Category: Teachings

Herodias

How do you resolve conflict? Chances are, however you approach a fight, you learned it from your family. Our families shape us for good and for ill. Herodias, the Evil Queen of Jesus’ day, illustrates for us the cost of generational sin. How can we overcome the sins we inherit from our families? And how can we leave a legacy of life for those who come after us?

Delilah

What does it look like for Christians to be different from the world? Too often, we treat religion as a brand – one more optional lifestyle for people to choose from. But the story of Delilah and Samson illustrates how following God’s counter-cultural way becomes an invitation for those outside the Church – and life for us, too.

Cain

What makes you angry? We seldom stop to think about the cause of our anger – particularly whether that cause is justified or not. But we learn from the story of Cain, the first murderer, that anger can be an invitation to slow down and find life before we lash out and do something we’ll regret.

I Believe in Life Everlasting

If we know the end of the story, we know how to live in the middle. We conclude our series on the Apostle’s Creed by exploring how each of the statements in the Creed shape us. How do they help us live now as a people who will live with God forever? How can we begin now reverse engineering our lives to flourish as God intended?

I Believe in the Resurrection of the Body

How we think about the afterlife shapes how we live today. Christians confess we believe our bodies will be raised. What implications does this have for how we live in the here and now? What does this mean for how we treat the world and each other?

I Believe in the Forgiveness of Sin

Forgiveness is difficult – both as an internal experience and as an external movement to restore the social relationship that’s been broken. But to be the Church is to insist on forgiveness as essential to a fully human life. The journey of forgiveness is fueled by confession – an honest accounting of where we are before God. What does it take for us to be a people who insists on forgiveness?

The Holy Catholic Church and the Communion of Saints

What does it mean to be a Church? Church isn’t a building – it’s the people of God, all over the world and across time. How do we be part of the Church? When we find our place as part of the universal, worldwide church it grounds us in how we can be a source of life and hope for our immediate community.

I Believe in the Holy Spirit

We’re deeply skeptical that people can ever really change. But God promised to make us into new creations. The Holy Spirit is the one who transforms us, who brings real and lasting change. A church who believes in the Holy Spirit is a church that holds space for people to encounter the Spirit. We trust and celebrate as the Spirit brings new life.

Jesus Will Return to Judge the Living and the Dead

‘Apocalypse’ is a scary word – it conjures images of death and destruction at the end of the world. But the Church has long anticipated Jesus’ return as Good News. How can we understand Jesus’ return such that it helps us understand how we can live today?

Jesus Rose from the Dead, Ascended to Heaven and is Seated at the Right Hand of the Father

Too often, religion is about a new program – seven steps to a deeper faith or four tips to transform your marriage. But the reason Jesus came to earth was because we can’t improve ourselves. We’re lost under the power of sin. The good news is that his resurrection offers us something better than self-improvement. We have been given the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. How can we learn to wait and notice where the Spirit is at work in our daily lives?