Cobb Gathering: An Emergent Cohort

Check this page often – we will be posting all the Gathering Events here.

Not only will we be having monthly Cohort gatherings (see “When/Where”), but we will be adding other “spoke” gatherings at various places (coffee shops, pubs, parks) throughout the month to dig deeper.

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New for Advent: The First Christmas!

 

Join Rev. Gregg Carlson, UNA’s Director of Operations for a study that will give you a new appreciation for the Advent Season and birth of Jesus.  The primary text will be “The First Christmas” by Jesus Seminar scholars Dr. Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan.  The class will be held at Unity North on Monday nights at 7:30 p.m. November 23 & 30, and December 7, 14 & 21.  The book will be available in the Unity North Bookstore.  There is no fee for the course but a love offering will be taken each night.  Advance registration is strongly encouraged.  You can sign-up by calling the Unity North office at 678-819-9100.

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PINTS AND PARABLES: THE ORTHODOX HERETICS

 

Every 3rd Tuesday of the month at 8 pm, meet us at Johnnie MacCracken’s Irish Pub (our “headquarters”) to work through Peter Rollins’ latest book of parables, “The Orthodox Heretics: And Other Impossible Tales“. You don’t need a copy of the book (though we’re sure you will want one) to join us. Just bring an open mind, and a thirst for a cold pint as we wrestle with these challenging, disturbing parables! Invite your friends!

From Publishers Weekly
Don’t be fooled by the slender spine of this unusual book. Rollins, the Irish philosopher/po-mo theologian who has previously published How (Not) to Speak of God and The Fidelity of Betrayal, upends some of Christians’ most cherished platitudes about God in his newest outing. He cautions readers that the book is not to be read quickly, for acquiring information, but to be savored slowly for possible transformation. Mostly, the book lives up to this billing. Rollins recasts some of the most familiar parables of and stories about Jesus, sometimes subversively—as when he proposes a version of feeding the 5,000 that shows Jesus and his disciples pigging out on meager resources while the multitudes look on, starving. His point? That Christians are the body of Christ, and when we oppress the poor and hoard scarce resources, we are saying that represents the kind of God we serve. Although not all of the parables work equally well—some could use further illumination—Rollins is a tremendously talented writer and thinker whose challenges to Christianity-as-usual should be well-received by the emergent church crowd, if not beyond.

Download a PDF file excerpt of “The Orthodox Heretic”.

“I remember driving around Belfast with Pete, sitting in the front seat
listening to him tell these parables that he’d written—thinking,
‘Everybody needs to hear these.’ And now you can.”
—Rob Bell, author of Jesus Wants to Save Christians

Check out these audio samples:

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Bible for Breakfast – this ain’t yo mama’s Bible Study class! Join us as the Cobb Gathering begins a weekly Bible Breakfast, Friday mornings at 8:30 AM at Gabriel’s in Marietta. We’ll use the Revised Common Lectionary for the upcoming Sunday (a reading each from the Old Testament, Psalms, New Testament, and Gospels) as our focus. We’ll try to create “suspended space” beyond our preconceptions of the Bible and allow the text to examine our lives – so instead of studying the Bible, we’ll allow the Bible to study US. Join our Bible Breakfast Facebook Group, too!

 

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The Group of Unknowing: Reading through “The Cloud of Unknowing” Together

Join us as a small group of interfaith friends (Christians, Sufis, and others) gather to read through “The Cloud of Unknowing” together. This 14th-century Christian classic is the primary source for Centering Prayer and other forms of meditation and “prayer of the heart.”

As a group we are reading through the beautiful new translation of “The Cloud of Unknowing” by Carmen Acevedo Butcher. Carmen is now a frequent participant in our group and she has provided incredible insight!

We meet every 2 to 3 weeks, on a Monday evening, at the office of Darrell Grizzle, Licensed Professional Counselor, on Marietta Square (in Cobb County, Georgia). Our discussions start at 6 pm and typically end between 7:15 and 7:30 pm. Check our calendar for the upcoming date.

Join our Facebook group which includes a Wall and a Discussion Board where we can post our reflections about The Cloud as we read through it together.

Click here for map.

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Some other ideas we are kicking around:

 

Book Club – read an emergent or theological book and then meet once a month to discuss it as a group!

Justice in the Burbs – we will be discovering ways to join God in his work right here in Cobb County!

Other Spoke Gatherings you’d like to see? Post a comment here with your idea! Stay tuned!