This is the official podcast for Spring Church Bellingham.
This episode was recorded by Matt McCoy. You can read the original post and look at the photos here: https://springchurchbellingham.com/springchurchblog/whatdoweholdonto
Audio recording of Jessie Bloss reading an article written by Emma McCoy about Zaccheus available to read here. https://springchurchbellingham.com/
The prayer of the examen is often prayed at the end of the day in order to give thanks, reflect, and look forward to the day ahead. This prayer is to help us identify the different “magnets” that pulled our heart's compass away from God and onto something else today.
This Sunday Matt & Ryan will be guiding us as we revisit the story of Jesus meeting the woman at the well. Here's a question to be thinking about as we prepare for Sunday… who would you want to preach the good news to your neighborhood: Jesus himself, one of his disciples, or the social outcast?
Read by Matt McCoy Spring Church wants to be a church that is good for hurting people who hurt people. But if I'm being honest with myself, there are a lot of days when I would like to strike out the “who hurt people” bit and settle for simply being good for hurting people. Being good for hurting people is pretty straightforward, but being good for hurting people who hurt people is something that sometimes feels impossible….
Living for others with what the Dalai Lama and AA both reveal is the art of happiness. We're going to look at how Jesus' friendship with unexpected people transforms how we love other people (even people we don't like!) over the next several months at Spring Church.
https://springchurchbellingham.com/events/may22commontablechurchgathering
This is our last service to look at the story of Jesus calming the storm, and we'll spend a little bit of time together reflecting on where we've been together. https://springchurchbellingham.com/springchurchblog/hopeisintheboat
Was there ever a time when you talked about Jesus with a friend who doesn't know Jesus, and that conversation brought you and your friend hope? Stephen Colbert demonstrated an example of what this looks like on national TV just this past week. On Sunday at 6:30pm (more details in bio) we'll be reading Matthew 8 and discussing how the storms of life can point us to hope in Jesus and share our hope with others.
The Greek word in our story for “anxious” does not mean the same thing as the medical condition we know as “anxiety.” Modern people like us can read the word “anxious” and think of a debilitation physical and psychological state of apprehension of a real or imagined threat. That's not what Jesus is talking about here, so rest in knowing that Jesus still welcomes you and loves you, even if you struggle with anxiety. The Greek word for “anxious” has more to do with our human habit of relying on something other than God for what we need, and our preference to fret, stew, plan, and ponder for ourselves, because it's hard to hope in Jesus when we know he might not give us what we want.
If our new supreme ruler from an unseen realm shows up as a baby, well, we better practice patience. Babies require an incredible amount of patience, and we need to learn how to wait on the baby's timing. Advent comes as a holy whisper, not a shout. https://springchurchbellingham.com/
For Christ the King Sunday, we remember something that hasn't happened yet: Jesus will fulfill all our longings for a hero. Not by bringing about a kingdom of our own making, where Jesus loves all the same people we love and hates all the same people we hate, but by bringing his kingdom to fulfillment here, on earth as it is in heaven. Jesus isn't the hero we want, Jesus is the hero he is, and we get to participate with Jesus in his kingdom. Corresponding Blog Sunday Gathering Details
This coming Sunday is a service of re-membering. We'll get to pause together and remember Hannah and Abigail, the journey that we've been on together, and the ways we've seen God show up in our midst. To participate, check out our website: https://springchurchbellingham.com/events
In the midst of life's challenges, how do we prepare room for God to walk with us? Read and learn more here: https://springchurchbellingham.com/firstlookfriday/whentheoutcomeisfarfromcertain
Have you ever had to suffer because of people who were acting foolish, and wanted to take your own revenge?How do we feel when our convenience gets diminished? In 1 Samuel, both Abigail and Hannah share a common theme: they both demonstrate how God reveals his kingdom so we can walk together through life's challenges. And because of that common theme, we have another opportunity to discover how God walks through life with us in the midst of life's challenges. This audio blog unpacks these themes and invites further participation at the gathering on Sunday August 22: Details here: https://springchurchbellingham.com/events/august22worshipgathering Artwork by: Peter Winfried (Canisius) Koenig
Look, I realize we don't often use the word “kingdom” in modern culture, and when we talk about a kingdom, we're likely thinking of a geographic reality like the United Kingdom or the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. And while those are certainly kingdoms, limiting our imagination to merely geographical kingdoms will hamstring our ability to understand why the Bible places so much emphasis on “The Kingdom of God.” Spring Church Website Corresponding blog post
Jesus invites to go ahead and start living like we're in heaven, even though we know we're not quite there yet. That is a bizarre invitation, no doubt about it.
Pastor Kevin Riley shares a personal story of hearing from God while living on the streets and invites us into a reality where Jesus is closer to us than our own pain.
The Kingdom of God is a place where Jesus is closer to us than our own pain, our own hurt, our own fear. Would you like to live in this Kingdom? Corresponding Blog Post Springchurchbellingham.com
In March we lamented the loss of life, relationships, freedoms, and sense of vocation. This week we get to celebrate the joy of life, relationships, freedoms, and sense of vocation. Corresponding Blog The "Now" and "Not Yet" tension explained by Alpha
We were thrilled to host another webinar as an extension of Spring Church's Healing Our Broken Humanity small group. On April 21, we are joined by honored guest, Father Emmanuel Katongole, who shared powerful stories about racial healing and encouraged us how to follow Jesus in this version of America we encounter today. Pastor Matt McCoy facilitated this conversation between Father Katonogle and Spring Church's Healing Our Broken Humanity small group leader, Ali Raetz. Any questions about this small group can be directed to Ali at ali@springchurchbellingham.com.
How might we live differently if we believed that our race isn't a temporary problem to be endured, but an eternal reality to be celebrated? What if our discipleship invited us to reimagine race as part of God's good creation, and as something that exists even in heaven? Spring Church Website
Why Is Jesus Still Wounded After His Resurrection? Article by Peter Wehner Read by Matt McCoy, pastor at Spring Church Read original article here
All through the season of Lent, we've been writing and praying laments. We've lamented our own deaths, our racial brokenness, this pandemic world, and those left out. As we began the process of praying and writing these laments, we've remembered that a lament is not a trip to the hospital where you're hoping for a healing. It's a trip to the grave. We lament when things are hopeless and broken. With Easter, we make that same trip to the grave, but the grave is empty! We will write and pray a celebration for Easter and over the next 4 weeks! Join us this Easter! Corresponding Blog post
Americans love comfort, and I love comfort. And excluding uncommon friends often helps me feel more comfortable, which does not give them the seriousness, care, and respect they deserve, either. Are we hearing the voices of our youth preaching to us? How is Spring Church worshipping in ways that effortlessly exclude our uncommon friends? This coming Palm Sunday, we'll gather together to lament everyone who's been left out. Corresponding Video Corresponding Blog Post Spring Church Website
At the year marker for the pandemic, we lament all the things that have been lost, from lives to relationships to jobs to happiness. We lament broken marriages and broken promises and broken societies. Together we lay all this at the feet of Jesus, and as Jesus reveals his kingdom in the midst of this broken mess, we pray for his strength to be able to walk in the direction he's walking. Corresponding Blog Post Corresponding Video Spring Church Website
This Sunday is the second of four lament services for Lent, where we'll gather together and write and pray a lament about racial brokenness, because all of us have, at some point in the last year, have been around when harmful racial brokenness has been on display in our neighborhoods. Corresponding Blog Post Spring Church Website
How has death impacted our deepest longings? We typically don't like to think or talk about death very often because it can be painful and uncomfortable. On Ash Wednesday, we pause as a church and remember that death is a part of life. We know Easter is coming, so we know death doesn't have the last word, but we still feel the sting of death together as a church as we start the Easter season together. Corresponding Blog Post Spring Church Website
The first half of the Easter season is called Lent, and that's when we'll focus on lament. The second half of the Easter season is called Eastertide, and that's when we'll focus on celebration. All of us have learned how to do something through practicing that particular something, so pause for a moment and think of an example of something you've learned how to do by practicing at it. What did it feel like the first time you tried it? The first time driving a car is scary, the first time playing a musical instrument is unpleasant, and the first time cooking a new dish is risky. Learning new skills requires a bit of courage, and a sense of humor because it often doesn't go the way we want it to go. This is all very normal. Corresponding Video Corresponding Blog Post Spring Church Website
The day-after-the-inauguration of president Biden, Spring Church hosted a webinar conversation with Dr. Soong-Chan Rah to explore how the American Church might be contributing to some of the problems we are experiencing and come up with some practical steps on how we might move forward. Dr. Rah was joined by two friends of Spring Church, Kevin and Danielle Riley. The conversation was moderated by Spring Church pastor, Matt McCoy. During the conversation, we take an honest look at the world as we really find it and Dr. Rah explains why lament is a necessary response and how action, commitment, and community are a result of our lament. More from Dr. Soong-Chan Rah Watch the webinar here How to participate with Healing Our Broken Humanity Small Group Spring Church Facebook Spring Church Instagram
Throughout the Bible, most stories portray most religious leaders in a negative light most of the time. And that's because religious leaders tend to deserve it. While I am often frustrated and saddened by the behavior of the religious leaders in the Bible, when it comes to the story we celebrate at the Feast of the Epiphany, I'm willing to give those religious leaders a little bit of slack because this story is straight crazy! Corresponding Video Corresponding Blog Post Spring Church Website
Have you ever thought about how Ruth and the Magi are connected? Yeah, me neither. But as I started preparing for our Epiphany service coming up next week, I realized that they're connected by a very significant theme… Read the corresponding blog post Watch videos from our Ruth series Spring Church Bellingham Website Cover Art
This isn't some Christmas story where we take our eyes off our problems and just focus on the baby Jesus. The spaces we inhabit are still broken. This is still a version of Spring Church that is broken. But Jesus fills these broken spaces, because in the broken spaces is where we find room for him. Read the blog post with images here Watch the corresponding video here
Every other advent, I've focused my attention on how I prepare room in my heart for God through the active waiting of all our advent traditions. But advent 2020? For the first time in my life, I've been focusing on how God prepares the room through the events that we didn't choose. Read the blog post with images here Watch the corresponding video here
The question we're inviting you to ask is a continuation of our recently completed series on Ruth, and gives us an opportunity to live out those themes in our neighborhoods: Who is the Spirit inviting you to walk through Advent and Christmas with? Read the blog post here Watch the corresponding video here
Our friends at Collide Women's Ministry kindly invited Matt and Denise McCoy to share on hospitality and uncommon friendship on their podcast. Their conversation highlights God's unfolding story in their lives and in the Spring Church Community as Matt and Denise share about doing things WITH not FOR other people who are different than ourselves. Here is the original podcast recording on the Collide website Here is a blog post written by Matt McCoy diving further into this topic
Gustavo Santos join Spring Church small group "Heading North" to help us reimagine our vocation. This podcast includes various voices from Spring Church participating in this conversation and asking questions along the way. Check out the official page for this Small Group here! The Prayer of the Examen More from Gustavo Santos Springchurchbellingham.com
We were so thrilled to have Australian theologian, Dr. Graham Hill, join us to introduce the upcoming small group called "Healing Our Broken Humanity" starting fall 2020. We will be going through the Healing Our Broken Humanity 7-part film series from the Global Church Project, and as a group, we will watch video interviews of individuals from all across the world talk about race, repentance, reconciliation, and what we can do in our neighborhoods to bring change, hope, and healing. This conversation is a recording of the webinar featuring Spring Church Pastor, Matt McCoy, Ali Raetz and Tracy Imbach as panelists, and special guest, Dr. Graham Hill from Australia, who is the founder of the Global Church Project and co-author of Healing Our Broken Humanity. Check out the official page for this new Small Group here! Buy the book here! Check out the film series here!
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