Youth should be home by 3:00 pm.

HIGH SCHOOL YOUTH MINISTRY!

SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2010

6 P.M. - 8 P.M.

YOUTH ENCOUNTER COMES TO HOPE! 

Youth Encounter is an amazing professional youth ministry which organizes rockin' events like the Virginia Beach Construction Zone and bands like Jacob's Road! Because this weekend is the Pittsburgh Youth Quake/Zone, one of the youth encounter 'trek leaders' for the weekend, Cam Warba, has agreed to come lead us in an a HIGH ENERGY night of fun, food, and spirituality.  DON'T MISS THIS YOUTH GROUP.  Everyone is asked to bring snack to share to this meeting.  Cam is an awesome guy, a spectacular drummer and vocalist (and he's Lutheran!) and he has traveled with Youth Encounter's Captive Free musical and relational ministry a few years back.  We need everyone out for this youth group meeting.  Sign up at 'event registration' at www.hopelutherancranberry.org or on the youth bulletin board.  It's gonna rock---be there---and bring a friend!

"A Look at the Changing Face of the Church" - Rev. Dr. Andrea M. Ng'weshemi, Campus Pastor

Whose religion is Christianity?  Who are the world’s average Christians today, and where are they found?  What are their lives like?  How do they practice the Christian faith? 

Dr. Ng’weshemi will explore the shift of Christianity from its traditional strongholds in the Western world to the non-Western, global South and East.  He will also discuss some of the implications and importance of this change for the future of Christianity. 

Dr. Ng’weshemi is a native of the African nation of Tanzania, serves as campus pastor at Thiel College and also teaches in the religion department.  He is on the ELCA roster.

"Dancing in God: The Relevance of Ritual for Conceiving the Divine Today" with Dr. Curtis L. Thompson, Professor of Religion 

The lecture will deal with the relation of God to the world.  It will attempt to conceptualize what is meant by the claim attributed to St. Paul in his Athenian speech, namely, that God is the one “in whom we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28).  The model of God being developed builds on the pantheism model of God as well as the pantheism model that has been advocated more recently.  The task will be to envision all things being transformed in God.  This will be facilitated by turning to ritual broadly understood as one of the primary means by which the divine work of creative transformation is carried out. 

Dr. Thompson has been teaching in the Religion department of Thiel College since 1983.  He holds a BA from Concordia College of Moorhead, MN; a M.Div. from Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN; and an MA in Religion and a Ph.D. in Theology from the Divinity School of the University of Chicago.  He has published books and articles in such areas as Soren Kierkegaard’s thought, contemporary theology, philosophical theology, and the relation between religion and science.  Curt is an ordained pastor of the ELCA; he and his wife have four children.

The Rev. Dr. Curtis Thompson of Thiel College (www.thiel.edu) will present.  Cost is $25 payable to Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod.

Time: 9:30 a.m. until 3:00 p.m.