POPULARITY
Hey FTG Fam! We're tackling Acts 2 this week and the beautiful, radical way the early church lived in community with the Holy Spirit at the center. As we go through Week 2 of The Wild Invitation Bible study, we reflect on what it truly looks like to care for one another, share life sacrificially, and be on mission together. From funny church traditions we'd ditch to the hard-but-holy call to open our hearts and homes, we get real about what a Spirit-filled community looks like in modern life. We for sure don't have all this figured out, but we'd love you to be on the journey with us! In This Episode 03:00 – Icebreaker: Church Traditions We'd Retire 08:00 – Recap of Acts 2: The Spirit Comes at Pentecost 10:00 – What the Early Church Looked Like 13:00 – Radical Generosity & Sacrifice 16:30 – Missional Living in Today's World 20:00 – Young Life: Living Missionally in Community 22:30 – Facing Outward: Community That Grows 25:00 – When Community Gets Boring or Hard 28:00 – How to Start a Spirit-Led Mission With Your People 29:00 – Closing Encouragement & Small Group Prompt ORDER OUR NEW STUDY! This seven-week, verse-by-verse study through the book of Acts invites you to embrace the unpredictable, sometimes challenging adventure of Spirit-led living that characterized the early church. Thanks to Our Sponsors Operation Christmas Child: Operation Christmas Child, a project of Samaritan's Purse, partners with churches to collect and distribute gift-filled shoeboxes to millions of children around the world, telling them the Good News of Jesus Christ, God's Greatest Gift. For more, visit samaritanspurse.org/occ. Piper and Leaf: Visit PiperandLeaf.com to pick up an Advent Tea set for you or someone you love! NIV Application Study Bible - Grab your copy today! Winshape: Learn more or submit your application today! If you'd like to partner with For The Girl as a sponsor, fill out our Advertise With Us form! Follow us!
Acts 8:9–25 contrasts the gospel of the Kingdom with the transactional mindset of Simon the Magician. As Philip proclaims Christ, the people of Samaria rejoice—yet Simon approaches the gospel like something to buy, control, or use for personal gain. This passage exposes how easily we can slip into treating ministry like a product and people like customers. But everyday mission is not a sales pitch; it's an announcement of a King and a Kingdom. Peter's rebuke reminds us that the Spirit cannot be purchased, manipulated, or branded. The mission belongs to Jesus, the true King, and we are simply witnesses who proclaim His reign. When the gospel is rightly understood, it leads not to control but to repentance, surrender, and joyful obedience.For more information about Integrity Church, visit our website, http://liveintegritychurch.org Connect with us on social media throughout the week to stay up to date on events and things happening at Integrity! Instagram: @integrity_church Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/liveintegrity/
Why does God allow pain and suffering? It's one of the most frequently asked questions about God and one that keeps many from choosing to follow Him. Unfortunately, the Bible doesn't offer clear and concise answers to every question we have about suffering. Suffering is unpredictable, messy, and deeply personal. The good news is that Scripture offers us stories of real people who live through suffering and still draw near to God despite not having all their questions answered. Acts 27 is one of those stories. After years of trials and suffering , Paul finds himself in the middle of a violent storm as he sails to Rome. Through Paul's experience and example, we uncover some profound truths that will help us to live well in the midst of suffering in our own lives.
In this final message of the Come and See series, Pastor Jim invites listeners to respond to Jesus's call not only to come and see, but to come and go. Drawing from Luke 10, Jim explores how Jesus sends His disciples ahead of Him into everyday places to proclaim that the kingdom of God has come near. He challenges listeners to wake up to a greater purpose beyond comfort and consumerism, embracing a life of missional living that reflects the presence of God through everyday friendship, hospitality, healing, and courage. Jim shares that being sent by Jesus is not about having all the answers, but about trusting God to work through us as we proclaim good news, display the fruit of the Spirit, and bring wholeness to a broken world. The invitation to join Jesus on His mission is not an optional extra to the Christian life, but the very purpose of it.
Life on mission starts with surrender. In Romans 12:1–2, Paul calls us to lay down our whole selves, resist the pull of the world, and allow God to transform us from the inside out. In this message, we explore what it means to live as a “living sacrifice,” to daily renew our minds, and to walk in the good purpose God has prepared for us.
What do we do when we are overcome with the brokenness in the world around us? Often, Christians respond in one of two ways: we separate or we assimilate. We remove ourselves from the culture so that we are not affected by the brokenness; or we assimilate so that we are not bothered by it. Both of these responses prevent us from being able to have any meaningful impact on the world around us. Instead, Jesus offers a third way: We call this contextualization.In Acts 17, Paul is overwhelmed by the brokenness that he sees in the city of Athens. But instead of isolating or conforming, he contextually engages the culture. As a result, the people of Athens hear the message of Jesus in their own language and are compelled to consider if Jesus is truly God and King of the world.
This week at One Hope, Gareth preached from 1 Corinthians 9:19–23 on the Gospel Method for Missional Living. He reminded us that true freedom in Christ is not for self-indulgence but for serving God and others. Like Paul, we are called to lay down our freedom to reach people with the gospel, living as sent ones in every sphere of life. Through incarnational mission, faithful contextualisation, and the Spirit's empowering, we are ambassadors of Christ—His aroma, salt, and light in the world.
In this episode with have a conversation with Larry McCrary, missionary and founder of The Upstream Collective. Larry and the Upstream team train marketplace missionaries to go abroad and engage their context through their vocation. They partner with churches to send well and support people during their time overseas. Larry shares a helpful tool for assessing the unique rhythms of your neighborhood or missional context and identifying the best times to build relationships and connect with people on a deeper level. If you want to learn more about The Upstream Collective, visit https://www.theupstreamcollective.org/.
Philippians 2:5-11 (1) Missional Living is Challenging (2) Missional Living is Satisfying
In this episode of The Mobilized Church Podcast, we unpack the article “An Exploration of Missional Expressions in an Age of Skepticism.” As cultural trust in Christianity declines and indifference replaces curiosity, the Church finds itself at a crossroads—much like the early believers in Acts 28:22, who were “spoken against everywhere.”We explore how this cultural shift is not just a challenge but a Spirit-led opportunity for bold, authentic discipleship and Kingdom multiplication. What does it mean to thrive missionally in a world that is no longer listening the way it used to? How do we form courageous disciples, equip everyday missionaries, and rethink church systems to foster vibrant witness in the margins?Join us as we discuss redefining success, discerning spiritual openness, and cultivating leaders for a world that demands faithfulness more than familiarity.
What does it really mean to grow as a disciple of Jesus and are we starting in the right place? In this episode, Chris, Jacob, and Jessie Cruickshank unpack the “Five Cs” of discipleship: Christ, Community, Character, Calling, and Competency. Together, they explore why starting with a skills assessment or plugging people into ministry roles based on talent can short-circuit the deeper work of identity formation in Christ.Jessie draws from neuroscience, her experience training church leaders, and even jellyfish biology (yes, really!) to help us reimagine discipleship as a relational, community-driven journey of becoming. Character is shaped in community, calling is discerned in relationship, and competency should be the last step, not the first.ORDER Jessie's newest book, Ordinary Discipleship: How God Wires Us for the Adventure of Transformation → https://a.co/d/51j86DGFor more great stuff, check out: Ordinary Discipleship by Whoology: https://whoology.coFollow us on social media:https://instagram.com/ordinarydiscipleshiphttps://facebook.com/ordinarydiscipleshipFollow Jessie on social media:Instagram: https://instagram.com/yourbrainbyjessFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/jessica.s.cruickshank/Twitter: https://twitter.com/yourbrainbyjessJessie Cruickshank is a disciple-maker, wilderness guide, and ordained minister. She has trained thousands of people how to survive when their life depended on it and earned a Master's degree in experiential education at Harvard to learn how the brain works to help people train more effectively.The key to discipleship is not more information, but learning how to create intentional environments where people can learn and grow. By working with the brain and treating individuals as whole persons, you too can discover how God wired our brains for transformation. You already have all the tools you need, it is time to activate them in you and your church. ORDER Jessie's newest book, Ordinary Discipleship: How God Wires Us for the Adventure of Transformation → https://a.co/d/51j86DGFor more great stuff, check out: Ordinary Discipleship by Whoology: https://whoology.coFollow us on social media:https://instagram.com/ordinarydiscipleshiphttps://facebook.com/ordinarydiscipleshipFollow Jessie on social media:Instagram: https://instagram.com/yourbrainbyjessFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/jessica.s.cruickshank/Twitter: https://twitter.com/yourbrainbyjessJessie Cruickshank is a disciple-maker, wilderness guide, and ordained minister. She has trained thousands of people how to survive when their life depended on it and earned a Master's degree in experiential education at Harvard to learn how the brain works to help people train more effectively.The key to discipleship is not more information, but learning how to create intentional environments where people can learn and grow. By working with the brain and treating individuals as whole persons, you too can discover how God wired our brains for transformation. You already have all the tools you need, it is time to activate them in you and your church.
Click here for bulletin
Sunday teaching on Colossians 4:2-6
As the early church continued to grow, more and more people outside of the Jewish community began to follow Jesus. This created questions regarding the relevance of the law for the Jesus community.In Acts 11, the leaders of the church are wrestling with some of these questions when Peter shares a vision that he received from God. The vision revealed that though the law was a good thing, it was not the ultimate thing. The law was given to God's people so that they could understand and reflect God's heart. It was not just a list of rules to follow. It was a gift that revealed the will of God for their lives and their community. As they navigate this new era of the family of God, the leaders of the church need to make the difficult decision to follow the heart of God as displayed in the person of Jesus, even if it means breaking their old laws and customs.
Spiritual formation is the process of being conformed to the image of Christ for the sake of others. Disciplines create the space for that formation to happen in and through us as we encounter the presence and power of God.Our All-Family Gatherings begin with a short workshop or story on missional living and/or microchurches. This week, we continue our series of workshops on spiritual formation and disciplines with a conversation around confession.
Click here for bulletin
Click here for bulletin
Click here for bulletin
In Acts 9, we read about the radical transformation of Paul after his encounter with Jesus. He goes from being a ruthless persecutor of early Church to being persecuted for declaring that Jesus is the resurrected Son of God. What we learn through Paul's transformation is that we can think we are following God's will but be completely missing what he is actually doing. We need to see the world with His eyes. We can only gain this new way of seeing the world through a personal encounter with the gracious love and presence Jesus.
Spiritual formation is the process of being conformed to the image of Christ for the sake of others. Disciplines create the space for that formation to happen in and through us as we encounter the presence and power of God.Our All-Family Gatherings begin with a short workshop or story on missional living and/or microchurches. This week, we continue our series of workshops on spiritual formation and disciplines with a guided meditation around the practice of silence and solitude.
Click here for bulletin
Ever wonder what it really means to grow in your faith?In this honest and grace-filled conversation, Pastors Dave and Jeff sit down to unpack what spiritual maturity looks like—and what might be holding you back. This isn't a lecture—it's a real talk about the journey from surface-level faith to a deeper, more authentic walk with Jesus.We explore questions like:Why do I still feel stuck in my faith?What does maturity actually look like?How can I grow without falling into religious performance?Whether you're new to faith or have been following Jesus for years, this discussion is here to encourage you, challenge you, and help you take your next step forward.
In Acts 8, we see a shift in the spread of the Jesus movement. The persecution, culminating in the martyrdom of Stephen, caused the Church to scatter, and the message to spread to surrounding nations and people groups. This is all because a small group of people listened to the prompting of the Holy Spirit and did what he asked them to do. This is particularly on display in the life of Philip, who has the opportunity to tell people he never thought he'd meet all about Jesus. Through his interaction with a man from Ethiopia, we learn that when you are following the voice of the Spirit, he will take you to people and to places you never thought you'd go.
One thing that is made very clear in the book of Acts: when you follow after Jesus, suffering is unavoidable. Jesus invites us to join him in his mission, but in doing so, we also join him in his suffering. This reality is on full display in Acts 7 and 8, as Stephen becomes the first Christian martyr. In his final moments, Stephen reflects the story and the heart of Jesus to the world and to his murderers. Instead of destroying the Church, Stephen's suffering becomes the catalyst for its rapid spread across the world.
Spiritual formation is the process of being conformed to the image of Christ for the sake of others. Disciplines create the space for that formation to happen in and through us as we encounter the presence and power of God.Our All-Family Gatherings begin with a short workshop or story on missional living and/or microchurches. This week, we continue our series of workshops on spiritual formation and disciplines with a conversation around fasting.