We're a community that experiences and shares the subversive yet life-giving way of Jesus.
God loves the wrong people. Will we allow God's merciful and just character to grow compassion in our own hearts?
The destination of our journey being God Himself, and how our witness as holy priests will allow the whole earth to know his glory.
Jonah preaches a half hearted gospel, but reveals the deep mystery of God's purpose to partner with humans in the course of history. No matter what the people do, God never goes back on his covenant purpose to use this family to bless the nations.
Jonah's time in the fish is portrayed as a kind of death. But will this passage through death into new life change him? That's the big question explored in the last chapter of Jonah.
Jonah rebelliously flees the call of God, but saves the sailors. Even our evil can become an instrument of God's purposes.
After the resurrection, Jesus sends us out as his witnesses
Jesus is The King We Didn't Expect, But The King We Need
Obedience brings us into the heart of God's love
Responding to the times with intentionality and discernment, active not passive, and in discernment, following what God is stirring and doing.
Our identity in Christ: Dismantling the Lies - Embracing the Truth - Wearing the Crown with Security and Resolve
Journey inward (into interior castle) with Christ, confronting imperfections, recognizing God's presence within
Because of the suffering of Christ, we are empowered to live a life of surrender and through that, we can experience an abundant life.
We can personally experience God guiding us through his Spirit
The real presence of God filling/dwelling within us.
Our union w/Christ means that all that is Christ's becomes ours
God gave us a gift of his son that cannot repaid, and as an outflow, we give others that cannot repay.
God wants to be in union with us, and reached out to us
God gives us the most unbreakable, precious gift: His love. And we know the depth of his love because of the depth of his sacrifice: He gave us his one and only Son, even when we did not love him. We don't deserve his love, nor can we earn his love; God gives us his love simply out of his grace. All we have to do is receive his love.
Just as Israel was full of worry and anxiety under the oppression of Rome, we experience the oppression of worry and anxiety in our world today. It's no wonder that one of the greatest gifts God has given us is peace. Jesus is not just the Prince of Peace, nor does He keep peace to Himself as a possession. Rather, in His grace, Jesus has given us HIS PEACE by the power of the Holy Spirit. We can have His peace as a gift right now by just receiving it.
Practical steps to make room for Jesus in Advent
God calls us to a politics of love rather than fear.
What is Jesus' definition of leadership vs. the World's definition?
Christians sadly, embody the same partisan and political divisions of the world. But we have something the world doesn't: God. What if God is in our political disagreements? What if there is something he is trying to teach us, form us, sanctify us in our conflicts? What if he is can make something new if we discern his presence in our radically opposing passions and beliefs? This draws heavily on Tim Otto's “Oriented to Faith” and David Fitch's “Church of Us v Them”
Money, Family, Education, Comfort, Security, Health, etc - life in the burbs can be oriented around so many things. But what if God has an even bigger purpose for us? What if God is bringing his kingdom – and inviting us to join him? What would it look like to join him in his work of compassion, justice, and sharing about his good news? What would sharing the good news look like here in our pluralistic, post-Christian circles? C.f. Redemptive Presence
Where we live tends to be about proximity to schools, safety, home values, or consumer preferences. But what if it is true that “the Word became flesh and moved into the neighborhood”? What if God has you where you are for a reason, to join him in his mission? This message delves into a Theology of place and the call to the practice of “neighboring”. C.f. Value of Redemptive Presence
We live in a world so oriented around the worship of Mammon that it's hard to see Money soberly. But our worship belongs to God, and so we are called to a radically new relationship with money. How are we to use, spend, seek, and give money as people? E.g. Divine philanthropy (Malcolm Foley).
We often separate work and school from our spiritual lives, which allows the worldly logics and values of work and school rule how we live in those spaces. But what if God is deeply present at work and school? What if he has a purpose? How might this impact how we approach work and school as people who realize Jesus is bringing his good Kingdom everywhere? (Testimonies, TEDTalks, Panel of student and workers?). C.f. Value of Repurpose
Fall Launch Panel: Worship, Hospitality, & Small Groups
Today, what we seek more than timeless principles is an experience of the Ultimate. God is the ultimate reality, but he is not just a philosophy we “believe in; '' he is a person whose presence, love, and power we experience through his initiation and our response of obedience. How do we actually experience this God? C.f. Our value of soul
Life is more than about “being happy”; it's about finding self/fulfillment in our deepest purpose: loving God and others (c.f. How EEAAO deals with Nihilism). David Brooks calls our generation to consider living for our moral bucket list, rather than a eulogy that boasts little more than that we were happy. Cf. Our value of worship/allegiance
Training in righteousness is training in relationship with God. It involves the whole person being in a relationship with God: physical, mental (thinking), and emotional (feeling), but it's worth the cost.
To be disabled oftentimes means the loss of not only dignity, but community. An extreme example of this is Alzhiemer's where, in modern society, we prize an able, conscious mind as the hallmark of what it means to be human. How does the gospel speak to the dignity and community of the disabled? How does this challenge the able-bodied believer?
Gender roles and even gender itself is being deconstructed. How do we respond? How do we live as gendered people?
Race is when “your skin is that friend who meets everyone before you do.” Race is first and foremost, not how you identify, but how society identifies you - e.g. it is a social construct. But in Christ, we discover who we really are. How do we live out our true identity in Christ in while in the racialized gaze of the world?
Sabbatical reflection: Our Creator/Lord of the Sabbath created us in grace and gave us the gift of Sabbath rest; we are finite mortals not the eternal God – even Jesus rested! Yet, is “work-life balance” the pinnacle of spirituality? We are still called to labor/toil – but for what end? In our world, we sacrifice our health for the gods of wealth, body image, etc; but in Christ, there is a greater thing we can give our bodies to: Loving God and Others/His Kingdom
Our priorities and commitments are reorganized in light of the Lordship of Christ
The new moral character that have in Christ requires intentionality to walk it out.
Our suffering means victory instead of shame now, bc Jesus is the crucified God; we are sharing in his victory Worldly philosophies/values/habits press us to compromise our faith in Jesus the crucified God. But he triumphs and fulfills these the values/desires.
Our suffering means victory instead of shame now, bc Jesus is the crucified God; we are sharing in his victory
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