Fresno Famous

Our desire is to create an atmosphere where we can collectively express ourselves artistically, pray, play, and be encouraged to follow God. These spiritual practices, some ancient and some recent, are what make up our weekly gathering called Emergent.

Art
We believe that God is beautiful and His creation reflects His beauty. God created man and woman in His image and likeness to also create works of beauty in many different ways.
Art is used as a way for us to playfully and prayerfully express our faith, doubts, stories, and dreams. Please feel free to explore worship art at the station in the back, at any time during the gathering.

Music
It is our desire that our music tells our story of faith, encourages us to trust in God, and helps us to ask of God, depend on God and praise God. We dream of writing a large amount of our own music.

Bible Reading
We believe that the Bible is the non-fictional story of God's involvement with people. We believe that the Bible can be the lens through which we look to better understand our world and our lives. Large portions of Scripture are read in our gatherings.

Personal Story
Many weeks, our gathering will include someone telling their story. It is our hope that these stories help us to get to know one another and to encourage us in knowing that God still works in people's lives.

Prayer
We believe that prayer is an important way to communicate with and hear from God. As part of our gatherings, we experiment (in the very best sense of the word) with many means of prayer including: silence, art, song, interactive prayer stations, historical prayer, and traditional prayer. People are welcome to visit one of many prayer stations around the room at any time during our gathering.

Communion
We share Communion each week. It serves as an opportunity to remember what Jesus did through his death and resurrection and as an "appetizer" for the "Great Feast" in the Kingdom of Heaven. All who desire to follow Jesus are invited to participate. When we practice this ancient tradition, you may choose to drink from the cup, or if you are not feeling well, to dip your bread in the juice.

Historical Pieces
In a desire to be connected to the historical church and the followers of Jesus who have gone before us, a historical piece is used each week.

Giving
We frequently recognize those who have made contributions of service to our neighborhood, our city, the poor, or our church.
In our worship gathering there is no formal collection. When ready, you may place your offering in one of the three boxes located on tables around the room. We believe that giving money is something we do, not only to support the work of church, but also as a way of organizing even the financial parts of our lives around life with God.

Sermon
Our sermon usually consists of the reading of a chapter from the Bible with running commentary. This commentary includes historical clarification as well as reflections on what may be the consequences for us as a congregation. Our goal is that this is a group effort, having been shaped by comments, stories and insights posted that week on our blog. Here we preview the text for the coming Sunday and give input about what it may mean for us. We want to know the story of God and see our lives in relationship to what God is doing, has done, and promises to do.
Most weeks, the sermon is followed by some kind of discussion where comments, interpretations and thoughts of significance from our community are welcomed. During these few minutes not only may brilliant observations be shared, but people will also be reminded that we are called to listen to one another and be taught by each other - not only by a pastor.

Coffee, Tea & Snacks
We try to serve snacks that are locally or California grown. Our Coffee is St. Java, which is Farmer First, which guarantees that the people who grew the beans were paid a fair wage.

The church building we meet in is located between Barstow & Shaw, just east of Temperance - across from Red Bank Elementary School. If you need more directions, please post a question on our blog, listed below.

Location: Currently meeting at Clovis Christian Church building, 5188 N Locan Ave., Clovis
Starts: 2006 Jan 8 - 11:15am
Ends: 2006 Jan 8 - 12:30pm
Website: http://emergentdiscussion.blogspot.com/