Sermon Series

“There is no doubt that American Christianity is facing more headwinds than tailwinds,” writes political scientist Ryan Burge, “It has never been more difficult to start or grow a church in the United States than right now.” Borrowing from the book Becoming a Future-Ready Church, this series will explore how things have changed in the last thirty years or so and what we can do to overcome those headwinds and be a church for the world today and tomorrow.

When you open the doors of a church, you see all the people; and it is the people’s stories that come together to make the church’s story. In this special worship series, we’ll hear the faith stories of some of the members of our congregation, and, maybe, learn to tell our own stories better.

After the joy of the resurrection, Jesus ascends to heaven and leaves his disciples wondering what’s next. But he also gives them the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is through the Spirit that we are united as a body, a community, a church. In this series, we’ll follow the Spirit through the book of Acts as it starts to shape God’s reign of love here in this world.

As we move through a season of repentance, repair, and resurrection, we confront the pain of the world, embody faithful resistance, and participate in the holy labor of communal transformation. In this series, using a resource from our friends at Illustrated Ministry, we’ll build our spiritual toolkits and imagine how to nurture God’s reign of love until it blossoms all around us!

We all get burnt out sometimes. And when we get burnt out, we often retreat inward, trying to get refueled by the few coals—or even the ash—that’s left. But what if that’s not the way that we are restored? What if there’s a brighter fire burning that can relight our passions? What if we can be refueled by the God who is love, who can reignite our spirits, who can make us burn all the brighter and all the better? What if we can be on fire, but not burn out?

Each Advent candle is a light in the darkness, reminding us to have hope, to be peacemakers, to hold onto joy, and to spread love in a world that so often feels indifferent—if not hostile—to those very things. Most of all, though, they show us the way to Christ: the light of the world who is our hope, our peace, our joy, and love itself.

In the gospel according to Luke, Jesus tells a set of parables about sinners being welcomed into God’s reign of love: about those who are lost being found and the celebrations that follow. This is exactly the journey that we all take: we who were lost are found, welcomed and celebrated, by the God who is love!

The commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves is a hard one, and people have spent a lot of time trying to find a loophole by asking, “but who is really—like, really—my neighbor, anyway?” In this series, we’ll look at neighborliness through the lens of the judgment of the nations and the people who we so often try to claim are not our neighbors.

Gender and sexuality are spectrums, LGBTQ+ folks have been around forever, and—even if the authors wouldn’t have had the language—diverse ideas about gender and sexuality are present in scripture. Being open, affirming, and welcoming of a broad range of identities isn’t counter to the gospel, it is part of the work of fulfilling the gospel!

Just like Jesus offers us—just like Jesus is—the bread of life, Jesus also offers us—Jesus also is—the cup of blessing. This is not an easy cup to drink from. It asks a lot of us. But it also offers us new life under a covenant of grace in God’s reign of love. So take and drink!