Nine week summer series addressing questions from the KirkWood family.

Video Message	Resources
Week 1: How does Intercessory Prayer Work?	Monday Memo notes Asking God This Week 1. From the sermon notes:  – Don’t edit or restrict your asking; ask freely and without hesitation, knowing that God will always answer in a way that’s best and will redirect your asking as warranted.  – Ask in order to play our role as co-creators of the world.  2. From the end of the sermon, here are a few specifics ways to ask God that you can weave into your prayer life:  – Use flash asking prayers: ask God for something or on behalf of someone immediately instead of waiting.  – Pray for anything that seems to be “manifestly good” (as suggested by Father James Martin). If it seems good to you, then ask for it, no reservations or hesitation!  – As C. S. Lewis did every night, ask God on behalf of those you are tempted to dislike or hate. This is how praying for your enemies changes you, not just them.  – Begin to keep a record of answered prayers, not just prayer requests. These answers may well not be the ones you wanted, but they likely will reveal God’s deeper wisdom and better intention. 3. From our congregational prayer time yesterday, spend time this week asking God for what you find in this list, which represents what Father James Martin with regularity asks God for:  – Ask for needed wisdom and perspective – Ask for success in what you do, and then humility to accompany that success – Ask for freedom from your unhealthy patterns – Ask for the courage to act – Ask for creative inspiration when you feel stuck or lethargic – Ask for the patience to wait – Ask for present and future hope when you have none.
Week 2: Can You Help Me with my Fear of Dying?	Monday Memo notes Memento Mori this Week 1. So how can you “memento mori” this week?  – Maybe you can pray the George Wheler prayer in the sermon summary point 6 above every night before bed, accompanied with those thoughtful questions in the same summary point.  – Maybe you can dwell on how leaning into, and not away from, your own mortality makes you wiser? How does that help you reevaluate your priorities, change where you’re spending your time, etc.?  – Maybe you can work on trusting God fully each day, especially with all that lies beyond your control and power, as a way to prepare for needing the same robust faith when you face your own demise?  – What else?  2. Some good resources:  – A great article on the practice of “memento mori” from Renovare: Going Down Singing – Carolyn Arends – A couple of great, short devotionals from The United Church of Christ on a biblical view of death…sprinkle them throughout the week: Death and Life and I Wanna Be Ready – A few pieces on the psychology underlying our ubiquitous fear of dying: Is the Fear of Death Behind Your Health Anxiety? and  Facing the Fear of Death and Haunted by a Fear of Death? – Last, if you’re interested in a short-ish video overview of the groundbreaking work by Ernest Becker on humanity’s penchant to deny or avoid thinking about death, try these two videos (18 min. total): Ernest Becker and the Fear of Death and Ernest Becker and Heroism
Week 3: How Can We Share Our Faith with Our Adult Children?	Monday Memo notes More to Explore this Week 1. This week, commit to praying for your adult children, and maybe even specifically for their own faith, character, and need for religious community. You could even be brave enough to pray that one of the catalysts mentioned in the sermon might occur in their lives soon.  2. Talk to your adult kids about what you heard on Sunday (and read above): how are they like what you heard, how aren’t they, where do they agree, where don’t they, etc.?  3. Two helpful articles:  – First, a piece from a senior living center on how its residents can encourage their own adult kids to explore faith…lots of great, practical tips: How to Encourage Your Adult Children in Their Faith Walk – Second, a thoughtful piece on how to be a safe haven for your adult kids: How to Be a Haven for Your Adult Child 4. We’ve spent a lot of time as a church talking about how to share our faith over the last five years. Here are the links to three previous series that you might want to revisit, even if only to reread some of the Monday Memo summaries:  – Ancient Future Mission, in which we explored the four major ways that the earliest church shared their faith (go and be, go and love, go and tell, come and belong). – Lost in Translation, in which we used the apostle Paul’s speech in Athens to help understand better how to communicate the truths of Christianity to those who have no biblical or Christian knowledge. – Surprise the World, in which we tracked along with the book we read together as a church family about practical actions we can take to reach out to others in Jesus’ name, like blessing them intentionally.
Week 4: How should a Christian View Artificial Intelligence?	Monday Memo notes More This Week – As you navigate your week in our very complicated world, try to view everything through those two Christian interpretive lenses: 1) Who is benefiting, even if it’s not named, and who isn’t?; and 2) How is the human tendency to “curve in around ourselves” being seen or influencing things here?  – Pastor Chris mentioned that he took a two hour seminar from Rev. Dr. Andy Morgan on Christianity and A.I. Here’s a free one hour version of the same seminar, done by Dr. Morgan for an Episcopalian diocese. It’s a basic, easy to understand introduction to what A.I. is and some of the challenges it represents: Sunday Forum: AI, Faith, and You – Here are a couple of helpful articles on how Christians should come at A.I., none overly dense or difficult:  – AI Will Shape Your Soul – What Does AI Mean for the Church and Society? – Artificial Intelligence and Its Impacts on Humanity – A couple of book suggestions, both manageable and not too technical:  – AI Snake Oil: What Artificial Intelligence Can Do, What It Can’t, and How to Tell the Difference: Narayanan, Arvind, Kapoor, Sayash – 2084 and the AI Revolution, Updated and Expanded Edition: How Artificial Intelligence Informs Our Future: Lennox, John C. – A great documentary on the effect of social media on the human brain, especially adolescents (the 1st link is the trailer; the 2nd is a long-form interview with those who are behind it):  – The Social Dilemma | Official Trailer – Netflix’s The Social Dilemma: Filmmaker and Tech Experts in Conversation with Katie Couric
Week 5: How Can I Heal a Broken Relationship?	Monday Memo notes More for the Week – Pray every day this week about a broken relationship in your life. As you do, ask God what love would ask you to do in it. Maybe you’ll pray about forgiving, or how to take the first step?  – Talk to a truth-teller in your life about one of your broken relationships. – Find a way to take a first step toward someone with whom you have a broken relationship, even if it’s a small step.  – A nice four page summary of Lewis Smedes’ great work on how to forgive others: forgiveness.pdf – Four great, short devotionals on forgiveness to scatter throughout your week:  – As – Forgiving and Forgetting – Too Soon? – Grace to Forgive – Some insight on the psychology of forgiving:  – Agreeing to Terms of Engagement to Repair a Broken Relationship – What It Takes to Fix a Broken Relationship – How to Reset a Broken Relationship
Week 6: What Am I Supposed to Make of All the Miracles in the Gospels?	Monday Memo notes Explore More this Week – In Matthew’s gospel, we’re told at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry that He did two things primarily: He taught and performs signs and wonders (Matthew 4.23-25). We are then given an example of His teaching (The Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7) and then examples of His miracles (10 are crammed into Matthew 8-9). Maybe invest your Bible reading time this week by reading through those two chapters (Matt. 8-9) and see what commonalities you might find in the stories, or how they inspire you to be more bold in what you ask God to do for others?  – How our own denomination talks through the intricacies of miracles in the modern world: Miracles – Here’s a short devotional about miracles: Miracle Ready – Here’s a short excerpt of how biblical scholar N. T. Wright describes the role of the miracles in the gospels: N.T. Wright on Miracles – Two entry-level books on miracles, the first on miracles in the gospels and the second on the possibility of miracles today, with a special focus on why the church elsewhere in the world tends to experience more than we do in the Western (North American and European) church: Signs and Wonders: Levine, Amy-Jill and Miracles Today: Craig S. Keener Bonus interview with the author of the 2nd book here: Craig Keener – Miracles – C. S. Lewis wrote one of the classic Christian defenses of the possibility of miracles. You can check out an overview of his esteemed book here: Lewis Materials – Study Guide – Miracles.doc
Week 7: Do Politics Have a Place in Church?	Monday Memo notes More this Week 1. While we’ll offer up some good resources below, it’s most important to consider prayerfully how each of us will take action in whatever small, specific way that we can. This week or in the forthcoming month, how can you… – …Help others expand or deepen their Christian view of what “politics” is or is not?  – …Begin to learn about a present day “problem or crisis” about which you are confused or in question? – …Help safeguard KirkWood as a safe place to learn and discern together, in which we can gently be “sandpaper” to one another?  – …Stand by or with someone in your world who is suffering, wronged, or in need? How can you invest in that relationship and amplify their voice? – …Stand and witness against that which is unjust, oppressive, controlling, harmful, or selfish (all words from The Belhar Confession)?  2. Spend a week getting familiar with the rich insight and guidance we can glean from our PCUSA creeds about a deeper, better understanding of the intersection of Christianity and politics. Try these three, all of which were used or referenced in yesterday’s service:  – The Confession of Faith (1967), sections 9.43-9.47: confess671_0 – The Declaration of Faith (1977), chapter 7, section 5: decoffaith1 – The Belhar Confession (1986/2016), section four: The Belhar Confessio 3. On the recent I.R.S. change about faith communities endorsing political candidates: Churches can endorse politicians, IRS says in court filing 4. A smattering of resources you might want to explore:  – Why is the PCUSA sticking its nose into “politics”?: Why are Presbyterians sticking their noses in politics? – “When Polarization Hits the Pews” by Rev. Dr. Clay Stauffer of The Vanderbilt Project on Unity & American Democracy: When Polarization Hits the Pews – How do we “stand with/by” those who are suffering, in need, or being wrong? It’s more than just serving or caring for them. It’s “advocacy.” Here’s a great overview of what that means for Christians: How To Be an Advocate: 10 Ways – Two very readable books by Katelyn Scheiss, that moderate evangelical scholar who specializes in the historical intersection of faith and politics in American history:  – Ballot and the Bible: How Scripture Has Been Used and Abused in American Politics and Where We Go from Here: Kaitlyn Schiess – The Liturgy of Politics: Spiritual Formation for the Sake of Our Neighbor: Schiess, Kaitlyn, Wear, Michael
Week 8: Will You Talk About the Japanese Practice of Kintsugi?	Monday Memo notes For this Week Spend some time reflecting on, praying about, or journaling about how your own life, past and present, reflects the deep truths revealed in kintsugi. Where are your broken pieces now? What healing do you seek? How has God healed your past brokenness? How did your past wounds change you, but over time not for the worse? How can you offer your own story to others who need healing too?  Spend the week dwelling on the scripture we used in yesterday’s service and sermon (and one extra), all oriented God’s work of kintsugi in our lives:  – Psalm 147.1-6 NRSVUE – Isaiah 64.7-8 NRSVUE – 2 Corinthians 1.3-5 NRSVUE – 1 Timothy 1.12-17 NRSVUE – Philippians 3.4-11 NRSVUE – even though I, too, have reason for – Bible Gateway Interested in learning more about kintsugi? These two short videos will help you go a little deeper:  – EASTERN PHILOSOPHY – Kintsugi – Kintsugi, the ancient art of making shattered dishes whole A devotional written by Bryan Stevenson on the need to embrace our common brokenness and let it point us toward compassion:  Wounded Healers Embrace Brokenness and Mercy Here are three more devotionals to sprinkle throughout your week about brokenness:  – Broken Hearts – The Dump and the Church – Blessed Are the Broken – United Church of Christ On the psychological work of healing from brokenness and integrating both into your life story (the first link even makes an explicit tie to kintsugi – bringing things full circle):  – Am I Broken? Understanding Emotional Brokenness and Finding Hope – Feel Broken Inside? It’s Time to Heal | Psychology Today And this is the autobiographical book Just Mercy written by Bryan Stevenson (which has also been adapted into an excellent movie – see the 2nd link): – Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption (One World Essentials) – Just Mercy (2019)
Week 9: Tips for Those Who Are Long-term Caregivers, Especially Their Own Parents	Monday Memo notes Tips for Caregivers: 1. Gather a support team around you and have regular meetings. 2. Say YES to assistance and tell people specifically how they can help. 3. Research shows that the best caregiving is provided by those who take care of themselves and accept support. 4. Prayer and scripture can refill you when you are depleted. 5. God’s blessing comes to you through the one you are caring for. 6. Caregiving is the concern of all of us at Kirkwood