This Sunday (13 September) Roma Korniiko from Kiev, Ukraine teaches us about God's heart for orphans and refugees in a nation torn apart by war. We also learn how God uses children to touch the heart of a nation, exemplify mercy, and introduce real change... Many thanks to Slavic Elliot for interpreting on our behalf. We just are not that fluent in Ukrainian!
This Sunday (6 September) was a family Sunday – a day our entire community gathers. This week we briefly reflected on what it means to be a community of "olders" and "youngers". Have a listen – Mark was brief this week! This week there were no slides to support the message so there was no LIVE event support.
How often have you answered this question: "What would I do with a million dollars?" Well, this week we ask the question: "How will you spend your millions"" That's right, you! Because the average person in the U.S. will spend between $1.5 and $2;5 million in their lifetime. So how will we think about our spending? This week Mark provides a framework for how to think about "how we spend our money". By the way, did you know that "money" is one of the top 2 subjects Jesus spoke about?
As part of Sunday morning we are using the LIVE resource courtesy of the YouVersion Bible app. The "LIVE Event" includes Scriptures, links to this week's sermon slides, additional Bible readings, and articles that you may find helpful.
This week we have had people declaring: "I call hump!" when they get into a car. Where did they come up with that?! Well they heard it last week... Therefore, by popular demand we are leaving up the message Vince gave last week: Driving -- When You're On the Road. We will spend 4.3 years of our life driving and over 5.75 months sitting in traffic... should we just write that time off? Or is it possible that driving might give us opportunities that are essential and meaningful? Click here for the video referenced in Vince's message...
As part of Sunday morning we are using the LIVE resource courtesy of the YouVersion Bible app. The "LIVE Event" includes Scriptures, links to this week's sermon slides, additional Bible readings, and articles that you may find helpful.
This week our topic is: Driving -- When You're On the Road. We will spend 4.3 years of our life driving and over 5.75 months sitting in traffic... should we just write that time off? Or is it possible that driving might give us opportunities that are essential and meaningful? This week Vince takes us back on the road again...
As part of Sunday morning we are using the LIVE resource courtesy of the YouVersion Bible app. The "LIVE Event" includes Scriptures, links to this week's sermon slides, additional Bible readings, and articles that you may find helpful.
This week our topic is: Creativity -- Live Artfully! Creativity is more than the creative arts. Creativity is everywhere around us. In homes, in classrooms, in the games we play, the things we create, the meals we make, and the stories we tell. Everyone has been endowed by our Creator with a capacity for life-giving creativity. This week Mark invites Mark Wymore (our Worship Ministries Director) and Brian Leonard (architect and leader of our Creative Confidence workshop) to share some practical thoughts on creativity. Have a listen and be encouraged!
As part of Sunday morning we are using the LIVE resource courtesy of the YouVersion Bible app. The "LIVE Event" includes Scriptures, links to this week's sermon slides, additional Bible readings, and articles that you may find helpful.
This week our topic is: Food -- Bite-Sized Gifts From God. Food and related references are found in every book of the Bible. What does it mean that God created every creature to eat food? We take it for granted but the truth is that He did not have to create us to eat! We explore how food connects us to God and others, and we reflect on the moral obligations and social opportunities food uniquely provides us...
As part of Sunday morning we are using the LIVE resource courtesy of the YouVersion Bible app. The "LIVE Event" includes Scriptures, links to this week's sermon slides, additional Bible readings, and articles that you may find helpful.
This week we look at "play" because life is more than worship, work, and rest! H. L. Mencken, a fierce critic of the Christian faith once said: "Christians, are people who have a deep, foreboding fear that somebody, somewhere, might be having a good time.” Nothing could be further from the truth. What does "play" teach us about God and about ourselves?
As part of Sunday morning we are using the LIVE resource courtesy of the YouVersion Bible app. The "LIVE Event" includes Scriptures, links to this week's sermon slides, additional Bible readings, and articles that you may find helpful.
This week we look at "sleep". This is a pretty important topic! Just think -- over the course of your lifetime you will devote over a third of your life to sleep! Is it possible there is more to sleep than sleep?!
As part of Sunday morning we are using the LIVE resource courtesy of the YouVersion Bible app. The "LIVE Event" includes Scriptures, links to this week's sermon slides, additional Bible readings, and articles that you may find helpful.
This week we look at rest... in fact we will learn: lazy is the person who does not seize the opportunity to rest!
As part of Sunday morning we are using the LIVE resource courtesy of the YouVersion Bible app. The "LIVE Event" includes Scriptures, links to this week's sermon slides, additional Bible readings, and articles that you may find helpful.
This week we orient ourselves to our series as we answer a simple question: Is there a bigger picture that we are missing? This week Mark lays a foundation for navigating "the rest of life" that will serve as our guide for the rest of this series...
Click to download a PDF of this week's slides.
As part of Sunday morning we are using the LIVE resource courtesy of the YouVersion Bible app. The "LIVE Event" includes Scriptures, links to this week's slides, additional Bible readings, and articles that you may find helpful.
This week we introduced our summer series with a "10 minute" infomercial that we did not record... Here is the gist of it!
Look at the pie chart on the left. This is a picture of the hours we spend sleeping, eating, driving, working, surfing the web, watching TV, and exercising... (you can read the article here or follow this link to a google query to access more articles). So what are we to make of the :"normal" life we all share in common? Does God care about the activities that fill our normal lives? Is it possible that there might be an organic interrelationship among our weekly activities of work, rest, sleep, play, friendship, worship, reading, ETC? Is it possible that there is a big picture that we are missing that will create a life-giving framework? One approach is surely unacceptable: it is not our task to simply and unthinkingly "baptize" the ordinary and call it good. Instead, we have the opportunity to embrace a radical alternative -- to possess an extraordinary perspective on the ordinary that is informed and inspired by the promise, power, and presence of God in our lives. ETC - the rest of life is our summer series that will explore these themes...
This summer we are also offering seminars that will support this series and give us an opportunity to experience and discover that embedded in our ordinary is the opportunity to learn, discover, overcome, and thrive. We will be offering summer seminars on personal finance, creativity, culinary design, fitness, nutrition, fitness, personal performance (learning what habits allow us to thrive), discovering your strengths, and how to study the Bible. Check back here on July 5 to sign up online. These seminars have limited capacity and will fill up fast!
This week we recognize dads and grads. As we do so we recognize that learning never ends and we wouldn't want it any other way. To stop learning is to stop living.
This week we recognize dads and grads. As we do so we recognize that learning never ends and we wouldn't want it any other way. To stop learning is to stop living.
Let's be honest about the normal life of following Jesus. This week we look at the struggle with sin every follower of Jesus contends with. Resigning to defeat or declaring unchallenged victory are false alternatives. Paul's transparency introduces us to a NEW that is filled with hope to overcome the daily challenge of our sin.
Click to download a PDF of this week's slides.
Click here for a link to the LIVE event resource from Sunday
Last week (May 24) was Pentecost... this is the birthday of the new community of Jesus' followers that we call the Church. As a "belated birthday" observance Mark teaches on the ministry of the Holy Spirit. His goal was to teach clearly so as to remove confusion and to inspire expectation for the fullness of God's presence in our lives. Have a listen and see if he was successful!
This week was a family Sunday. For us this means that everyone (the young and the old) join us for the entire service. This week's theme: "No matter what happens, we can sing to God". This was great day! The morning included worship, a rap-battle, and a great reflection from Lorissa.
Be patient... the audible file will be posted on Tuesday! Until then we are keeping last weeks
message posted... but we are posting this week's notes.
This week we return to Romans 6 with an honest look at the struggle every one has with sin. The Apostle Paul has a surprising solution for us. We can either have a spirituality that is based on rules or we can enjoy a spirituality where God's Spirit actually leads us forward in God's grace and towards obedience. Obedience does not arise from solely from our own efforts but from the gracious activity of God's Spirit
This week we take a break from Romans to celebrate the gift of women to the world. This week Mark reflects on the theme: What every man (and woman) can learn from Mary based on Luke 1.26-38. Turns out there is a lot we can learn! Have a listen!
This week we look at God's plan for NEW! in Romans 6. New means we are not just forgiven... we are free. God's "reign of grace" not only delivers us from sin it propels us towards new life! Let's explore this together.
Click here to download this week's notes.
God promises that we can enjoy a NEW life in Jesus.
A NEW life that did not exist before...
A NEW life, that we may have known about, but we now welcome for the first time.
A NEW life that begins anew regardless of how stale and broken our life has become.
NEW is an exploration of Paul's letter to the Romans, chapters 5-8. Here we discover how
God makes us new. Along the way we will discover afresh His unimaginable promises,
His unconditional grace, and His unrelenting love that gifts us with resilience, vitality, and
liberty to live the life that God created us to enjoy.
This week we look at God's plan for NEW! in Romans 5.12-21. While there are some difficult challenges in these verses we quickly learn that this is the story of and for all of us! Let's explore this together!