Kevin, our Community Pastor, spoke about Christ's calling of Simon, Andrew, James and John to be his disciples. As fishermen, their families' livelihood depended on this trade, yet they simply dropped what they were doing and followed Jesus. Why? What was it about Jesus that caused people to leave their families and livelihood to follow him, and what was Jesus tapping into in these four early disciples?

Using Matthew 20:20-28 as his text, David discussed how to be a “safe” leader by following Jesus’ example of leading by serving and how this upside-down principle truly reflects the kingdom of God.

Efrem was back in our pulpit this weekend with a powerful message of hope and vision for our body! Sometimes we need to look backward for a bit to be able to see where we are going, so Efrem used Christ's geneology in Matthew 1 as his text. Knowing where we came from can help us understand the destiny God has for us.

This week Jim led us in a communion service. The sermon focused on the tension between the Spirit and the Flesh and how Jesus Christ makes it possible for us to be united with God in spirit. In communion we participate with our whole body as we obey Christ's command to “do this in remembrance of me.” In this way, we submit our flesh to God's Spirit.

Brenda reissued the challenge of serving a radical savior. If we feel God has called us to do the impossible, then we are indeed following the radical God of the Bible! However, if our faith doesn’t inspire us, we need to take another look at Jesus to see how far from dull and boring he really is. Brenda helped us do this using Isaiah 6 and many vivid analogies.

The typical Sunday school, felt-board Jesus (often with blue eyes) does little to inspire people to change their lives much less alter their ways of thinking. The real Jesus is much bigger and more radical than that. Using the New Testament, Sandra reminded us of just how big and revolutionary Jesus was and still is.

In this final sermon of Dwayne's “Wounded Healer” series, he discussed how our character cannot be divorced from our actions; how we choose to act reflects who we are. 1 John 3:11-18 provides God's ideal for us - nothing less than perfection! The author of 1 John asks us whether we will behave like Cain or like Abel. Dwayne challenged us to think about the difference between simply responding appropriately when we see that others have needs and actually dying for someone, which is what God demands.

Dwayne delivered a powerful message that challenged us to love as Christ loved us. We frequently emphasize the fact that we should love one another and what “the loving thing to do” might be. But this message had to do not with the “that” or even the “how” but the “why.” Our motivation for any act should be love, which requires that we have a heart that is responsive to the prompting of the Spirit of God.

Greg vulnerably shared with us something he is currently going through, what St. John of the Cross called the “dark night of the soul.” In his brokenness, Greg openly talked about his current struggle by referencing Psalm 73, which was written by Asaph, who went through a similar experience.

Sandra challenged us to go against the grain of the so-called American Dream and the materialism inherent in it. She also encouraged us to be critical of how we're already being influenced by it and to allow God to work on all of the broken areas of our lives so that we can make an impact.