(July 3, 2022) “Summer in the Psalms: Psalm 30-The Journey and the Goal”

from Psalm 30

Walter Bruggemann says of the Psalms: “On the one hand, Israel’s faithful speech addressed to God is the substance of the Psalms.  The Psalms do this so fully and so well because they articulate the entire gamut of Israel’s speech to God, from profound praise to the utterance of unspeakable anger and doubt.  On the other hand, as Martin Luther understood so passionately, the Psalms are not only addressed to God…They are the voice of the Gospel, God’s good word addressed to God’s faithful people.”

Where do you need to be given permission to be honest with God? With what you are feeling. With your frustration. With sadness, or disappointment, or fear, or anger. With great joy and thanksgiving. This summer journey with us as the reality of what it means to be human collides with the goodness and unending faithfulness of God.

w/ Vern Collins

(May 22, 2022) “And a Little Child Shall Lead Them: Authentic Faith”

from 1 Timothy 4:11-16

The wonder…the curiosity…the faithfulness of children shows up throughout Scripture. Jesus welcomed children and challenged His disciples to become more childlike if they hoped to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. What can we learn from children about following Jesus? What can we learn from children about what it means to be faithful? What can we learn from children about what it looks like to grow in our relationship with God? What can we learn from children about how we learn to say “yes” when God calls?

w/ Vern Collins

(April 17, 2022) “The God We Can Know: I Am the Resurrection and the Life”

from John 11:17-26

On this Resurrection Day, we hear Jesus’ statement, “I Am the Resurrection and the Life.” Jesus speaks this hopeful truth into the midst of disappointment and sadness and loss. It is not only a promise of the possibility of eternity with Him, but an invitation to life in which there is hope in the midst of our darkest place and our deepest confusion.

“Do you believe this?”

w/ Vern Collins

(April 10, 2022) “The God We Can Know: I Am The Way and The Truth and the Life”

from John 14:1-7

As we journey through the season of Lent, we are invited to seek the God Who is seeking us, to find that God is, in fact, a God we can know. And as we journey through the wilderness of Lent and encounter Jesus in the “I Am” statements which we are examining, we might just find that not only are we deepening our understanding of this God Who came near, but we might encounter the depth of our need for Him.

w/ Vern Collins

(October 24, 2021) “Treasure and Heart: A Generous Heart”

from Luke 19:1-10

In Biblical writings, the heart is not understood as something that is connected to emotion in the way that we think of the heart. Rather the heart is the driving force behind our hopes and dreams; behind our drive and determination. Where the heart is bent, so goes one’s life. For these 6 weeks we are going to examine the heart and consider not only how it informs our understanding of Stewardship, but more importantly, how it informs who we are in Christ. 

A transformed heart ought to have tangible implications in the way we live our lives in relation to those around us. What are the ways that God might be calling you to reflect His generosity in the lives of those around you? Who is God calling you to stop…pay attention to…and offer a generous heart?

w/ Vern Collins

(September 5, 2021) “All THings Made New: New Mercies”

from Lamentations 3:22-24

In our seven week series, “All Things Made New,” we consider the work that Jesus is doing in this world…a work that we don’t have to wait until time has reached its fulfillment to experience, but that we can experience and be a part of now!

When trying to live into the new life that God has made possible in Christ…when trying to bring His New Kingdom to bear on this earth, what happens when the troubles and trials of life seem too much to bear?

We look to each day as a gift…and each rising of the sun as a tangible example of God’s mercy and faithfulness.

w/ Ed Glaize

(August 29, 2021) “All Things Made New: New Purpose”

from 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 and Matthew 9:9-13

In our seven week series, “All Things Made New,” we consider the work that Jesus is doing in this world…a work that we don’t have to wait until time has reached its fulfillment to experience, but that we can experience and be a part of now!

Once we have found in Christ, freedom from our own pursuits or the pursuit of trying to earn our salvation or relationship with Christ, what exactly are we freed into? Is into pursuing the life we want knowing that we have a hope and a future, or is it living life in such a way that those around us begin to know and are invited into the source of our hope?

w/ Vern Collins

(August 22, 2021)”All Things Made New: New Pursuit”

from Romans 4:4-6

In our seven week series, “All Things Made New,” we consider the work that Jesus is doing in this world…a work that we don’t have to wait until time has reached its fulfillment to experience, but that we can experience and be a part of now!

When we’ve said “yes” to the new work that Jesus wants to do in us and is doing in this world, but the “novelty” feels like it begins to wear off because the worries of this life begin to crowd in, or we find ourselves slipping back into old pursuits, we must lose heart…instead we find hope in the fact that we have been welcomed by Jesus, empowered by His Holy Spirit, and set free to pursue all that God has for us to be and do.

w/ Vern Collins

(June 13, 2021) “Living Revival: Bearing Witness”

from John 4:27-30, 39-42 and John 9:24-25

Psalm 85:6 reads, “Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?”

This longing undergirds our series and this season of revival we are asking God to bring. What is hindering your rejoicing? What is getting in the way of you living completely surrendered to the love and presence of God in your life? Where do you need revival? 

We are naturally wired to share good news, and yet the BEST NEWS is one of the things we have the most difficult time sharing with others.

What has Jesus done in YOUR life? How are you telling other people about it? Inviting them to experience the joy that you have experienced in encountering and knowing Jesus…

w/ Vern Collins

(June 6, 2021) “Revival: Build an Altar”

from 1 Kings 18:16-39

Psalm 85:6 reads, “Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?”

This longing undergirds our series and this season of revival we are asking God to bring. What is hindering your rejoicing? What is getting in the way of you living completely surrendered to the love and presence of God in your life? Where do you need revival? 

Are you living a divided loyalty? Is your allegience torn between God and between some thing in this world that you hope will help provide meaning and fulfillment and identity and purpose? All too often, we place our hope in things that are never meant to fulfill and provide…perhaps it is time to rebuild that altar of our lives and create a space for God to move, being willing to lay down those things that are simply not of Him.

w/ Vern Collins

(May 30, 2021) “Revival: A New Revival”

from Ezekiel 37:1-14

Psalm 85:6 reads, “Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?”

This longing undergirds our series and this season of revival we are asking God to bring. What is hindering your rejoicing? What is getting in the way of you living completely surrendered to the love and presence of God in your life? Where do you need revival?

As we open this series, we are invited to consider two things: 1) that even in the most seemingly impossible situations, God has the power to revive; to restore life; to make new, and 2) God isn’t after only the form or appearance of life, rather God longs to send His Holy Spirit that we may KNOW and EXPERIENCE life!

Where are the dry bones in your life? Where is the valley of death in which you need the Holy Spirit to come?

w Vern Collins

(May 16, 2021) “Rebuild: Possibility”

from Acts 1:6-11 and Isaiah 43:18-19

In Isaiah 43:18-19a we read, “Forget the former things do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?” In Revelation 21:5, we hear the words of Jesus captured by John, “He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’” Since the beginning, God has been in the business and the process of taking that which is broken, and rebuilding it…making it new!

How many times over the past 14 months have we heard or uttered some version of the statement, “I can’t wait until things go back to normal…until they go back to the way they were?”

Is it possible that our longing for what is familiar is hindering our ability to see the possibility of God doing something new?

w/ Vern Collins

(April 11, 2021) “Rebuild: Naming the Loss”

from Luke 24:13-35

In Isaiah 43:18-19a we read, “Forget the former things do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?” In Revelation 21:5, we hear the words of Jesus captured by John, “He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!'” Since the beginning, God has been in the business and the process of taking that which is broken, and rebuilding it…making it new!

As we begin our new series, “Rebuild,” we are invited this week to consider that part of recognizing the need for God’s ability to make new is to come to terms with that which we have lost. As you consider this past year; as you consider your life-what has been lost? Where have you experienced loss? As you think about the church, where has there been loss? How might that loss open the door for possibility?

w/ Vern Collins

(April 4, 2021) “Redeeming Our Hope” Easter Sunday

from John 20:1-18

Are those things in this life in which you have placed your hope able to bear up under the weight that you place on them to hold you up when you face life’s challenges?

There is One Who will not only always bear up under the weight, but will bear you up when the weight is too great!

Jesus Is Alive!

w/ Vern Collins

(March 28, 2021-Palm Sunday) “Redeeming Our Mess: Humility”

from Matthew 21:1-11

The season of Lent is a time of reflection. It is an opportunity to examine our lives before God and invite the Holy Spirit to reveal to us those things that are hindering our relationship with God and with those around us…and it is an opportunity to invite God to go to work in our lives…the hope which makes all of this possible is the Cross of Jesus toward which we are journeying. 

But what if Lent wasn’t just about seeking forgiveness for and repentance from our sin…what if God was able to take our mess and redeem it? What if it’s not just about doing away with something, but about God taking our lives and turning them into something beautiful for His Glory?

On this Palm Sunday, we are brought face to face with the very clear statement Jesus makes about the king of King He came to be. For the people of Jerusalem…for many of us…the kind of King Jesus came to be is not the kind of King we WANT Him to be, but if we are willing to humble ourselves before Him, we find that Jesus is exactly the kind of King we NEED Him to be.

w/ Vern Collins

(August 23, 2020) “Reimagining Church: Jesus”

from Ephesians 1:15-23

What is the foundation upon which you are building your life? What is the foundation upon which the church is to be built?

What if aligning your life and the life of the church under the Lordship of Jesus isn’t about stifling life, but about finding freedom and purpose. Looking at the early church in the disruption it experienced, one of the things that Paul and apostles sought to continue to uphold, was the headship of Christ as the catalyst for life to the full and a church that is flourishing.

w/ Vern Collins

(May 3, 2020) “Stronger: Remember Who You Are”

from Philippians 3:1-14

While seasons of struggle are challenging for a number of reasons, perhaps the thing that makes them most uncomfortable, most unnerving…the thing that makes us want to be on the other side of those challenges, is that they challenge our understanding of who we are in ways that we are often unprepared for.

What if instead of fearing what is revealed about our identity in those difficult seasons, we saw it as an opportunity to examine that upon which we have built our lives? What if we saw it as an opportunity to consider that the fullness of life can only truly be found in Jesus?

w/ Vern Collins and Jeff McClain

(4.26.2020) “Stronger:Thriving in the Midst of Change”

from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, Isaiah 43:1-3, 18-19, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

How might you walk through seasons of challenge differently if you knew that you were not alone? How might you do so if you knew that God was with you? What if the challenge of this season is not meant for discouragement, but for hope…hope that God is not done with you…hope that God is doing a new thing?!

May you fix your eyes in Him in this season of challenge.

w/ Lory Beth Huffman and Laura Byrch