Elders - we've probably heard the term before, have heard pastors talk about our church elders, but for most of us we're left wondering, "What do elders actually do? Why are they so important?"

We're glad you asked! Pastor Joe Valenti is teaching this week and has some encouraging words straight out of Titus 1 regarding elders. They are men who, while not perfect, exemplify certain characteristics that reflect God's own heart. They lead the charge in "imitate me as I imitate Christ.", something we can all look up to, elder or not. They are vital leaders in the church who need your prayers more than anything. Let's come together this Sunday and get to know our church family a little better and see how we're made to reflect God!

With all the conversation these past few months of what makes something “essential” we’ve heard more and more frequently people question just how essential churches are. The short answer is yes, but maybe not for reasons you were thinking! A church is not a building. A church is the people and community who sometimes gather inside that building. As we dive into this next series, we’ll be focusing on how Titus began to organize and lead a new church on Crete. Join us as Lead Pastor Chad Allen kicks of this new series and dives into the intricacies of being a part of God’s family in a lost and ungodly world.

Racial disunity is not a modern issue. In fact, it's been an issue even since the early 1st century church.

As Lead Pastor Chad Allen will explore this Sunday, the Book of Acts shows us just how little humanity has changed over 2,000 years. Disunity was an issue even in Acts 6. Thankfully, our hope doesn't dwell in humanity, it dwells in the person of Jesus Christ and the work He did on the cross...for everyone. For every race. For every gender. For every rich person, poor person, and middle class suburban person. For the Republicans and the Democrats. The real exciting question is, how do we as the Church live out this unity in a way that embraces and celebrates the diversity in God's Creation?

We hope you'll join us this Sunday as we finish up our Poll-arized series and focus on racial unity in a divisive world.

In our current culture, it seems like there are an infinite number of ways to embrace and find completeness as a person through human sexuality.

When we distill the conversations down however, there really seem to be two main narratives being promoted. Either you are entitled to and should embrace every sexual desire you have, or you settle down/get married/buy a house/have 2.1 kids/and only focus on your spouse. Where they both line up is in their rationale: in order to experience true joy and wholeness in life, this is how you use your sexuality.

Campus Pastor Josh Stone is here this Sunday to present a third conviction for our lives, one that goes even deeper than your relationship status or sexual orientation - Scripture tells us that the absolute greatest joy, available to any person who wants it, is found in knowing, loving, and serving Jesus Christ. Your truest identity is not your relational status, but your status as a beloved child of the God who made you!

The more consistently we read Scripture, the more we see certain themes being repeated. This is not simply a matter of literary style – these recurring themes are one of the clearest pictures of God’s heart on display! A running motif from the very beginning of God’s relationship with His people is that they are to care for the poor, the orphans, the widows, and the foreigners. Jumping to the New Testament, Jesus spoke on that time and time again, in both words and actions! The more we study the early church, the more we see them living that passion out to a degree that turned the known world upside down. Somewhere in the past thousand years or so, we’ve gotten away from that. This is not a new issue. So the question today is not “should we care about the poor?” but “how are we going to care for the poor?”. There is no one cookie cutter answer, but together with Founding Pastor Rick Duncan we are going to dive into how we can best care for others, for those made in the image of God, and take our own next steps in loving others the way God loves us! Let all we do be done for His glory and our good!

Life matters. That's something just about any people group from any part of the world from any religion or worldview have in common. For some reason, religious or not, humanity has this awareness that we are something unique in the world. We are something other than the rest of the animal kingdom. As Christians, we believe across denominations that life is sacred and every person is made in the image of God. What does it mean to be made in God's image though? How should that fact influence my thoughts and actions in life? Lead Pastor Chad Allen is kicking off this new mini-series, diving deep into issues that divide us politically. Together we will find out just what the Bible has to say about major issues of our time.

When the church is unified, Christ is glorified.

In the longest prayer of Jesus, known as His “High Priestly Prayer”, or perhaps the true “Lord’s Prayer”, Jesus prays for the oneness of believers. Why? So that the world will know that Jesus was sent by the Father. When the church is unified it exalts, lifts up, and glorifies Christ. When we aren’t unified, we tarnish the glory of Christ and make it difficult for people to be interested in Jesus.

Love is patient, love is kind, love is...always concerned with being right? That isn't how the rest of everyone's favorite wedding verse goes! Regardless of your relationship status, the truth of this Scripture applies to each and every one of us. Jesus not only calls us to be loving, but He demonstrates it with everything He says and does, even up to the point of dying as an innocent man. Instead of fighting to be known as being right, He willingly gave up His own life because of God's great love for you and me. In this third week of our Refresh series, Lead Pastor Chad Allen dives into what it means to truly refresh our love for God and others in an age when everyone just wants to be right!

In this crazy season we find ourselves in, we see the evidence that people are trusting in their own understanding and the understanding of others far more than that of the Lord. No wonder there is increased stress, agitation and discouragement! To change that up, we have to come back to placing our trust in God above all else. Only in Christ can we truly be refreshed.

Looking back over the past five months is a daunting endeavor. We’ve been living on the edge of uncertainty for what feels like a lifetime! If you were to pause and think about your responses to each new unfolding event since March, how would you describe them? Most of us have surely felt confused. Angry and outraged. Exhausted. So stressed that you can only laugh or cry. What about grief? From big events in life to the small everyday interactions we take for granted, have you taken a moment (or day or week) to actively mourn the things you’ve lost?

Lamenting is an old timey church word that speaks to a truly vital practice in the Christian life. There’s even an entire book dedicated to this in the Bible! So, what does it actually mean? How do we lament? What’s its purpose? Join us with Campus Pastor Josh Stone as we dig into the meaning of lament and how it draws us closer to God and one another.