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We’re diving back into some of the strangers parts of the Bible over the next three weeks! Adam explores the story of Balaam and his Verbacious Donkey in the book of Numbers.
Amanda continues the Uprising series by exploring how Jesus goes about organizing people and discovers that Jesus turns to some unlikely people to lead.
Adam explores the surprising starting point for a Jesus-style uprising… Stillness.
Amanda Miller Garber kicks off our Fall Campaign by exploring the hard truths that our world is desperately broken and the Church (capital C) hasn't seemed to figure out how it's supposed to respond to that reality. We are left wondering: "What does a Jesus-style Uprising in the midst of this brokenness and pain look like?"
We wrap up our Summer Conversations @ 60 West series as Amanda sits down with our dear friend Thomas Rea. His passion and love for Jesus is incredible and learning where that passion comes from is truly beautiful.
On this 1 year anniversary of the events in Charlottesville, Adam King, our Associate Pastor, sat down with Shiree Harbick to discuss his experiences while working with Congregate C'Ville. This was a powerful interview and we highly encourage listening and sharing with others. (EDIT: We are having technical difficulties with the audio. We will hopefully have it back up ASAP. Thanks for your patience)
Join Molly Boese as she interviews the wonderful Liz Shoop. Liz shares stories from her life as well as her passion for books, music, and contemplative prayer and practices. Don't miss this one!
Our dear friend Rodrigue shares a POWERFUL story of loss, fear, hope, and perseverance. Note: There were a few technical difficulties with Adam's mic, so his questions may not be audible at times. Our apologies.
Adam kicks off a post-Easter sermon series called "She Persisted" that will explore the lives and stories of women in the Bible. Our first "shero" is Mary Magdalene.
We welcome Natalie Kerr this week as she opens up our sermon series for the month of June called "The Loneliness Epidemic". She shares some staggering and sobering facts about loneliness, its effect on us individually and as a society, and begins the conversation about how we can confront this modern day epidemic.
Amanda wraps up our lenten series about our bodies by looking at the end of our bodies, namely death.
Adam King and Amy Halosky tackle the challenging but vital topic of sex and sexuality as it relates to having human bodies. How does understanding our sexual beings connect to our worship of God and our ability to relate to others? And most importantly, how can the church do a better job of talking about sex with one another? Adam and Amy present a model here of one way to go about doing just that.
Special guest Trina Trotter Nussbaum, Trauma researcher and Assistant Director of the Center for Interfaith Engagement at EMU, shares a vital message about trauma, secondary trauma, and the miraculous ways the body navigates the deep wounds of life.
Amanda dives into questions about mind, body, spirit connection while exploring the problems with gnosticism and hedonism, belief systems that have significant sway both in the ancient world and the modern.
Amy Halosky and Ashley Oliver bring a powerful message about wrestling with negative body image in our second week of our Lenten series called "The Body".
Amanda launches our Lenten sermon series titled "The Body".
Amanda wraps up our sermon series "Core" by looking at the RISE Core value: "We try to stay "at the table" when things are hard."*Note: the laughter at the beginning is due to the fact that Adam set Amanda up to walk onto stage with a slide introducing her as a "closet Hokies fan" while Enter Sandman was playing on the day after her beloved Cavaliers were beaten by Virginia Tech. She will most likely get her revenge...
Adam continues our series called "Core" as he tackles the RISE core value: "Jesus is found among the poor, hurting and brokenhearted. And we should be too."
RISE was blessed to welcome Monica Robinson and Raquel Williams from the local chapter of the NAACP to share a reflection and prayer with us on this special day honoring the legacy and life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Amanda continues our Core series which explores the 8 core values at RISE. This week Amanda dives into a very challenging core "God has open arms, and so should we." We say "everyone means everyone" a lot at RISE. What does that actually mean? Who is "everyone"? And are there limits? This is not an easy sermon and you will be challenged, but we also feel like this is an incredibly important conversation to engage in.
Adam launches a new sermon series titled "Core" that explores RISE's 8 core values. Today's core value is "Jesus lived and loved with passion, and so should we." We're excited about this series and hope you are encouraged, challenged, and uplifted.Note: at one point during this sermon, I (Adam) state that 'apathy is a cop-out'. While I do think that is often true, it dawned on me after the fact that apathy is also a common symptom of depression and anxiety and that is really important to be named. I overstated my case here in a way that could be very damaging to those who struggle with depression and so I feel the need to include this addendum to it. My apologies if you listened to the sermon that day and were hurt.
We wrap up our Advent Series with a unique sermon/service focused on listening. You'll discover that this sermon is much shorter than usual and that is because we invited everyone into a practice of listening (which was done 'off air' so to say). We encourage you if possible to listen to this podcast with a friend or family member so that you too can join in the activity at the end of the lesson.
Our friend and guest preacher, Jonathan Fuller, from the Wesley Fellows program at Floris UMC, appropriately collaborates with RISE in offering our sermon today focused on the second word in our Advent series, "Collaborate". Apologies that the first few moments of Jonathan's sermon was cut off in the recording. This podcast picks up very early in his sermon as he's discussing the need for teamwork in sports (an analogy he admitted was cliche, but still very helpful).
Amanda kicks off our Advent series as we follow the sage advice of Vanilla Ice to Stop Collaborate and Listen. We start this week looking at the word "stop". *Note: there is a five minute gap in this podcast while we invited the congregation to discuss how they will Stop. We encourage you to use this time to do your own brainstorming!*
Amanda wraps up our FULL series by exploring what a FULL community looks like.
We continue our series titled "FULL" as Adam wrestles with knowing what being full feels like, and how we can know. He looks at Jesus' statements often called the Beatitudes (blessed/happy are those who...) and how they turn our vision of what a full life looks like on it's head.
Amanda launches our FULL sermon series by asking the question "If our lives are so full, why do we feel so empty?" This is a three week sermon series that is tied to our FULL giving campaign.Watch the video that Amanda mentions in the sermon here: "What does it mean to be full?"(sorry her audio was not edited out of the podcast while the video was playing. You can fast forward through that section and watch the video instead)
Amanda finishes our sermon series on David and leadership as she discusses the confrontation of David and Nathan after David's massive failure. She asks questions about how leaders are held accountable and why that is of the utmost importance.
Our Associate Pastor, Adam King, explores the story of David and Bathsheba and the reality of sexual assault and abuse of power in the world and particularly in leadership. *content warning: this sermon explores issues of sexual assault, rape, and abuse.
Amanda looks at the story of David dancing in celebration after finding success. We consider questions about what appropriate behavior for a leader looks like, especially when celebrating success.
Amanda continues our Game of Thrones series as she dives into the first king of Israel, Saul, and his tumultuous relationship with David, the future king of Israel. She considers questions about leadership and relationships
Amanda kicks off a new series called Game of Thrones: Journeying through the stories of King David. In this opening week of a 5 week series focused on leadership, she looks at the story of Samuel and Israel's demand for a king, despite God wanting something better for them than a king. *note: This sermon was re-recorded after the service due to technical issues with the original recording.
Amanda wraps up our Hardly Christian series by considering the question: "What does life 'on the outside' look like exactly?" But then she wonders if that question is even the right question to ask at all...
Our Associate Pastor, Adam King, continues with week three of our Hardly Christian series as he looks at the social phenomenon called 'ghosting'. What happens when we are abandoned (or are tempted to abandon others) due to changing identities and beliefs? What are the consequences and what are ways to deal with it when it happens?
Amanda continues our series by considering what happens when the charges of "Hardly ______" aren't coming from others, but from within. What do we do when we realize our beliefs and identities are changing?*note- due to technical difficulties, this sermon was re-recorded without a live studio audience. :-D
Amanda kicks off a new series that looks at the intersection of faith, identity, shame, and change. Week 1 considers the challenge of responding to charges by others against our core identities. What happens when we are labeled Hardly ___________ (fill in the blank). How should we respond? *Note- due to technical issues, we do not have the original recording of this sermon at RISE. This recording was done at Bridgewater College at their Wednesday evening worship service.
Adam shares a message about spiritual gifts, what they are, and who has them.Sermon from June 11, 2017
The Holy Spirit has an odd way of getting things done. Amanda asks "why is that?"Sermon from June 4, 2017
Brittany shares a message of holy resistance against white supremacy and nationalism in this sermon from May 21, 2017
Listen as Nathan Scarborough, our College InReach Team Leader, brings a beautiful message of the vital importance of doubt as he reflects on Thomas' encounter with the risen Jesus. Check out the link below for the video that Nathan uses (you can hear the audio in the sermon)
Amanda celebrates Easter with stories of finding the will to fight after it seems all hope is lost.
Amanda wraps up our Lenten sermon series with a quick recap of the series, and then asking the question "what if salvation isn't what we expect... and what if we're wrong?" The video attached was shown between the end of Amanda's talk and her closing prayer, so if you'd like to to recreate that, pause the audio when she begins her prayer and watch the video attached, then finish the audio. A dramatic retelling of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem that asks the question "what if salvation isn't what we think it is?" credits: all video found on YouTube (we will take down any footage at request) Song: "Riceboy Sleeps" by Jonsi & Alex.
Amanda continues our sermon series on sin, salvation, and other big scary topics by asking the question "What if salvation isn't just about the afterlife, but about this life?"
March 12, 2017Amanda continues our Lenten series on salvation, sin, and other big scary topics. Today she tackles questions around sin. Is it a "thing"? Is it actions we do? Both? Where did it come from? How big of a problem is it really? Buckle up, it's quite a challenging topic but we think we open the door for really important, life giving questions.
March 5th, 2017Amanda starts off our Lenten series: Saved? with a discussion of where to even start the discussion.Saved? will focus on the challenging but vital topics such as salvation, sin, and other scary topics. We promise, as hard as this may be, stick with us... this ends well.