Actual Churches?

I will use this thread to keep you updated on the journey to establish a Jedi group in Arizona. Hopefully, this will inspire others to create an actual group that can "morf" into an actual church. What type of experience do I have starting a Jedi Church? I helped start two Christian churches from the ground up, literally. I bring the gifts of facilitating small groups that encourage others to become leaders. I embark on this endeavor while I am still an apprentice. Since it will take tim to builde, I start now (not getting younger LOL). I need all the help I can get. Once I become a Knight and Clergy I will have worked through the major kinks.

My first task is to invite people to join TOTJO. Let the Temple speak for itself. There are great Jedi on this site, I am honored to send them to you.

The second task is to dream with a vision of making this church an actual place. Dream as though you have unlimited monetary resources. I recently got back from Sedona, Az. Sedona is a spiritual epicenter for the world and offers so many spiritual paths/ churches. It was inspiring to know that folks who began with a vision have created a spiritual presence that is open to all.

The group I am starting resides in a large population demographics, the challenge is the physical distance in the Phoenix metro area. My challenge is that the Phoenix metro area covers about 100 miles (160 kilometers) so travel is a barrier. Not many people want to drive a long distance.So multiple groups in Az might be warranted.

In the Arizona case, distance is a barrier. Another barrier is not communicating the purpose of the group. I have chose to call the Jedi group, "Arizona Jedi Temple". www.azjeditemple.org I parked this web site for now. This separates it from role playing groups like Cosplay. It also gives me a way to speak of Jediism and steer away from a role playing topic.

I set up a "Meetup" group in the Phoenix area and have invited local folks to join. It cost me a small fee to create the group but it is worth the price. In a matter of days, I had ten people join, two being current TOTJO Jedi. My intentions is to meet with the members and steer them to TOTJO website while forging relationships. Building relationships will be the key.

The important message to covey is communicating that the Jedi way of life is real and a viable path. I want to encourage people and get them excited about life as a Jedi.

(More to come)

Plokoon...

We are in the midst of working out how to encorporate the physical chapters, with the site....

When you would like, please begin a thread with the Chapters name, as right now, in the Master's forum, we have one for the Roseville chapter....

We, at the moment, looking for, hoping and expecting timely check-ins and updates...

Although the definition of timely is not yet defined...

Roseville is our test run... They began a few years ago, and are now coming back with a knighthood....

As always, nothing is set in stone, but we are trying to work together so that all parties requests are considered....

Any questions, let me know....

good plan plo, but shouldn't you dream of the churches or temples to arise everywhere? we should be amoungst the world religions, not looked down at like we are liers or frauds... we should make this a religion that the world knows of before getting building built, or else we could as a community suffer from a lot of damage, such as people attacking us, calling us names, and being outcasted from our homes. im not saying that everywhere is like this, but no one believes me, so imagine what it would be like for people in countrys that are very strong believers of other faiths.

shadowmere wrote: good plan plo, but shouldn't you dream of the churches or temples to arise everywhere? we should be amoungst the world religions, not looked down at like we are liers or frauds... we should make this a religion that the world knows of before getting building built, or else we could as a community suffer from a lot of damage, such as people attacking us, calling us names, and being outcasted from our homes. im not saying that everywhere is like this, but no one believes me, so imagine what it would be like for people in countrys that are very strong believers of other faiths.

Churches and temples everywhere? That is a wonderful idea and hopefully we will see that one day.

Getting buildings built? Don't confuse raising a Jedi church with an actual physical building. Meeting places are abundant. Buildings do not come till the membership is well established.


Since the Jedi faith is "new" to a lot of folks, there will be the lack of understanding, the lack of knowing. We as Jedi are destined to tell others our story. Ridicle could be in the cards but that should not discourage you from letting people know how much the Jedi faith has meant to you, when they ask.

No one believes you?... the important thing is that YOU believe.

yes...but if i say for instance, "mum, dad. im going to meet up with my jedi friends". they would turn around, and without knowing the truth about the jedi call you all pedos and stop me from doing anything...no one believes something from a movie. i believe, but you dont expect people to believe and allow you to show your faith when for all they know, you could be terrerists are actors making fun.my hope isn't your hope. you do what you want. but i cant in this country...and i hope that i can come to this gathering place one day...

I'm curious to know if people differentiate temples and churches, since the church (as far as I know - I spent perhaps longer than I should researching into the etymology of it all) only really applies to Christian places of worship, whereas the temple is a more generic term; possibly more appropriate for Jediism, especially given the name of this website.

More to the point—if we are to talk about this as a church—Christians see the church as the people as opposed to the building, which I think is a beautiful and also vital sentiment to the faith. In that respect, I see it as no bad thing for Jedis to commune together and have somewhere such as this site to find like-minded individuals in local areas for the purpose of physically meeting, perhaps in a similar way to pagan covens.

I will be honest: I am partly saying this because I'm a borderline Luddite; still struggling with the idea of everything being done with technology of any kind yet reluctantly following suit (to as little an extent as possible) because most of my friends can't see any other way. It just... doesn't sit right with me as a permanent solution - I would much prefer to be given the opportunity to see the people around me, learning with me, teaching one another through actions as well as words.

However, these things take time. Patience is a long path, but worth the wait.

What is the obession with churches and temples?

It happens Hannigan...

People wanna place to go at their convienece...

Not to just the gatherings...

Not everyone is strong enough to sustain themselves...

Look at all of us gathering here on this site...

Face to face is what people want, it is just going to take time...

MJ Hannigan wrote: What is the obession with churches and temples?

we, like master jestor pointed out, would like to meet face to face but it is also a holy place...but not for us. maybe a jedi community centre???

Really i am still confused. Why does this need to be a holy place. In a few days War Beauty is hosting jedi from all over VA since her house is not holy does that take away from the effect?

The Ohio Gathering is not holy does that mean it is not a actual jedi gathering?