According to statistics, anxiety is an epidemic in our culture. So, if anxiety is something that you or someone you love deals with, you have a weapon against it. It is prayer.

Did you know that prayer is meant to lead you to peace? This is why Paul wrote these wonderful lines in his letter to the churches in Philippi: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

I love these wonderful lines of scripture and hope that you do as well. So this weekend in worship, let’s talk about how prayer leads to peace as we continue learning how to “Walk this Way.”

Blessings,

Christians are called and privileged to worship our Triune God. Worship is the single most important thing that Christians/churches do.

What is the essence of worship and why is it so important? How does worship serve to connect the dots of all aspects of our Christian lives and keep us centered in Jesus? Why is worship essential for our spiritual health and wellbeing?

Let us explore this together on Saturday, August 16th at 6:00 PM and on Sunday, the 17th at 9:00 and 10:30 AM.

Grace and peace,

Pastor Paul

Most people think “either/or.”  Jesus did not.

Take for example the concepts of stability and adaptability. Most people think it’s one or the other.  Either it’s all about stability (“if it ain’t broke- don’t fix it”) or it is about adaptability (“the only thing that is constant is change”) but it can’t be about both.

But why can’t it?  Jesus typically thought both/and.  And when it comes to discipleship not only are both important but both work together.

Stability is all about God’s nature.  God’s goodness doesn’t change.  Adaptability is all about God’s work, because we live in a changing world, God’s work changes.

So this weekend, let’s talk about how these two ideas work together, both/and so that we can grow in grace together.

Grace & Peace,

Summer is more than halfway over. We continue to journey through our summer series of “Walk This Way.” What does it look like, practically speaking, to live this Christian life?

This week our focus is “nurturing the young and the old.” Recently, Ascension member Max Fuhrmann taught a class on aging. Currently, our campus is getting ready for another school year of students. Our CYF Team (Children, Youth, and Family Ministries) is gearing up for a new season of confirmation and high school Bible study.

I see our children and our elders as the bookends to ministry across the generations. One of the things that I love about worship is that all generations come together as one. So I hope to see you this weekend!

Grace & Peace,

Pastor Rick Ertel’s sermon is based on Matthew 25:31-40. You are in for a fascinating sermon as he briefly gives us five ways to respond to Jesus’ call to love and serve “the least of these.” Be prepared! He even asks for a few people to give some brief answers to his questions, and there are interesting thoughts to share.

“It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

These famous words are from Paul’s farewell speech to the Ephesian elders in the book of Acts (20:35). Paul is quoting Jesus here.

My question is: Do we believe it? Do we believe that giving makes us more joyful and more fulfilled than getting, hoarding, collecting, etc.?

This question is not as simple as it sounds. If we really want to get to the heart of the matter, then we probably need to make a bit of an inventory of how much we have and whether or not we need it all. When we discover that we have more than we need, then the answer to this question starts to get a bit more complicated.

So how do we grow in the joy of giving? How do we learn to trust that we have enough? Let’s talk about this more this weekend as we learn to walk with Jesus.

Blessings,

Grace and peace to you, sisters and brothers in Christ.

Thus far in our summer sermon series, we have talked about what it looks like to walk as a Christian. First and foremost, we anchor our lives on Jesus.

The “fruit of the Spirit” is the way in which we strive to treat one another, with attributes such as love and gentleness and patience. We are to be a people who practice forgiveness.

And last week we talked about being a “big tent church” where instead of pre-judging each other, we try to pre-admire.

This week we are going to talk about looking through the lens of abundance versus scarcity. Do you believe that you have enough? That you ARE enough? Do you believe that despite all the contradictory evidence, God is working all things out for the good?

Let’s gather together in worship this weekend and hold on to Hope.

Grace & Peace,

Pastor Chamie

Join us as we continue to “walk this way.”

So far our summer sermon series has noted that Christians first and foremost are people who follow Jesus. Christians are people who strive to live by the fruit of the Spirit. Christians are people who practice forgiveness and grace.

This weekend, Pastors Tim and Chamie will team preach as they share how Christian faith is bigger than the things that tend to divide us. Christians are people who aren’t just “left” or “right,” but follow the “third way.”

As we celebrate the 4th of July, may we remember that our truest freedom is in Christ.

So how many times are we called to forgive someone?

The ancient law code said 3. That sounds fair, even more than fair, right? But then Peter, clearly wanting to impress Jesus and or his fellow disciples, asked, how about 7?

You’d think they would be impressed. But then Jesus blew his disciples away. Some translations say that he responded “77 times” others say that He responded “70 times 7” or 490 times. Yikes.

I hope that you know, Jesus isn’t suggesting that we keep a notebook with us and keep a tally so that we can get to 70 or 490 and be done forgiving. I also hope that you know that this is not a recipe for allowing injustice to run rampant and for us to continually be taken advantage of.

Instead, it is the opposite. We followers of Christ are called to break the cycle of injustice and hurt. It takes strength, courage, faith and every grace that God gives us to do it but we have the power to fight and our chief weapon is forgiveness.

So let’s talk about forgiveness (and Jesus’ wild parable about it) in worship this weekend. I look forward to seeing you!

Blessings,

Living by the Spirit isn’t easy! In fact, it’s a fight. The apostle Paul even described it as a life-long, “good fight.” None of us gets it right all the time. Sometimes we go for days, weeks or, I don’t know, maybe even years (yikes) without experiencing it. But we are still called to live by the “fruit of the spirit” and not by the “works of the flesh.”

How do we know when we are experiencing it? Well… Paul describes it as freedom. But not just freedom to do whatever we want. It is real freedom, the freedom that comes when we know that God is with us and we are in the right place doing the right thing. The freedom that comes when we are experiencing “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”

So how can we get it? How, as we walk with Jesus, can we keep in step with the Holy Spirit? How do we experience the fruit of the Spirit? Let’s explore this question in worship this weekend.

Blessings,