When we look at popular culture, serving others is a bit of a fragmented or compartmentalized action.

Its trendy to “give back” or “make a difference” So we have beach clean ups. Initiatives to help the environment, give blood, donate money to a cause, go on a short term mission trip. Blocks of generosity.

GREAT THINGS! All done sporadically and at times to simply check a box or feel like we’ve done something good in a broken world.

I hope to help us dig further into what it means to be a people who serve.

The practice or discipline teaches us how to embody AND experience the Christian life.

Both disciplines can be a challenge to live into but we hope to give you a new perspective on these two practices.

Both of these practices can be really challenging but as with all practices they will be uber formative if we understand the motive underneath it all. To confess sin is to speak the truth to God and others that we have missed the mark of loving God and our neighbor in particular instances and that this tendency lives in us.

In the discipline of secrecy… we abstain from causing our good deeds and qualities to be known.  We may even take steps to prevent them from being known… We learn to love to be unknown and even to accept misunderstanding without the loss of our peace, joy, or purpose… We allow [God] to decide when our deeds will be known and when our light will be noticed… And that love and humility encourages us to see our associates in the best possible light, even to the point of our hoping they will do better and appear better than us. Dallas Willard; The Spirit of the Disciplines

“There are three activities that are absolutely vital in the creation of community. The first is eating together around the same table. The second is praying together. And the third is celebrating together.”

― Stanley Hauerwas

Ecclesiasties 3:4 says… A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance. In scripture we see times where Jesus wept. We are created with certain emotions and when it's appropriate its ok to express those emotions. When we experience things that break God's heart its ok to mourn and when we experience goodness its good to celebrate and give credit to the source in the process. In this teaching we see the value of both being in balance and how to live into them both.

We need one another. Jesus teaches us to lay down our lives for one another in love just as he did. In this teaching we see the value of the Body of Christ.

Discover the value of connecting as a community united by the common bond of love for Jesus and others.

Why do we need a series on spiritual discipline? We get the sense that culturally people are feeling unsettled and searching for more. All this searching raises the question; What is the good life? In this series we want to give you some good handles on ways to experience the good life Jesus calls us to and the spiritual disciplines help form us in beautiful ways. In John 10:10  Jesus says; "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." We hope to share with you what it means to have life to the full.

Divine priority. Or God first in everything is paramount for us to fully experience how life-giving our relationship with God can be. In the weeks teaching Pastor Karisa teaches the value of covenant in a relationship and how it is grounded in commitment. Marriage is an example of true covenant and God, in covenant, says “marry me.”

Ezra makes an attempt to bring renewal to the exiles who move back into Jerusalem after being released and the passages we read in chapter 9 raise some good questions about heart purity verses outward purity. We see an attempt to bring faithfulness by divorcing marriages who married into neighboring cultures which we believe is only an attempt to appear holy by outward actions. God cares more about our hearts and also calls us to be a witness of His great Love to others. What we see is some hypocrisy.