Tag: The Church

Knocking Down Walls

Leave a comment

We’ve finally reached the end of this journey. We’ve seen the church rise up, thrive through adversity, stand firm in the face of some pretty intense internal challenges, and finally hit its stride here in the most exciting story of all with a church business meeting. Wait…a church business meeting? How could that be exciting? Because this one would set the tone for how the church working well would approach ministry for the rest of its history. You’ve never seen such an exciting business meeting before. Read on to find out what happened and what it means for us.

Knocking Down Walls

Have you ever seen the gameshow Wipeout? It is a favorite in our household. If you’ve never seen it, the basic premise is that a group of pretty average folks are invited to take part in an insane series of obstacle courses. Each course is designed for the contestants to fail and in increasingly embarrassing ways. The bigger the wipeouts, the better the laughs. 

Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: Mark 2:16-17

Leave a comment

“When the scribes who were Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples, ‘Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?’ When Jesus heard this, he told them, ‘It is not those who are well who need a doctor, but those who are sick. I didn’t come to call the righteous, but sinners.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Have you ever joined a club? Most people have at some point in their lives. Whether it was a school club or a civic club or a sports club, the options are nearly limitless. The thing about a club, though, is that it is a necessarily exclusionary organization. If you have a club in which literally anyone can claim membership, you don’t really have a club at all. You have the human race. Now, a club may have an open membership wherein anyone can join versus a closed, invitation-only membership, but even in the case of an open membership, you can only join if you are willing to abide by the rules of membership. In this story both the Pharisees and Jesus thought about the kingdom of God in terms of being a club. Their approach to membership, though, is where they differed.

Read the rest…

The Nature of Our Work

Leave a comment

One more week and we are finally through our series, Telling Our Story. I hope this has been as encouraging and productive a journey for you as it has been for me. Today, having spent lots of time talking about the how and the why of the things the first church did, we shift gears and talk about the what. What was is they were doing that enabled them to be so successful? Read on to find out.

The Nature of Our Work

What does it look like when you’ve done a job well? That depends on the job, of course. A school project done really well looks like a paper with a big A on top. If you’re selling insurance, it looks like helping someone understand the worth of investing in a personal safety net should the tightrope that is life get plucked, sending you falling to the ground. If you’re a firefighter, it looks like a rescue made with as little collateral damage as possible. For a NASCAR team, it looks like a trip down victory lane. If you’re building something you ordered from Amazon, it looks like not having any extra pieces beyond the ones that are supposed to be there. The list here is as varied as the jobs we could imagine. Let me give you one more, though, what does it look like when we’ve done church well?

Read the rest…

Standing Out

Leave a comment

The early church was just different from the people around them. This didn’t make life easy for them, but it did keep them in line with what God had designed them to be. As we continue in our series, Telling Our Story, this past Sunday we talked about the fact that as a church today, we are called to stand out still. What are some ways you can stand out as a follower of Jesus?

Standing Out

Have you ever known someone who was comfortable in his or her own skin? There are some people who have the gift of being content with who they are. That’s not the case for most of us. Most of us have little doubts or insecurities that keep us constantly trying to hide one thing or another that we don’t like about ourselves. But those people who are just comfortable and positively confident because of it stand out.

Read the rest…

Bold Moves

Leave a comment

When Jesus left the scene after the resurrection, the disciples gradually picked up the pieces and began to organize themselves into a powerful group. But as of yet, we haven’t seen them go anywhere. They were all packed for a journey, but they hadn’t gone anywhere yet. Getting ready is one thing, but actually going is another entirely. It requires something of us. What is this? In Acts 3-4 Peter and John put it beautifully on display for us. Keep reading to find out what it is and what it means for us.

Bold Moves

Let me start with a bit of a survey this morning. Do you think Christians today have more or less freedom to pursue the practice of their faith than we did 10 years ago? If you would say, “More freedom,” raise your hand. If you would say, “Less freedom,” raise your hand. Okay, let me change the question just a bit on you. Do you think Christians have more or less cultural power than we did 10 years ago? If you say, “more,” raise your hand. If you say, “less,” raise your hand.

Read the rest…