes by reading a Rilke poem which alongside this passage encourages us to stay close to Jesus our Source.
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The 10 Men with Leprosy and the Saviour of the World
14/11/2023 Duración: 31minHow is the nature of our personal healing tied up with the world’s salvation? Becca looks at Luke 17 and what it might mean for us today.
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Acts 10 Peter Goes For Spiritual Direction
02/11/2023 Duración: 56minThe content of Acts 10 lends itself well to the idea of spiritual direction. Caro shares with us a little about what Spiritual direction is and then we hear an imaginative interpretation of Peter unpacking his vision and it’s implications with a spiritual director (Kym Dixon kindly agreed to participate as a director.)
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A Psychological Look At Peter's Vision
02/11/2023 Duración: 32minIn this episode, Oran takes a look at Peter's vision of the animals in the sheet from a psychological view, considering the mindsets around disgust, purity, sacrifice and mercy and how they affect our interaction with those around us. Peter's reaction to the vision of the unclean animals is not exclusive to just ancient times, that same psychology affecting Peter's perspective is still very present in us today. God was inviting Peter beyond his cultural and religious boundaries, but Peter had to overcome deeply embedded 'disgust' (uncleanness, impurity, unholiness etc) in order to discover God in the 'other'.
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St Francis Of Assisi - Contemplative Service
26/10/2023 Duración: 58minWe look at the life and the teaching of St. Francis and reflect and listen to the wisdom Francis offers us today.
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Acts 10 Peter and Cornelius: A Communal Exploration
13/10/2023 Duración: 52minAs we continue to explore ways of decolonising our church practices, Caro leads us into a communal exploration of Acts 10. We read the passage with some context explained. Then we wrestle together with what this story might show us about what God is doing and how God is ‘doing’ it.
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Teach Us To Pray - Prayer of Lament
09/10/2023 Duración: 40minCaro shares how her upbringing leaned more towards spiritual bypassing that equipping her to lament when needed. She shares how lament give us a way to protest to God, express and process emotion with God and voice our confusion. Becca also shares briefly what breath prayer is and how that has been a gift for her in prayer.
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Teach us to Pray - Prayer of Conversation, Prayer of Silence
12/09/2023 Duración: 44minCaro shares how speaking to God as we speak to a friend provides a space of prayer as connection. And how the prayer of silence, or wordless prayer, can be a way we discover God in all the spaces in between.