Rechurch Teaching Podcast

For this Whanau service, we look at Luke 2:39-52 and consder how a 12 year old Jesus asked questions and listened carefully to the answers. As a result, he grew in wisdom and stature. We talk about ways that we can do the same.

We start out another new series today focusing on some practical ways to follow Jesus. The series name comes from the longer phrase 'may you be covered by the dust of your Rabbi' - which was often said to young men training to become Rabbis ... but what does this have to do with us? Take a listen and find out.

With Saturday being Waitangi day, we look at our country's past and the broken promises that were made. We think about the problems that we still see today which was a direct result of that and we ask, what should we be doing as a church to help fix the future?

We're back for the year from our unplugged series, and straight out the gate into our new series 'Toa Takitini' which can be translated in English to 'Better Together'. We'll be focusing in on 2 Cor 5:18-21 and talking about God's plan of reconciliation for all humankind back to himself, but also his desire to see all of his creation reconciled with each other.

In another Whanau service, Jodi guides us through today's topic - Love. Again we revisit what love is, and how it can often be harder to do than we'd think. We'll be looking through Luke 1:57-80.

We talk about Joy, but more specifically how to choose to be Joyous in circumstances that we wouldn't naturally be happy about. We look into Luke 1:39-56 this week and Bruce sends us out with some practical ways to be full of Joy.

This week we focus on the peace that God brings us through his son Jesus. How only Jesus can heal the divide between us and God. We'll be examining Luke 1:26-38.

We kick off our Advent series as we head into Christmas and look at Luke 1:5-25. We see how the message of the coming Saviour was given to Zechariah and Elizabeth and how their son would be the one to introduce him to the world.

To complete the series, we decided to have a Whanau service and wrap up what we've learned as a whole church. The kids join us as they weren't in the alternate circle Sunday services, wo we re-cover some of the same ground. Readings for this week come from: Matthew 28:18-20, Matthew 4:19.

Part of Jesus' mission was to bring all of humanity back together as one, and to see that we're all made in God's image. Today we focus on looking past the things that divide us as our guest speaker Paul Askin talks about his experiences living Life Together in another culture.

This week we review Rechurch's Core Values. While it is good to do this to remind ourselves of them, we also belive that thye are not just a collection of values but a roadmap for growing disciples.

Partnering with World Vision to highlight the plight of the poor and the church's response. This week we took part in the Matthew 25 Challenge. We shared our experience of how we experienced what it's like to live in poverty firsthand by giving up some of freedoms. We also had some time to do things to bless some of our local community support groups.

After working through our discipleship manual in a circle Sunday, we're back together following the way of King Jesus. This week we're looking at missional communites and how the help us grow indiviually in smaller groups, so that the church as a whole can grow. We talk about the importance of not going it alone.

This week we have another whānau service as we continue on with our series 'Te Ara I Ihu Ariki'. Bruce takes us on a trip to discover our mission and realize that we should expect to encounter suffering along the way.

We're back into our first whānau service since the lockdown, we start to think about who we can reach out to within our communities that we interact with each eeek.

Picking up from where we left off last time, we're back in the hall and ready to hear the good news!

We were able to meet in the Fraser's living room and do House Church this Sunday. Bruce tells us how God uses people to prepare the way for his kingdom to come.

The church is a safe place to explore your doubts. God provided eye witnesses who tell the story of what they said. Doubting Thomas gets a bad rap. Jesus doesn't mock him but honors his doubt with evidence.

The church is a safe place to explore your doubts. God provided eye witnesses who tell the story of what they saw. Doubting Thomas gets a bad rap. Jesus doesn't mock him but honors his doubt with evidence.

What do the last words that Jesus spoke from the cross say to us about our Christian faith? How does that impact our lives and what should we do in response?

In our first week of national lockdown we post our first online service. It's this week where the importance of being more like Jesus will be so important to us and our communities. You were made to please and honour God and his Son Jesus. Worship is not about what you do with your body, but whether your heart has been transformed by Jesus.

This week, the world has changed ... and so have we both personally and how we are doing church today, however - the message of God remains the same. You were made for a mission. The Great Commission is "as you go, make disciples". Paul did just that going to many different groups of people. What people has God called you to?

To grow, we have to be connected to the source of life. When we grow, and are pruned, we will bear good fruit. This week Lee takes us through her history as a gardener and how God is the ultimate gardener. She she's her vision of the church she sees as a powerful Kauri tree, teaming with life, both symbiotical and parasitical - yet it is the Kauri which supports both.

God's family is much bigger than you imagine. It includes unexpected people and he's already working in them too. Bruce and Jodi take us through Acts 10 today in a Whanau service to look at one of our core values - Whanaungatanga.

We kick off a new series this week, one on mission, vision and values. We'll be looking at the mission vision and values of the Capital "C" Church as well as our own here at Rechurch. This Sunday is our 10 year Birthday and a chance for us to reflect on where we are now, and where we'd like to be as a church looking forwards at the next 10 years.

This week Paul Askin kindly returns to us to help us along the path of Biculturalism and wraps up our series with some Q&A.

Aiden returns to us this Sunday to give us some insight and practical tips on how to start our on our bicultural journey. He also has some interactive elements to get help us understand the effect our environment has on us.

Aiden kicks off our Stories of Aotearoa series with some history, and an explaination of how we got here. He does a great job of telling us about the good, the bad and the ugly along the way ... though bear in mind this is a big and complex story. What motivated the early missionaries? What did they do to see that mission carried forward?

After a two week back, and a smaller service last week we return to the hall for our first offical service of the year. Last week Bruce talked about James 1:23-24 and expands on it this week. We learn about the real meaning of repentance by following the interactions of Peter with Jesus.

This Sunday, the Sunday before Christmas, Jodi kicks us off with a story about St Nicholas - the Origin of Santa. After that Bruce takes us through the Christmas story, and talks about how we may sometimes forget how wonderful it must have been for those who experienced Christmas first hand, and how Jesus, the redeemer didn't come as who they were expecting.

This week is the final week of What would Jesus buy? There has been a lot to take in, many ways that we could change our behaviours and we may be feeling a little overwhelmed. If that's the case them you won't want to miss this week as Lee wraps up the series and addresses these concerns.

In this week's Whānau service, Lee talks to us about our role as Kaitiakitanga - guardians of God's creation. We talk about some really practical ways to do this, as well as some things to think about.

Lee kicks us off into a new series named 'What would Jesus buy' where she talks about her own journey and the research she has done to inform her decisions when it comes to buying things. Even though the Bible doesn't specifically answer this question, when we think about Jesus' life an character, we can make some pretty strong inferences to what he would likely do in modern society.

This week Adam takes us through the very last part of Ephesians, and looks at Ironman in this last Bingewatch sermon. He looks at how the Armor of God allows us to complete our mission, just as Tony Stark needs his armor.

As it's was Whānau service, Bruce took the lead from his sons, and decided to take a look at Ninjago. We see in this movie that while still chooses to honour his father, even though he is not obeying his evil commands.

Looking at the movie Hancock this week, and reading through Ephesians 5:21-33 we start to see some parallels. We see how Hancock eventually loves Mary enough to give himself up for her. Mary gave up operating in her superhero capacity in order to respect, love and serve her family. What does this say about how we should love our spouses.

Previously, we were ignorant of God's ways, but now we are to imitate God in every way. We'll take a look at Ephesians 5:1-20 and see how we should live in light of the fact that we now understand God's call on our lives.

In this weeks Whānau service we look at Gru amd the transformation he makes and how in our scripture we are asked to do the same thing. We should throw off the old nature and put on the new nature that Jesus offers.

This week we talk about the X-Men and about how they often see their abilities as a curse rather than a blessing. We can be like that too sometimes, but God often uses hard and painful experiences to shape us and make us better.

Bruce dives into Man of Steel today and draws out parallels between Superman and Jesus. God is the source of our power and by his spirit he empowers us to be be able to reach our full potential.

Just as the Avengers had to put aside their differences from the civil war to fight the most important battle in their lives, God calls us to do the same as the Church - to be an example of unity for the whole world to see.

We switch back to the Marvel Universe this week, and look at the division that occurs between Captain America and Iron Man. We see how sometimes we can let other things get in the way of our mission, just like in the case of the Avengers.

Continuing on with our Bingwatch series, we look at the show Gotham. We see that God brought us out of death and darkness and into new life through Jesus and that Jesus return from death makes it possible for all of us to be saved.

This week we take a detour from our bingewatch series and hear from Glen. We hear about his journey with God and how it has lead him to follow his calling with a local organzation - Christians Against Poverty. He tells us about who they are and what they do, as this week we consider how we as a church could be involved with them and serve our local community better.

This week we look at the life of Carol Danvers and see how she becomes Captain Marvel. We follow her life to see that she doesn't get her power from just within herself, but she relies on an external power to help her fight the good fight, as per usual we compare this with our calling and see what it has to do with our lives as modern christians.ß

We kick off the bingewatch series this Fathers' day by looking at Lego Batman. We look at two father figures in the movie, Batman and Alfred and contrast the two father's approaches to adopting Robin.

This Sunday we have the kids in with us and Bruce talks about what it means to be Generous.

There's some pretty scary stuff that we see in movies, but this week Bruce talks about something that is really frightening in movies - real life stories. Bruce talks about a movie that he recently saw named 'Priceless', where a regular man tries to save two sisters from a life of sex trafficking. This man gives up everything to save them, and Bruce parallels this with a parable in the Bible which talks about God's love and how much he gave up for us.

This week asks us some important questions, one of which is how much money is enough for us to be happy. To put things in perspective he also pulls up some interesting, and uncomfortable stats that help us keep grounded in reality.

So if we don't have debt, what then life should be great right? We could be debt free but still living paycheck to paycheck, but then what happens when crisis strikes? Today we talk about having a buffer, something that will help us and other when financial hardship strikes. Today we talk about having wealth, but not letting wealth have us.

This is one of those topics that nobody really likes to talk about, but far too many of us struggle with. But debt is just one of those natural things that we all have to live with right? Well perhaps not - and imagine what we could do if we didn't have to live with it.