This week we kept on the discussion of our values. We examined the authority of scripture and how it makes sense in our world. We must wrestle, encounter and submit to the the authority of the triune God in order to walk in all God has called us to as individuals and as a church family (Matthew 8:5-13).

This week we jumped into our first message on one of our primary values - the Word. The Word of God is more than a set of rules, it is the living and active word that produces life, lights the darkness, and turns the orphan into a son or daughter (John 1:1-18).

This week we began to explore our church's updated and clarified values. It the midst of a noisy, complicated world, values help us be clear about who we are and what we value (Proverbs 3:11-12; John 4:24; Hebrews 12:8-29; 1 John 1:5; 1 John 4:7-11).

We started our new year off in Amos looking at the shepherd-prophet's vision of a plumbline. The plumbline was the standard God placed on His people. Similar, God has placed on us a great calling as believers and this year we hope to see our church family walk into that calling in greater measure. (Amos 7:7-9; Amos 9:11-15).

During our final week of Advent we looked at why Jesus' birth is good news (Matthew 1:20-23; Luke 2:6-14).

This week we were glad to welcome in Peter Louis to preach. He walked us through why Jesus' birth is still "good news of great joy". The same Jesus we read about in the Bible has made His life available to us here and now (Luke 2:8-14).

During our second week of Advent, we looked at the story of Gabriel and Mary. Looking at this story and indeed looking at the story of the Bible, we see a God who speaks and interacts with ordinary humans. Therein lies our hope - we serve a God who loves to speak with the weak, the lonely and the seemingly unimportant (Luke 1:26-38).

We began Advent by looking at God's faithfulness to keep His promises. God's promise ignites hope. The fulfillment of the promise grants joy. During advent we are reminded that our hope and joy are based primarily on His faithfulness to fulfill all of His promises (1 Thessalonians 5:24; Luke 4:16-21; Luke 1:5-24).

This week Justus Murimi shows us that God’s will is for us to receive His joy and how to receive it.

We continued to look at Romans 14:17 this week specifically talking about peace. The good news of God's kingdom is that the fruit of Jesus' rule is peace with God, peace with one another and peace with the future (Romans 14:17; Romans 5:1; Ephesians 2:14-17; John 14:19; John 14:27: John 16:33).