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Knowledge & News
Thought provoking topics and series, necessary news and information.
 Where oh where does a Quaker pantheist existentialist find a spiritual home in DeLand, Florida? At Collective Church of course!
Check out the Wilson family's moving story of finding the community they've been searching for all along.
WEEK 2 | We're doing well, off and running with 5 new pledges and 5 pledge increases. We're not even in December and some year-end giving has started trickle in. Stay tuned for more weekly updates, and don't hesitate to contact us with any questions.
More than five years ago, Collective Church started as a wild idea in the minds of a small group of people and has since developed into a vibrant and engaged community. We’ve grown from one staff member to more than five, and from meeting in borrowed spaces around DeLand to a space of our own that we can share to support and resource the Deland community.
 "When you go to church, you dress." Dan knocked it out of the park by connecting his Collective origin story with the pursuit of values, the shape of community, and why its so important to sustain this good work!
Brian McLaren was with us this week and was most impressed with the appeal to give financially. We’ll come back to this relationship between movements and institutions, but he said one of the major failures of movements is they don’t grow up, get responsible, mature and become sustainable. Unsustainable movements always dissipate and turn control back to institutions. Financial sustainability is one of the most crucial factors in the shape of the future of church, religion, especially innovative faith communities like ours.
My name is Lisa, and this is my husband, Crenshaw. We’ve been coming to Collective for just over one and one-half years. Last year at this time, we had some medical stuff to deal with and we weren’t making it here very often. We were so glad that we could watch on You Tube, because Ben was doing a series then based on the book of 1st John called “Love Letter.” We really enjoyed that series and that theme, so we decided to bring it back this year with our own “Love Letter” to Collective…
 We have to begin the pledge drive by acknowledging the long history of spiritual abuse and fiduciary irresponsibility related to money in the church, so that we can clarify our position on a few things, as we unapologetically ask you to give your money to your community.
*Rewards vs Benefits Let’s remove, from the outset, the supernatural, transactional reward structure called the "prosperity gospel" or "health and wealth gospel". There is no divine obligation to give your money. There is no supernatural reward or blessing for giving money, such that your cash obligates god to bless you, making god a genie, your cash religious currency, and blessings a divine commodity. In a word, Bullshit, we don’t play this game. We value, we’re different, we’ve traveled, we don’t make assumptions, we strive to avoid offense, we don’t assume, we believe, we do everything in the spirit of love and grace.
Lot’s of we in our Community Statement. We’re striving to live up to this community statement, this vision of our communal identity and way of being together, and so it’s the responsibility of this same WE to sustain and nurture it. |
SearchAboutWe are a misfit faith community that gathers in DeLand on Sundays at 5pm. Come as you are. Archives
May 2020
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We value highly the metaphor of journey. We’re different people from different places and backgrounds, representing an intergenerational community, and we’ve traveled different paths. So, we agree not to make assumptions about the person across from us, next to us, or in conversation with us. We challenge ourselves to be sensitive, knowing this community includes a diverse group of people from life-long followers of Jesus, to people who are just now open to the idea that God might exist. We strive to avoid offense, ask good questions, articulate and explain our responses. We don’t assume fluency in bible, spirituality, or Church language, because we believe the message of Jesus is not for Christianity, but for humanity. So, we do everything in the spirit of love and grace.
Paid Professional Childcare Available during Sunday Services 1 - 5 years of age | Childcare 6 - 11 years of age | Collective Kids |
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