What is the plan to re-launch the large in-person worship gatherings? God isn’t calling us to return to 2019. God is calling us to join God’s mission this year, next year, and on into the future. So we don’t settle for a trimmed-down version of 2019. Instead, we pursue God-sized dreams and pursue them with a commitment worthy of God’s mission. Spiritually prepare to enter the future God has for us by reading John 1:35-51 CEB.

What’s next for Grace? What does it look like to faithfully follow God’s call to grow, serve, and love together as we put the virus behind us in just a few short months? Even more so than when we launched in 2019, we don’t all know one another. We’ll need to relearn names, stories, and faces - and meet many new faces too! How is God calling us to reconnect? Prepare your heart by reading Hebrews 10:23-25 CEB.

Conversations about race are hard. Conversations about racism are even harder. Maybe that is what makes systemic racism so powerful - we can’t talk about it. We can’t name it. Because if we name it, we fear we could be accused of racism. So let’s change the conversation. Today, we aren’t talking about personal racism, the dehumanizing and evil things that a racist person might do. Instead, we are talking about systemic racism, the subtle and pervasive ways that our culture has misled all of us in regards to race, and what we can do about it. Get curious and prepare your heart by reading Micah 6:7-8 CEB.

How does God think about race, color, culture, and language?  On December 18, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. described Sunday at 11AM as “The most segregated hour in this nation”. Nearly six decades later our schools are more diverse, our transportation systems are more diverse, our workplaces are more diverse, and our stores are more diverse. But on Sunday morning, we continue to segregate.  If an outsider were to look at 86% of Christian communities, they could make some reasonable assumptions about what the Christian faith says about race, color, culture, and language, but do these assumptions match what God thinks? Is it truly God’s vision that God’s church be twenty times more segregated than the nearby schools? Or does God have something better in mind?

We’ve had a hard year. Yes, we experienced surprise blessings, but it was also a hard year of isolation, stress, routine changes, and disappointed hopes. To dull the pain, many of us turned to snacking, shopping, and scrolling. After the momentary distraction, these methods of numbing left us with regrets, not relief. Listen to this message as Pastor Chris shares the better way that Jesus offers us in Matthew 11:28-30.

Before Nicodemus spoke with Jesus, it looked like he knew all the answers. Then Jesus turned those answers on their head. Don’t miss these three messages leading up to Easter, following the story of Niccodemus in the Gospel of John. Dive deeper in today’s message by reading from John 3:1-10 CEB.

Have you heard Jeff Leonard’s adoption story? Do you know the path he took to meet his birth family? Through this special collaborative message between Jeff and Pastor Chris, we’ll get ready for our next step in making this year an unshakable year.

Part of what made 2020 so hard is that we stopped seeing each other. We were so overwhelmed and so afraid that it became very difficult to truly see people close to us or far from us. It was as if they became translucent! In this message from Matthew 14:22-23, Pastor Chris unpacks how that happened and how we can start seeing people again.

What is the opposite of scarcity? In a fearful world, we are afraid that there is not enough. Until we receive the vaccine for this scarcity mindset,  we will continue to be shaken by every storm that passes by us in 2021. In 2021, we want to be unshakable. Start your unshakable journey in this message from  Pastor Chris, based upon Psalm 78:13-20, 23-30.

What is the first step in becoming unshakable? Be vulnerable. It sounds counterintuitive, right? The events of 2020 shook us to the core. As we enter this new year, we are preparing ourselves for whatever might come our way. To prepare for 2021, we start by changing our mind about what it means to be vulnerable. We will explore this and other topics in today’s episode, based upon 2 Corinthians 12:7-10; Matthew 3:13-17