St. Paul's Episcopal Church Oakland
  • Home
  • Worship
    • Advent & Christmas
    • Compline
    • Evensong
    • Confirmation
    • Baptism
  • Music
    • Concerts
    • Organ
  • Ministries
    • Children & Youth
    • Social Justice
    • Environmental Stewardship >
      • Growing Milkweed
    • Food Pantry
    • Loaves & Fishes
    • Oasis
  • Resources
    • Newsletter
    • History Book
    • Concert Venue
    • Weddings
    • Streamed Services >
      • Daily Messages
    • Community
    • Readings & Rota
    • Calendar
    • Downloads
  • About
    • Staff
    • Vestry
    • History
  • Contact
  • COVID
  • GIVE
    • Pledge
    • Stewardship
    • Stewardship FAQs
    • Legacy Society

2017 Sunday Lenten Series: Half Truths

3/8/2017

1 Comment

 
Picture
They are simple phrases. They sound Christian—like something you might find in the Bible. We’ve all heard these words. Maybe we’ve said them. They capture some element of truth, yet they miss the point in important ways.
Join Adam Hamilton in this 5-week Bible study to search for the whole truth by comparing common Christian clichés with the wisdom found in Scripture. The clichés include: 

  • March 5 - Everything happens for a reason.
  • March 12 - God helps those who help themselves.
  • March 19 - God won’t give you more than you can handle.
  • March 26 - God said it, I believe it, that settles it.
  • April 2 - Love the sinner, hate the sin.
 


Buy the Book
1 Comment

Women Who Wonder

3/8/2017

0 Comments

 
Women who Wonder will meet Tuesday, March 21. Join us for a time of meditation on scripture followed by lively conversation. It's never too late to learn and reflect on the women who knew Jesus! Dinner in the Chapter Room at 6:00 p.m. offers the opportunity to get to know each other better. We will be finished by 8:00. If you have questions, email annehj@aol.com. 

0 Comments

Subliminal Evalngelism

3/8/2017

0 Comments

 
When I was doing my undergraduate work at the University of Costa Rica one of the courses in the core curriculum was Principles of Marketing. One of the topics that came
up during the semester was subliminal advertising. This form of advertising was highly hailed as an unacceptable way of influencing a person’s mindset in regards to a particular product. Subliminal advertising is when a hidden message is flashed inside a commercial for such a short time that the viewer will not notice it, though it will be registered in your mind and subconscious. From what I heard in that class, what competitors of the companies who used this form of advertising were more upset about was that they had an unfair advantage in an otherwise fair market. 

In recent weeks I started using the term subliminal evangelism as I reflect on ways in which we as Christians should go about sharing God’s Good News with the world. As Christians in the Bay Area we are constantly facing the fact that we are living at a time and in the place where conversations about God are hard to come by and even when we do have them, we have to tiptoe around a mounting number of sensitivities. I sometimes think that the image of the cross is as fearful a symbol to some members of our neighboring communities as it was for those who lived in first century Rome. What also comes to mind is verse four of psalm 137 that reads: Now how shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land. Though Oakland and the Bay Area are the native or even very long term homeland for many, it may also seem like an alien land for evangelism. So, how can we evangelize in a land that sees such witness as foreign? Here is where subliminality comes in (and it goes along the lines of Jesus’s command to not stand at the street corners to let your piety be known by all). My suggestion is that the Gospel message needs to be at the tip of our tongues, be central to our actions and be what binds our relationships. We need not smack people on the head with the Bible and its teachings, but rather we need to reach their subconscious, the deepest recesses of their hearts and minds. Effective evangelism does not come from the ability to quote chapter and verse but rather living them 24/7/365. 

The message we deliver as Christians, as God’s people in the world, ought to be so deeply embedded in us that we are ourselves unaware of the moments in which it is revealed. However, others will notice that a message has been delivered even if they are not certain of exactly what it is or the long term effect it will have on their own lives and their desire to be in relationship with God. ​

0 Comments

    Archives

    March 2017
    October 2016
    September 2016

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

at St. Paul's, All Are welcome.

Give

114 Montecito Avenue Oakland, CA 94610   |   510 834 4314   |   admin@stpaulsoakland.org
Our baptismal vow is to seek and serve Christ in others.
  • Home
  • Worship
    • Advent & Christmas
    • Compline
    • Evensong
    • Confirmation
    • Baptism
  • Music
    • Concerts
    • Organ
  • Ministries
    • Children & Youth
    • Social Justice
    • Environmental Stewardship >
      • Growing Milkweed
    • Food Pantry
    • Loaves & Fishes
    • Oasis
  • Resources
    • Newsletter
    • History Book
    • Concert Venue
    • Weddings
    • Streamed Services >
      • Daily Messages
    • Community
    • Readings & Rota
    • Calendar
    • Downloads
  • About
    • Staff
    • Vestry
    • History
  • Contact
  • COVID
  • GIVE
    • Pledge
    • Stewardship
    • Stewardship FAQs
    • Legacy Society