Lenten Small Groups 2012

"In wisdom you made them all, the earth is full of your creatures. There is the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number - living things both large and small. . . When you send your Spirit, they are created and you renew the earth."

-Psalm 104:25, 30

PPC's Lenten offerings, Calvin DeWitt's Earthwise and Sam Hamilton-Poore's Earth Gospel: A Guide to Prayer for God's Creation, echo the words God commanded us. This Lenten season, let us focus our thoughts and prayers to God's amazing creation - the Earth, and all that is in it.

The groups meet weekly for six sessions from the week of February 26 through the week of April 1.

Earth Gospel: A Guide to Prayer for God's Creation

How are Christians to respond as stewards of God's creation? Explore through prayer the interconnecting love that binds God, humankind, and creation -- forming a sacred trust. Earth Gospel uses the power of prayer to encourage care of God's creation. Each devotional reading includes scripture, hymn texts, beautiful poems and reflections from sages across time, and blessings. Featured voices include Emily Dickinson, Wendell Berry, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther, e.e. cumings, Julia Esquivel, Annie Dillard, Henry David Thoreau, Catherine of Siena, and many others. Earth Gospel will deepen your appreciation and commitment to creation. Use it daily, and it will change your life.

Earthwise

The care of God's creation is a way of life; to be a Christian is to care for God's creation. We will explore the caring processes of God in nature, and discover together the wonders, the recycling, and the rejuvenation of homeostatic creation. For the author, the Bible is a virtual "handbook of ecology" where the Psalms come alive. We will experience the richness and regularity of God's sustaining creation, and recognize the processes that are inhibited and even overturned by human machinations, as has happened geometrically in our modern era of science, technology, and unbridled economic growth.

Pick up your Lenten study brochure on the patio following worship and fill out the insert located inside.