We often think changing the world requires more effort, more influence, or more control. Psalm 67 offers a different vision. When we live as people who know they are loved, blessed, and shown mercy, we become people who extend love, blessing, and mercy to others. The most effective tool we have to do good in the world is the good God has done to us. 

God's bigness and nearness creates safety so we can go out into the world. Since Craig and Luke launched Garden City we had dreams that we would be part of a movement. Too many people believe church doesn't work. Instead of rearranging the furniture on a sinking ship we want to build something new. Garden City is that new thing. We reach out with hospitable orthodoxy. We worship Jesus as Lord and all are welcome. We're beginning to see how this one church is becoming a movement. Listen to find out how.

We all feel like outsiders from time to time. If Taylor Swift feels like an outsider, why would we think we wouldn't? How does God feel about outsiders?

Psalm 87 makes a bold claim, God re-narrates outsiders' histories to make them insiders. What does that mean for us?

What if our insecurity and anxiety come from trying to hold onto things that were never ours to carry? In Psalm 131, we see an invitation to let go of what isn’t ours so we can make room for what is, and discover what happens when we do.

When the world around us feels unstable, it often reveals how fragile the things we lean on really are. In Psalm 23, David points us toward a different kind of security, one not rooted in a place, a circumstance, or our ability to hold everything together, but in the presence of a Shepherd who sees what we cannot see and loves us with unfailing love.

In the book of Psalms we receive a gift we need to stay sane when the world is going crazy - Poetry. In this first week of this series, Craig asks the question, "What if your desires aren't the problem but they are the path to experiencing God?"

Why do so many of us have a hard time asking for help? Could beliefs and expectations about God be keeping us from admitting our need?

Jonah knew that God C.A.R.E.S. God is Compassionate, Abounding in Hesed, Relenting from Calamity, Enduring in Patience, and Showers us with Grace. Jonah couldn't stomach the idea of that grace being extended to his enemies.

Finally, we apply this to our own lives through the lens of Giving and Receiving. If we only give, we play the Savior; if we only receive, we become consumers. To truly love our city and reflect the Hesed (unrelenting love) of God, we must learn to do both.

How do we hold the tension between a God who hates evil and a God who is desperate to reconcile with His creation?

Religion uses others to protect ourselves from failure. Humility sees others as heroes in God's story and serves them. Humility changes the world. How do we practice humility?

We land back in Jonah 3, where God shows up a second time not reacting, not apologizing, but commissions a reluctant prophet to a city that has every reason to expect judgment and no reason to expect mercy. Turns out, that's exactly where God loves to work.

Three big ideas this week: God loves your people more than you do. Everybody has a hungry heart. And humility before God is what actually changes the world.

From Abraham's tent to the Last Supper to a wedding banquet at the end of history, the Bible tells the story of a God who keeps throwing parties and keeps inviting people nobody expected.

His strategy for changing the world has always been the same: welcoming people who expect judgment.

What if the most important thing you did this week wasn't at church, but at your kitchen table?

God throws the best parties. And he wants your help pulling it off.

Has anything you can't explain happened to you? Your mom dies, and suddenly you're asking about your purpose. You don't believe in God, but you feel profound gratitude when you watch a sunset. "Who do I feel gratitude towards?" you wonder. If you're like most of us, something strange happens when we move on. Disruptions are wild. Too often, we either move on or try to domesticate them. Easter is the original disruption, and if we let it do its wild work, we will find a God inviting us to know him and be known by him.