The CMBC Podcast

Through his life, Jesus demonstrated a consistency of care and concern for those that the Lord directed into his pathways. How can Christian communities, desiring to form in healthy and wholistic ways, follow the patterns of Jesus in our care for another? In our fourth week together in this series, we will explore what it looks like and means to truly bear one another’s burdens in our corporate commitment to fulfilling the law of Christ. Join us as we continue to unpack "7 habits of a Healthy Christian Community."

How does God use prayer to form and strengthen the Church as a healthy community? In our third week exploring habits of healthy Christian communities, we unpack how God uses the tool of prayer to build both our corporate dependence on him, and our corporate witness to his grace and mercy. Join us as we discover prayer to be an ongoing dialogue between God and his children. A tool that God is using to form his people and his community, the Church, into the image of his Son, Jesus.

In our second week of looking at habits of a healthy Christian community, we explore the habit of hospitality. How did Jesus practice and encourage hospitality? In what ways did the early Church leaders look to encourage the habits and postures of hospitality in the first house churches? Join us as we explore what it means to be a faith community committed to pursuing hospitality together.

Today we begin a new series where we will explore 7 habits of a healthy Christian community. As Jesus initiated the beginning of a new community we call the Church, what were some of the habits he envisioned they would regularly practice? Each week we will examine how Jesus taught or modeled this habit himself, and how the first established Christian communities promoted and practiced it in their earliest stages. Our first habit in the series is worship. Join us this week as we uncover how Jesus envisioned his people would worship the Lord.

Luke 18:9-14

1 Kings 17:1 - 19:3

The Gallup Poll headline (news.gallup.com – 06.17.22) read, “Belief in God in U.S. Dips to 81%, a New Low.” Since the time Gallup first asked this question in 1944, consistently 98% said they believed in God. When Gallup asked the question nearly five decades later, in 2011, 92% of Americans said they believed in God.” The current decline is significant. In 2017, the belief stood at 87% -- belief is now at 81% -- a 6% decline in five years. Equally disturbing was the finding that, “About half of those who believe in God -- equal to 42% of all Americans -- say God hears prayers and can intervene on a person's behalf. Meanwhile, 28% of all Americans say God hears prayers but cannot intervene, while 11% think God does neither.” We are becoming a nation of doubters. What is required in this growing darkness? Living in a dark world requires that we represent God as bright lights. The prophet Elijah was living in a nation that was living in even darker times. His actions portray a model for us as we live in our day.

"The Table" - Psalm 23

This is our final week together in the Book of Habakkuk. Throughout our 6 weeks together we have encountered the prophet and his God working back and forth through some of life’s toughest and most challenging tensions. While the answers have not always been easy and will not always be as clear as we desire, as we sit with the prophet in his grief and lament, we find God’s provision more than enough to carry and sustain us. Last week, Habakkuk turned to prayer and praise, reflecting on God’s unrivaled history of faithfulness, and God’s power. In the conclusion of his prayer the prophet turns towards his own response to God. In his response we find the key to moving from weakness towards rejoicing in even the most difficult and tumultuous seasons of life. Join us as we discover what the prophet Habakkuk realized long ago. Habakkuk 3:16-19.

As we move into our 5th week together in Habakkuk’s prophecy, we investigate the form and tone of the prophet’s prayer. Faced with injustice, violence, and the oppression of his people, the prophet is driven to pray. What is the focus of his prayer? How does the prophet both imagine God, and anticipate how God will bring an end to tyranny? Finally, how does the prophet’s prayer motivate and inspire faith and hope for the people of God today? We will unpack and explore these questions and more as we near the end of our series in Habakkuk. Join us, online or in-person as we move closer to the exciting conclusion of Habakkuk’s prophecy. Jesus is the hope for our present distress, let’s embrace him together! Habakkuk 3:1-15.

In this, our 4th week together in Habakkuk, we examine the troubling behaviors and attitudes of the Babylonians. What were the attitudes and behaviors, that would eventually lead to the demise of the Babylonian nation? Habakkuk 2:6-19 serves as a flashing warning light for us today, that we might avoid the same trappings that ensnared the Babylonian nation. Concluding with verse 20, we observe God's place and presence, considering our position and appropriate posture.