(June 19, 2022) “Summer in the Psalms: Psalm 51-Receiving Grace”

from Psalm 51

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/ Ben Fitzgerald

(May 29, 2022) “And a Little Child Shall Lead Them: Legacy”

from Psalm 78:1-7

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

(May 8, 2022) “And a Little Child Shall Lead Them: Linger”

from Luke 2:41-52

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 24, 2022) “I Am Willing-Be Clean”

from Luke 5:12-16

Healing Service

We are all in some way, desperate for the healing touch of Jesus. Do you recognize the areas in which you need to be made whole? Are you willing to humble yourself before the Lord and receive the wholeness that He offers? Imagine what shape your life might begin to take if you sought Him for all He can offer…and imagine the way you might begin to reach into the brokenness of others and offer them Jesus.

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

(April 3, 2022) “The God We Can Know: I Am the True Vine”

from John 15:1-11

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

(March 27, 2022) “The God We Can Know: I Am the Good Shepherd”

from John 10:1-14

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

(March 20, 2022) “The God We Can Know: I Am the Light of the World”

from John 8:12

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

(February 20, 2022) “Love Redeemed: Rooted and Established”

from Ephesians 3:14-21

Over the course of these 7 weeks, our prayer is that we are able to wrestle back from the world, and allow Scripture as well as the life of Jesus redeem for us what we understand love to be.

What would it look like to begin to prioritize seeking the loving heart of God over other things that we tend to make more important in our lives? What would it look like to allow ourselves to be truly loved by God…to prioritize reaching out in love for those around us? How might your life begin to look different? How might the church begin to look different if this is where the emphasis were placed? Not that seeking wisdom and the exercising of the gifts ceased to be important, but were never MORE important than the task of loving God and loving others…

w/ Vern Collins

(February 13, 2022) “Love Redeemed: The Mark of a True Christian”

from Romans 12:9-21

Over the course of these 7 weeks, our prayer is that we are able to wrestle back from the world, and allow Scripture as well as the life of Jesus redeem for us what we understand love to be.

What would it look like to begin to prioritize seeking the loving heart of God over other things that we tend to make more important in our lives? What would it look like to allow ourselves to be truly loved by God…to prioritize reaching out in love for those around us? How might your life begin to look different? How might the church begin to look different if this is where the emphasis were placed? Not that seeking wisdom and the exercising of the gifts ceased to be important, but were never MORE important than the task of loving God and loving others…

w/ Vern Collins

(February 6, 2022) “Love Redeemed: Love Never Ends”

from 1 Corinthians 13:8-13

Over the course of these 7 weeks, our prayer is that we are able to wrestle back from the world, and allow Scripture as well as the life of Jesus redeem for us what we understand love to be.

What would it look like to begin to prioritize seeking the loving heart of God over other things that we tend to make more important in our lives? What would it look like to allow ourselves to be truly loved by God…to prioritize reaching out in love for those around us? How might your life begin to look different? How might the church begin to look different if this is where the emphasis were placed? Not that seeking wisdom and the exercising of the gifts ceased to be important, but were never MORE important than the task of loving God and loving others…

w/ Vern Collins

(January 23, 2021) “Love Redeemed: Nothing Without Love”

from 1 Corinthians 13:1-3

Over the course of these 7 weeks, our prayer is that we are able to wrestle back from the world, and allow Scripture as well as the life of Jesus redeem for us what we understand love to be.

This week we consider what it means to make love the foundation of all that we are and all that we pursue in this life.

w/ Ed Glaize

(January 9, 2022) “Baptism of Jesus: Identity and Purpose”

from Luke 3:21-22

When Jesus, the sinless One stepped into the waters of baptism, He stepped into so much more. Our understanding of this shapes our understanding of who we are and the life that is possible in life with Jesus.

w/ Vern Collins

(December 12, 2021) “Come Home to Joy”

from Luke 1:39-56

There is a longing for home within each of us. Try as we might to fill that longing with promises of this world, with relationships, with achievement, or any other number of things in which we seek to find meaning and identity, there is only one place we are meant to be “at home.” 

In the season of Advent we celebrate that God did not leave us to wander alone looking for home, instead, in Jesus He came to find us that we might find our home in Him.

On the 3rd Sunday of Advent we consider the joy that was so present in Mary and Elizabeth’s encounter. Is that type of joy possible still? What serves as the root of such joy? How might we live in a posture of joy in a world that seems bent in the opposite direction?

w/ Vern Collins

(November 28, 2021) “Come Home to Good news”

from Luke 1:5-25

There is a longing for home within each of us. Try as we might to fill that longing with promises of this world, with relationships, with achievement, or any other number of things in which we seek to find meaning and identity, there is only one place we are meant to be “at home.”

In the season of Advent we celebrate that God did not leave us to wander alone looking for home, instead, in Jesus He came to find us that we might find our home in Him.

This week we consider what Good News that is in the face of darkness and in the midst of impossible circumstances.

w/ Ed Glaize

(November 21, 2021) “One Returned”

from Luke 17:11-19

We live in a world that is beset with an attitude of entitlement. What if instead of focusing on what is owed us, we chose to be grateful for all we have been given? What if gratitude and thanksgiving became our native tongue in this Kingdom which we are invited into through Christ?

w/ Vern Collins

(November 14, 2021) “Treasure and Heart: A Surrendered Heart”

from Luke 5:1-11

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. 

We conclude this series by considering the call of the One Whose heart is most approachable and accessible…ultimately any generosity, any transformation, any joy, any willingness we might have to be a part of what Jesus is doing in this world is wrapped up in the degree to which we have surrendered our hearts to His invitation to follow Him…to join Him…to leave that which is comfortable and calculated, and surrender ourselves to His call to adventure in His unfolding redemptive story in this world.

w/ Vern Collins