Faith and Hope and Chocolate

On Sunday, October 29, the sol cafe met at Cafe Dabar to welcome a guest chef to our "food for thought" kitchen. Lois is a Child Life Specialist at the Stollery Childrens' Hospital in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. She shared a little of what she has learned about Faith and Hope working with kids with cancer, and it was a moving presentation.

This evening was loosely part of an equally loose topic thread requested by some of the sol cafe regulars, to explore what in church circles are called the "fruits of the spirit." As a symbolic launch to our "fruits" menu, we also had a chocolate fountain and fruit for dipping!

The Tradition of Baptism

On Sunday, October 22, sol cafe regular Drew took us on a "multimedia" look at the tradition of Baptism, part of an ongoing look at the traditions of the church we're taking on this fall at the sol cafe. In particular we looked at baptism as a symbol, one found not only in the Christian church but also other faiths and pop culture as well. Drew ended the evening by having us think about the idea that the symbol only becomes something real when God steps in. An excellent evening of discussion!

the sol cafe adopts the Revised Common Lectionary

In order to symbolically and practically connect us to the larger church, as well as reinforce our focus on the Bible within our church, the sol cafe has chosen to adopt the Revised Common Lectionary to help guide our weekly gatherings and study. The third year of the cycle begins in December, at which time we will begin linking to weekly readings in the website (hopefully in some kind of automated way -- suggestions to that end would be most welcome!).

More information here: sol cafe food for thought: The Revised Common Lectionary

Inside the Organic Church

On Sunday, October 15, the sol cafe met at Cafe Dabar to take a look at a book called "Inside The Organic Church: Learning From Emerging Congregations." It proved to be an interesting entry point into reviewing where we are now as a church, and a way to explore how we see ourselves within the larger church... all this from a snapshot view of the sol cafe from the outside and a year and a half ago.

We also looked at the following passage from the Bible -- Matthew 18:15-20 -- again as a way to take another look at ourselves. The last line of this selection has been a guiding passage in our conception of the sol cafe, but worth a second look.

Finally, some useful background on the topic of 'emerging churches' for anyone who is interested!

Pre-Thanksgiving at the sol cafe

On Sunday, October 1, 2006, starting around 5ish, the sol cafe held it's monthly "service" service, where we meet out in the community and do a little work as worship (although the fellowship is never, and was not, far behind!).

This month we will be helping out at the Salvation Army, where in the past we've sorted food for food hampers. This time we were tasked with sorting the "miscellaneous" bins -- stuff left in boxes and stored away when the downtown depot was renovated. Not glamourous, but we're just there to do what needs to be done.

We followed up with a pre-Thanksgiving dinner at Bethany's place (Thanks Bethany! Thanks Bethany's folks!) since so many people will be away doing the family thing next week. Love the potluck!

We gather again on October 15. Hope to see you then!