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The Stories We Tell - The Sower

The average American watches 5 hours of TV daily and, each year, we collectively spend about $30 billion on movies. Simply put, we're entertainment junkies. But can we learn something from our insatiable addiction to stories? From horror flicks to rom-coms, the tales we tell and the myths we weave inevitably echo the one, great narrative underlying all of history: the story of man's tragic sin and God's triumphant salvation.

During His earthly ministry, as Jesus went about preaching and teaching, He frequently used stories, or what the Bible calls parables. As we get into the parables themselves, our hope is that we will appreciate how blessed we are to live in an age when people who have a desire to learn about The Kingdom can do so and that we will have a growing longing to live and tell these stories of The Kingdom.

The Stories We Tell - The Reason

The average American watches 5 hours of TV daily and, each year, we collectively spend about $30 billion on movies. Simply put, we're entertainment junkies. But can we learn something from our insatiable addiction to stories? From horror flicks to rom-coms, the tales we tell and the myths we weave inevitably echo the one, great narrative underlying all of history: the story of man's tragic sin and God's triumphant salvation.

During His earthly ministry, as Jesus went about preaching and teaching, He frequently used stories, or what the Bible calls parables. As we get into the parables themselves, our hope that we will appreciate how blessed we are to live in an age when people who have a desire to learn about The Kingdom can do so and that we will have a growing longing to live and tell these stories of The Kingdom.

I Am ____________.

One of the great questions of life is the question of identity. Who am I? When faced with this question—a question we must all answer at one time or another—some respond with their vocation: I am a pastor or a police officer. Others respond with deep pain from the past: I am a victim or I am a drug addict. Others respond with their greatest success or most shameful failure. Yet none of these get right to the heart of the matter. These may be what we do or what we have done or what has been done to us, but none goes deep enough.

Who do you think you are? There’s only one lasting solution to our identity crisis: Jesus. Who Do You Think You Are is a series in which we study through Ephesians, a book saturated with living in Christ.

Christmas 2014: Suddenly

At Christmas, we have the opportunity to find renewed hope and joy in the overwhelming love of a God who is with us. During this time we celebrate that God once walked amongst us in the person of Jesus. Through His Son He lived life the way He intended us to live, and through His death He granted access to a renewed and right relationship with Himself. After the power of the Father raised Him from the dead, Jesus ascended into heaven and is now seated at the right hand of the Father. God was no longer with us in bodily form, but this doesn’t mean He left us alone. Far from it, He sent His Spirit to live in us, to inhabit us, to awaken us, and to empower us. Join us as we celebrate the birth of the one who brings promise, light, love, and hope.

Christmas 2014: Hope

At Christmas, we have the opportunity to find renewed hope and joy in the overwhelming love of a God who is with us. During this time we celebrate that God once walked amongst us in the person of Jesus. Through His Son He lived life the way He intended us to live, and through His death He granted access to a renewed and right relationship with Himself. After the power of the Father raised Him from the dead, Jesus ascended into heaven and is now seated at the right hand of the Father. God was no longer with us in bodily form, but this doesn’t mean He left us alone. Far from it, He sent His Spirit to live in us, to inhabit us, to awaken us, and to empower us. Join us as we celebrate the birth of the one who brings promise, light, love, and hope.

Christmas 2014: Love

At Christmas, we have the opportunity to find renewed hope and joy in the overwhelming love of a God who is with us. During this time we celebrate that God once walked amongst us in the person of Jesus. Through His Son He lived life the way He intended us to live, and through His death He granted access to a renewed and right relationship with Himself. After the power of the Father raised Him from the dead, Jesus ascended into heaven and is now seated at the right hand of the Father. God was no longer with us in bodily form, but this doesn’t mean He left us alone. Far from it, He sent His Spirit to live in us, to inhabit us, to awaken us, and to empower us. Join us as we celebrate the birth of the one who brings promise, light, love, and hope.

The Living Gospel - Joseph

At Christmas, we have the opportunity to find renewed hope and joy in the overwhelming love of a God who is with us. During this time we celebrate that God once walked amongst us in the person of Jesus. Through His Son He lived life the way He intended us to live, and through His death He granted access to a renewed and right relationship with Himself. After the power of the Father raised Him from the dead, Jesus ascended into heaven and is now seated at the right hand of the Father. God was no longer with us in bodily form, but this doesn’t mean He left us alone. Far from it, He sent His Spirit to live in us, to inhabit us, to awaken us, and to empower us. Join us as we celebrate the birth of the one who brings promise, light, love, and hope.

Thank You: Living Out These Two Words

In the middle of war in 1863, Abraham Lincoln penned these words giving thanks to God for the blessings on America in spite of the conflict that divided the land.

"The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union."

I Heart My Church (part 4): Gospel-Centered Infulence

As a pastor there are not many things better than hearing “I LOVE this church” or “This is just what I’ve been looking for. Where have you been my whole life?” As you read this you may be thinking any number of things about statements like these. Maybe there are a few who are thinking, “I feel the exact same thing.” If we’re honest however, for every one that feels this way there are about ten that think: “It’s not easy to love the church. I love Jesus, but loving His church is another story.”

What if what we’ve been experiencing isn’t what God intended His church to look like? Is there a chance we’ve taken it to places He never intended it to go? What would it look like if we became the kind of church that people love because it’s a church God loves?

We love our church because it is Jesus’ church. This remarkable, redemptive culture was God’s idea to begin with, and it belongs to Him. As we look forward to what God has out in front of us, the heartbeat is the same - to make Jesus undeniably clear. Are you ready to step into the dreams and purposes God has for His church?

I Heart My Church (part 3): Gospel-Centered Community

As a pastor there are not many things better than hearing “I LOVE this church” or “This is just what I’ve been looking for. Where have you been my whole life?” As you read this you may be thinking any number of things about statements like these. Maybe there are a few who are thinking, “I feel the exact same thing.” If we’re honest however, for every one that feels this way there are about ten that think: “It’s not easy to love the church. I love Jesus, but loving His church is another story.”

What if what we’ve been experiencing isn’t what God intended His church to look like? Is there a chance we’ve taken it to places He never intended it to go? What would it look like if we became the kind of church that people love because it’s a church God loves?

We love our church because it is Jesus’ church. This remarkable, redemptive culture was God’s idea to begin with, and it belongs to Him. As we look forward to what God has out in front of us, the heartbeat is the same - to make Jesus undeniably clear. Are you ready to step into the dreams and purposes God has for His church?