We don’t always feel God, so what do we do with that? How do we know if we have? If you don’t always feel God’s presence, you’re not alone. Learn with us about what’s up with that and how God wants to give us a new perspective on how his presence is with us.

Maybe at some time you’ve identified with this thought… “I wanted to follow Jesus, I just didn’t want to be like the Christians I knew”. Or maybe “I want to believe, but there are just too many rules”. Jesus wants to give us a new perspective about religion and Christianity. And it’s a perspective that religion that is about rules and legalism and fundamentalism but what he really wants to give us is a relationship that calls us to become the church, live out our faith and put our trust in God. He wants us to see that religion focuses on the external but he want us to focus on the internal. Religion attempts to close the gap between us and God with human effort, but faith and trust in Jesus is what really does it.

Have you ever said or thought “I want to believe in God, but…”? When God doesn’t do what we think he should do, we conclude something about who he is. But God wants us to have a new perspective on who he is and how he loves us.

The decisions we make today, determine the stories we tell tomorrow. Today’s decision can make tomorrow better. Decisions matter! But we’re not always that great at decision making because we tend to make a permanent decision based on a temporary emotion. And we’ll often ask “what does God want me to do?” So what DOES God want us to DO, anyway? He wants to change our perspective on what he cares about.

Our view of what church is meant to be has been distorted. Often, it looks like religion – a set of rules telling us to dress a certain way, do certain things, say the right things, or look right – when really the church is a Community of people who follow the teaching of a man (JESUS) who was sent from God to explain God, and to clear the path to God. But Jesus says don’t consider the church. Don’t consider anyone else. Don’t even consider yourself and your good works. Consider me. Put aside your perspective and consider me. Have you considered Jesus?

We are unstoppable together! Engage Church exists to connect people with God and to connect people with a church family. We accomplish this through valuing people, relationships and community. Why? Because Jesus (the King) once took the position of the lowest servant and washed his friends’ feet. While we probably won’t actually wash feet, we will follow Jesus’ example to serve. Do you want to find purpose? Do you want to see a miracle? Do you want to experience life change for yourself and others? Do you want to see the local church on fire, passionate and fighting for the right things and making a difference? Do you want to see the city changed? He’s calling us to SERVE. There is power for all those things when we’re all sold out together, when we’re all focused on the same Jesus, when we’re all willing to wash one another’s feet, to wash our city’s feet, to wash our world’s feet. We aren’t here to build an audience; we are here to build an army - an army of people that want to get out and strengthen the city and go and BE the church.

We don’t have to follow Jesus from the nosebleeds. We can choose to follow him closely, where the action is. If we get too far away, we become weaker and mess it up. But he pursues us and loves us all the same. His love for us is the same in our darkest moment as it is in our strongest moment. He doesn’t love you more as you do what is right; he loves you the most right now! We say we’ll never get to that dark place again, and then we blow it. Even so, we should never put a period where God puts a comma. Success is not final. Failure is not fatal. And he won’t waste our failure.

There was a woman caught in adultery, red handed. People told her she was never going to be good enough. The law told her she was condemned to die. Then…Jesus. We can relate to being caught, to believing we are who people say we are, to believing we will never measure up. Then…Jesus. Like the woman, he doesn’t condemn us, but offers us forgiveness and acceptance and love, if we will just take it! Get out of the prison the world puts you in and hear Jesus say that you aren’t what you did, he doesn’t condemn you, and you aren’t what others say you are.

Zacchaeus may have been the most notorious traitor to his people, despised boss, and awkwardly short man of his time, but Jesus loved him and gave him value. In return, Zac shared the love and value he received from Jesus with others. No one is "too far gone" for Jesus.

There is no box on who Jesus wants to reach with his love! His example of searching for lost sheep and then partying when they are found is how he wants us to share what we know about him with others.