Breaking News and the Good News:

Join us as we engage breaking news with scripture and hope through the national curriculum “The Wired Word.” This ongoing discussion class will explore a current news story each week through the lens of a relevant scripture text and the insights of the group. Join us to become a community of regulars — or drop in whenever you can!

Have you been visiting NDPC? We’d like to learn more about you and take the opportunity to introduce you to our church community. In this three segment class,  we’ll talk about NDPC, how it fits into the wider church PC(USA) , what it means to follow Jesus, and the meaning of church membership. We will hear about one another’s faith experience and develop new friendships.

Sunday April 8, 15, 22 at 9:30am-10:30am.

Facilitators: Pastoral Staff and Engagement Committee

Location: Pastor’s Study

Centering Yoga is a basic yoga class with emphasis on attuning inward and listening to the experience as it unfolds.  While we will create strength and flexibility our intent is to align body, heart and soul to better channel the love and compassion that Jesus taught.    Please bring a mat and a blanket/towel if you like.  This class usually fills to the brim so please be early or on time. 

The first 2 chapters in Genesis begins with a clear premise that we were created to be in relationship.  So:

• Why is it so hard when it was so easy when we first fell in love?
• If our souls were made for peace and joy, why do so many of us live with loneliness?
• How do we protect our relationship from becoming another statistic?
• What can we do to keep our love energized?

With the complexity and pace of our lives today, keeping the love alive in our marriages often gets overlooked.  During the early stages of your relationship doing loving things for your partner comes easily and automatically.  We had faith it would be that way forever.  Understanding the stages of committed love relationships and how to become more conscious in your marriage can help you re-kindle and keep love alive as God has meant for you to do.  This class will acquaint you with the history and stages of marriage, moving from conflict to connection and being a loving couple.  The first two sessions will focus on an introduction to couplehood as a spiritual path using the IMAGO therapy curriculum for faith communities.   The second two sessions will be guided by experienced IMAGO therapists and present more in-depth and interactive models of spiritual partnership.  We ask that you commit to coming as a couple to both of the last sessions presented by our guest facilitators. 

The biblical narratives are lavish in their praise of elders.  Proverbs calls grey hair a crown of splendor and the book of Leviticus admonishes the people to Stand up in the presence of the aged, show respect to the elderly and revere your God.   In contrast, the popular imagination today associates old age primarily with stigma marked by the decline of physical beauty, ability, and the onset of chronic disease.   As more people live longer we need new models for the journey of aging.  This course considers our own personal models of aging and the possibility that, as in scripture, old age may be a gift that holds greater opportunity for deepening authentic self-hood and our life in the Spirit than any other stage in human development. This class is appropriate for all ages.

This course combines simple mindfulness practices with the internationally used system of Nonviolent Communication to help us develop care and understanding in our communication. We will practice bringing awareness to our communication patterns, and we will learn tools to help us cultivate deeper listening and compassion for ourselves and those we communicate with. 

An “invisible hand” guides and shapes American life. But take a close look at the hand. Whose is it: God’s… or capitalism’s? This course will provide a space for participants of all ages, ideologies, and backgrounds, to engage significant questions about the intersection of Christian theology and the American economy. We will explore ideas about freedom, justice, opportunity, and equality. We will interrogate our idolatries, listen, learn, and share our truth, and try to grow in our love for one another.

Vocational discernment is not just for people who serve in ministry nor for those who are just beginning their careers.  Everyone has special and unique calls throughout their entire lives.  We continually face opportunities to discover how practicality and spirituality can give all aspects of our lives meaning and direction.  Whether it’s a new position or a place of burnout and boredom, there is always an invitation to renew our interest in the gifts we have to offer each other through our work and to deepen our connection to the direction and purpose we have on earth.  This is a discussion class based on video testimonials of people working in various contexts.

• Why a particular cross?
• Why so much reasoning and so little feeling?
• Why so much talking and so little listening?
• Why so much Peter and Paul and so little John?

Our class will answer these questions as we explore Celtic Christianity – its history, art, music, poetry, and sacred love of the earth. We will engage in Celtic spiritual practices, create Celtic art, and take joy in “listening for the heartbeat of God.”  You are invited to learn about and enjoy the lilt and lingering influence of a branch of Christianity that is an expression of our faith that is as old as the Bible and as new as the sunrise. We all love it but know too little about it.  The embodied spirituality of our Celtic tradition will prepare us for a deeper dive into creation care as spiritual practice in April as we celebrate Earth Day.    

When does a child begin to have faith in God and what does it look like? What are some of the ways that we can nurture children as they grow in their spiritual lives as parents, teachers, and advocates? These are some of the questions we’ll explore through looking at everything from how the Bible portrays children’s relationship with Jesus to the latest psychological and brain research on children’s spiritual development. Come and bring your own stories of how children you know and love are experiencing the love of God.

Our faith calls us to be stewards of the earth. Current national priorities may leave us bewildered as to the best ways to live out our calling.  The recent book Drawdown is a compilation of the work of some 50 research fellows and a technical staff headed by the American environmentalist Paul Hawken.  Drawdown outlines 100 substantive solutions to reverse global warming.  The class will allow us to consider which of these answers can be most readily employed in our lives.  How can we live together in a faithful community and preserve the planet for the generations to come?

It is not necessary to have a copy of the book (2 – 4 pages on each solution) but if you are interested, they will be available for $16 (cash or check) in the class.  To reserve a book, please sign up at (I have to figure out the signup mechanism if we do this).