Cases of anxiety and depression are rising in the U.S. Most of us have encountered it personally or through someone we know. What does Jesus offer to those of us who suffer this side of eternity with issues of mental health?

Additionally, mental health can be a difficult topic for the Christians to deal with, but we have often stepped into territory that is not our expertise. It would be a huge disservice to leave Jesus out of the equation. He is called the Great Physician and our Wonderful Counselor!

How do we engage such a sensitive topic from a spiritual/biblical angle without doing damage along the way?

Join us as we take two Sundays to talk about this from two perspectives - clinical and spiritual. If you struggle with anxiety or depression, you are not alone, and the scriptures are not silent. We hope to see you over the next couple weeks as we tackle this difficult topic!

The longing for love, purpose, and meaning in life is universal. This longing can only be fulfilled inside a relationship with God. You can always find your way back to God and awaken to His love and to living a life that matters!

When we find our way back to God, we will discover our identity as a deeply loved, unconditionally accepted, child of God. In Christ, we find life that is really living! Find your place in the community of God’s sons and daughters as we celebrate, connect, and contribute together.

Our universal longing for love, purpose, and meaning in life can only be fulfilled inside a relationship with God. Regardless of where we are on our journey, we can find our way back to God and awaken to living a life that matters!

When we admit we are powerless to fulfill our longings on our own, we’ll discover there’s help and that help has a name. His name is Jesus. Are we willing to lay it all down and accept that we need help sometimes or will we let pride make decisions for us?

Often we can catch ourselves wandering and wondering how we are going to draw closer to our Heavenly Father. Whether you are finding your way back to God for the first time or you are realizing your relationship with God has become distant, you always have a way back home.

Along the way, you will encounter barriers. Barriers of time, guilt, pride, and barriers of daily distractions. Sometimes these things cause us to run away from God. If you can overcome these hurdles though, you will see the Father on the other side running toward you with open arms ready to welcome you home! If you or someone you know is looking for a way back, we encourage you to join us as we study the story of the prodigal.

As we look to the resurrection to celebrate the victory of Jesus over the death, we also see a way of life that reflects the resurrection story. Jesus calls us out of darkness but He also calls us INTO a new Kingdom that requires us to deny our old selves, to put the old to death and become something new...something resurrected! It’s a continual J-curve of death, burial, and resurrection that recreates us over and over again into the image of Christ. We can choose to follow Jesus’ example or we can strive for that which ultimately leads to death.

The crowds laid down palm branches as they shouted “Hosanna! Hosanna in the highest!“ Their redeemer was an unlikely King who represented an upside down kingdom and stood against the structures of the day.

We are highlighting our partner ministry All Worthy of Love who is a justice focused non-profit that reaches out to men and women enslaved by street-prostitution. Serena Acker, an elder at Common Ground Northeast, has been working with this organization and regularly volunteers to serve and reach out as a minister of reconciliation.

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All Worthy of Love states, “We work in a three stranded cord; prevention, rescue, and restoration. We prevent sex trafficking through awareness. We rescue victims of trafficking through weekly outreach. We restore victims of trafficking through partnerships with local organizations that offer safe housing and restorative care. We believe all are worthy of love.“

We finish the story of Esther this weekend. While justice has been served to the antagonist Haman, we remember the edict he had put in place has not changed. The Jewish people are still in danger and must find a way to counteract the pending calamite. Esther and Mordecai work together to find a solution and a commemoration and celebration is established so the Jews never forget what God has done.