The Gathering

Regret is paralyzing. Shame and guilt can be isolating, making us feel like we’re not worthy of connecting with others or participating in life.

Forgiving others is hard, but forgiving ourselves? That can feel impossible. This is not what God wants for us.

Over the next four weeks, we're walking through four steps to laying down the burden of regret, finding the freedom to live a full and purposeful life.

This week, Pastor Charity is kicking us off by helping us recognize the hold regret can have on our lives.

In the Bible, the Holy Spirit is referenced with a greek word, Paraclete.

There's no simple translation of Paraclete to English. You might have seen it translated as:

- Advocate

- Counselor

- Companion

This week, Pastor Matt breaks down these three words, explaining how the Spirit supports us in these ways.

The Holy Spirit is often described in Scripture as fire.

That imagery can be complicated for us to wrap our mind around. Pastor Matt breaks down 3 ways the Spirit reflects fire, and names how we might recognize that flame in our lives.

There are a lot of ways to read our Bible.

How we read scripture impacts how we apply it to our lives.

This week, Pastor Tim is breaking down how we should read our Bibles, and what that means for our daily lives.

Some of the faith questions we carry center around gender identity and Christianity.

Mainly, "What does the Bible say about gender identity? Does scripture talk about how we should treat transgender and non-binary people? What does God have to say about gender identity?"

As a congregation that is fully inclusive and affirming of the #LGBTQIA+ community, this is an important conversation for us to have.

If you're familiar with Pastor Matt's previous sermon on sexuality, you'll recognize this as a continuation of this work. You can find that sermon in our Birds, Bees, and the Bible playlist. It's also linked at the end of this video.

"Should I make my kids go to church?"

This year, we had you all submit your big faith questions. This question was one of the most frequently asked.

"How do I get my kids to come to church?"

"What do I do if my kids don't want to come to church with me?"

"My kids say they don't believe in God - what do I do?"

"My faith is different from my parents. How do I navigate that?"

This week, Pastor Matt offers up some insight into navigating this question.