(Begins with update from Iris and Rich Ickles)

Experiencing the Holy Spirit

Seeking God's Presence in the Wilderness

This week closes out our series on the Holy Spirit this Sunday. We will look at Exodus 33 and talk about what it looks like to seek God's presence in the middle of the wilderness. This has been a meaningful series, and we would love to hear from you if you've had any sort of experience with God that you would like to share with us!

Experiencing the Holy Spirit

Martin Kahler, a German theologian, once said, “Mission is the mother of all theology.” Theology, in the Christian imagination, is not merely studying about God. Rather, it is about experiencing God and intentionally pursuing him with our whole being. Thus, to experience God’s Spirit, we step into situations where we share the good news about Jesus. Both mission and evangelism have negative connotations in our culture, and for good reason in some cases. Still, if we recover a true and meaningful idea of what it means and looks like to share the good news, we will find ourselves experiencing the Spirit in ways we never thought possible. Particularly, this week’s teaching will discuss how experiencing the Spirit leads to boldness and boldness leads us to more experiences with the Spirit. Read Acts 3-4 to prepare for this week's teaching!

Experiencing the Holy Spirit

While Cody was away ministering at a youth adult conference, Fred Neth spoke on 'Opening Up to Jesus' Ministry of the Holy Spirit" from John 7:37-39. Fred highlights three stages of Jesus' Messianic invitation:

This Sunday, Mark Archilla will be our guest speaker and he will be exploring some questions from our congregation regarding daily living with the Spirit. It will be a great time to come curious, eager, and with our own personal questions regarding how we relate day to day to the Holy Spirit.

Experiencing the Holy Spirit

Last Sunday, we talked about experiencing the Holy Spirit by looking at the inner life of the church. We experience the Holy Spirit as we open ourselves up and surrender to God those areas like bitterness, unforgiveness, the temptations to tear others down with words, anger, and greed. As we turn to Jesus, we find ourselves experiencing his presence in ways that lead to humility, patience, forgiveness, and honesty.

This Sunday, we will look at how we experience the Holy Spirit as we get to work in the church, building up our life together and witnessing in our community. The Holy Spirit is the breath of life into the body of Christ – which is the Church. We all have a part to play and people who experience the Holy Spirit are those who participate in the movement of the body! To prepare, you can read over 1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12:1-8. Ask yourself, “In what ways do I see the Holy Spirit use me in the life of the church?”

Experiencing the Holy Spirit

This Sunday, we will talk about how to cultivate and keep that unity in the midst of conflicting personalities, experiences, beliefs, etc. Scripture gives us a few important principles and practices that help us experience the Holy Spirit in community, and disunity keeps us from experiencing what God has for our church family.

Read through Ephesians 4 to get a grip on what we will cover.

Acts 2: 1-21

1. We narrow our view by assuming

2. We narrow our view by judging

3. We narrow our view by consuming

4. We narrow our view by pride

5. We narrow our view by stagnating

In this teaching we explore what the Scriptures have to say about hell and judgment, and what it has to say might surprise you. Often times we get more interested in the various details about the afterlife rather than making sense of what Jesus says in his own words. So, this is a brief teaching on the nature of hell and judgment according to Jesus.

One of the most neglected beliefs in the protestant and evangelical tradition is the ascension of Jesus. Yet, it is one of the most important because it marks beginning of the church's witness to the world about the story of Jesus. Further, if Jesus does not to send, the Spirit does not come. In exploring the ascension, we look at the priestly, royal, and prophetic work of Jesus and how those things continue in and through the life of the church.