Sunday service

A famine, a starving widow, a hungry prophet. She took a leap of faith to feed him with the very little she had and God performed the quietly miraculous of making sure there was always enough food until for her and her family until the famine was over. We often forget that "always enough" can be a miracle in its own right. What keeps us from being generous even when we don't have a lot to give?

We all start somewhere on our journeys of faith, but spiritual maturity often comes only as we experience freedom--freedom from addictions, freedom from patterns of negative thought and behavior and even freedom from sin. Listen in as guest speaker Adam Kolosik talks about how the story of Jesus brings freedom into OUR stories.

Every Christian church carries within it the DNA of the very first church that ever was--in first-century Jerusalem. Our ancestor church embraced a diversity of people with different cultural and ethnic backgrounds, but not without struggle and contemplation on HOW to make the church as accessible as possible to groups that thought, lived, and even ate differently from one another.

Every Christian church carries within it the DNA of the very first church that ever was--in first-century Jerusalem. That church and those early followers of Jesus shared a common experience: getting submersed in God's spirit, which coincided with an experience of God's tangible presence, love, and power.

Every Christian church carries within it the DNA of the very first church that ever was--in first-century Jerusalem. That church was characterized by a powerful sense of community among people who didn't even all speak the same language or know one another well! They worshipped together, prayed together, ate meals together, and pooled their resources to take care of those in need in the community. Every church is meant to express this "community DNA," but sometimes we don't or we just haven't learned how.

Every Christian church carries within it the DNA of the very first church that ever was--in first-century Jerusalem. Jesus told his disciples that the church would be characterized by power, but not military or governmental or oppressive power. Instead, the first church experienced signs and wonders through the power of the Holy Spirit, and these signs and wonders led people to Jesus.

When Jesus left the disciples he gave them some basic instructions: make disciples for Jesus, teach them about Jesus, and dunk them in water (whaa?!). Tune in in for more thoughts on the "great commission" of sharing the news about Jesus with others, as well as an explanation of water baptism!

Jesus had a profound and powerful meet-up with his disciples over a simple breakfast of fish and bread on the beach, demonstrating that any time of day and any place is good for interacting with Jesus and witnessing a miracle. Jesus is probably speaking to you during your ordinary times, as well--eating a meal with friends, doing laundry, walking to class. What do you hear him saying?

After Jesus' resurrection, two of his disciples were confused, dismayed and hopeless as they left Jerusalem and headed back to their hometown. They had no idea that it was Jesus who walked beside them on the road and encouraged them as they journeyed together. Even when they thought they'd been very much abandoned by him, they were very much in the company of Jesus.

"This is your hour--when darkness reigns," Jesus said to the religious officials when they came to arrest him. All around us darkness reigns; we've lived through darkness in our world, our nation, our neighborhoods, and our families. But if Christ rose from the dead, then darkness is merely a chapter--and not the end--of the story!