Jason Miller - Advent poses a question for us: what are you waiting for? But hidden in that question is a paradox, because sometimes it confronts us with the powerlessness we face in our unfulfilled longings, and sometimes it calls us to step into our power and make a difference. This week's gatherings focused on the first half of that paradox, inviting us into a deeper wanting and waiting.

Ways to Get Connected

• Join us for Christmas Eve on Dec. 24 at 11a or 11p

During this season, we are taking some time in our gatherings to follow the liturgical calendar and spend some time in the traditional themes of Advent. This weekend we centered ourselves on the theme of hope through song, reading, and candle lighting. Wherever you are over the next month we hope that this liturgies offer the time to pause and reflect this holiday season.

To follow along with the transcript, head to our website.

Jason Miller - Advent poses a question for us: what are you waiting for? But hidden in that question is a paradox, because sometimes it confronts us with the powerlessness we face in our unfulfilled longings, and sometimes it calls us to step into our power and make a difference. During this season of Advent, we'll lean into that paradox through teaching and practice.

Ways to Get Connected

• Join us for Christmas Eve on Dec. 24 at 11a or 11p

Since the founding of South Bend City Church, we’ve focused on the practice of generosity as one way of celebrating Christmas, with gratitude for God’s generosity to us in the gift of Jesus. This year’s practice includes three invitations to give: (1) to support the church’s general fund and sustain our regular ministries, (2) to give to the Tribune project to ensure that we are able to cross the finish line on the phase 1 renovation, and (3) a special Christmas offering. As with past years, this Christmas offering goes to support objectives in line with our calling as a community of grace and peace for our city and the world.

In this episode, we speak with leaders and stakeholders who represent the causes we'll be supporting this Christmas. To give to our Christmas Offering, The Tribune Project, or our general fund, click below and make sure the correct fund is selected.

Give to the Christmas Offering

Matt Graybill and Jason Miller - In the last few months, we've made major progress on the Tribune Project. We're not just talking about the building renovation, though. We've also been in conversations with our downtown neighbors and other city stakeholders about the future of downtown. Catch this update with Matt Graybill, our executive pastor, and Jason Miller, our lead pastor, about where the project stands.

Ways to Get Connected

• Head to our website for our holiday schedule.

Jason Miller and Mariah Keener - In this third week of series on gratitude, we bring the two weeks of teaching into practice. In this gathering, instead of hearing a teaching, we spent some time in three movements — Notice/Capture, Reflect, and Express — in an effort to practice gratitude individually and collectively.

If you’re a long distance community member, or a local one who wasn’t able to join us, we hope that you jump in to these practices with us. Our time will culminate with the practice of Eucharist so make sure to have some form of bread or cracker and wine or juice with you.

Ways to Get Connected

• Support the ongoing work of SBCC by giving to our general fund. South Bend City Church is a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization. All donations are tax-deductible.

In this weekend's liturgy, we offered time to offer gratitude to the Divine as well as get honest about the ways in which gratitude might be counterintuitive to our current circumstances. We hope that this time of reflection, reading, and singing offers a space to get honest and, if it's aligned with our hearts, to be moved to gratitude.

To follow along with the transcript, head to our website.

Mike Goldsworthy - While many of us recognize that cultivating a posture of gratitude is beneficial for us and our lives, it isn’t our natural response and can oftentimes feel like a tiring burden to try and live into. Using Psalm 126 as a guide, we’ll consider what it looks like to reframe the way we narrate and interpret our past stories, the implications that has for how we imagine our future and live with gratitude in the present. Finally, Mike offers us a simple practice to try this week in order to cultivate gratitude as a more normative and less burdensom posture.

Ways to Get Connected

• Support the ongoing work of SBCC by giving to our general fund. South Bend City Church is a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization. All donations are tax-deductible.

Beth Graybill - This week we kicked off a 3-part series on Gratitude. We talked about what gratitude is, what it isn’t, and how we can use gratitude as our guide this holiday season.

Much of Beth’s description of gratitude comes from the work of Brother David Steindl-Rast and Dr. Robert Emmons. And the list of questions near the end is from a recent social media post by Onsite Workshops on “9 Questions To Ask Yourself to Start Planning For The Holidays Today” (Oct 28).

Ways to Get Connected

• Support the ongoing work of SBCC by giving to our general fund. South Bend City Church is a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization. All donations are tax-deductible.

Jason Miller - Raising kids is beautiful and hard, even on the best days. But how do we think about the privilege and challenge of raising kids in a world that feels sometimes like it's burning to the ground? This week in our gatherings, we considered this question, and we celebrated with families as they dedicated themselves to the holy work of raising kids to know the love of God and the good news of Jesus. We also renewed our commitment as a church to walking with those families.

Ways to Get Connected

• RSVP to our New to SBCC Table on November 5