2024 Labor Day Retreat
Theme: “Everybody Has a Story…”

You are invited to join us at Mt Cross for our annual Labor Day Retreat! We have a full day of programming on Sunday, September 1 and a weekend option for those that want to spend more time at the camp. Look for the Labor Day Retreat table in the Welcome Zone before and after worship during July and August to learn more and register!
Check out the Labor Day Retreat handbook for details! You can print the registration form and Acknowledgement of Risk formin advance.
On Sep 1, 8:45 Worship will be in Cupertino, as usual. Our second service will be held at Mt Cross instead of Cupertino.

This year's theme is “Everybody has a story…” where we'll explore our own faith stories and those of our community. To help get your story-juices flowing, each week we’ll look at one of the themes from Anne Lamott’s book, “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life” and ponder how that can be applied to our own faith stories.

Here’s your Faith Story Big Ideas of the Week:

(August 15)— Anne Lamott says that to tell a good story, we should look at our weaknesses with humor and generosity, and then write about them. Do you ever think that God laughs? If we imagine God as the reader of our faith story, do you think God ever laughs at our human idiosyncrasies? Certainly humans can cause true harm that saddens God, but there are probably plenty of things we label as “weaknesses” that God actually just finds a bit funny. Like how, no matter how hard I try, maybe I will never truly be very good at small talk. Or how I secretly hate reading even though I would love to be the type of person who joins a book club. Maybe we can take a leaf out of God’s book and learn to love and laugh at ourselves a little more — after all — it’s often those things we call “weaknesses” that make for the most interesting stories.

(August 8)— Anne Lamott encourages us: “when you hit writer’s block, back off and take a breath so you can find your confidence.” Perhaps that wisdom can give us some encouragement and permission to take some breaths in our faith lives as well. Sometimes we don’t have to have all the answers. Sometimes it’s okay to not feel the presence of God all the time. (That doesn’t mean that God’s not there). God is mysterious and elusive — much like the words we’re trying to find when we write. Sometimes the words just flow. Other times, we need to take a step back to let the words come to us. Sometimes, the moments when we feel closest to God come when we let go and have faith that God never leaves us on our journey — whether we’re in a super “spiritual” season of life or not.

(August 1)— Anne Lamott says that writers should pay attention to details to create the atmosphere of their stories. Stories are often full of details designed to indicate to the reader small hints about what’s going on in the story. What are the details that God plants in your story? What are the small hints God leaves to give you clues about what’s happening in your faith story? Could it be repeated messages about where God is leading you? Could it be a deep-down feeling that something isn’t right? One of the great mysteries of God is how quiet God can be. It’s maddening, but if we pay attention to the details, we’re sure to hear God whispering something.

(July 25)— When writing a story, Anne Lamott says you need to get to know your characters well; your story’s plot and dialogue flows through them. Who are the characters of your faith story? How well do you know them? There are the characters of our faith stories that have helped shepherd us and point the way. There are characters who provided us shelter on our journeys. How well do you know them? There are also characters who sent us down the wrong path or blocked our way. How well do you know them? We are also characters in our own faith stories. How well do we know ourselves? There are major and minor characters, and not every detail of every character needs to be known. But getting to know the characters does provide for a much richer story. Who are the characters of your story?

(July 18)— Anne Lamott says: don’t be afraid of sh*tty first drafts. A more Christian statement has never been proclaimed. God is constantly using us imperfect, frequently sh*tty humans to get divine work done. Moses had a speech impediment and God worked through him to free his people from slavery. Jonah ran away from God and God worked through him to bring about social change in Nineveh. Peter denied even knowing Jesus three times and God worked through him to help shepherd the early church after Jesus’s ascendance. Paul persecuted and murdered Christians before encountering God on the road to Damascus, and God used him to share the good news of God’s grace across the world. God doesn’t give up on first drafts, and neither should we.

(July 11)— Anne Lamott says that to become a good writer, you should establish a daily writing routine. What does it mean to have a “faith routine”? Some people might posit that “to become a good person of faith, you need to pray and read the Bible every day”. But if you sit down every day and just write the alphabet, that will hardly amount to a story. Perhaps it’s less about following strict, surface-level rules everyday, and maybe it’s more about being intentional about revisiting the story each day. For an author, maybe this means not having to physically write every single day, but spending some days simply pondering the story or getting out in the world and doing some research. Similarly for us, maybe we don’t have to pray and read the Bible everyday, but maybe we can find some small way to connect with God, with others, or with ourselves each day.

(July 4)— Anne Lamott tells new writers: have faith in your ability to write, even when you think you’re not doing a great job. This is something we all need to hear — not just writers. It is so easy to feel like we’re not doing a good job at really anything in life — let alone being a “good Christian”. But maybe it’s not ourselves we need to have faith in. Maybe it’s God we can have faith in — faith that God can work through us to do great things — even, and perhaps especially, when we feel like we’re not doing a good job.

(June 27)— Anne Lamott declares that to find your own voice, you have to be honest with your reader. In the context of our faith stories, this might seem hard or scary. What about the parts of our stories that we’re ashamed or embarrassed about? Well, if we try to sanitize our stories they’ll end up sounding like the bland musings of ChatGPT. People don’t want to hear stories with no voice. They want to hear stories with feeling — with excitement, thrill, joy, and triumph, but also with hurt, sadness, failure, and loss. Because at the end of the day, people want to hear stories that let them know they’re not alone.

(June 20)— Anne Lamott describes how becoming a writer means writing about everything that happens to you and around you. How might this be applied to our faith stories? Your faith story also includes everything that happens to you and around you. It includes the ups and the downs, the good and the bad, the transcendent and the absolutely mundane. It includes what you learned in Sunday school or hear in sermons, but it also includes that coffee chat with a friend where you felt fully and wholly seen. It includes the times when you were a hero, but also the times when you were a villain. It doesn’t just include you, either! It includes other characters, various settings, and a whole host of subplots and spin-offs. All of the components make up your faith story, and none of them should be erased. Cuz that wouldn’t make for a very interesting story, would it?