Greetings!
Friday Contemplation: LOVE Let all that you do be done in love." This was Paul's message to the church in Corinth--a tall order. What does that even mean? What does it practically look like?
Maybe it means deciding.
Erick Fromm talks about love in this way. "Love is a decision, it is a judgment, it is a promise. If love were only a feeling, there would be no basis for the promise to love each other forever. A feeling comes and it may go. How can I judge that it will stay forever, when my act does not involve judgment and decision.”
SUNDAY GATHERING at 10:30: Join us this Sunday for Conversation, Connection, and Community Change. We'll have conversation with each other about love using this text. We'll connect with God/our Higher Powers through 5 minutes of meditation/centering. We'll hear an inspiring story of transformation from a member of our community and Portico Housing (Community Change).
And for those who are able to stay, we'll have a Community Meal with the unsheltered and hungry at noon.
Deciding to Love. One of my favorite preachers/teachers says that if it's not Good News for the poor and excluded, it's probably not the Good News. The Portico makes God's love real through spiritual practices and serving the city in ways that address equality, housing insecurity, and economic challenge. When Hyde Park sent a team downtown in 2013, we started praying and planning ways to reach new people, in new places, and in new ways.
And the team discerned that everything that we would embark on as a community would: Activate the space (downtown block), Bless the city, and Impact the poor (both materially and spiritually). We wanted to have the downtown location be open more than on Sundays so that downtown residents and workers would frequent often. We wanted all that we do to bless the city. And we wanted to impact the poor, including folks on the edges and those who were not materially poor but perhaps spiritually searching (but not in traditional ways).
These decisions led us to develop the Sunday spiritual community, to start a social enterprise (cafe & event space), and to launch meditation, small groups, and the arts and justice ministries.
Why? Because of love. Specifically, the love of God revealed in Jesus Christ.
And we have been deciding ever since. Let's decide to love together in all that we do.
You are Loved.
Justin
--
The Rev. Justin LaRosa, LCSW
O: 813.222.2299 | M: 813.444.2941
1001 N. Florida Ave.,
Tampa, FL 33602
Conversation. Connection. Community Change.
P.S. Join a new group below, invite someone to the Sunday Matinee (Chosen), or ORDER some decoffee to support The Cafe. We are 64 coffee bags away from February's goal!
The Portico includes a neighborhood cafe, a historic chapel, spaces to meet and work, and an event space for the public that enhances the social, artistic, and spiritual fabric of Tampa through Conversation, Connection and Community Change!
The Portico Community is a non-conventional church whose mission is to make God’s Love Real through spiritual practices and to serve the city and world in ways that address equality, housing insecurity, and economic challenge. We are a community of Hyde Park United Methodist.
The Portico Cafe is a social enterprise that offers people transitioning from homelessness, addiction, and incarceration--job training, employment ladders, and connections to safe, affordable housing.
