Women’s Bible Study Autumn 2020
The Women’s Bible Study meets first and third Thursdays 7:00 – 8:30 pm. The Autumn 2020 Session begins September 17. This season’s text is First Corinthians, by Melissa Spoelstra.
Relationships are messy. Sometimes we struggle to get along, especially when there is disagreement. Often we find ourselves divided–even as Christians. How can we work out our differences and disagreements with humility and grace always showing the love of Christ, while still remaining true to what we believe?
The Apostle Paul wrote to the Christians living in Corinth about this very thing. The cultural backdrop of Corinth was even more overtly sinful than our culture today, yet Paul boldly encouraged the Corinthian Christians not to ridicule one another or outsiders but to work together to show the love of Christ.
In this study we will explore Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians to learn how we as Christians are to deal with differences and divisions–whether in the workplace, neighborhood, school, home, social media community, or church. We’ll discover that the answer is living and sharing the radical love of Jesus Christ, and we’ll unpack what this means and how we canive it out day by day.
Growlers & Theology
Following the model of Luther in his home in Wittenberg, Germany, Pastor Haug leads a twice monthly gathering on the LOTI Patio on Thursday evenings.
See events page or the Sunday Bulletin for details.
Book Club September 2020 – April 2021
The LOTI Book Club meets the 4th Friday of the month at 5:00pm on the Church Patio or via Zoom
September 25
Song of Redemption, Pema Chödrön
When King Hezekiah discovers that God’s Law forbids him to take multiple wives, he must choose one woman to love. He must also choose to trust God’s promises when he decides to rebel against his powerful Assyrian overlords. Hezekiah seeks to strengthen his nation’s fortifications by building a tunnel to Jerusalem to hide his water supply. The tension mounts as the Assyrians march closer–and Hezekiah’s tunnel remains incomplete. With his officials advising him to submit to the Assyrians, Hezekiah’s faith is once more severely tested.Previously published as The Lord is My Song..
October 23
When Things Fall Apart, Pema Chödrön
How can we live our lives when everything seems to fall apart-when we are continually overcome by fear, anxiety, and pain? The answer, Pema Chödrön suggests, might be just the opposite of what you expect. Here, in her most beloved and acclaimed work, Pema shows that moving toward painful situations and becoming intimate with them can open up our hearts in ways we never before imagined. Drawing from traditional Buddhist wisdom, she offers life-changing tools for transforming suffering and negative patterns into habitual ease and boundless joy.
November 20
Thread of Grace, Mary Doria Russell
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “A powerfully imagined novel . . . [a] profoundly moving book that engages the heights and depths of human experience.”—Los Angeles Times
It is September 8, 1943, and fourteen-year-old Claudette Blum and her father are among the thousands of Jewish refugees scrambling over the Alps toward Italy, where they hope to find safety now that the Italians have broken from Germany and made a separate peace with the Allies. The Blums will soon discover that Italy is anything but peaceful, as it quickly becomes an open battleground for the Nazis, the Allies, Resistance fighters, Jews in hiding, and ordinary Italian civilians trying to survive.
Tracing the lives of a handful of fascinating characters—a charismatic Italian Resistance leader, a priest, an Italian rabbi’s family, a disillusioned German doctor—Mary Doria Russell tells the little-known story of the vast underground effort by Italian citizens who saved the lives of 43,000 Jews during the final phase of World War II. A Thread of Grace puts a human face on history.
January 29
Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis
Mere Christianity is C.S. Lewis’s forceful and accessible doctrine of Christian belief. First heard as informal radio broadcasts and then published as three separate books – The Case for Christianity, Christian Behavior, and Beyond Personality – Mere Christianity brings together what Lewis saw as the fundamental truths of the religion. Rejecting the boundaries that divide Christianity’s many denominations, C.S. Lewis finds a common ground on which all those who have Christian faith can stand together, proving that “at the centre of each there is something, or a Someone, who against all divergences of belief, all differences of temperament, all memories of mutual persecution, speaks the same voice.”
February 26
What’s So Amazing About Grace, Philip Yancey
Discover grace as you’ve never known it before: the most powerful force in the universe and our only hope for love and forgiveness.
Grace is the church’s great distinctive. It’s the one thing the world cannot duplicate, and the one thing it craves above all else–for only grace can bring hope and transformation to a jaded world.
In What’s So Amazing About Grace? award-winning author Philip Yancey explores grace at street level. If grace is God’s love for the undeserving, he asks, then what does it look like in action? And if Christians are its sole dispensers, then how are we doing at lavishing grace on a world that knows far more of cruelty and unforgiveness than it does of mercy?
March 26
The Book of Longings, Sue Monk Kidd
An extraordinary story set in the first century about a woman who finds her voice and her destiny, from the celebrated number one New York Times bestselling author of The Secret Life of Bees and The Invention of Wings
In her mesmerizing fourth work of fiction, Sue Monk Kidd takes an audacious approach to history and brings her acclaimed narrative gifts to imagine the story of a young woman named Ana. Raised in a wealthy family with ties to the ruler of Galilee, she is rebellious and ambitious, with a brilliant mind and a daring spirit. She engages in furtive scholarly pursuits and writes narratives about neglected and silenced women. Ana is expected to marry an older widower, a prospect that horrifies her. An encounter with eighteen-year-old Jesus changes everything.
Questions? Contact Debra Gilroy or Linda Nelson
Priscilla Circle
Have you wondered what the Priscilla Circle is all about? Our focus is on knitting and other crafts which we donate to bring happiness (and warmth) to others. We do simple things that are easy, but have members who are happy to help when needed.
Check the bulletin board in Fellowship Hall for additional samples of our work.
We meet the first Saturday of each month, 9:30am, in the Christy Room or at a member’s home.
Questions? Contact Linda Nelson or call (612)377-5095.
Start a Group
Looking for a group that’s not listed here? Please feel free to start your own LOTI sponsored Group. Contact the Linda Nelson to complete a request with a brief description, resource request, proposed schedule, and leader contact information. Each request will be reviewed by the Church Council for sponsorship through LOTI.
