Practicing Forgiveness – Journey Program – starts February 4

Small group and sermon series written by Sasha Silverman and John Odhner.

Practice love, even when it’s not easy.

Authentic forgiveness stems from a deep faith that we are enough, that love is abundant, and that even though we have been wronged, we don’t have to spend our emotional energy trying to  have that “debt” paid back to us. This kind of trust doesn’t come easily! It takes practice to train our minds to learn to let go of what’s not important, so we can make room for things that really matter. That’s what Practicing Forgiveness is here to offer – a place for people to come together and focus on ways to learn to accept, forgive and love each other.

Releasing our resentments toward others requires attention, prayer and often community support – three essential components of a small group program. Our goal with this year’s Journey Program involves bringing communities together around the common desire to learn to love and forgive one another. In order to do this, we have based this program on various stories Jesus tells about forgiveness, pairing each Bible story with a powerful story of forgiveness from the Forgiveness Project . Each of the five-weeks of the program has an opportunity to gather and discuss the topic with others in a small group. There are also daily readings of the Practicing Forgiveness workbook, participants are encouraged to practice some element of forgiveness, and see its application to their lives, in addition to various offerings of meditations, activities, and sermons.

Join us as we come together and focus on ways to learn to accept, forgive and love each other. This is an opportunity to practice love, even when it’s not easy.