Friendship gets complicated. It’s a fact of life. No matter at what stage of life we are in or where our friends actually live, friendship takes intentionality. The internet and social media complicate it even further.

People often complain that Facebook, Instagram and other forms of social media hurt friendship. This week we are talking about how the boundaries of true friendship transcend how we actually communicate with those we care about. Paul wrote a letter to his good friends in a town called Phillipi. He was in prison and they were learning what it means to be a Christian community living in the margins of culture.

Friendship is all about contact and love.

True Life Needs True Contact.

He wrote this to them;

3 Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God. 4 Whenever I pray, I make my requests for all of you with joy, 5 for you have been my partners in spreading the Good News about Christ from the time you first heard it until now. 6 And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.

7 So it is right that I should feel as I do about all of you, for you have a special place in my heart. You share with me the special favor of God, both in my imprisonment and in defending and confirming the truth of the Good News. 8 God knows how much I love you and long for you with the tender compassion of Christ Jesus.

9 I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. 10 For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return. 11 May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation—the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ—for this will bring much glory and praise to God. Phillipians 1:3-11

Paul talks about how friendship transcends time and makes our relationships even deeper. Join us this Sunday as we dig into what this looks like and the behaviors of friendship that can transcend where we live and how we stay in true contact with our friends.

We’ve all seen the post on Facebook. The normal reaction is “did they seriously just say/share that?”

It happens all the time. Social media has radically changed the way we communicate. It has changed the way we live our whole life (Mashable shares 5 ways right here).

While preparing for our #statusupdate series I asked folks about the behaviors they found frustrating on social media. Here is just a sample of the most common issues many people have with how others communicate.

• Frustration about the content of sharing.
• Stirring up the pot
• vague booking (yep. I learned that word)
• Airing dirty laundry in public
• baiting people for arguments
• being passive/aggressive

Our words are pretty powerful. In fact, little words can cause big reactions. We’ve all seen it happen. Someone says something and an instant verbal war starts.

But words have always been powerful things. This week we are going to look at James 3:1-12. It’s an ancient argument for realizing the power of our words and the ability our words have to do amazing things or terrible things.

Words matter more than we realize. Let’s talk about what it means to leverage our influence for the greater good.

It's Easter at Foundry (and all over the world).

Chad shares from John 20:19-23, when the disciples encountered Jesus after he rose from the dead. In the conversation Jesus had with them that night, we can learn this lesson.

It is IMPOSSIBLE to encounter a risen LORD without responding and going.

Jesus offers peace, breathes on his followers (yeah..that's kinda weird) and finally sends them out in mission. We only understand Jesus when we let him fully change us and we fully become part of his mission on earth.

There are some things that shouldn't be contained.

Chad shares about the vision of Foundry and the 4 assumptions of Jesus Foundry lives by.

1. Jesus is Here 2. Jesus is doing something 3. Jesus wants us to be part of what he is doing 4. Our greatest fulfillment in life will be found by participating in what Jesus is doing.

So we pull apart John 1:14 and talk about what glory is, what glory does and why glory should not be contained.

Have you taken a #selfie before? They are pretty popular. So popular, the word selfie was the word of the year in 2013.

But what is the motivation behind taking a selfie? The whole idea is pretty wild. When we put that camera in front of us (in JUST the right place), we are creating the perfect frame to share our life with everyone else...and let's be honest. We are all looking for a little validation when we share a selfie.

But the false self isn't the true self.

This week, Chad opens up Colossians chapter 3 and talks about the real life Jesus gives us, and how it is in contrast to our own attempts to create and share real life.

Have you ever just wanted to be alone?

I’m sure. It’s something we all go through. We need time to be my ourselves and in our thoughts. It’s restful and relaxing.

But it isn’t a permanent state.

When we begin to isolate ourselves too much we get into situations we simply aren’t made for. There is no way we can isolate ourselves that is healthy. By isolating, we are divorcing ourselves from the larger purposes of what God has for us as individuals and as the local church.

But isolation is still out there. We can all fall into it.

The Fear of Isolation is real

It’s real and it’s dangerous.

This week, in the final conversation in our Bump In The Night series, we are going to talk about isolation. While our conversations have previously been around the emotions at the beginning of our fears, this week we are talking about the behavior of isolation. Chad is sharing about the biblical idea of being along, what it means (and doesn’t mean) and why there is tremendous importance to being part of something larger than you. We will be reading 1 Corinthians 12:14-27together and talking about how the gospel turns the whole idea of belonging upside down.

This is our second week in #bumpinthenight, a series on the reality of fear in our lives and our world. As we talked about the first week in our series, the matter of fear is a rather intense one and one that seems “to be all up in our business.”

This week we will tackle the fear of the unknown. The unknown is something we all face, like let’s be honest do you really know what’s for dinner tonight? But, it seems to be the case that when we come to points of transition, the places where we are getting ready to cross from the here to there, that the unknown and fear meet.

This week our scripture will drop us down right into the middle of one of those places of transition, to a time when the people of Israel were standing in the realm of the known but being faced with a big unknown as they prepared to cross into the promised land. In Deuteronomy 31:1-8 we will explore how Moses address the fears of the people by reminding them that it is about the known not the unknown and then talk about what it means to have courage in the face of their fears.

Join us this Sunday.

The fear of failure can totally stop us in our tracks. It’s the beginning point for many issues that plague us personally and organizationally.

This week, kicking off our Bump In The Night series, Chad shares about what a biblical view of fear looks like. It leads us to think of fear not as a single event, but as part of a spectrum emotions covering a wide range of human emotions. At it’s basic, fear can manifest itself in two major emotions. Absolute Terror and absolute worship. This means we can either live in a spectrum of anxiety or trust.

It’s about following, not failing

Chad opens up the beginning of the story of Jeremiah, a young priest called by God to do some pretty major work. And Jeremiah is scared and making excuses. Inside of this story, we discover the secret weapon to conquering fear is following.

What we find trust in is the fact we are known by God, we are called by God and we are set apart by God. The answer to the fear of failing that Jeremiah dealt with was not running away from what he feared. God told Jeremiah the answer was to charge ahead, into the center of the fear and anxiety, and live out a life found in the purpose, calling and formation.

Chad and Allison sit down to begin a conversation about Fear and what the Bible says about fear. We talk about What our silly fears are Allison starts quoting H.P. Lovecraft (what???!!!) Chad shares about the usage of fear and worship How fear isn’t self-dependent and it has to be part of a larger story How fear is the extent of anxiety and worship is the extent of hope. Make sure to join us for our Bump in the Night series as we talk about the fears we face in life and how Jesus rescues us out of fear.