On this Sunday morning, the second day of General Conference, we will gather for a message that may feel as much like a family meeting as it does a traditional sermon. We will explore the history of how we got here as a denomination, the potential outcomes from this General Conference, and how we as a church will be invited to live in relationship with and treat one another as we walk this journey together.

Join our youth for a special message on what it means to live courageously with the knowledge that God is with always. 

Jesus was a masterful storyteller. Through the telling of stories, he helped people understand what God was doing in the world and challenged people to live differently in response to God’s work. As followers of Jesus today we are invited to share our stories as a means of witnessing to our faith and inviting others into a relationship with God in Christ. Through this message we’ll explore our invitation to live as storytellers.

As followers of Jesus we understand that true greatness comes in serving, serving God and serving others. Through this message we’ll explore our call as followers of Jesus to serve, not simply to be served.

Everything we are and everything we have comes as a gift from God. In light of this reality, followers of Jesus are invited to be generous givers, responding to the generosity of God. In this message we’ll look at the Biblical images of giving and sharing resources as we explore our call to be generous givers.

As we continue our exploration of Topeka First’s Discipleship Pathway, we turn to look at the important rhythm of group life. We’ll talk about the biblical call to community and the benefits that come when we make a commitment to group life. We’ll use the story from Mark’s Gospel of four friends bringing a person before Jesus for healing and the life rhythm of the very earliest Christians as models for how we engage in and live group life today.

We kick off our exploration of our Discipleship Pathway by looking at the rhythm of worship in the life of a Christian. We will talk about the biblical invitation to communal worship and examine the benefits, both for us individually and for those around us, of gathering regularly to celebrate God as a community of faith.

As we prepare to close out 2018 and transition into 2019 we will reflect on baptism, the historical roots, what it means for us today, and what it means for us to make disciples “baptizing them….” We will also offer people a chance to remember or reaffirm their baptism or to think about what it might mean to be baptized with a special element in the service.