Sometimes we forget that being church means not just claiming the title “Christian,” but also co tiny if to grow our faith by asking questions and seeking answers. Growing in faith and practice means inspecting and questioning how our sacred texts allow us to encounter and discern God’s presence in our practices AS a church, AS a people called Christian.

Sometimes the Spirit moves in the most unlikely of places - and leads us to have serious conversations about faith and belief. When is the last time any of us took a moment to sit with the Spirit and think about the question, “Who is Christ to me?”

These letters of Paul - or maybe-Paul - have provided so much foundation for our modern church’s practices and beliefs. For better or for worse, y’all. So let’s dig into Paul’s letter to Colossians, because And like anything built on a foundation, it’s good to inspect what is holding us up. What *is* providing the connection that grounds us, both as a modern church and as a people inheriting an ancient church.

What does it mean to have “freedom in Christ” when lately it feels like freedom is not available to all? What do we need to do to live more fully into that freedom and inspire others to do the same?

This has been a particularly hard week, and it’s hard to preach freedom in Christ when so many have less freedom today than just a week ago. Where is the wisdom and grace in today’s text from Galatians for us today?

Paul’s letter to the Galatian church expresses a special family relationship in Christ, one we as a church community live into in our ministry and mission with the homeless at Bristol Lodge

It’s Trinity Sunday and some of you may be wondering, “well, what the heck is that?” Well. It’s weird, and it’s funky, and it’s enormous, and it’s beautiful in all its complexity.

It’s Pentecost! Now what the heck is THAT?

The system failed the enslaved woman in Acts 16 in so many ways - ways that folks today are STILL often failed. Paul made it worse for her. And Silas? Well. Let’s just say we don’t have a lot of reasons to be happy with him, either. So who are WE in the story if it were to unfold today?

In light of the racially motivated violence that has been filling our social media feeds, online news sources, radio and television newscasts, join us for a time of lament and recommitting ourselves to the work of justice and mercy.