(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

(December 24, 2021) Christmas Eve-“Come Home to Jesus”

from Luke 2:1-20

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 Christmas Eve we hear clearly the invitation to come home to the Light that has come into the world. It is not a light that is, “left on for us,” rather it is the Light that has come TO US and calls us home.

w/ Vern Collins

(December 27, 2020) “Familiar Practice and Pattern”

from Luke 2:22-40

As much as we look ahead at the coming year and want so much to be different..and rightly so…what if instead of wanting to change everything about the life we are living…we considered practicing some things that are so familiar that they have been a part of the lives of the faithful for generations…for millennia?

Perhaps the thing that needs to change for you in the coming year is to pick up some familiar practice and pattern, and see where God might meet you in that!

w/ Vern Collins

(12.24.2020) Christmas Eve “Altogether Christmas”

from Luke 2:1-20

There is much we make of the birth of Jesus. And while there should be…while it is a pivotal point in the history of the world, have you ever considered that for all of the build up in Luke’s Gospel leading up to that birth, he spends very little time focusing on the actual moment?

Perhaps it is not the birth of Jesus that Luke wants us to stop short at…perhaps it what that birth means for the life that will transform the world.

What if you allowed yourself to say yes to the fullness of what the life of Jesus could mean for you? What it means for the world?

w/ Vern Collins

(December 6, 2020) “Almost Christmas: Peace”

from John 14:25-27, Luke 2:8-20, Mark 4:35-41, Ephesians 4:1-6

*includes an invitation to Communion

Perhaps more than ever we are desperate for Christmas to mean something more than gifts under the tree and time spent with family. What if, in this season of Advent, we didn’t just go through the motions of preparing for Christmas…what if we didn’t celebrate an “Almost Christmas,” but instead gave ourselves fully to the expectation…to the anticipation of what Christ’s coming means for this world? 

In the second week of Advent we consider the Peace that is meant to mark both the coming of Jesus and the presence of His Kingdom. It is certainly easier to believe this promise of Peace when things are going smoothly in our lives, but when life is difficult or chaotic are we to believe that the promise of Peace is negated? What if the problem is not with the promise of Peace, but the problem is with our understanding of the Peace that is promised?

w/ Vern Collins

“Manger and Mystery: Recalling the Story, Restoring the Call” (Christmas Eve Service 6:00pm)

from Luke 2:8-20

The story of Christmas is often a familiar one. Come to think of it, the story of your life can begin to feel familiar as well. The hope of Christmas is that the birth of Jesus speaks something NEW into the familiar!

w/ Vern Collins