Pentecost, the birthday of the church, is our birthday, too. On it we tell the story of all God has done to create and consecrate us as his people through the gift of the Spirit, poured out as wind and fire. Deacon Lisa teaches from Acts 2:1-4 and 1 Corinthians 12:1-11. 

In this sermon on John 17, James Steinbach explores some of the ways that Jesus prays for us. Jesus asks that our experience of the Father's glorious abundance would make us a people shaped by unity and love, in order to show the world who Jesus is.

If we don’t practice Sabbath, what will we end up doing instead? Sabbath is more than a day off. In the Genesis creation narrative we read that when God rested on the seventh day he blessed it and made it holy, or set apart for his purpose. The Sabbath is given to us as holy “architecture in time” where we encounter the gift of God’s presence, better than any mere day off. Pastor Jordan Kologe invites us into the final Sabbath movement: worship. For more information on the Sabbath Practice, visit practicingtheway.org/sabbath.

Sorrow is inevitable; joy is not. Joy must be cultivated. Keeping the Sabbath is a way through which we can do so. Pastor Jordan Kologe explores how this can be as he leads through the third movement of Sabbath: delight. For more information on the Sabbath Practice, visit practicingtheway.org/sabbath.

Pastor Jordan Kologe introduces the second movement of Sabbath: rest. Simply stopping from activity is not enough to enter into Sabbath, as our hearts and minds may continue to hurry along and chase lesser desires. Sabbath invites us into the rest of Christ by getting off the cyclic “hedonic treadmill” of desire and discontent. For more information on the Sabbath Practice, visit practicingtheway.org/sabbath.

In Mark 2 Jesus proclaimed, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” What does this mean? What is the relevance of keeping the Sabbath in modern life? In the first of four messages informed by Practicing the Way, Pastor Jordan Kologe explores stopping as the first movement of Sabbath and how we can receive Sabbath as a gift. For more information on the Sabbath Practice, visit practicingtheway.org/sabbath.

History has not been kind to “Doubting Thomas.” We tend to think of doubt as a grave moral failing. But what we learn from the interaction between Thomas and Jesus is that doubt is an essential part of faith that invites us deeper into community, and Jesus continues pursuing us even in the midst of our uncertainty. Luke Elmers teaches from John 20:19-31.

Each year we are presented the message of Easter. Yet, like many things over time, the powerful meaning of Jesus’ resurrection may become overly familiar to us and lose its impact. Even to the eleven apostles who first heard the message, the good news “seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe” as Luke 24 tells us. Pastor Jordan Kologe reflects on the significance of the resurrection: what it is, what it means for the world, and what it means for each of us so that we too may believe.

God's sovereignty works with what he’s got. On the threshold of Holy Week, we take stock with all God has to work with: corrupt governments, perverted justice systems, and religious individuals and establishments more interested in protecting their own power than in dispersing blessing. That God happens to love all the people enmeshed in these structures of power is both deeply inconvenient and the greatest occasion for God to show how his power works. His power is to disarm the darkness that vitalizes the machinery of oppression, including the darkness at work within us, corrupting and enslaving us. His triumphal entry is the perfect example of how Jesus works within the story he has, how he is at work liberating it and liberating us. Deacon Lisa Elmers preaches from Luke 19:28-40.

How do we live a life that ends well? The wisdom of Ecclesiastes is distilled in its closing:“The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.” Pastor Jordan Kologe concludes this sermon series teaching a life well-lived is one that remembers the Creator, rejoices in God’s gifts, and reveres God.