From: Danny Giffen [mailto:dgiffen@covpres.com]
Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2012 10:39 PM
To: AC Frese; Peggy Frese; Lucy Anderson; Michael Latta; Paul Loyless; Daniel Murray; Eva Shank; Bill Bennett; Barbara Finch; Dave Traylor; Jim Marlar; Brian Beckett; Fred Blackmon; Bryan Balogh; Lee Baker; Dory Baker; Grace Padgett; Julie Tapscott; Terri Yates; Tom Marvin; Carol Cartus; Bill Cartus Yahoo; Finch Barbara; Brian Oaks; Martin, Russell; Mark Midyette; Cary Murray; Stephen Fitts; Rebekah Fitts; Lauren Hayes; paula Midyette; John Steakley; Charlie Israel
Cc: Victoria Williams; Martha Boyd; Phyllis Hamm; Rhonda Kimbrough; Marty Crawford; TJ Wolters; D A
Subject: Covenant Chronicles
Only one week left until Missions Week Madness. So, buckle up, we have a lot on our plate.
The following is still needed:
Desserts for Sunday and Monday night.
Snacks for Hospitality room (parlor)
Kitchen help for Ingram.
Please email Phyllis Hamm at phamm@covpres.com if you can help with any of these needs!
One thing that has been a highlight of our 2012 so far at Covenant has been Wednesday Night Interactive. Bill Boyd has been fantastic and I'd strongly encourage everyone to get a copy of this past week's talk on Acts 17. Here are a few quotes from some notables that were there. Sam Metcalf (Head of CRM), "Wow!", "Wow!", "Wow!" Don Admire (some ex-bouncer in scrubs). "I love hearing him teach…I love supporting his ministry!" Chris Freeman (triathlete that has a heart for orphans) "That reminded me of Keller tonight." A handful of youth including Tortorici, Alonso & Mince. (running up to Steakley) "This is really engaging and challenging…so easy to pay attention". Adam Wright (lead singer of Act of Congress) "We are really getting a lot out of these Wednesday Nights, Wow!" Barbara Thompson (still acting like a newlywed) "We are so blessed to sit under this teaching"
A great article to read that gives you some flavor of some items we've been working through is "What's So Great about the PCA" by Tim Keller. http://www.pcaac.org/2010GeneralAssembly/WhyILikePCA-Tim%20Keller.pdf
What's Happening:
1. This Sunday is all-adult Sunday School in the sanctuary at 9:45. Ingram's got some bfast goodies prepared and Rev. Boyd will be teaching. Come enjoy a great time of community!
2. Congregational Meeting on Tuesday, February 21st at 6:30 pm discussing Worship. Childcare is available from birth to 6th grade with food for the older kids.
3. Wednesday Night Interactive – The Mostly Right Rev. TJ Wolters is teaching on Ash Wednesday at 6:30 pm
4. Missions Week – Feb. 24th - 29th: Ed & Emily Hartman, MTW-Romania…here's the line–up
- 24 Hours of Prayer – Friday Night 6pm to Saturday Night 6 pm – Join us any hour in the Tower Room
- Saturday morning kick-off breakfast at 8:30 am (Guest missionaries from Asia Minor)
- Sunday Morning – Ed Hartman preaching in both services, missionaries in various SS classrooms
- Sunday Evening – Dinner in the Fellowship Hall at 5:20 pm, Worship at 6:30, Dessert Fellowship following
- Monday Lunch – Women at Maggie Brooke's home with Emily Hartman; Men taking out the missionaries around town (BBQ, Meat&3,Chuys)
- Monday Evening – Dinner in the Fellowship Hall at 5:20 pm, Worship at 6:30, Dessert Fellowship following
- Tuesday Evening – Dessert Fellowships at various Sunday School homes
- Wednesday Evening – Dinner in the Fellowship Hall at 5:20, Missionary Sharing at 6:30, Closing Service at 7:30
4. March 18th – No Sunday School and one service at 10 a.m. (spring break)
Theology 101 (from one of my favorite blogs: Mockingbird)
Hope for Perfectionist Workaholic Control Freaks: Vulnerability and the Birthplace of Love
by on Feb 14, 2012 • 12:11 pmNo Comments
We’ve made no secret of our love for author/researcher/social worker Brene Brown. The Washington Post published a wonderful Valentine’s Day piece of hers, “A Love Note to a Workaholic,”which represents a fresh take on her familiar theme ofvulnerability and its counter-intuitive power. Although she may make a distinction between vulnerability and weakness, I’m not so sure she isn’t describing the horizontal (and universal!) meat on the vertical bones of 2 Cor 12:9 (“strength made perfect in weakness”). When she speaks of perfectionism or workaholism, for example, she is talking about two of the more insidious modern iterations of the Law, as in, um, “be perfect!” or “achieve!” or “control!”. Brown sees clearly the sad truth of how law obstructs/destructs love, how it shortcircuits very sense of value it tries so hard to engineer. In other words, the way “doing” often serves as a defense against “being”, “works” as a bulwark against the scariness of “faith.” And while we all know how impervious vulnerability is to command (have you ever told someone they just needed to be more vulnerable?!), for the most part Brown avoids the pitfall she’s describing (). That is, if her material or tone sets off your self-help alarms, look a little deeper – she’s actually subverting that approach, and doing so with real compassion. It is no coincidence, for instance, that she quotes Madeleine L’Engle. Happy Valentine’s Day, ht AZ:
As someone who is intimately familiar with overachieving, I recognize the angst behind the questions I hear from men and women who have accomplished so much professionally but struggle to stay connected personally. Questions ranging from “Why am I so engaged at work, yet I feel increasingly disconnected from my wife and children?” to “How do I turn off the self-critical instincts that serve me as a leader? I don’t want to be that kind of mother.”
Many of us have spent the majority of our adult lives in jobs that train us to outrun and outsmart the experience that underpins love and connection – vulnerability. We wake up in the morning, put on our armor, and march into the office thinking, “I will protect myself. I will not let you see my self-doubt or my fear. I will put on my ‘boss’ face.”
We manage a slew of employees and relationships, act serious in business meetings, send Blackberry messages from bed at 3 a.m. We perform, perfect and prove ourselves all day long. In fact, I often call perfectionism the 20-ton shield.We lug it around thinking that as long as we look, live, act and work as though we’re perfect, we’re protected from criticism and blame.
This emotional armor we bring to work is heavy, and the weaponry takes a long time to assemble, so when we get home in the evenings, we don’t put it away. It’s too much trouble and, frankly, it’s too risky. Home can also be a place where performing and perfecting are expected. With everyone’s vulnerability shielded, our families are together, but we really don’t see one another.
We start to manage situations and micromanage the people around us, not just at work but in the rest of our lives as well. We make what is uncertain certain, no matter what the cost. We basically stay so busy that the truth of our lives can never catch up. We look confident on the outside and feel scared on the inside.
One of the most commonly held and dangerous myths about vulnerability is that being vulnerable means being weak. Yet vulnerability is simply the uncertainty, exposure and emotional risk we face every day, from asking for help at home to asking for help at work. The problem is that most of us have lost our tolerance for it. But when we push vulnerability away at work, we tend to unknowingly push it away at home as well—and end up pushing away all of the experiences that bring meaning to our lives.
Vulnerability is indeed the center of difficult experiences like fear, disappointment and shame, but it is also the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, creativity, innovation, authenticity and engagement. …Our willingness to own our vulnerability determines the depth of our courage, the clarity of our purpose and the fullness of our life. As Madeleine L’Engle writes, “When we were children, we used to think that when we were grown-up we would no longer be vulnerable. But to grow up is to accept vulnerability . . . To be alive is to be vulnerable.”
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