This Sunday we’ll begin a new book series, doing an examination of the Minor Prophet, Micah. I recognize that some may start to squirm in their seats at the thought of reading through the thundering pronouncements of an Old Testament prophet on a Sunday morning – but I can assure you we will not be leveraging these writings to try and scare anyone about God. As a matter of fact, I tend to agree with N.T. Wright who asserts that the promotion of a wrathful, vengeful God is a somewhat pagan initiative, and not representative of the Biblical narrative.

That’s not to say that Micah will be an easy read. Far from it. We will encounter a lot of talk about judgement described on a cosmic scale – but this Sunday we’re going to take a moment to consider what God’s corrective judgement might be telling us about God’s nature. When we think of God’s judgement, what normally comes to mind? What images do we conjure up? It’s fairly important to grapple with our own picture of God and His character as we unfold the words of Micah, because often the things that trouble us are merely the preloaded assumptions which we map onto the text.

If you’re up to it, you may want to read the book of Micah (it won’t take long) before we start in on it in the next few weeks. Let your mind conjure up images of what it described and take some time to jot down who God is confronting and why. We have a modern tendency to personalize sin without taking into account how much attention God pays to how we interact with our fellow human being.

If you can’t manage to read the book, maybe take a look at The Bible Project’s summary of the book – it’s very informative and will point you in the direction we’ll be taking in this study (you can view it at the bottom of this page). I hope you can join us for this study – it will be a wonderful lead up to where we go next!

This Sunday we’ll be wrapping up our study through the book of 1 Corinthians – we’ll be reading all of chapter 16, where Paul closes his letter.

We’ll be focusing on his final instructions in v1-4, where he talks to the Corinthians about gathering funds to support the believers in Jerusalem. Part of Paul’s missionary journey through Asia Minor was meant to raise funds for the poor in Jerusalem. We aren’t totally sure why, but it’s likely that the famine mentioned in Acts 11 played a role in that need.

In the process of giving his instructions, Paul actually provides some important principles for us, as modern readers, when it comes to how we approach financial gifts within the church community. What stands out, if anything, about Paul’s instructions? Does Paul want money to be raised while he’s with them? Why do you think he gives this instruction? How might we learn about generosity from this section?

The rest of the chapter will be dealing with specific greetings and Paul’s closing remarks, which we’ll look at on Sunday.

If you stuck with us through this study, I hope you got something out of it; I know I did. Did anything come to light for you during our reading of this letter? What parts did you find most challenging, and which parts gave you comfort? I’d be interested in knowing, if you have time to put it in the comments.

Hope you can join us this Sunday as we conclude our look at the Hot Mess Church of Corinth!

There was sort of a mantra a while back that summed up the Christian experience as: “Belong, Believe and Behave”. The order of those statements caused some controversy (which I get, to some degree), but I really do think the phrase provided a quick take on the meaning of being a Christ follower. For me, while we must do all we can to be a welcoming and accepting community, I think the believe part would be better placed at the front-end of the statement. We believe that Jesus is God’s Messiah who fulfilled the promise made to Abraham that through his family, all the people of the world would be blessed, that is, be reconciled with Him.

The belonging is the result of that fulfilled promise. Now, all people from all places can be united as God’s covenant people. There are no limitations on ethnicity, culture or heritage – all the people of all the nations dwell equally under the covering of God’s grace. This experience of God’s loving grace lavished on us produces an altered behavior from its recipients. Instead of selfish pursuits, our actions are shaped by the values of faith, hope and love. Love and forgiveness become our identifying qualities.

This Sunday we’ll be celebrating our 4th Annual Great Big Post Thanksgiving Holiday Potluck Bonanza (or Post-Thanksgiving Potluck if your into the whole brevity thing) at 10 am. It’s really special this year because the Spanish-speaking church, Mar De Cristal Fellowship, who shares our facilities with us, will be sharing in this celebration as well! We’ll do a combined worship service, Pastor Christian will share a little about himself and his family, and we’ll observe communion together, and afterwards share a meal! It’s a wonderful demonstration of BELONGING.

Being a follower of Jesus isn’t just an intellectual assent to a set of propositions. It’s not a ritualistic practice of dogmas. Belonging is such a vital part of this experience – and it can’t happen in isolation or by simply watching a screen. It happens as we break bread and hear and see and accept one another in Christ. I really hope you can join us this Sunday as we revel in our belonging to God and to each other!

When I was in high school my teacher brought in a local professional to motivate our class. The professional shared about working hard, going to college and building his own business. He encouraged us by saying that we could have the same future if we worked hard and stayed focused. Then, he finished his motivational speech in a way that I’ll never forget. He ended it by saying, “I know I said a lot, but you know we still need plumbers so everyone shouldn’t do what I did.”

I remember laughing when he said it and then realized he wasn’t joking. Was he worried that his pep talk was too good? Was he worried the entire class was going to graduate college and run successful businesses and then we would end up in a world without plumbers? I can’t say for sure what motivated him to haphazardly tell us that not everyone should follow his example, but I can say that as I’ve gotten older I realized that he’s not wrong.

There is no doubt that our society would fall apart if everyone had the same job, and that is one of the points that Paul will be making in 1 Corinthians 12 this Sunday. The same concept applies to our jobs and giftings within Christianity and the importance of embracing our diversity in such things.

As we review the gifts of the Holy Spirit this Sunday it’s important to consider the different experiences each of us have had in the past that we bring to church with us. I want to encourage everyone who is able, to set aside preconceived ideas or biases regarding the gifts of the spirit and start with a clean slate in studying the verses this week. We will be reading the whole chapter which is a lot of scripture, but it flows together nicely and will hopefully give us some insight as to how we live our lives.

We invite you to join us this Sunday at 10:00AM. Hope to see you there!