Living By Faith

How can I live faithfully to God every day? If I am being honest, sometimes I forget to think about God. I know I shouldn’t say that. I work for a church, preach sermons, lead Bible classes, and am a deeply committed follower of Jesus. But, sometimes, I forget to think about God.  If you … Read more

Connection Class Updates (January 19)

Spiritual Practices This week, the Spiritual Practices class discussed and practiced Silence and Meditation. To practice this discipline, we can imagine three stages of practice: learning to be quiet, meditation on God’s Word, and listening for God’s voice. In order to practice Silence, we must learn to shut out distractions whether from the world around … Read more

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

The Moral Arc of the Universe Today, we remember Martin Luther King, Jr. and the way that he was able to inspire a nation to uphold the value of equality as the constitution of our country promises. We remember his life and the way he was able to weave together the message of the Gospel … Read more

Connection Class Update (January 12)

Spiritual Practices:  Spiritual practices have helped Christians throughout the centuries to draw near to God, to become more aware of God’s presence, and to focus in our daily life on connecting with God, even in mundane, simple, and everyday tasks. Prayer is one way, one practice, that connects us with God. We pray because Jesus … Read more

Vision 2020 Reflections

Weekly Bible Reflections Last week (January 5), John Mark preached about why we live the way we do–why do we follow this Jesus, why do we claim to be Christians, and why does it matter? The reason is because of what Jesus has done for us. As we read in this passage from 2 Corinthians, … Read more

The Parables

For the past several weeks on Tuesday mornings, John Mark and I (Jake) have been meeting with our Tuesday breakfast and devotional group to discuss the parables of Jesus. We have mostly been focusing on the parables found in Matthew’s Gospel, but occasionally we will look to Luke’s Gospel too. As we have been reading … Read more

Holy Spirit, the Third

This week, we begin a new sermon series focused on the Holy Spirit, the third member of the Trinity. While the word “Trinity” does not appear in Scripture, we still find evidence that God is revealed to humanity in a multitude of ways. We learn of God the Father, God the Son, and God the … Read more

Breath of Life

John Mark welcomes us back into the Worship Center of the Heritage building by reminding us that all breath, all life, all wind, and even all Air Conditioning (ha!) comes from the breath of God (ruah). Do we really believe that God can bring the dead back to life? [buzzsprout episode=’799688′ player=’true’]

Theology of a Good Greeting

This week is the final week of our sermon series “Where the Wild Things Are – How to Neighbor Well.” John Mark will lead us through how important it is to greet one another well, and how this communicates the importance and value that each person has been created with. Plus, John Mark will share … Read more