“Our Community” Small Groups
If you're new to Imago Dei MCC, we encourage you to join us in one of these groups. They are a great opportunity to meet some folks, ask some questions, talk to an existing member or two or think about next steps.
Download a brochure for these groups.
Friendship Class
Building a Close Relationship with God. This course is for all who want to deepen their faith and their understanding of the demands of following Jesus. Content of this class includes reflecting on our spiritual journey to date, examining the concepts of salvation and discipleship, and learning and practicing communicating with God. This course (along with Membership Class) is a prerequisite for higher-level courses.
Registration is required. Homework will be assigned. Registrants covenant to attend every week they are not out of town or ill.
MCC'S Teen Curriculum - YOU! A Faith That Fits
For ages ten to seventeen, this curriculum was developed specifically for Metropolitan Community Churches. It is twelve sessions, designed to occur at whatever interval our youth meet, on topics of community, acceptance, faith, the Bible, Jesus, worship, Christian denominations, MCC, sexuality, call, social justice and commitment.
Back to Faith
A 6 week series for those who are new in their faith or attempting to revisit and reclaim their faith.
The Bible | What is the Bible? |
The Holy Spirit | What is the Holy Spirit? |
Jesus | Why was Jesus made Human? |
God | Who is God? |
The Church | What is the Church? |
5 Steps to a Faith That Works
What questions of faith do you struggle with? Do you share your faith with others? Do you question faith and its place in your life? Do you understand clearly Jesus’ place in your journey of faith? This study works through five steps toward fully understanding and sharing our faith:
1) Asking the Right Questions,
2) Deepening Your Faith,
3) Jesus and Faith,
4) Practicing Faith: Faith in Action
5) Sharing Faith.
Work together to discern the basis of your faith, the kinds of faith you may have active in your life, and how to participate in the world faithfully.
A Season of New Life
(Liguori Publications, Marilyn Norquist Gustin, Choosing Joy for Lent)
This series will ask us to take the time over the next couple of months to examine our spiritual lives and see ways to grow and change in our walk with God. Using the season of Lent and Easter as a background, we will look at using contemplation, surrender and discipline to achieve a new level of joy and peace in our lives.
The period of time before Easter known as Lent may be very familiar or completely foreign, depending on your particular church background. Some people associate Lent as a time for giving up something, or suffering in some way. But this outlook robs us of the opportunity for great joy and growth. Marilyn Norquist Gustin, in her book Choosing Joy for Lent, writes:
We so easily fall into the notion that Lent is some teeth-gritting, miserable discipline to be endured for the days of Lent and then abandoned immediately on Easter morning. With such an attitude, effort easily becomes superficial, unconvincing, and boring. The genuine power of Lent is lost to us.
Lent is, rather, for particular attention to an aspect of ourselves that we would like to see changed -- preferable a change that would endure. To that end, our efforts and the grace of the Holy Spirit combine in a definite transformation. Our Lenten transformation then becomes one step in a long series of changes that finally creates us completely new.
If we do not wish to cooperate with this transformational process, to give both our cheerful assent and our strong efforts to the Spirit's work, no one will force us to it. God, through Christ, invites -- sometimes urgently and always persistently -- but never forces. Full participation in Lent is a magnificent method of cooperating if we wish.
Do you now -- or have you ever -- felt the Spirit of God calling you to some type of change in your spiritual life? What kind of "transformation" are you most in need of?
Our Story Too...Reading the Bible with "New Eyes"
by Rev. Elder Nancy Wilson
"While it is true that the Bible was written in the context of patriarchal, heterosexist cultures, the message and story of God's unconditional love in Christ can also be the "power of salvation" for our GLBT community...The new Christian community in Acts includes childless widows, former prostitutes, social outcasts, celibates, married people, eunuchs, blacks, Jews, and Gentiles. Those previously excluded were now fulfilling the promise of Isaiah 56: 'My house will be called a house of prayer for all the people'...The stories of two prominent same-sex couples in the Scriptures provide gay men and lesbians with Biblical models of committed love in stressful circumstances."
~ Rev. Elder Nancy Wilson, Our Story Too
From evaluating cultural influences on Biblical thought, to analyzing the cultural influences on the original texts, to seeking the proofs of same-sex relationships in scripture, Rev. Elder Wilson calls on the GLBT communities to reclaim the Bible!
- Reading the Bible with "New Eyes"
- Opening Doors of Ancient "closets"…
- The Book of Acts - Defining A Lesbian and Gay "Nation"
- Jesus Chooses a New "Family"
Spiritual Refreshment
Intervarsity Press, Ruth Goring, Heart Renewal: Finding Spiritual Refreshment
As a people of faith, we can cultivate the skills and practices of our spiritual life in order to grow. Through these practices we develop our relationship with God and our spiritual nature. The steps on the path are intended to lead us to a more joyful and abundant life.
If you are stressed, overworked, restless and discontented, wishing you had more energy to focus on God, this series is an invitation to you.
There is hope. There are cool waters of refreshment and renewal for your body and soul. There is a God who has never stopped loving you.
- Some 2008 Mensch Mill Retreat Attendees
Check out the web calendar for groups currently in progress or coming soon or contact us at smallgroups (at) imagodeimcc (dot) org.