As teens our youth tend to internalize more pop culture than they do lessons that their weary youth pastor tries to bestow on them. So since that’s what they listen to, let’s use some of that to give them a commencement speech. From Back to the Future to Lizzo, we will hear words of wisdom, connect them to life lessons, and scriptures, and hopefully send our graduating seniors off with something to chew on.

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” Love. Commanded. Demanded. Chosen. Imagine a world filled with this kind of love.  Imagine our community, our home, our church, our lives filled with a love that is willing to lay down and die for another – even one we don’t know. Jesus’ commandment to love in this way requires serious sacrifice.  The cost is astonishingly high.  This love requires our heart – the place where we feel the very beat of life.  This love requires that we give our heart to God, in the same way that we might give our heart to another in an organ transplant.

While taking your time to figure out what you believe is important and should be celebrated, now the actual works begins. You cannot just sit on what you believe and not allow it to inform every aspect of your life. You have to allow your orthodoxy to move you to orthopraxy, and then allow your orthopraxy to then further inform your orthodoxy. In other words, you have to act on what you believe and then allow what you see and experience while you’re “doing” to inform what you believe.

Choose Love. Be the Light. Change the World. This Sunday Alex finishes his sermon series explaining why these words represent not only everything about who we are and what we stand for as Christians, but also our goal as a church community.

For the last five years, at the end of every service, we have been saying the words: Choose Love. Be the Light. Change the World. But what exactly does this mean and why do we say it every week? This Sunday Alex begins the journey to answer why this tagline summarizes everything important at First Pres.

One year ago, we were celebrating Easter in an empty sanctuary with a lot of unanswered questions. This year, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel and the resurrection of Jesus is a moment that can help us reflect on the past, while at the same time finding a way forward.

What exactly was Jesus trying to achieve on Palm Sunday? What were his motivations for going into the Temple Courtyard and causing so much chaos? This Sunday we discuss one of the most misunderstood events in Jesus’ life and ministry.