“As a network, we’ve been saying a lot that we want to become beautiful kingdom people...people rooted in Jesus’ claim on reality. I don’t know about you, but that feels hard. It’s so easy to say you want that until you’re confronted with some random hard thing on a regular Tuesday. Suddenly it doesn’t feel very good. But we want to build every aspect of our lives on what Jesus says is good, true, beautiful, and satisfying. We want to be a community that is embodying what is flourishing and whole.”

"God can only love perfectly. God can only love purely." 

At our final Celebration gathering of 2023, Renaissance stopped to worship and remember the season of advent. We heard from four members of our network as they shared on the four themes of advent - hope, peace, joy, and love. 

"It's not that God just wants to help you with projects of self-improvement, or simply make you more moral, or better at following rules. But what I found is Jesus invites us into the kind of transformation that is beyond what we ourselves can imagine ourselves to be."

“Gentleness is who He [Jesus] is. He is tender, He is open, He is welcoming, He is understanding, He is willing, He is accessible, He is merciful, He is compassionate.”

"Redemptive participation means we don’t hate the world. We’re not protesting it. We’re participating in it with a vision of the way of Jesus. But in order to do that it must come from love. Love must be our motivation."   

What does it look like to model this? What does it look like to be a community living out an alternative way of life? In this Celebration, Jace Rasche finishes out our "A Creative Minority" journey at Renaissance.

“If we’re going to live as a creative minority, if we’re going to bring renewal to the world, we must give Lordship to Jesus and follow his commands…”  

What does it look like to model this? What does it look like to be a community living out an alternative way of life? In this Celebration, Fabricio Paes continues our "A Creative Minority" journey at Renaissance.

“True practices of faith are not performances. They’re encounters of love.”  

What does it look like to model this? What does it look like to be a community living out an alternative way of life? In this Celebration, Christine Lee continues our "A Creative Minority" journey at Renaissance.

“Waiting is bound up with and tangled with the concepts and actions of anticipating, trusting, and hoping. By waiting we are declaring and living into the hoped reality that there exists a future. For the follower of Jesus, waiting in the present day is a statement of stubborn hope that Jesus is working now through the Spirit and will return to renew and heal a hurting world.”   

What does it look like to wait? What does it look like to be a community living out a waiting posture? In this Celebration, Damaris Taylor helps us reflect on Advent at Renaissance.

"Daniel doesn't spend energy criticizing others or controlling others, but he leads by quiet example."   

What does it look like to model this? What does it look like to be a community living out an alternative way of life? In this Celebration, Eamon Anderson continues our "A Creative Minority" journey at Renaissance.

"Worshipping God shouldn’t look condescending towards other people; it should look like an invitation for anyone to come experience who God is. Our worship of an almighty, all-knowing, intimately loving, life-giving God could be the example that invites someone else to worship Him too."   

What does it look like to understand this? What does it look like to be a community knitted together in worship of God? In this Celebration, Johanna Beachy continues our "A Creative Minority" journey at Renaissance.