Terraforma Church

Despite living in a culture of digital saturation with a multitude of ways to stay connected, our relationships sometimes seem shallow and superficial. How can we reclaim old-school analog skills to slow down our connection and move them toward a depth? This week we talk about the lost art of Conversation.

James and John, accompanied by their mother, approach Jesus seeking positions of leadership and power. What they learn is that in the Kingdom of God, power is never about being placed over others, but instead placing yourself beneath others to serve them and lift them up. This is the nature of true leadership according to Jesus.

From what we have to go on ‚Äì Phil and Andy were actually pretty great. These two men were just constantly inviting other people to see Jesus. They don‚at make much of themselves. Instead, they just quietly and sincerely share what is important to them with the people that are important to them.

How do you make sure that this time will be different than last time? How do you make the most of a second chance? As he sits down for breakfast with Jesus, Peter is trying to recover from failure. He messed up in a big way and Jesus is going to help him get back up again. I think we need to know Peter's story because there will be many times in our lives when we will stand in his shoes.

Thomas has been unfairly labeled as a doubter. In our quest for certainty, I think we sometimes reduce faith to something over-simplistic. We fear doubt, almost as if we cannot explain everything about our belief it must be invalid. In a culture of skepticism and challenges both intellectually and personally to faith, we might need to learn from someone like Thomas. We can learn some profound lessons about the nature of strong faith from this guy.

1985 brought us the iconic movie "The Breakfast Club" about a group of 5 teenagers enduring a Saturday morning in detention. Their assignment is to write an essay on "Who do you think you are?" One of the big themes of the movie is about re-evaluation of labels, both the labels we place upon ourselves and the labels that we place upon others. This morning we look at the story of Nathaniel. When Nathaniel encounters Jesus he has to re-examine his assumptions and re-frame his identity. When Nathaniel finds Jesus, he actually finds his authentic self as well.

The Resurrection of Jesus is the ultimate comeback story. What if this year was the year of your comeback? What if this was the year you discovered the source of unending and unquenchable hope?

When religion runs wild it creates a system of laws and loopholes which can leave you feeling far from God. The way of Jesus lets love run wild with completely different results.

In Christ, you have been set free. So what are we to do with our freedom? Paul argues that we are to use our freedom to follow the Spirit into a story of selfless love instead of using our freedom to indulge our selfish desires. The obligation of love might be easy to understand, but it can be difficult to follow! We explore the three dimensions of morality that flow from a Kingdom understanding.

We don't love the word discipline, but when it is rightly understood, it actually produces true freedom. Jeremiah Holthus explores the tension between discipline and freedom, and how to use one to unlock the other.