This Sunday we begin our study of one of Paul's earliest writings - the letter to the church at Galatia.

Many things in life define you. Your work, family, and past tell people a lot about who you are and what people expect from you. Paul discovered a new way to define himself—a way that led him to life. Today we’ll talk about his realignment and how we can realign and redefine our lives.

In one moment, Paul went from hunting Christians to living as one. Jesus immediately changed everything about his life. Needless to say it was a difficult transition for him (and for those he had hunted). Paul’s story tells us a lot about Jesus’ power to transform, not just Paul, but our lives and our moments.

The school year is finally over and most students (and teachers) are done with lessons and learning for the summer. Most of us think of "learning" as something we do during high school, college, or continuing education events. We understand learning as a segmented portion of our lives--done at particular times and places. In John 16, Jesus reminds us that our education is never complete and we have teacher that's never done with us.

On Pentecost Sunday we celebrate the arrival of the Holy Spirit. In John 14 Jesus teaches us about the role of the Spirit in our lives--a spirit that calls us out of the past and into the future God has for us.

If at all possible, we avoid suffering. We want life easy, clean, and controlled. We definitely don’t choose suffering. But what if the missing component, the missing piece of our faith is a willingness to sacrifice? At times the only way forward is to make the hard choice. Today, we explore where God may be calling us to a harder road – the one less taken.

What is the Holy Spirit? What does the Holy Spirit have to do with us? How do I know if I’ve experienced the Holy Spirit? We’re comfortable talking about God or Jesus, but any conversations about the Spirit can be confusing or scary. We’ll talk about the role of the Spirit in the life of a follower of Jesus and how we understand the Spirit’s role in finding and living our story.

Most of our days are spent with people who look, speak, believe and act like us. We tend to clump with people who resemble us. That happens in churches, too; it has been that way from the very beginning. In the book of Acts, Peter struggled with what to do with people who were different from him. God gave him an amazing answer—an answer that’s important for us to hear, too.

Scripture is full of stories of healing. Jesus healed people. The disciples healed people after Jesus returned to heaven. What happened to the miracle of healing? Maybe it hasn’t disappeared. Maybe we just need a reminder of what it means to offer healing.

One of the first things that happened in the early church is that the new Christians sold everything they had and moved in together. From the beginning, community was critical to living faithfully. What does that mean for us? We’re not going to sell of our stuff and move in with others. How can we practically find and nurture the friendships we need?