Healing During Divisive Times

ORDINARY LIFE - Thoughts and Ideas to Help You Live a Happier Life

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Summary of Ordinary Life for April 13, 2025

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Dear Ones -

The title I gave the teaching I offered this week in Ordinary Life is -

Healing During Divisive Times

I began by reciting the 23rd Psalm and by getting everyone to sing “Amazing Grace.” These two works of verbal art bypass our conscious circuits and speak directly to the comfort and consolation we are looking/hoping for during these unprecedented and divisive times. In these teachings about “the wayless way” we are looking to Jesus for guidance and empowerment. This teaching focuses on Jesus as a healer. The stages along the wayless way involve amazement, the dark night, and healing by resistance. To work at walking the wayless way is affirming that what will heal our divide, both internally and culturally, is our demonstrating our faith in having compassion and doing justice.

That’s a brief summary. The audio/video versions of the talk has some differences from the text I spoke from. You can find the text of the talk, the presentation slides and links to the audio and video version of the talk using the links below.

If you are interested in making a contribution to Ordinary Life, click here. There is an option to scroll to “Ordinary Life” as the option for how to designation your gift. Thank you!

Be well and much love,

Bill Kerley

In order to read or download the text version, click here

To view or download the presentation slides, click here.

To view or download the announcement slides, click here.

Click on the audio player below to download or listen to this talk.

Learning to Speak God

ORDINARY LIFE - Thoughts and Ideas to Help You Live a Happier Life

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Summary of Ordinary Life for April 6, 2025

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Dear Ones -

This week in Ordinary Life Dr. Holly Hudley and I co-taught on what it meant that Jesus “spoke with authority.” This both attracted people to him and led to his execution. Holly spoke about the mystical aspects of authority. The authority with which Jesus spoke came from his relationship with the Sacred. Learn to speak God creates a humanitarian and not an authoritarian religion. Holly offered some powerful personal experiences of how this is being played out in our culture at the moment.

That’s a brief summary. The audio/video versions of the talk has some differences from the text we spoke from. You can find the text of the talk, the presentation slides and links to the audio and video version of the talk using the links below.

If you are interested in making a contribution to Ordinary Life, click here. There is an option to scroll to “Ordinary Life” as the option for how to designate your gift. Thank you!

Be well and much love,

Bill Kerley

In order to read or download the text of the talk, click here.

In order to view or download the presentation slides, click here.

In order to view or download the announcement slides, click here.

In order to listen to or download the audio recording of today’s talk, use the audio player below.

To watch the video of today’s talk, click on the YouTube link below.

Culture Bump with Dr. Carol Archer

ORDINARY LIFE - Thoughts and Ideas to Help You Live a Happier Life

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Summary of Ordinary Life for March 30, 2025

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Dear Ones -

Heads up: There is an Ordinary Life Happy Hour at the home of Hilary & James Newman, 2915 Southmore, this Saturday. Time is 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Hope to see you there.

Dr. Carol Archer was our guest presenter in Ordinary Life this week. There is no written text of what she did. Dr. Archer is the author of, among other things, the book, “Culture Bump.” “Culture Bump” is a term and process she came up with after returning from living in both Argentina and Algeria. She has taught her method of recognizing and resolving cultural differences to thousands of people in a multitude of places and organizations.

Since learning of her approach, I wanted to have her come and present it to Ordinary Life for at least two major reasons. First, we are seeking to follow a way embodied by Jesus who welcomed with compassion all sorts and conditions of people. And, he asks us to follow him. Second, we are living in a country that is becoming increasingly divided and divisive. The political rhetoric we hear is full of “othering.”

We need tools and techniques to deal with differences and the Culture Bump approach does that. I hope, if you were not present in person or online yesterday, that you take the opportunity to watch the presentation. You will find it helpful - and hopeful.

That’s a brief summary. You can the presentation slides and links to the audio and video version of the talk using the links below.

If you are interested in making a contribution to Ordinary Life, click here. There is an option to scroll to “Ordinary Life” as the option for how to designation your gift. Thank you!

Be well and much love,

Bill Kerley

In order to view or download the presentation slides, click here.

In order to view or download the announcement slides, click here.

In order to download or to listen to today’s talk, use the audio player below.

In order to watch the video recording of today’s talk, click on the YouTube video link below.

A Conversation with Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber

ORDINARY LIFE - Thoughts and Ideas to Help You Live a Happier Life

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Summary of Ordinary Life for March 23, 2025

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Dear Ones -

Home run!

That’s the way I would describe my experience with Nadia Bolz-Weber this past weekend. Many people have expressed the same kind of response to me. The Saturday event was sold out. She spoke with us about anthropology and neuroscience in the most personal and practical ways, sharing with us her twelve-week experience walking The Camino and making a multitude of suggestions about how to live and connect with nature and each other during this time in our culture. The fact that she ended with us enthusiastically singing was a highlight of the evening for me - and the chance I had to have an extended interview with her.

You can access the time she spent with us in Ordinary Life using the link below. Her sermon can be found on the St. Paul’s website.

Her sermon was so different from what she offered on Saturday. In Ordinary Life we just had fun. I encourage you, if you missed what she did on Sunday to go to the websites and watch or listen. She is a prophet who speaks pastorally and a pastor who speaks prophetically.

I am go glad, grateful, and graced not only by her being here but also by all of the people whose contributions to the Kerley Endowment made this, and other offerings like it, possible. Thank you!

If you are interested in making a contribution to Ordinary Life, click here. There is an option to scroll to “Ordinary Life” as the option for how to designation your gift. Thank you!

Be well and much love,

Bill Kerley

In order to view or download the presentation slides, click here.

In order to view or download the announcement slides, click here.

To listen to the audio recording of Dr. Kerley’s conversation with Nadia Bolz-Weber, use the audio player below.

To watch the video of today’s program, use the YouTube link below.