Common Ground Christian Church

On the road to Damascus, Paul encountered Jesus. He was not expecting that encounter, and he was definitely not expecting the trip on THAT road to put him eventually on a road towards sharing the gospel with Gentiles. This week, we'll be uncovering how the grace of God does not fit into the established boundaries of our understanding. We're excited to continue to explore Paul's letter to the Galatians and how we can be taught by a community's struggles 2000 years ago.

We all want freedom. We talk about freedom in certain ways and we talk about freedom in Christ in certain ways. Paul's letter to the Galatians is in response to the bondage that some Christians were putting on Gentiles to observe the Torah law and go so far as to get circumcised before following Jesus. Paul understands that the family of God is a multi-ethnic, liberation from the laws of culture that in fact bind us to sin and death. If we want real freedom, we become slaves to Christ. That paradox is what we will explore this summer as we begin a new series in Galatians. This letter is full of truth and wisdom as we at Common Ground navigate life in the Spirit and as we long for the true freedom that comes as a New Creation! Join us this summer and read through the book several times over the next month as we dive deep into the Grit and the Grace from Paul's letter to the Galatians. 

We have the chance this Sunday to participate in something very special. Micah Street Church has said yes to our invitation to come and join Common Ground for a joint worship service at the Silk Mill. We can't wait to host our neighbors and friends as we work through the passage in Ephesians on love and unity. Pastor Chelsea will tell more of the Micah Street Church story, and we will hear from some of their members on Sunday as we come together as one worshipping body this Sunday around the table. Be ready to welcome them and make our guests feel right at home. They have been in the yard at The Meeting House for the past 8 months and have felt our hospitality there and we are excited to be in the same space.  

Acts 12 confronts us with the execution of James while Peter is miraculously rescued from prison by an angel. We cheer for Peter's release but we feel saddened for the suffering James had to endure. Why didn't God save both? Why does James die and Peter get to live? This seems unfair. How did the early church respond when their leaders faced execution? King Herod used power and violence to demonstrate who was in charge. Does the church submit or align with those in power or is there another way? What is our understanding of the power of prayer when we're faced with challenges? God watches over us and will neither slumber nor sleep. Acts 12 explores where we've put our hope and security. Join us on Sunday at the Silk Mill as we worship our Lord and Deliverer. 

Have you ever been in Peter's shoes? You see God do something amazing and no sooner do you get home to tell your crew and they ask, “how dare you include those people up in this party?” The insiders were so in. The outsiders were so out. When God does his joining, the insiders are so sure of their purity code that nobody else could possibly receive God's spirit unless it went through them first. When we follow the Holy Spirit we soon find that he does what he wants and he does it how he wants. Our paradigms of cultural expectations crumble when it comes to who God will go after. Peter has to explain himself to the super religious folks that God truly is after the nations and not just those who fly their flag. God created it all and God through the Holy Spirit wants it all back! Join us on Sunday at the Silk Mill as we worship in the joy of this great Holy Spirit! 

This fourth and final message in our Faith Out of Africa series is about mother's, leaders, their sons, and their husbands. Moses is on his way to lead his people out of slavary when he himself is bound to the chains of disobedience to God. The woman at his side, Zipporah from the African country of Midian responds in faith when Moses doesn't. Who knows what the story of The Exodus would even be if it weren't for the quick thinking and actions of faith by Zipporah! This is one of the weirdest accounts in the Bible and there is much that we cannot fully understand about the cultural practices of the Egyptians and early Hebrews. However, there is enough here to grow in our obedience to Christ and to know that he means it when he calls us to his covenant. I can't wait for you to hear the testimony this week and be together to worship!  Join us on Sunday as we hear testimony, sing songs of hope, and grow in love and obedience to God. Share the zoom link with a friend and join us online at 10 am.

This third message in our Faith Out of Africa series is all about carrying the cross, literally. When our Lord, weakened by being flogged could carry his cross no longer, the Roman Soldiers found Simon from Africa in the crowd along the road to Calvary and forced him to carry the cross for Jesus the rest of the way. Long before Paul would say, “I am crucified with Christ” the very first person to carry the cross was an African who has a story to tell. His two sons became followers of Jesus and Paul talks about Simon's wife in another passage which can only get me excited for heaven when I think about how the Gospel spread like wildfire because the soldiers picked this man to help Jesus. How about you? What does it mean to voluntarily carry the cross of Jesus? While Simon was forced and compelled by the sword, we have agency in the voluntary surrender of our lives to this convicted Messiah. In this first Sunday of Lent we will look to the cross, we will look to Simon, and we will look at the brutality of the Roman government. It is inside this world of violence that our King overcame the world.  Join us on Sunday as we hear testimony, sing songs of hope, and grow in love and obedience to God. Share the zoom link with a friend and join us online at 10 am.

This second message in our Faith Out of Africa series is all about wisdom.  We are familiar with the wisdom of Solomon but we are less familiar with the brilliance, regality, and resilience of the Queen of Sheba. She had caught word of Solmon's wisdom and set out on the road to find truth. How much of your week is spent in the pursuit of wisdom? Who have you given permission to as the source of that wisdom? Do they have an agenda? Do they have the truth? This is another beautiful story in the Bible of how a foreign person came seeking after Israel's God. Clearly, Yahweh had blessed Solmon and the Queen reveals her own wisdom in the seeking. We all need wisdom right now and I can't wait to share this message with you! Join us on Sunday as we hear testimony, sing songs of hope, and grow in love and obedience to God. Share the zoom link with a friend and join us online at 10 am.

As we begin our Faith Out of Africa series, the first thing we observe is a God who runs. Jesus told us he would. Jesus told us this is what God is like. He said, “The father, noticing his son a long way off, began to run down the road…” What Jesus told us about, we actually see as Philip runs to the man reading the prophet Isaiah. He was letting him know in the most profound way, “even though you are on the margins, even though you are on a migrant journey, you will never walk alone.” The African American struggle in this country has been one long road. When the church refused to see the image of Christ in the bodies of black people, thank God we have a Father who runs! Who runs past the elder brother to get to the one who's on the road. This encounter in Acts 8 was the beginning of a robust church in Africa and we look forward to being together as the people of God this week. Join us on Sunday as we hear testimony, sing songs of hope, and grow in love and obedience to God. Share the zoom link with a friend and join us online at 10 am.

By the order of King Herod all the male babies, two and under, where to be put to death. This is a part of the Christmas story that often gets passed over. However, in a year of so much reflection on our own mortality and on humanities capacity for evil and death, we would do well as a church to reflect on the Dark Side of Christmas. As Jesus was teaching and preaching he said to his disciples, “let the little children come unto me, for theirs in the kingdom of heaven.” There is an innocence about a child that the Lord longs for all of us to never outgrow. There is stark difference between being childish and childlike. Herod, with his executive order, caused a weeping to be heard in Bethlehem like never before and ever since. We all have experienced loss, but the loss of a child is a very unique kind of suffering. Would you join us on Sunday over Zoom as we worship, sing, and pray for those who have lost and give hope to one another as we march into this New Year.

This will be a Christmas like none other in your lifetime. The country and the world has shut down and families will gather in limited capacity due to Covid-19. We have already endured 9 months of life changing events, and as the darkness of winter is upon us, a young lady is about to have a baby. In the midst of another pandemic, the pandemic of exile, sin, and death, the light of God came to save us! Christmas is the season of darkness that is exposed by the light, and there is no doubt that we are in the darkness. As the body of Christ, we are committed to grieving with a world that has seen so much suffering and death this year. Would you commit to joining us each week over the next couple months as we look at Advent in Exile: Stories of Christ in the Winter of Covid. Believe Church! The light is coming! The light is winning!

Refugees. Conquered nations. Banished criminals. That is who deserves to be in exile. Yet, John’s account of the birth of Jesus begins with something totally unique in our universe. He claims that the God of creation in the beginning is fully present in the humanity of the person of Jesus. Fully God and Fully Man. The light that was commanded in Genesis, “Let there be light” is the “light of mankind” and he is the one who also said, “I am the light of the world.” Why would God exile himself or for what reason would he abandon his riches in glory to come and be made in human likeness? He has no rival and no equal. Great is our God and greatly to be praised for his wisdom far outreaches our own and his love is deep enough to come and rescue us. Join us via Zoom this Sunday as we gather online, hear testimony, sing songs of Advent, and pray for one another. Be strong and courageous CG! You are loved and not alone!

As we light the candle of Joy this weekend we hear the angels singing “Glory to God in the Highest” right above our heads. As the Shepherds were watching their flocks by night, God interpreted their darkness. We are inviting this same God to interrupt our darkness this winter as well. As we put this pandemic in perspective, we have to acknowledge the pain, loss, and frustrations that so many of us have felt. Yet, it is in our very suffering and bondage that a child was born into the earth. Born to rescue and save us! Shepherds were considered some of the lowest people on the social ladder and God chose to announce the birth of Jesus to a class of people who were considered thieves and uncredible. Why? Join us on Sunday as we gather outside to raise our voices our lift our prayers for one another as we worship the newborn king!

We will light the candle of peace this Sunday as we move to Zoom for this week’s worship gathering. We have a testimony lined up and we are excited to hear what God has for us in this second week of Advent. Mary and Joseph were on their way to Bethlehem when the time came for Christ to be born and they found that even in Joseph’s hometown there was no place to call home. Christ was born in a stable. Have you ever felt exiled even at home? Have you gone back to your hometown and things were just different? What can we learn in the winter of Covid from the fact that there was “no room in the inn”?  We have all felt so many emotions this past week and it will be good to see your beautiful faces church as we anchor into the waiting of Advent. Even so, come Lord Jesus.

We will light the candle of hope this Sunday and we can’t wait to worship with you near the River! We begin our Advent season looking at the person of Simeon. What an amazing story of long anticipated hope in the Lord’s Messiah. He lived in occupied Jerusalem and he was filled with the Holy Spirit, long before Acts chapter 2! What was so special about this man? What was so special about Anna who was a prophetess in the temple? Come sing some familiar songs as we long for the same hope of God’s final restoration!

As we begin our Advent series we will begin by looking at how to be faithful in the fire of exile. We have all felt the struggle to remain faithful to God in the past 2020. Many of you carry shame and guilt, while others of us feel entitled and proud. Yet the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego reminds us that it is always God who is with us, rescuing us, and delivering us IN the fires of our suffering and lament. In the redemptive story of God we find Israel being held caprice in Babylon because of their own idolatry and service to other Gods. We begin this Advent season in looking at how the people of God can be faithful even in the midst of displacement. Join us at the River this Sunday at 10 am and bring a friend.

Romans 8 is one of the most beautiful chapters in the middle of one of the most reconciling of letters. We have come to the end of the matter and we are going to finish our study in Romans with this text in mind. There is an attitude that comes from the Spirit of Christ that allows us to live at peace in the midst of empire and chaos. This same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead has given life to our human bodies and this life is now lived together as siblings not strangers. The promises from Romans 8 moves us to a new Torah and that is the Law of Christ that removes all selfishness and lives in the freedom and love that God is for us and not condemning us. Join us on Sunday (most likely on Zoom due to flooding and rain) as we sing, worship, and grow in Christ.

We sure could use a rescue right now! A rescue from the pandemic, from politics, from the daily grind, and from the spiritual burden we often carry in our bodies to do the right thing. We know the good we ought to do but why is it so hard to get done? We know the evil that lurks around every corner, but why are do our vices have such a death grip on us? Paul in Romans 7 lays one of the most compelling arguments to the House Church in Rome that it is through the Spirit of Christ alone that we are rescued from the collective weight of Adam’s curse, from sin and from death. I hope you will join us at the River on Sunday and bring a friend who could use a good rescue as well! I’m so looking forward to preaching Christ and to proclaim the hope that is found in no other name! 

There are a lot of weapons flying around right now! Some verbal, some emotional, and many physical. What Paul wants the church at Rome to emulate is that we would use the weapons of Christ for a holy life. Paul likens the weapons of the world to what sin does to each of us and to our community. Sin has a cumulative effect but the good news  is that so does righteousness. However, for this holy life to begin we have to follow Christ into his death. Join us at the River on Sunday as we look at the famous passages from Romans 6 and encourage one another as we worship Christ as King!

Romans 5 begins a new section of Paul’s letter to the Roman House Churches. He is talking about the cycle of sin that leads to death and the gift of righteousness that leads to eternal life. We often think of sin as something that we do but Paul makes it clear that sin is something that is doing us! Christ has done what Adam could not do and therefore either by faith we accept the gift of Christ or by unbelief we settle for the gift of Adam. If you are struggling and need to be reminded of just how great God’s grace is, would you join us at the River this Sunday? Grab a friend, a neighbor, or just yourself and sing with us as we call on Christ our only peace in the midst of chaos.

As we continue reading Romans backwards and make our way through chapters 4 and 5, we are re-introduced to some of our forefathers, such as Abraham. Paul reminds us of the simple gospel truths that we have been declared righteous by God through faith, brought to life through Christ, and that through his righteousness grace will reign! Read over Romans 4 & 5 a couple times before Sunday and join us at 10am by the river.

We began at the end of Romans to look at the pastoral theology of Paul’s love for these five Roman House Churches. Now with this in mind of the Weak and the Strong, we enter the beginning of Paul’s letter that would have been read and questions answered by Phoebe. God shows no partiality. Paul is not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. Paul is preaching and longs to see the believers in Rome to give them a spiritual gift and he longs for the unity of the church in the midst of Roman Empire! This Gospel of Jesus subverts Jewish Religion and Roman Privilege and that has something to say to us today in America. Grab your friends, your masks, your umbrellas for the sun or the rain, and meet us down behind the Silk Mill.  Come and join us in God’s beautiful creation by the river this Sunday as we look at what it means to love sacrificially or join our Zoom Church on Sunday at 10am.

We have always heard that God is a mysterious God but what do we mean by that? Usually we are talking about our own life and how our circumstances didn’t go according to plan. But what do we do when God opens up the door and begins to reveal to us that he loves more than just one particular group of people? Has your world been blown apart by just how big God is, or have you ever found that you’ve put God in a box as to who is in and who is out? Paul continues to call out the Weak in the Roman House Churches to show just how God’s plan all along was to include those who they believed were “out”! Grab your friends, your masks, your umbrellas for the sun or the rain, and meet us down behind the Silk Mill.  Come and join us in God’s beautiful creation by the river this Sunday as we look at what it means to love sacrificially or join our Zoom Church on Sunday at 10am.

What covid sacrifices have you made lately? Has the pandemic limited your interactions with family and friends? Some of you only do curbside grocery pick up. Parents are sending their kids to virtual classrooms while they work remotely in new office spaces at home. Zoom and emails have replaced our personal interactions. In the meantime we’re trying to make sense of the division and pain in our country. Disunity and social conflicts have become the norm. In light of these changes how do we offer our bodies as living sacrifices in meaningful and practical ways that serve our families and friends in need? Why is Paul cultivating communities of peace and unity when house churches are surrounded by a culture of power and privilege? Come and join us in God’s beautiful creation by the river this Sunday as we look at what it means to love sacrificially or join our Zoom Church on Sunday at 10am.

Romans 13 and 14 carry profound wisdom for how to live in the world as a follower of Christ. I’d ask that you read these chapters before Sunday as we talk about what this means for our relationship with God, with one another, and in the world. Paul is teaching the church in Rome how to be in the world but not of it. Join us for Zoom Church on Sunday and we hope that you’d share the zoom link with a friend and invite them to our online gathering and we’ll see you Sunday at 10 am. 

We are starting a new series this coming Sunday and I can’t wait to see you on our Zoom call! As the body of Christ is it so important to be reminded together of God’s mercy and grace. As we see one another and sing, even from our own homes, we are reminded that we are not alone and we are not crazy for believing that Christ is raised from the dead. Romans 15 and 16 have some important lessons for us and I’m looking forward to sharing those with you. Share the zoom link with a friend and invite them to our online gathering and we’ll see you Sunday at 10 am.

Being a bridge is painful. People have the opportunity to walk all over you, vandalize, and reject you. However, to stand in the tension between two paths and connect the least, last, and lost to the love of God and to be the conduit for that connection is the mission Christ has given each of us. So yes, the bridge is out. We can’t get to where we need to be from where we are, your friends need to see Christ lived out amidst systemic racism and hate. Our city needs to see the way of Christ lived out amidst fear of death and fear of Covid. Our families need to see and hear the kingdom of Christ lived out amidst greed, division, and political rage. The Good News of Jesus tells us that Christ has bridged the gap from darkness to light and from death to life. However, to follow Christ is to emulate Christ and to be that bridge for others. This takes practice but more than anything it forces us to love the unlovable. The way Christ loved us. Join us in our Zoom call on Sunday at 10 am! We can’t wait to see your face! 

There is no foundation in this life worthy of building upon if that foundation cannot withhold the storms that come with being human. Jesus, as he finishes out the Sermon on the Mount talks about the foundations that we are tempted to build upon that have nothing to do with his law of love and salvation. Through the past six months and perhaps even longer we have had the ground shaken beneath us. From work, school, politics, and divisions in our nation, cultural foundations have been exposed as not being worthy material to build on. Join us for Zoom Church on Sunday as we worship Christ and relay the ancient foundations that can sustain us in our troubled times. Share the Zoom link with a friend or a neighbor and have them join Common Ground as we worship.

To remember is to flourish in fidelity, to forget is the first step in idolatry. We have had months and months of our normal way of life disrupted and the temptation to forget Christ and his commands is ever present. When the bridge is out there is a detour sign that points us to the long way round. Israel found themselves forgetting God, forgetting his prophet Moses, and refusing the long way around to their physical and spiritual destination. We often think we know the best way to go or a shortcut without listening or following the instructions of the detour. For Israel, this disobedience, this forgetting, led them into one of the most idolatrous moments recorded in the Bible. Join us on Sunday as we talk about how to avoid the construction of Golden Calves and grow in our trust of God through and around the detours of life. See you at 10 am on Sunday! Grab the zoom link and share it with a friend and have them join us at church on Sunday as we sing, worship, and welcome the long way home!  

What are you to do when you come face to face with your own prejudice? Some people entrench even deeper into the divide while the Chrisitan understands that God shows no partiality. In our nation, we have to come to grips with the reality of our past and as a Christian we have to be clear about our unique future. The Lord gives Peter a gift that will speak to our own prejudices and I hope you join us on Sunday at 10 am! 

As we begin our new series we will be talking about the Israelites staring at the Red Sea in front of them and the enemies of Egypt behind them. What do you do when you feel stuck? How do we march forward when fear is one side and the impossible is on the other? As the people of God we rejoice that God provides a way through the wilderness, no matter what wilderness we find ourselves in. Join us on Sunday in our zoom call as we worship together this week! If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out.

Solomon talks about gossip as the tiny morsels of speech that destroy another. I had a friend growing up who’s grandmother would always have a bowl of M&M’s out on the counter. We’d walk by and eat one and then walk by and eat another, then we’d run by and grab a handful, and then after lunch run in and grab a few more! These tiny morsels were never meant to just be consumed as “once-a-day medicine.” Gossip is like that. Easy to grab, easy to consume the lives of others, easy to destroy another and not even know what we are really doing. As we finish out our series on the Deadliest Sins, we had to add a bonus sin to really speak to the times we are living in. Gossip destroys churches, break rooms, schools, and homes. The Gospel is the spreading of “good news” and gossip is the spreading of bad news from a bad heart. Join us online this Sunday as we look to purify our hearts from where all the negative speech pours from!

Lust brings an intensity that causes one to abandon logic, morality, wisdom, relationship, and love. It is a psychological storm of the bending and breaking of truth and goodness. The results of lust are crippling; it’s unruly, reduces meaning, infiltrates the purest of pure and the best of intentions; It corrupts; It separates. While this force permeates the likes of power, money, love, and food, most commonly we associate lust with sex. The bottom line: lust distracts, disorders, and separates us from the relationships that should matter most. But while we try to define what lust is and recognize the harmful characteristics it brings, it’s even more important to be reminded of Jesus’ desire for to mend and bring order to chaos. Join us this week online as we look at the relationship of Lust and its effect on the body, mind, soul and heart.

We have a false perception when it comes to the sin of gluttony. We tend to think of the overweight person stuffing their face and caricatures of unhealthy, slobbering, consumers usually fill our idea of gluttony. This could not be further from the truth. The Deadly Sin of Gluttony shows up in all kinds of ways when we control or are controlled by food that really is symbolic of a deeper spiritual issue. Christ has given us taste buds and flavors, he’s given us fasting and feasting, he’s given us bodies that need to be ready for work and rest, so what does it mean in our day in age to be a glutton? We live in a body image culture and how we think about food has got to come under the Lordship of Christ. Join us Online this Sunday as we look at what it means to be controlled by Christ and not our bellies.

We come to that horrible Deadly Sin that benefits no one!! Of all the Deadly Sins, Envy doesn’t even bring a temporary pleasure. It serves and helps no one and only destroys and kills. Yet, where does it come from, what are the sources of envy and why are the objects of our envy usually those who are close to us in one way or another? From the beginning story of Cain and Abel we see that envy is after the affection and love that assumed is lacking. Self worth, self image, and the ability to love one’s self has a lot to do with envy, in fact it has more to do with envy than what another person has. For the church this is a particularly wicked sin because it attacks love at the roots. Join us Online this Sunday as we worship Christ resurrected and grow in our love for one another! 

As we work through the Seven Deadly sins we come upon the one that deals with our possessions and desires of things. Avarice is another way of saying, “I want it all.” Oftentimes this will be translated into the word greed but even that misses some of its nuance. Where did we learn that kind of behavior? Why did our parents have to remind us to share as a little child? How has greed played a role in our national conversations about economies, race, violence, wars, and the American Dream? On a personal level how has avarice or your desire to have it all, formed your heart in Christ? We cannot serve two masters right? Jesus said we will either love money or love God, but we can’t do both! Ask a friend to join you online this Sunday as we look at the scriptures and look to Christ as the remedy for our greedy hearts and put to rest this deadly sin.

Perhaps the most misunderstood of all the Seven Deadly Sins is Slothfulness. Why? We’ll discuss this coming Sunday but in preparation for that, how important is it for us to heed St. Paul’s words in Galatians 6: Do not grow weary in doing good. How difficult it is to get up off the couch sometimes and attempt to care for basic household tasks much less the problems of the world, right? But on the other hand, how easy is it to work our careers 110%, throwing ourselves into household redesign projects, or PTA meetings, or our children’s sports teams rather than address the needs of a hurting neighbor. Join us online this Sunday as we continue in our Time to Heal series, addressing the deceptively deep and pervasive sin of Slothfulness. And remember brothers and sisters: Do not grow weary in doing good.

Likes, re-tweets, and shares. Thank you cards. Medals, ribbons, and badges. Cheers and applause. Our culture nurtures the endless pursuit of recognition and praise, and Christian culture doesn’t lag far behind. This week in our Time to Heal series, we tackle the insidious sin of vainglory, which trades the authentic desire to be truly known as we are for the cheap counterfeit of being known for what we do, what we stand for, and what we say. Join us online this Sunday as we again look to Jesus, who alone can heal us. Journey with us as we seek to understand what real glory looks like and to whom it belongs.

Solomon describes the world as he sees it in Ecclesiastes in his now famous litany of how the world moves. There is a time to be born and a time to die, a time to sow and a time to reap, a time to kill and a time to heal. Solomon is not prescribing what is OK, he's describing what is. With so much loss, death, and division, we as the believing community of Christ want to be a part of the healing, but how can we give the world that which we do not have? When the bank comes back on our virtues with "insufficient funds" we know that vices have taken over and we have nothing to offer a thirsty world. However, with each of the deadly sins, anger, vainglory, sloth, avarice, envy, gluttony, and lust, there is Christ centered, and a communal invitation to healing, freedom, and unity. Join Common Ground over the next couple months as plead with Christ for A Time to Heal!

We finish out our series this Sunday with the amazing friendship of Paul and Timothy! For every younger person who had a trusted older friend who believed in them and poured into them and saw them as an equal, this is the quintessential discipleship relationship. The truth is that our friendships and closest relationships form us. They either malform us or they form us to be more like Christ. There is no middle ground. Join us online this Sunday as we worship, sing, pray, and seek the hope of Christ for our world! Grab a friend and have a worship watch party!

Jonathan and David. Ruth and Naomi. John Mark and Paul. The similarities of gender have always created great friendships but what about opposite sex friends? Don’t go there right? They only and always lead to affairs and deep regret. They only and always create tension and should be avoided at all costs, right? When we talk about Faithful Friendship that pushes us toward mutual Christoformity, we cannot abandoned to the margins, the profound work of Christ that brings men and women together for mutual edification, mutual ministry, and mutual familial love. Paul and Phoebe shared a beautiful friendship that doesn’t get talked about enough and we can't wait to worship with you on Sunday as we look at the family being built up in Christ. Grab a friend for a worship Watch Party and we’ll see you Online at 10 am.

You will not be conformed to Christ on your own. No matter how hard you try, it takes friends and a church to live out the ministry of reconciliation because we hurt each other. We let each other down. We don’t know how far we have strayed from the road of Christ until another tells us how far off track we are. We can reject their words of rebuke or humbly listen to others as they remind us how far we have to go. The past two weeks we’ve looked at amazing friendships. David and Jonathan! Ruth and Naomi!! Come on, these are hard for us to relate to at time and so we come to the rub! The truth of the matter is that friendships are hard and friends let us down and even abandon us. The Gospel story does not let us off the hook when it comes to this kind of friendship either. Paul would preach about the ministry of reconciliation even if it was hard for him to practice it with John Mark! Truly having friendships that create a mutual Christoformity (walk together in Christlikeness) will demand accountability and reconciliation, no matter how hard that may come to us. Join us Sunday Online as we look at the next two characteristics of Faithful Friendship as we dive into forming friends that will hold us accountable and love us enough to be reconciled!

Tucked away in between the wild account of the Judges and the rise of King David is the little book of Ruth. A young outsider who came empty to Israel and was filled by the HESED of God’s faithfulness. As we explore the Art of Friendship, let's look at how loyalty and being present can change everything. We’ve all had that friend who bailed when times got hard. We’ve also had friends who stabbed us in the back. Yet Ruth is pointing to a kind of love that moves beyond words and puts on display the heart of Christ. Loyalty and Presence.

This sermon series and study on friendship will be a bit more than a Hollywood portrayal of "The one where Ross and Rachel were on a break." It will be a little different than "The one with the jellyfish." These five weeks will look less like Woody and Buzz and not even like Mr. Rogers and Lady Elaine Fairchilde. We think there may be more to friendship than what we've been offered. Perhaps our quarantine has exposed a deeper longing to a deeper kind of connection.  The Gospel from the beginning of God creating mankind is about friendship. If God is love than God gets to set the parameters and mark the boundaries of love and that is where friendship takes an interesting turn than just, "we were in the same sorority" or "we both have toddlers."  The way the Gospel talks of friendship is surrounded by this concept of 'mutual Christoformity" which is another way of saying 'bonded in becoming like Christ.' Friendship, C.S. Lewis would say, begins when one person says to another, "What? You too? I thought I was the only one." Mutual Christoformity would say, "Let's walk this road of Emmaus together while sharing the load of each others cross." Paul calls each of us to take up our cross daily and follow Christ but we do that together.  Over the next five week's we'll be looking at David and Jonathan, Ruth and Naomi, Paul and John Mark, Peter and Paul, Paul and Phoebe, Timothy and Paul, as well as Jesus and Mary.  If Covid-19 has taught me anything, it is that deep, affectionate, loyal friendships are at the heart of human need and at the heart of the Christiaan narrative! Grab a friend and worship with us Online over the month of May as we look at The Art of Faithful Friends!

1 Corinthians 7:32-35; 1 Corinthians 13:1-13; 1 Corinthians 6:18-19; Hebrews 4:14-16 The single body of Christ is to be celebrated. In the same way that faithful marriages should be celebrated, you who are single and honoring God with your life are a sweet and precious gift to the church and therefore the world. Paul has a lot to say in 1 Corinthians about being single and I know for me, I didn’t often hear that in a positive way growing up. Perhaps you had the same experience and yet I want to encourage all of us to understand theologically what Jesus has done in his single body that we can all build one another up in Christ. Whether male or female, single or married, divorced or widowed, you are the beloved child of God and we need you to be the best version of Christ we can be! 

1 Corinthians 13 & Ephesians 5:15b-33 God gave us a beautiful thing when he gave us marriage. Community amidst diversity as the two become one flesh. This is a great mystery and while there are several mysteries about husbands and wives living out a faithful marriage, there is no greater mystery than the marriage itself being an image to the world of how Christ loves the church. Our everyday life of running around has come to a screeching halt and our marriages are being exposed for how we have invested in them over the years. Surely there is more we can all learn about ourselves and our spouses in this time and may Christ in his mercy get all the glory! Join us online as we hope to encourage, teach, and equip you to live out the months ahead with your spouse in a way that our pre-lockdown life left us too numb to see. 

John 20:1-31 The emotions surrounding the resurrection of Jesus have never been more raw to me than they are right now. From Mary’s tears to John’s foot race all the way to Thomases doubt, I can really feel the emotion this Easter as even the disciples didn’t know what to do with the tomb being empty. Your friends and family may be experiencing the same kind of raw emotion as we all walk through this season of isolation, fear, and doubt. I want you to join us as we worship together, sing together, pray together, and shout that glorious truth that “He is Risen Indeed” together. My prayer CG is that the power of the resurrection of Christ fills your heart and home like never before and you will be able to take comfort and faith into what the next several months bring us. “This has been written down that you might believe and that in believing, you may have LIFE IN HIS NAME!

Matthew 20:29-34 A strange Palm Sunday indeed. Normally we would have gathered in the Silk Mill for baby dedications and loud hosannas. However, we will gather in our homes with shouts of praise, tinged with lament. Perhaps this is a more accurate way to celebrate Palm Sunday anyway. In our text we look at Jesus’ actions right before the donkey ride. Two men, blind and poor, cry out to him for healing. “Have mercy on us Son of David!” These words ring in my ears as I think about the healing and blindness our world is experiencing right now. Please join us this Palm Sunday as we worship the King, who is humble and riding on a donkey, yet he is also the Healer who stops the parade to give sight to the blind.

Ephesians 4: 9-16 Here it is. The famous passage of St. Paul bidding the church to “speak the truth in love.” How has the recent pandemic changed how you talk to others? Are you being honest with yourself, with others, with your kids? It’s not easy this speaking the truth in love thing and yet Christ is perfect TRUTH and Christ is perfect LOVE. The Pattern of Redemption that we see in this reflection by Paul is that Jesus, ascended to the father, is pouring out love into the world through his Spirit and his church and we need to simply remain in him. 

Luke 15:11-32 When it comes to our own sin and shame, why do we reject the Pattern of Redemption found in Luke 15? Do we have some innate desire to pay for our own sin? Some primordial malfunction that rejects the kind of father Jesus describes? Maybe it’s just that his character of love is just so unfathomable to our own patterns of revenge and resentment. The son chooses to quarantine outside the confines of the Father’s home and love and finds himself infected with shame, sin, and regret. The offer of the good life filled with sex, money, and power comes crashing down on him, and the turn toward home is the beginning of grace. This week we will look at the story of a Father who runs after his son even when he’s been infected. In this case, in the case of sin and death, it’s only the love of a Father who breaks all the rules that can save. This is God! Our Father. 

Jonah 1-4 You’ve the exact opposite thing that God asks you to do. He says run south and you run north. He says love a people and you hate those people. He says repent and you keep on sinning. He says preach a sermon and you proclaim the least amount of information that might draw others toward God. He shows compassion and you show contempt. How does God treat a person like this? What does the story of Jonah teach us about the patterns of God’s love and redemption? Just when you think you’ve got God’s grace figured out, Jonah the prophet screws up our thinking about who God is and how God loves. Join us as we take another Old Testament look at the Pattern of God’s Redemption. Guest Speaker: Matt McCauley