The Spirit is forming family on mission, not meetings in buildings. God is restoring us to communion in the very life of God. Church within the "American Dream," often falls short of God’s dream for the Church. Our shared life with one another is rooted in the very nature of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Gospel creates community. Shared life with Jesus creates shared life with one another. 

Jesus, the source of life and love, is at work bearing fruit in the world and he's inviting us to share fruitful life with him. As we unpack our vision for life as the church, we start with the source of all spiritual fruitfulness, life with Jesus. "I am the Vine, you are the branches...remain in me and I in you and you will bear much fruit. Apart from me you can do nothing." 

In Luke 18:1-8, Jesus strengthens us to always pray and never give up. In a world of injustice that ignores cries for justice like an unjust judge, God is listening. God is attentive to our cries for justice. God is moving the world toward sudden justice. 

Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7 proclaims that God is at work unravelling hostility and enabling we who are immigrants to be cultivators of shalom in our neighborhoods, cities, nation, and world. The peace of our city is found in the welcome of the immigrant and our embracing our citizenship in the Kingdom of God. 

In a world that teaches us to suffer in silence, doubt in secret and stuff our emotional reality, God is inviting us to show up as we really are, uncensored and unedited in God's presence. Lament is the gift of God to the community and the beginning of our healing. 

Not everyone likes that Jesus eats with outcasts and sinners. In Luke 15, Jesus tells three parables that begin to unravel an "us vs. them" culture. Jesus reveals a God who smiles rather than frowns as he engages with us and other sinners. We are learning to behold the God who is beholding us and smiling.

Luke 14:25-33 describes, what many call, "the cost of discipleship." Do you hear Jesus' call to forsake all, take up our cross, and follow him as good news or bad news? 

In Luke 14:1,7-14, Jesus disentangles us from the honor-shame game we play. Jesus removes our shame and restores our honor, so that we can view ourselves and others through the lens of Jesus life, death, resurrection, and ascension rather than through the lens of what we've done, experienced or has been done to us. 

Hannah Town proclaims the good news that Jesus invites us to step out of our fear toward HIM from Matthew 14:22-33. In the face of our fear, it is the knowledge that God is near and more powerful that will ultimately bring us peace. 

Sometimes the invitation of Jesus into discipleship sounds foolish to our ears. We hear, "sell your possessions and give to the poor" as an unwise investment strategy, or "Love your enemies" as impractical and foolish. Jesus comes announcing the Kingdom of God, which turns our worldly sense of wisdom upside down. We need a Kingdom vision over a worldly wisdom. We will look at Hebrews 11 and the men and women who lived lives with a kingdom vision.