How does the book of Revelation encourage us to expand our imagination of God? How might the book of revelation show the limits of our imagination when thinking about God and heaven? How does our season of life or circumstances shape the way we imagine God?

Like Jimmy Fallon's "Friday Thank You Notes," John of Patmos interrupts Revelation with seven letters to seven different churches in various cities. These letters reveal to us the diversity of Christian thought and practice in the ancient world, and pulls us back into the big, wild, vast ecosystem of God. 

How can an ancient, symbolic, and often misunderstood book like Revelation speak directly to the chaos, injustice, and political realities of our time? What does it mean to live as citizens of God’s Kingdom while surrounded by the power and propaganda of empire? What might it look like to name and confront the deeper forces—fear, death, authoritarianism—that warp human community? How can we creatively blend Scripture’s imagery with the realities of our moment to proclaim a counter-story of hope, justice, and truth? Are we willing to put our own name to a vision of God’s Kingdom, not hiding behind heroes of the past, but speaking and acting with our own voice?

In a world obsessed with end-times predictions and cryptic codes, we want to try to read the Book of Revelation the way it was meant to be heard — not as a secret puzzle, but as an open letter of hope and imagination. This teaching series reclaims Revelation as a powerful unveiling of Jesus Christ, written to a persecuted church asking hard questions: Where is God in our suffering? How is God’s kingdom different from the violent empires of this world? Through vivid imagery and bold worship, Revelation redefines history from God’s perspective, calls out false sources of security, and dares us to live as if Jesus — not Caesar — is Lord. Join us as we explore a story not about escape, but about faithful resistance and deep hope.

Our final week of “My Most Important Question” focuses in on Jesus’s commission to be the light of the world, or the salt of the earth. What does it mean to make a difference? What is our work to do?

How do we see faith as a puzzle-solving exercise done in community? Ryan Foran asks whether the early Christians would recognize his (our) version of the faith. Bethany Long asks what it means to witness when our beliefs about the afterlife and gospel are changing.

Every year Crossings attempts to live into its name, derived from Genesis 32 and Jacob’s wrestling with God. We invite folks to share for 10 minutes about their biggest questions of faith right now, how they arrived at these questions, and ways they’re wrestling through these questions. This week we remembered that the process of solving puzzles is often more important than actually solving the puzzle.

Unforming our Western-influenced, independent, hyper-individualized, understanding of community will take work. Even in our attempts to provide hospitality and create community it’s easy to become so focused on ourselves. What might the story of Elijah teach us about Elijah’s loneliness? What might the plants and creatures of the earth and Indigenous wisdoms teach us about our interconnectedness?

What do we do when our ideas and expectations of God and faith die? Where do we go if we Westernize ourselves out of received forms of Christianity? How can we encounter an unexpected “thin silence” through our intellects, ethics, and brothers and sisters from other religions? What does Christianity look like for now?

What if your body was more than something you have—what if it’s who you are? In this week’s teaching, we explore the ancient story of Elijah through a different lens: embodiment. Together we consider how faith becomes real not just in what we believe, but in what we feel, touch, remember, and experience in our bodies. Because, what if showing up in your body was one of the most sacred things you could do?