Jesus is building his ekklesia on the truth that he is savior of the world. But what is ekklesia? Listen this week as Pastor Derrick explains this bible term and what it means for us today.
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This week we wrap up our series on 1 John with a message about witnesses. A witness is called to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Listen this week as Pastor Derrick shares us the truth of a three-fold witness that we all carry with us everyday. You are the presence of Jesus where you live, work, and play.
This week we focus on the idea of being grafted into a new vine. If you’re not familiar with the process of caring for vines in a vineyard, give this message a listen to see what it means to be grafted into Christ and how his power is now flowing through us.
In the book Five Challenges for the Once and Future Church we’re introduced to five specific things that are happening in our world today of which we as the church need to be aware. I’ve already summarized challenges one, two and three. Feel free to check them out.
In this post we’re going to look at the fourth challenge that lies before the church. In a word the challenge is community. In digital age is one where we hold our community in the palm of our hand but never really engage with physical people. It’s merely a virtual world in which there’s only community through media. Intimacy and physical interaction isn’t necessary but it’s so needed!
You can live your entire life without ever having to interact with someone in a real way. If the church is going to maintain its presence in society it will need to begin to create safe spaces for community to happen. We need to make sure to be clear on this point. The issue is community. The world doesn’t simply need another worship opportunity – it needs community.
The challenge we’re going to face here is that many people believe that when you get people together for a church event, we feel the need to preach at them. But this is not community. We have to be willing to let people gather for the sake of the relationships that are being built around the cross. Even if the message of Jesus isn’t proclaimed fully, Jesus promises to be present.
At Living Word we’re embarking on a mission to create safe spaces for community to occur. This is our summer mission. We’re providing the materials for members of the church to host parties in their homes. We’re calling them Party Pails. In each Party Pail, we’re going to have everything a person will need to throw a party. We’re even going to have backyard games available for people to take home and use. The purpose is simply to establish community spots throughout the neighborhoods represented in our church.
When we realize that we carry the presence of Christ in us, we’ll be able to see these safe communities as Christ Communities. Since Christ is in me and I’m in community with the people where I live, work, and play then I know Christ is working in my community as I am working in my community. Often without saying a word, we’ll bring Jesus and his message of forgiveness and grace to these communities just by how we live his love out loud. It’s something called the sacramental we. Jesus is present in me through his promise and his Spirit.
So take a minute and think about how you, carrying the presence of Christ in you, can establish community where you live, work, and play.
Last week, I shared a book that I recently read titled Five Challenges for the Once and Future Church. The book was a quick read and offered good insight into some of the challenges that many churches are facing. While the book itself isn’t a newly published work, it does offer insight that can prove to be helpful as we navigate this new landscape of church in the 21st Century. Continue reading
The word love is just one
of those
words that has somehow lost its meaning over the years. We can love everything all at the same time but with different kinds of love. We’ve Hallmarked the word love to be flowery and well girly. Perhaps it’s time to take back the word love. Continue reading
In the last post I introduced the book Five Challenges of the Once and Future Church by Loren B. Mead. The first challenge we dealt with was the challenge of ownership of the ministry of the church. You can read more about that here.
The second challenge that Mead introduces is the challenge of structure. He spends much time talking about the denominational structures within which the church has operated for centuries. Continue reading
Love is a weird word. We can love pizza and our spouse all at the same time and use the same word to describe it. Listen as Pastor Derrick explains how love isn’t what you think it is.
Several years ago I read a book that struck a nerve, but I did with it what I do all too often. After reading it, I just put it on the shelf and seemingly forgot about it. Well, I forgot until the other day when I was writing my article for the church newsletter. Then as I was writing, it hit me. I frantically started digging through my shelves for the book that had no name. Continue reading
We all have a father, but we don’t always have the same view of fathers. Some fathers are great while others take advantage of their families. Listen this week as Pastor Derrick introduces you to a different way of looking at this word father.
