How do you feel when someone hurts a child? Or enslaves and trafficks another human being? What about when someone kills another person in cold blood? We don’t just look past those things. We are moved to address them because our sense of justice demands it. Because whatever our culture, religion, or ideology, deep down […]

Jesus came to announce the Kingdom of God and invite people to be a part of it. But there’s a problem – many people don’t know what the Kingdom is. And without an understanding of what it is, we tend to start with our own understanding of the Kingdom of God and work from there. […]

People from different cultures celebrate Christmas in many different ways. From the food we eat to the way we give gifts, Christmas can look different from one family to the next. Your culture and traditions say something about you. They allow us to understand you better. The Christmas story is no different. While it may […]

No one wants to feel like they are not in control. But life happens. People get sick and lose their job. Marriages fall apart, and bills have to be paid. So much of what happens in life is out of our control. Because of that, it can feel like there’s nothing we can do to […]

Life happens. We get overwhelmed by all the important things fighting for our attention. We are overcome with doubt when our faith in God doesn’t stand up to the crushing challenges of life. Jesus addressed these issues by describing two types of bad soil in the Parable of the Sower. The people represented by the […]

The parables Jesus used to teach were designed for specific people in a specific context. The stories and illustrations he used were immediately familiar to his audience. The Parable of the Sower captured the imagination of people because they lived in an agricultural society. Join us as we look at this parable through the eyes […]

Are you a lost cause to God? Are some people so bad that there is no hope of them ever being redeemed? There are certainly those who have been treated that way by religion, cut off, and left outside of religious community life. Even Jesus seems to imply in the Parable of the Sower that, […]

Once upon a time. It’s a phrase that has begun so many stories. It causes us to lean in, ready to hear what comes next because stories are powerful. Jesus told a lot of stories. His parables were a way of explaining the kingdom of God that he was ushering in. But sometimes his parables […]

Is the church really a family? Plenty of people have had experiences in the church that feel opposite to what we expect from family, but Jesus had a different view. He called God “Father” and his followers “brothers and sisters.” The challenge is that religion and family are two very different things. Is it possible […]

A quick search of comments online reveals that sometimes Christians can just be mean. The experience of many people outside the church is that Christians can be harsh, cruel, and judgmental. This does not describe all followers of Jesus, but the reality is there is a behavior gap in how religious people express their Christianity. […]