31 Jan 2021

Looking at the life of Levi the tax collector we find someone carrying a lot of baggage. We all carry the baggage of some sort; it might be dreams for our future, it might be hurts from the past. Instead of God asking us to do more, He asks us to let go, and follow Him into a new and better world.

24 Jan 2021

In an increasingly secular country, it's easy to relate to God as more of an idea than a person; more as a set of cultural values than a living being who acts in our lives. In direct contrast to that, John begins his gospel with a startling claim, God is not far off but has actually come down to us. In the grit and grime of daily life, Jesus is tenting with us.

Closing out our Advent series we look at the encounter Jesus has with Simeon. Despite most leaders at the time thinking the messiah was only going to come to establish Israeli Dominance, Simeon understood that God's mission was so much bigger. He's throwing wide the gates and bringing in all the outsiders into the family.

In our second week of our Advent series, Brooke looks at the gritty nature of Jesus' birth. As God comes into the story of a tired pregnant mary and draws in marginalized shepherds, Heaven invites us in, with all of our faults, into the very life of God.

Christmas is the time where we look to see where God is at work in the world. But often, despite our best intentions we end up acting like it's our work to do. We feel that we're meant to better ourselves, to stop sinning, to be more kind, to look after more people etc... However as we look at the story of Mary, she reminds us that despite our best efforts, God doesn't need us. In fact, It's Him that is doing the work, we just need to get better at saying yes.

This week is the culmination of our 6 weeks of conversation about the future direction of our church. We take the time to remember some of the biggest moments from the years, as they happened in the different ministry areas. Then we present the focus areas for the next few years, drawn from the 630+ responses we got back from the community. If you consider this church your home, can we encourage you to take the time to hear about what God is doing.

One of the biggest obstacles that we face in our life is the challenge of busyness. It was one of the most common issues that came up in our feedback. This week, Colin explores some of the cultural reasons that we find ourselves so busy all the time, and then reminds us of the gospel of Jesus, which invites us to rediscover the unforced rhythms of grace.

In our continuing vision series, we look at the role of community in making all things new. Our culture prizes individualism almost above all else, but is it only making us more lonely. Instead we come back to the gospel, that sets the lonely in families and rediscover the power of community.