Emma Churchman: Working the 7 Deadly Sins Into Your Business, Part II

ESR graduate Emma Churchman describes herself as "a business mentor with a seminary degree and mad-genius psychic skills." In her latest blog series, she explores the concept of the "7 Deadly Sins" and urges us to "actually look at what has stereotypically been called the 'shadow' side of your power – via the framework of the 7 Deadly Sins – as a way to motivate you towards a beautiful outcome in your business." Below is a preview of the four next posts in her series:

Wrath

Wrath, or Anger – can be an incredibly powerful force, because it represents passion. And passion can help us move past resistance. As we’ve explored in previous blogposts moving past your resistance is absolutely critical for your success as a conscious entrepreneur.

Your anger has to move you towards your goals – because it is really destructive to just hold anger in your own body. Folks who hold anger often experience symptoms like fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, weight gain, migraines, and general body tension.

The beautiful thing about being a conscious entrepreneur is that you have the capacity to feel your emotions, and the emotions of others, exquisitely, but then it’s as easy to allow all of these emotions to get stuck in your body, especially anger!
So, how do you utilize anger in a healthy, productive way to reach your goals?

Read more here: https://emmachurchman.com/deadlysinwrath/

Quaker Water

Below is an excerpt from ESR MDiv student Jack Rowan's article appearing in the latest issue of Western Friend:

David Foster Wallace’s ideas are not revolutionary; indeed, they are the crux of nearly every civic ethics and religious catechism. However, the visceral examples and uncomfortable honesty he employed to make his points transformed the twenty-minute video of his commencement speech into a generational touchstone. In one example, he worked his audience into a cheering crowd by delivering a rant against arrogant, gas-guzzling, rude drivers with self-satisfied bumper stickers . . . and then he interrupts his own rant to make his point – that his audience’s ready cheers are exactly the sort of response he is encouraging them to resist. He emphasizes we must counteract our own arrogance and self-satisfaction, and resist our ready assumptions that we know who others are based on a few clues and our own self-focused immediate circumstances. He emphasizes, “It is unimaginably hard to do this, to stay conscious and alive in the adult world day in and day out.”

Yoga for a Messy World: Creating Calm in the Chaos

ESR MDiv graduate Steve Cleaver delivered the following message during Joint Seminary Worship in Bethany Theological Seminary's Nicarry Chapel on Friday, March 10, 2017:

Welcome-1

Welcome. My name is Steve Cleaver. This is “Yoga for a Messy World, Finding the Calm in the Chaos.” If you are look for the “Eschatological Humor of Martin Luther and John Calvin”, then this is not it. Bathrooms are out in the hallway. Note your exits. (points). There are no oxygen masks under your seats.

Silence, turn off, discard or destroy any technological devices that are going to distract or deter you from living in the present moment. If asking the question, What Would Jesus Do, he didn’t have a cell phone. At least it is never mentioned in the bible. None of this talk will come to you by text or phone. That I promise.

Any time you find yourself not in the present, you find your mind wandering into other places and times, wondering why you are here, wondering how soon is lunch or if you unplugged the iron, just tap your finger, and say quietly to yourself, this is my finger. Try it now. (pause) This is my finger. Your body is your portal into the present moment. Let’s meet there.

Emma Churchman: Working the 7 Deadly Sins Into Your Business

ESR graduate Emma Churchman describes herself as "a business mentor with a seminary degree and mad-genius psychic skills." In her latest blog series, she explores the concept of the "7 Deadly Sins" and urges us to "actually look at what has stereotypically been called the 'shadow' side of your power – via the framework of the 7 Deadly Sins – as a way to motivate you towards a beautiful outcome in your business." Below is a preview of her first two posts in the series:

Embracing Desire

The only force that is as powerful as our need for survival is DESIRE. Unfortunately, we’ve been taught by all kinds of “spiritual authorities” for thousands of years that desire is wrong.

We’re taught that we should be grateful for what we have. We shouldn’t want more, but be satisfied with our lives. This is especially true when our lives are pretty good.

There is nothing wrong with having a gratitude practice. Gratitude is beautiful!

If we practice gratitude in order to make ourselves feel better because we don’t think we can attain greater abundance, or we don’t think we deserve an even more abundant life, then suddenly having a gratitude practice causes us to settle. It creates a limitation.

“It could be worse” is not a reason to stay where we are!

He knows me, let’s know JESUS

Kim BeomHeon (Tiger), an ESR exchange student from Hanshin University Graduate School of Theology in South Korea, delivered the following message during Joint Seminary Worship at Bethany Theological Seminary and Earlham School of Religion on Friday, February 17, 2017: 

Leviticus 19:18

Psalm 23:1~6

Romans 3:9~18

I heartily welcome and bless you today in the name of the Lord.

We have gathered here to believe in something.

The object of our faith may be God alone,

it may be Jesus Christ, or it could be another object of worship.

Why do we have faith, and why do we worship?

Faith is the primary thing that saves us from sin.

The forms of salvation and methods of salvation that world religions claim are diverse.

The concept of sin we must know for salvation is very diverse.

Especially, the concept of sin today is very diverse.

In these circumstances today, Christianity asks this serious question.

What is sin?

There can be various discussions about sin, but I think that sin is not knowing oneself.

"Do you know exactly who you are?"

“It is Well with My Soul”: A Journey of Grief and Faith

In this powerful reflection ESR MDiv student Anne M. Hutchinson shares about the loss of her son. 

Everything about that phone call felt wrong, even before I answered. It had started as an ordinary evening in April. I was in an empty classroom preparing for an English as a Second Language class that I was subbing for, when my phone rang, with an unknown number showing up on the caller ID. It was my son’s stepmother, and she quickly put my son’s father on. He said starkly, without any preliminaries, “Your son is dead.” My son? Not our son? When had he become exclusively “my” son? Almost mechanically, I asked the requisite questions: how did it happen, when would the funeral be. My ex said he had just come from the coroner’s office and was too upset to talk any more. My son had taken his own life at the age of 27.

Trying to take it in, I called my sister and a close friend to let them know. It was too late to cancel class. The students would be arriving within the half hour. Somehow, through the shock, I finished my preparations and greeted the students as they arrived. The subject was spring, which would begin in a few days. In a numb state, I put on my bravest face and got through the session. I invited the students to generate English words about spring: flowers, seeds being planted, rain, frogs—of all things. From the words, they created sentences to practice vocabulary and verb forms. They worked in their textbooks in small groups, as usual. Finally, time was up and I sent them home.

New student introduction: Keelin Anderson

We have a number of new students joining us for our spring semester during the 2016-17 academic year. We're excited to introduce to you one of these - Keelin Anderson, who is an MDiv Access student from Portland, Oregon. She shares some thoughts on coming to ESR below:

Hello to the ESR community! My name is Keelin Anderson and I live in the paradise that is Portland, OR. Everything you have heard about Portlandia is true. Not only can I have hot soup and a new mattress delivered by bike to my home, I can also have my Christmas tree delivered petroleum free (well, at least the last mile of delivery). It snowed an inch yesterday which, though rare, completely shuts down the town. Also, I am laid up with a sore knee. So, I have all of the perfect excuses to lounge on the couch and write this hello…

I come to ESR with the hope that I will be able to work at my edge more fully academically and spiritually. My route here has been convoluted (though I am sure to God’s eye it looks strait as rain). I was raised without religion. I had no interest in God until my late twenties. At that time I took up meditation to manage symptoms left over from an abusive childhood. Meditation broke me open to a whole new worldview.