new connection where you can tune in and grow i'm your host vicky thompson you may be familiar with new connection magazine for conscious living which has been enjoyed by readers in the pacific northwest for more than seventeen years now  excited to bring a new connection to life in your home on new connection we welcome authors practitioners and visionaries to share new ideas for alternative health spirituality and personal growth today i'd like to welcome to new connection reverend david alexander from the new thought center for spiritual living which is basically like us we go oregon this dynamic spiritual community honors all paths to god and provide spiritual tools for personal transformation and it's so wonderful to have you here a new connection today thank you very good thanks for having us well i had the pleasure of going out to visit your new thought center in like us we go it's brand new you've been there less than a month and it's just an absolutely wonderful spot yeah thank you we were founded in september of two thousand and four and roamed around the beaverton area theaters conference centers have been looking for a place to land to call their own for a long time and so this was a dream come true on many levels for our community and we've just exploded in our population and energy and you came there are a lot of people painting and cleaning and putting a lot of love into the space and it's just a wonderful place we're very happy to be there but has a beautiful sanctuary with wood and an open dome with national light coming in i saw that their space for a book store you have a library that will be going in with three thousand books that's a free lending library i noticed a wonderful area with children's programs from it looks like infants through t they have a wonderful playground area there anything else that you have planned for the new space by all the things you mentioned and just we're very happy to have the space for our families and our children we have over seventy seventy to ninety kids infants through high school on sundays right now and wednesday night service is expanding and there are many dreams just beginning to but what we're going to do with the space  so stay tuned wonderful well this is one of many new thought churches in oregon area specifically around portland and news that is kind of a progressive religion can you tell us what are some of the beliefs of thought the basic premise a new thought is that there is one power one presence in the universe that's the power the presence of god spirit infinite intelligence whatever you want to call it and that that is the energy in the essence that pervades everything  theologian called it the ground of all being that from which everything emerges and so we live we move we have our being in that energy and everything around us is animated by that energy that's the basic premise that we are one with this dynamic power we're not separate from it we don't have to do anything to be worthy of it we're already one and connected with it the second premise is that this energy responds to our thoughts attitudes and beliefs that the universe around us responds to the sum total of our thinking our beliefs our attitudes our opinions what we do with the creative energy of our mind has an effect on the experience that we have in our outer world in our everyday life and the third is that the saints sages mystics the prophets of all spiritual traditions all had something in common in that they revealed the wholeness is their true nature they revealed a life of communion of oneness with their creator and that that is an example to all of us so we take from that wisdom from all spiritual traditions is why we call ourselves an inclusive spiritual community so while we're based  primarily in a christian society and so we knew that history is based on those christian roots we also extend out to to the hindu philosophies in the buddhist philosophies in the dallas philosophies and all of the great traditions of of the world knowing that they all have something in common because going back to the first principle there is only one power and one presence so very inclusive and so you also pull from other traditions in your teachings your sunday sermons so in the new thought church  i think all religions offer us comfort when we're going through hard times and it seems right now a lot of people are experiencing financial difficulties so from a new thought perspective how would you help someone in your church or someone going through those type of difficulties yeah it's a good question specially now with the economic climate that we've been in for some time the first premise is to the first thing i would say to them is is to remember the nature of god itself which is abundance and i often teaching classes they say if we want to understand the nature of god then all we have to do is turn to nature and or sometimes i say we turn and look at the places where life doesn't argue or the universe doesn't argue in the human realm we argue with the nature of spirit and we because we have our own thoughts and all opinions and own ideas but in nature nature doesn't argue it just does and so when we look at nature this is going back to that inclusive idea of our teachings one of the great things that the transcendentalists movement contributed to new thought was to looking at nature for inspiration and to understand spirit and when we look at nature what we see is abundance we see that we can't even begin to count the grains of sand on a on a single beach we can't even begin to count the stars we can't begin to count the number of oranges a single orange tree would produce and inside of each of those oranges or seeds for more trees and so everywhere we look we see abundance so we know that that's  a principle in the universe and because we are one with that that's a principle that we are destined to experience and are called to experience in our life so we're going through now that all sounds really nice and wonderful but meanwhile you're saying  stock market's doing this in my job is doing this in the price of gas is going up and so you know give me something practical we believe and practical tools so the most practical to give somebody in a financial sense is i would tell them there's one thing that you could do beginning today that will shift everything in terms of your financial outlook and that is to stop spending now that sounds like well what do you mean i could buy gas to get about groceries or go to i don't spend any money because spending is a it's a mental concept when you spend something you had it and then you spent it and now you don't have it and so it's a game of having and not having and we're constantly in this mental game of do i have enough do i not have  enough i spent too much except for when we shift our mental attitude to circulation again looking at the nature of the universe the universe doesn't spend any energy it circulates energy everywhere and there's always enough for whatever needs energy and so when we begin to think of our financial situation as i'm circulating money today you know i stopped at starbucks on the way here and i circulated a dollar a day for a cup of coffee i didn't spend a dollar a day i circulated it and in circulation that it's always going out and it's always coming back to us and so then we can move into acting responsibly with our circulation of being mindful of what's going out and knowing that knowing that it's always coming back to us but that now our energy is not about having or not having but it's about how my regulating the flow of the circulation in my life so it changes your your vibration around money and that just that alone if you start practicing that every day you begin to feel more abundant well that's a very powerful tool moving with the flow and in and out what if you had a diagnosis of an l ness or some in your family does that's always a painful truth coming to you how does your new thought faith help you with that type of difficult situation well first we remember that that our spiritual principles help us remember that there were hope it can complete you no matter no matter what's going on in the outer appearance again because spirit is whole perfect and complete spirit doesn't know disease spirit doesn't know illness spirit only knows wholeness and it's expressing wholeness through all of life in all of creation so as we remember that and we begin to use our spiritual tools affirmations meditation from a prayer and begin to remember that about ourselves our vibration can shift and the vibration of ourselves and our energy over ninety percent of illness is it is diagnosed or  connected to stress and this is been well researched and well founded in the medical field that stress is a huge contributor to the vast majority of illnesses that we that we have and stress is completely made up it's mental it's in the mind and so if we can begin to use meditation in a ferment of prayer and affirmations and and the spiritual tools to begin to shift our energy we can reduce our strengths we can change our blood circulation and our heart rate and and change our diet begin to do all of those things and be in a more positive mental state which will change the physical state that we're in so that's an overall picture of health and how our spirituality helps with that and in particular case you're asking of a diagnosis it is to with that premise remember that we're hope of getting complete but there is something inside of us that can never be touched or damaged or hurt in any way and that that's the true nature of who and what we are and with that we can shift diagnos we can move through a diagnosis healing when we pray for healing sometimes that means a condition will change sometimes it means our our our thought about it will change and so we'll still have the diagnosis but we'll see it as the gift that it is to to do something different in our lives or to love our partner or family more or to move in a direction that we weren't doing before we embrace it and receive it as a gift that it is knowing that that can create a shift as well so a lot of different ways it's a complicated question these are in a simple way but that's how you can move beyond that you know something wonderful that i like about your church is your choir and you have a very large fifty member choir that's led by david york who is the musical director at the new thought center and we had an opportunity to go out and see your choir and come to a sunday service and feel the energy of that so i'd love for us to take a look at that right why i view the choir as an extension of the laity that while some of us are very skilled and trained as musicians and the group means that core leadership you look up there and most most of those people are singing for the joy of it and work pretty hard to do so and the risks they take and the effort they invest and the success they enjoy provides an inspirational demonstration of what anybody can achieve if they if they follow their passion and surrender to the to the hard work that it takes to to achieve success and that's that's where i feel the choir is indication has been spoken then we sing for fifteen minutes of praise songs and then throughout the service we do sing the meditation songs that sort of prepare the mind of the heart for more contemplative experience in the ship experience and then as best as we can we try to add resonance with the theme of the day with whatever david is going to be speaking about through the song choices both the text but then also the energy level you know if he's if you know we can we can add a lot of energy to the experience of the worst part is through the volume in the speed of the song and that sort of thing and converse or you know we can really settle it down if that's where if that's where we're going well it's so wonderful to see the energy and the love that happens at the new center so it seems like a lot of families attend your church and it's really alive with children and raising children can be a joy but it can also be a challenge and so in working with the families at your church how do you help be better in loving families using the new thought perspective you know we love our families and our children i was raised in new thought as a child by my mother so the children's ministry and the services that we provide is something that's very near and dear to me because i have a lot of memories of my own raising in this with this philosophy many churches focus on what is called in the in the theological realm spiritual formation and that is essentially is done through the process of indoctrination you teach them the ten commandments you teach in the stores you teach them the catechism and of the rit things our approach is different from that our approach is about not spiritual formation but spiritual discovery we believe that there is an innate wholeness and beauty and perfection within every child just as there is within each and every one of us and that our job is to draw that out and to create an environment that enhances that and supports that and and allows that to grow into florida so every child is is hope we can complete and precious and our job is to create an environment that supports and sustains them so our curriculum is based on many different things but drawing that out in them and things like the virtues project fifty virtues that are shared in common with all the world's major religions and cultures supporting our families and the adults in the children's lives on how to draw those virtues out and identify them and cultivate them and really give the child a sense of their oneness with god which they already have and just to remind them of that and in a way to articulate it and to express it and to begin to see the power of their thoughts power of their words and their actions and to me and to recognize the powerful contribution a positive contribution they can have in the world and on their experience so we really focus on the other aspect is we focus on the families really supporting that as well so we encourage our parents to be involved in the  program to volunteer to be engaged in the classrooms and learning the principles as well so that they can support that happening at home because we only have them for a short time on sunday so we really want to encourage spiritual development twenty four seven and spiritual discovery that the parent is very engaged with and know we hope that we help in hands and bring out on a sunday morning that's something also nice when a parent and their their children and also others in other families come to church together they're also growing spirits things together and the one nice thing i like about new thought religion is that personal growth transformation and affirmation meditation the really practical tools of spiritual growth are used in a very practical way so can you share with us how how can we grow if we were to come to a new thought church well you receive practical spiritual tools for personal transformation that we believe helped make the world a better place and it begins with ourselves so there's spiritual tools that we focus on are specifically our affirmations affirmative prayer which is a way of praying that's not about beseeching or feeling separate from but really affirming the good that is in the universe for you to experience meditation visioning which is a meditative exercise about really capturing a vision for your life and what spirit has intended for you and how to bring that through into manifesting your heart's desire and forgiveness and forgiveness is a practice that we use to release and to let go of all of the mental chains and energetic chains and things that are blocking us and binding us to our past so many of us are walking around balun to our past experiences to our past relationships to the way our parents raised sort of what we learned in school and we think that the world is dictated by by those early on experiences and it is to the degree that we allow it to be but if we can break free from those chains then we can experience a more fulfilling life so forgiveness is a powerful tool to break those chains to release those experiences and to step into a more fulfilling life so those are just some of the tools that we practice and teach through our sunday message our classes and all the other opportunities that we have in our community it also sounds like the new thought community is very service oriented how do you interact service out in the portland area well a number of ways both passive and active in terms of circulation we tithe a full ten percent of everything that comes into the ministry so every month we have a tithing committee that's made up of congregants and board members and they decide where that circulation is going to go some of it stays locally to agencies and other spiritual communities that are doing good work that we recognize that we are fed and inspired by others of it go to global organizations and our own parent denomination and that sort of thing and so that's one of the basic way that no matter what you're participating in a basic level in the community that's always happening and that spiritual circulation is taking place and then we have a number of service projects that we do throughout the year christmas time with beautiful program called stepping stones that we help support the women in those children in that program for christmas and various things and congregants bring ideas to us and they say you know people are feeding the food that they get from meals on wheels to their pets as one example so congregant came to us and said you know that's not right the individual's not getting nutrition in the pets not getting proper nutrition so we started a pet food drive during the holidays to go along with that so that so that people were getting meals on wheels are also feeding their pets what they're what they should be and not giving them their own food and that came from a congregation and so many other ideas we really believe that we grow and flourish when we're in service to each other so whether it's service within the community and meaning volunteering in the children's ministry or with the teens or many work projects that we have in terms of beautifying our space that sort of thing or it's volunteering for these other social service agencies projects that we have that circulate throughout the year it's a big part of who we are and what we do wonderful well i was reading some background material on you and you have an amazing story because you felt a spiritual calling to be in the ministry at a very young age which is very unique when you share your path with us yeah it was as i said before i was born and raised in new thought and i was living in phoenix arizona with my mother and my older brother and life conditions just weren't pleasant and there was a lot of strife and gang activity and drugs in the sort of thing and then i had sunday mornings where i went to this new thought church and it was my safe haven it was the most beautiful place and comfortable place for me and i remember praying one day and i just said the rest of my life i wasn't really happy with and i remember learning all these tools that can change your thinking change your life all of these things and i really wanted to put it to the test so i said well if there's any truth to any of this then i need to see something different in my world experience because i'm not i'm not happy this isn't good and everything changed shortly after that that experience  my mother's company offered to move her to albuquerque new mexico and just the economic shift of those two cities we were in a different class a different neighborhood everything shifted and i knew when that occurred that it was a result of my prayer for something greater in my life and it was a demonstration of those principles and something inside me shifted and i knew that the only thing that i could do with the rest of my life was to devote myself to those same spiritual principles and so everything's unfolded from that place from my work with youth nationally and locally to then entering ministers and it all just sort of evolved one step after the next but it comes out of a sense of devotion that i have service to these principles that i teach because i saw the effect of them in my own life it's a beautiful story and you can really feel that coming through at the new center you can fill a lot of your energy and loving energy to move things forward in the service and you also feel a lot of it from the people who are involved there's a lot of love a lot of helping hands i think helping the community to grow where would you like to see your community go as you do visioning and your other tools for wow well it's a perfect question for now because we've just moved into this new space and we're filling it up you know the second service is very full so everyone who might be encouraged to come we have a wonderful night at nine am service and wednesday night they have plenty of room in them and i've got my desire so we're in the process now of just asking that next question what's next what is beyond this and so we're looking at some different creative ways of doing that how do we grow and expand and serve more people my vision of my desire is that we serve as many people as are called to this message and so whatever number that is i don't have a desire to have a particular size church my only desire is to just serve the people that want to be fed by th so we may need to get creative in how we do that we may need to do some remodeling of the structure that we're in we may need to go on television or on radio and do satellite church we may need to there's a concept called so i church which is doing it all in one location but then having satellite locations that pick up the feed and the people in those locations have their own live music but then get the message piped in on sunday morning or on wednesday night that sort of thing so we're beginning to play with all of those ideas  casting and those sorts of things but it's all driven by feeding as many people as want to be fed by these principles about empowering your life and creating a better world that's wonderful david it's been so wonderful having you here a new connection and i wish you and then you thought center all the best thank you so much the welcome so you can learn more about spirituality at our website at w w w new connection journal dot com join us next time a new connection where you can tune in and grow