When we think of loving one another well, what's the first image that comes to mind? For a lot of us, we probably conjured up a time where we served someone. Maybe you helped a friend move or brought over a meal after a child was born. It looks like listening well, being intentional, and speaking the truth, too. What about praying for others? Actually spending time, both together and alone, regularly asking God to make His love known to your loved ones? Join us today as Pastor Chad guides us through how praying is an act of love that transforms lives.

What is your calling in life? If you’ve thought about that question at length before, maybe your immediate answer would be career or family focused. Maybe you realize your passion and purpose is to serve others. In Western American culture, we put most of that emphasis on our jobs, on the things we do. What happens though, when we aren’t sure what our calling is? When we don’t know what to do with our lives and feel adrift at sea? The great news is that there is hope, whether you have a direction in life or don’t know what the next step is. The Gospel of Jesus Christ takes our current thoughts on calling and guides into a incredibly deeper, more fulfilling concept of what our calling truly is. So, take heart and join us as Campus Pastor Josh Stone teaches through Ephesians 3:1-13.

It was never God's plan for humanity to exist in isolation. From the very beginning, we see God's triune character creating the world. When humanity was first made, God walked with us in the garden. Even after our sin, He chose to make a way for us to come back into relationship with Him through Jesus Christ. At first He made covenants with Israel, but with the coming of Jesus He made new covenants inviting the all non-Jews into the same family of God. Together, we make up the family of God.

The Gospel reminds us that in Christ, God purchased peace between us and Him and provided peace between us and other believers.

Think about the worst things you’ve ever done. Or think about the most hurtful things you’ve ever said. Or think about the darkest thoughts you’ve ever considered.

Maybe you pushed or hit a family member. Maybe you said some things that ripped the heart out of someone you are supposed to love, “Stop being such a baby!” or “You’re a disappointment!” or “Why can’t you be more like…?” Maybe you wished something terrible would happen to somebody who hurt you. Maybe a decision you made cost someone a relationship or their job. Maybe you cheated a friend out of some money or a commission. Maybe you committed adultery; you cheated on your spouse.

Do you have something in mind? Really. Identify something that’s so dark, so despicable, so depraved that you just don’t want anyone to know. Lock in on at least one ugly thought, word, or deed.

What do you do with that guilt? How do you handle it? Too often we just try to forget about it. Or we try to dull the guilt with food or shopping or work or the next series on Netflix. Or we blame somebody else for what we did to get ourselves off the hook.

None of that really works.

Join us with founding pastor Rick Duncan today as we discover how two words, "but God" lead into the most life changing facts.

The Gospel is not simply good news for someday...it is good new for today. Knowing that good news and know who Jesus is brings a unique kind of power to our lives. It isn't political, financial, or social power. No, it's the kind of strength that isn't dependent on our circumstances or actions. It's dependent on the completed work of Jesus Christ on the cross!

When you think of the word inheritance, what comes to mind? It's usually money, assets, items, or maybe a house. We think of things. The Apostle Paul uses that word, inheritance, to encourage the church in Ephesus though. As believers in Jesus Christ, we receive an inheritance - but what is it? The reality is, our inheritance in Christ isn't a what but a who, and it is good news that has the power to help us live a life full of purpose and security in the here and now, not only when we pass on.

Nobody got through 2020 completely unscathed. We all lost something or someone last year. Even just the idea of stability, of waking up knowing what to expect, was taken away from all of us. It's understandable then that our thoughts and conversations so often turn to everything we've lost.

And yet that healthy lamenting can quickly turn into a blinding obsession, putting up blinders to all that we have been given, too. That's where the Gospel can transform our minds and hearts. It doesn't mean we forget the tragic losses, it means we grieve those and also rejoice in the hope and live abundant that Jesus has for us.

Lead Pastor Chad Allen is officially kicking off our new series in Ephesians today and emphasis for the year - the power of preaching the Gospel to ourselves!

While we don't wish away the precious time and opportunities that God gives us, we can all breathe a sigh of relief that 2020 is behind us and a new year is on the horizon.

To celebrate where God has brought us and where He is leading, we are spending this service in worship and prayer, all centered around 1 Corinthians 15. Paul reminds us of the keeping the Gospel at the forefront of everything, its importance to our daily lives, and the victory that we partake in through Christ's death and resurrection.

If Jesus came to give life and give life abundantly, why is it that so many of us are just....stuck? Weighed down by the daily grind and responsibilities? Where is the vibrant, thriving life we imagined the day we chose to follow Christ?

The truth is, it's easy to treat the Gospel as a lifeboat instead of a lifelong journey. We decide to follow Jesus - we climb into the proverbial boat - and check that off the list. If that's our mentality though, we're shortchanging ourselves. The truth of the Gospel has the power to change everything in the here and now, not only our death.

So, how do we preach the Gospel to ourselves? How do we allow it to transform our daily lives? Why does that even matter? Today we've got a special panel of CVC staff and elders who are ready to discuss all of that and more!