Sometimes we hide difficult questions in a closet, lock the door, and pretend they don’t exist. Other times we try to fix the questions with easy answers so they stop nagging at us. In still others, we look for people who think the same way about the questions so we can yell at those who would think differently, and placate our discomfort with a sense of justification.
At 40 Orchards, we want to move towards difficult questions, and respond to their invitation to wrestle.
Read MoreAt this time of year, life tends to get sparkled up and decorated. Some of that can be a relief and a balm to our weary souls. But sometimes, we need something more. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy to choose. So, this Advent, Lisa and Steph are writing their answers to the question: Why choose the wrestle?
From Steph:
I understand the human propensity to not move towards the wrestle. It’s exhausting and frustrating and a lot of work. And it changes traditions. It may mean giving up authors or songs or churches or relationships or decorations that once felt like home. But what if those losses are the way through to something more? What if it’s the wrestle that gives you the sense of God with you that you’ve been longing for all along...
From Lisa:
What I love about this question is that it assumes that there is a choice about the wrestling. What I really dislike about this question is that it reveals to me how often I used to choose not to. I didn’t know how important wrestling would be to me until I chose to intentionally try it...
In 2023, 40 Orchards paused our cohort program. It would have been the seventh group, and pausing felt like the best way to honor the biblical concept of the Sabbath year. Now we are almost to the end of that pause, and are looking ahead to resume the cohort in 2024. Lisa and Steph have always had unique perspectives on the cohort experience, as Steph was part of its formation, and Lisa was part of the first group to go through. As they looked at the cohort starting back up again, they each had to think about their “why.” Here are each of their responses to the question, “Why the cohort?”
Read MoreAt 40 Orchards, our mission talks about creating circles for people to wrestle with the biblical texts. For many who’ve experienced faith shifts, that kind of centering of the Bible can feel complicated.
In the blog post below, Steph & Lisa wrestle with the question, “What does it mean to me to center on the Bible?” As you read their responses, think about you own. What would be similar? What would be different? What are you still wrestling with in regards to how you hold and see the Bible?
I don't think I'm alone in saying my faith has shifted massively over the last 15 years. As my concept of who God is has expanded, and new perspectives have changed how I see the world, I am far from what once anchored me. Though it feels free to not be tied down by the things that once confined me, it also sometimes feels scary and lonely. Where will I end up if I'm not tied to those ideas anymore? Who will be there with me? Why can't it be easier?
Read MoreWe talk about deconstruction a lot at 40 Orchards. Many people in our community use the term to describe the process of taking down the theological constructs they used to hold. It’s about leaving behind a faith or church or way of seeing the world and (hopefully) reconstructing something new.
I feel a disconnect with the term deconstruction. Not because it is wrong, but because it doesn’t feel like it captures the depth and breadth of what is happening.
Deconstruction sounds both complete and linear. It seems like once we deconstruct what didn’t work, we can rebuild something new and be done with it. But often, leaving behind and letting go feels both more cyclical and ongoing than that. There are some parts of my theology or practices that have had to go through this process multiple times over. Not only that, I may be deconstructing one part of my faith while reconstructing another, while not even asking questions about another. All at once.
Read MoreWe start our Scripture Circles with a question. One of my favorite questions is,
It’s a different way of asking how someone is that allows for some creative answers. For the past few years, I’ve answered that I am in the wilderness of Beersheba, hunkered down and tending a well for people who are passing through the wilderness. There’s a lot to unpack with that statement, but that’s not for this blog.
What I want to talk about is how living in the wilderness has been going for this season of Advent and Christmas (amongst many other significant holidays).
Sometimes we talk about Christmas and Advent as an event that “suddenly” changed everything.
“After 400 years of silence, God suddenly spoke!”
“After the years of separation and abandonment, Immanuel suddenly came!”
“Into the darkness, suddenly there was light, peace, and hope!”
As 40 Orchards is known to do, what if we pause and reflect a bit more deeply on those sentiments?
Read MoreMany of us have been wrestling with our faith over the last several years. As we have experienced people acting in unloving ways, politics becoming so divided, and the world being affected by the chaos and loss of a pandemic, it has thrown so much of what we believe up in the air.
Does God have a plan? What is the purpose of the church? Is what I was told was sinful really a sin? What does the cross actually mean?
Questions have swirled into more questions, leaving some of us feeling alone and untethered.
In those feelings of aloneness, it is easy to think we are the first or only ones to wrestle through faith shifts. Especially when the news has told us over and over again that we are in “unprecedented times.”
But what if we aren’t? Certainly, these exact circumstances haven’t existed before now. But can we find parallels with what has come before?
Read MoreDear 40 Orchards Community,
At 40 Orchards, we mark ends and beginnings at multiple times a year. As a community that focuses on concepts like life, grief, hope, and struggle, noticing seasons becomes a natural part of the conversation.
Since much of what we do runs in a school-year rhythm, it has become our practice to use August as a time to look back on the previous year of programming and happenings.
Read MoreGenesis 3 is the ever-famous tale of the woman eating the forbidden fruit. So much of that narrative is another blog post (or study) for another time. In the formidable weight of this passage and its aftermath, we don’t often talk about where it begins.
Now the snake was more shrewd than all the living-things of the field that YHWH, God, had made. It said to the woman… - Genesis 3:1a (Everett Fox Translation)
Why would there be a snake in the Garden of Eden?
Read More
