March 18th, 2009 by admin
After a season in which resonate was the young adult ministry of Woodland Hills, we are moving a different direction. After a few months of really searching the gospel for the way he was calling us to live we have been drawn to a neighborhood. A few years ago the McCoy family planted themselves in the Hamline Midway Neighborhood of St Paul MN. They were followed by the Hamline House, a group of 7 young adults living in a new monastic community. Soon after that the Cavaliers moved across the street, and the Gilberts were just around the corner. Next a second house will start and more folks, like the Axelson’s are moving into the neighborhood. We feel called to be an intentional community, with families and monastic houses, gardens and living rooms. We are mostly mennonite, and have connections with Woodland Hills Church. We always have an open bed, a warm meal, and a place in our lives for any friend or stranger passing through. We hope to continue the work of Jesus, peacefully, simply, and together.
If you are interested in visiting, or considering joining our community leave a comment or email sethmccoy@mac.com.
peace to you
February 24th, 2009 by natalie
We’ve been going through an interesting season at Resonate these past few months. There have been several things on our minds:
At Woodland Hills, we’ve been going through a budget crisis and have had to make changes to our ministry accordingly. One of the things we looked at was efficiency. How are we doing at managing our human and physical resources? Are we good stewards of those? Are there areas we can cut? One conclusion we came around to in the EG department is that Resonate serves almost the exact same age group as Immerse. Our creative solution to this redundancy was to dissolve Resonate and direct 18-20somethings to Immerse and lengthen the Echo (7-10 grades) age group to include 11th and 12th graders.
Resonate HouseGroup will continue until May and when we break for the summer we won’t start up again in the Fall. Resonate staff and volunteers will be assisting folks with the transition from Resonate to Immerse over the summer.
Please call Natalie at (651)-287-2073 or e-mail npotts@whchurch.org with questions or concerns.
December 17th, 2008 by admin
The majority of the world’s resources pour into the United States. And as we Americans grow more and more wealthy, money is becoming a kind of narcotic for us. We hardly notice our own prosperity or the poverty of so many others. The great contradiction is that we have more and more money and less and less generosity — less and less public money for the needy, less charity for the neighbor.Robert Wuthnow, sociologist of religion at Princeton University, has studied stewardship in the church and discovered that preachers do a good job of promoting stewardship. They study it, think about it, explain it well. But folks don’t get it. Though many of us are well intentioned, we have invested our lives in consumerism. We have a love affair with “more” Read the rest of this entry »
April 26th, 2008 by admin
Well I think it’s high time someone mentioned INTENTIONAL COMMUNITY on our blog! We’ve been exploring Intentional Community like CRAZY over here at Resonate. What do you think HouseGroups are for???Yesterday Danny and I drove around some neighborhoods in St Paul looking at houses for rent. We found a few promising places and today we looked at one in particular. I am becoming more excited than ever: stuff is happening… people are talking… and WE ARE ACTUALLY GOING TO LIVE IN INTENTIONAL COMMUNITY WITH EACH OTHER!
I can hardly wait! I have so many daydreams of reading books together, cooking meals, walking around our neighborhood, building relationships, playing at the park, watching tv together (if Danny makes me!), and also struggling through all the relationship stuff that I know will come up.
Before I say more about that, I must first inform you that I tend towards the idealistic side of reality. I know my automatic reaction to relational conflict–walking away. And there’s no way to resolve conflict when I act like that. This is something I’m certain I’ll be confronted with–especially when living in community–and I’m TERRIFIED!
We’ve started talking about commitment–commitment to our house, to the people living with us, and to Resonate. This excites me more than anything… and it makes me nervous. What if I fail? What if it gets hard and I walk away? Pray for me, people! There is much to look forward to, and much to consider so that I can be sure I’ve counted the cost. On another note, if you are reading this, and you’ve also been exploring intentional community, PLEASE hit me up! (763)-670-2919
peace,natalie
April 19th, 2008 by admin
I have some friends who take special care to observe the Sabbath every Friday night and all day Saturday. Last night I was over there spending time with their family and it struck me how distinct this Sabbath-keeping tradition is! Again I was reminded how God created his people to be visibly alternative, to show the rest of the world a different way to live.
In our HouseGroup on Wednesday, we read a story called The Kingdom. There’s a point in the story of Jesus where he brings up several of the laws given to Moses and calls his followers to an even deeper living out of those laws. For example, Jesus brings up the law that says it’s wrong to murder. Jesus tells his followers that more than murder, it is wrong to even hate someone in your heart. Jesus takes these laws and brings them to a heart level. He no longer calls for a certain behavioral orientation, but challenges us to experience genuine love toward other humans. I think the Sabbath is a little like this.
Maybe Jesus doesn’t call for our Sabbath experience to be restricted to a certain day. Perhaps he calls for a Sabbath day and more! Maybe Jesus means for a Sabbath attitude of rest to become part of who we are. This means that we no longer hold up success and achievement as the greatest triumphs of our society, but instead we value humility, being close to God, freedom and love for all people. Maybe a Sabbath attitude means that we allow time for the presence of God to enter our lives. That we let God lead us as we try to follow the way of the cross.
December 25th, 2007 by admin
For the past couple of months, I’ve been traveling to downtown Minneapolis once a week to talk with and bring warm clothes and food to some homeless people who gather in a parking ramp near the freeway. There are other people following Jesus who do the same. We all come from different churches and organizations and the mission is to meet some needs of people who are living on the streets.
Last weekend, a Christmas party was organized for this particular group of people—for anyone who ever stops by the parking ramp! Man it was crazy! I took the role of a server at this party—bringing food and drink to everyone who was seated at a ginormous, really long, banquet-y feeling table.
After the meal was done, everyone headed to the basement to take part in a White Elephant game and then all the people living on the streets opened Christmas presents that had been given to them by sponsors. That was really fun to watch…but it wasn’t even the best part!
Karaoke came next! Someone had one of those machines that you hook up to a television. It was so much fun! I haven’t been at a raucous party like that in ages! It was such a merry occasion! I loved to see downtrodden-looking people begin to celebrate and even laugh at themselves. At that point, I began to think about Jesus’ instructions to have a party and invite people who can’t invite us back…that’s exactly what we did.
At the end of everything, we prayed together. It was one of the greatest conversations I’ve ever heard! There was warm thanksgiving expressed to God and to each other. And as one person spoke to God, others would jump in to add things and make jokes… it was a real conversation; like a group of friends all talking over each other and making everyone laugh!
I felt so accepted. There was no point in trying to impress people with my wit or get attention by acting silly or even go out of my way to be friendly so I could feel like I had done my job. It was like we had all fallen out of society. There was no need to advance myself. The fact that I was taking part in God’s Kingdom was enough. I think I am beginning to see that this is how I find life—by participating in God’s Kingdom; by working to advance it, by allowing it to transform me and become real inside of me.
Interesting— I found all of that at a party with some homeless people and the Christians who are serving them.
October 23rd, 2007 by admin
Last weekend was Breathe, the fall retreat. We headed over to Beaver Creek Reserve in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. The camp was super woodsy; animals lined the walls of our meeting room and everything was made out of logs. We opened the first evening with a time of prayer and worship and then stayed up really late playing card games and hanging out. The second day brought a nature walk, recreational time, and some silence.
Early Saturday afternoon, we spent 2 hours silently listening to God’s voice. We engaged a booklet designed to guide us through some experiences in silence. It was a really cool time for me—of releasing some anxieties into prayer and learning more about Jesus through scripture.
There was this verse—the one where Jesus tells people that they need to give up their lives to find life—that made sense to me for the first time. Jesus says “…whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.” When I read the words “My sake,” I was immediately reminded of that time Jesus tells his disciples that whatever they do for “the least of these,” they do for him.
I saw for the first time that Jesus wants us to give our lives away to people who are sick and hurting and broken. People who are poor, people who don’t have any friends. People who are forgotten about in a world that loves glamour and values status. I think that’s what he meant. If we aren’t doing this, we aren’t finding eternal life.
October 1st, 2007 by admin
I’m at Seth and Jen’s. We just finished eating dinner; tonight we enjoyed vegetarian lasagna. Jen discovered a product called Smart Ground that has the texture and consistency of ground beef…but it’s made from soy beans. And I guess there’s other flavors, like for tacos and stuff.
The brand is called LIGHTLIFE. Here’s a taste of their mission statement: “We are also committed to promoting a good life for all. That’s why we contribute 5% of our profits to organizations that are working to protect children, human rights, the environment, economic justice–and peace. We believe that together, we can make a difference.”
That’s good stuff, folks. Check it out.
Natalie
September 27th, 2007 by admin
Well here it is. We have finally launched this site as a place for us to stay connected. We will try to make this a place for you to be part of a conversation around being partner people with God in his work of restoring our borken world. Some will be funny, some challenging, some informational. As always on a blog you can post a response and we hope you will. Soon we will be adding links to books, people, video, and audio stuff that we are being influneced by. I just want to say a big thanks to Mike Selner for hosting this site and for all the work he put into getting it up and running. See you next post.
Seth
