Have you ever read the story of Gabriel's announcement to Mary and wondered, "What was it about Mary? How did she come to be called 'O favored one'?" It's a great question for anyone who wants to be assured that "the Lord is with you." This week we zero in on the answer from the Gospel of Luke.

In our smallness, we struggle to orchestrate the days and years of our lives. Too many variables beyond our control. Too shortsighted in our vision to predict what will happen just days from now. But God in His greatness, brings to pass the promises He has made across hundreds and thousands of years. Across generations of His people. Bringing them to fruition in Jesus, who was truly God with us.

We didn't want to end our Abide series without providing pathways for abiding to move from the theoretical to the practical. To that end, we put together a panel of friends and neighbors to share what God has been teaching them about abiding and some practices they use to maintain a consistent, life-giving connection to Jesus, the True Vine.

The call is to abide. The question is, "How? How do I abide? And how do I abide in Jesus in the way that He intends." This is what we will discover this week as we discover the keys to abiding in Christ.

Jesus' use of vine and vineyard imagery would have struck a familiar chord with the disciples. And that chord would have reverberated into a clear understanding of what Jesus meant when he appealed to them to, "Abide in me." Join us today as we listen in with the disciples and learn to heed the call of Jesus to abide.

Jesus often used metaphors and parables to help us connect spiritual truths in ways that would impact our every day lives. The images of Jesus as the True Vine and the Father as the Vinedresser are foundational truths for a living faith that goes far below the surface and into the deep places of our lives. Join us this week for some thoughts and reflections on these words and a time of guided prayer to process them.

In order for Jesus' mission of making disciples to be successful, the methods He used would have to be reproducible. They would have to be something every disciple could understand and do in their own lives. This is where the Reproducible Process of a Disciple Making Culture comes into play. We must lead others and raise up others in a way that is clear enough for others to follow. And simple enough for them to live out. Join us today as we explore the Reproducible Process that Jesus used.

Jesus created a culture that was ripe for disciple making. How can we follow His lead and create the types of environments that lead to personal growth and the multiplication of disciples? That's what we'll discover in this week's message!

Whether we are aware of it or not, we are always creating culture. By what we do. And how we do it. If we want to make disciples the way Jesus did, we must understand the specific things Jesus did to establish a culture of disciple making.

We are always creating culture - either intentionally or unintentionally. In this message, we examine the powerful influence of culture in shaping both individuals and communities and explore a principle that Jesus knew well - that the culture you create determines the disciples you make.