When I want to have those conversations and feel like I need a different perspective  othen than my partner,  I generally ask my minister for  a pastoral visit... the conversation happens in a safe and supportive way and if I need it to go further than that, then I'll try and think of someone in the congregation that might want to engage. 

I also find that although they might not get labelled as such, there are a lot of faith conversations that happen at coffee hour at my church.  But then, my church has a pretty amazing coffee hour - every single Sunday there is a full lunch - people sign up to take responsibiltiy for providing the food, usually a different family will take it on...  And so when you have a sit down lunch every week, the conversations are much longer...

Our after-worship coffee time is the time to discuss such questions. So are our wonderCafe-live! and wonderQuest events, and private discussions between friends.

When I went to church I found it almpst impossible to get people to talk about anything faith related.  There was no Bible study, no small groups where discussions could get started, no way of getting together to ask questions or get help with problems or things I didn't understand.  I stopped going to church.

I have lots of faith based discussions with friends who don't go to church.  I have friends who are ministers in various denominations (met through social activities) that I talk freely with. 

The churches I have attended don't seem to be about learning, growing, meeting challenges or developing deeper faith or relationships.

We have been running weekly Bible study/discussioin groups.  However we closed down for a month because we entered into a study of "Earth Gospel" led by a priest.  It was most interesting.

We will be getting back to our study/discussion group shortly.  We usually use the next Sunday's reading as listed in the lectionary though at times we do discuss books related to spirituality.  We have also engaged in the "Living the Question" series I and II.

Shalom

Mate

We have Wonder Cafe Live before church on Sunday mornings.  For some people that is the only 'church' they need.  they come for the Cafe and then go home rather than going into the sanctuary for formal worship.

Can you describe your wondercafe live, seeler, and how it works?

I have a friend who comes by every month or so, and sometimes it's brought up. He's an athiest. My two daughters pretend a little interest, my wife is too busy believeing the last Answer-to-Everything book she is part-way through (4-5 times a year)...Stumbling on Wonder Cafe was a wished-for web-site. The lack of Push, at last! :-)

*****************

Hey, Obama is heavily into Neibur! Any Neibur fans here?

(...uh..Anti-Neiburers?)

WonderCafe-Live - well, we gather at or about 9:00 am and wander through the parlor to the kitchen where we are greeted by hot coffee, warm muffins, jams, etc.  We fix our favourite and go in to sit in comfy chairs around the gas fireplace.  The facilitator introduces the topic - last week she brought a guest - a professor in the English dept at the local university who is an atheist.  Our topic for the week is atheism.  We had a good crowd - five or six core people and as many more - ages 20 to 70 - with the mean probably around 40.

Since our guest and at least one other were there for the first time we went around and introduced ourselves with a short sentence or two about where we were in our faith journey.  then the guest spoke again for 4 or 5 minutes.  The rest of the time we simply sat around and talked, asked questions, told what we believed.  One person shared that she cringed every time the minister told the kids that God knew them because she pictured a God up in the sky looking down and watching for them to 'be bad'.   I shared that I didn't know how I would get through the next few weeks without trusting that God was there with me and knew me as an individual. 

After the facilitator left and as the group was breaking up, that person asked me to sit beside her and share what was troubling me, and she comforted me. 

That is what we are all about.

This week I am filling in for the facilitator.  The topic is one I've been posting on this week - relations between different Christians - the strong and the weak.  I have no idea how it will go.    I woke early this morning and wondered what the breakfast would be.  Suddenly it occured to me that it doesn't just materialize and I wondered it it was the facilitators responsibility.  I jumped up, made T-biscuits and stewed blueberries.  I'd better get going.  Catch you later!

Wondercafe is definately my favourite place currently for this.  Unfortunately, lately not too many topics have caught my attention much, and I am in the midst of isolating myself, a really bad life pattern I follow - howver, it is what led me here to begin with.

I have tried addressing deeper things in the church we are currently attending (which is a temporary thing), but the guy's at the men's night are VERY fundametnalist in their thinking.  I make comments and they sort of just stare at me.  It would be funny if it wasn't so sad.  I know where they are coming from as it used to be me.  Thankfully the Bible College profs I had thought that teaching people to be critical thinkers was just as important as doctrine and theology.

Happy Genius - Neibuhr - which one - Richard or his brother Reinhold?

I had to read Richard's Christ and Culture for a course in College.  I liked it for the course, but got rid of the book realizing I would never read it again.  This is not because it wasn't well written or anything, but simply because I think it will be a long time, or never, until I wish to look at the way of working Christianity and the World together at that level of academia, again.  I did like his method of writing though.  He examined a few different viewpoints, without coming down as though he had the "correct" answer.

I may not have been too clear about what it is these guys stare at me about.  It is basically questions that challenge any sort of fundamental viewpoint.  To them you are not allowed to question things.  For example the whole notion of how important daily Bible reading is.  They have actually been taught that your salvation is in question if you don't agree with the idea.  If you have any external problems in your life it is because you just need Jesus.  This is not the type of place that you can question faith.  To them faith = doctrine.

One may wonder why I am attending there then?  That is a long story.  As I said though, it will be temporary.

I like wondercafe for these kinds of things. If I want someone to talk to in person I guess I would ask the minister or...like...people from yoga / meditation group at school. I don't think I really talk about Christian topics much with anyone come to think of it. 

We have a weekly Bible study on Wednesday nights. We eat dinner together, watch a short video, and then divide into groups to learn more about  the lesson for the night. We just finished a nice series on spiritual growth.