Every person longs for meaningful friendships. We are wired for them. Yet far too many of us have grown to be adults with too little relational connection. What if we lived as a community of people who walked through our days with attentiveness to the opportunities we have to invest in the lives of others? What if, instead of just letting people pass us by, we actually took the time to invest in them.

Jesus extends an invitation to all people. So we want to be a community of people who are on mission together so that more and more people accept Jesus’ invitation and find their way back to God. An invitation starts with identifying people who we know who might be ready to receive Jesus’ invitation. 

In the decisions that come our way, we are faced with many choices, but oftentimes we end up going from one thing to the next and are never able to discern the important from the urgent. This can cause us trouble. However, as we read in the Gospel of Luke, there is only one priority that we should focus on.

Fear is an emotion caused by belief of impending potential distress, misfortune, or loss. It’s based in the future. The source of our fears is usually something we’re going to lose or we’re afraid we won’t have in the future. Since we can never really know what’s the around the corner, is it even possible to live without fear and worry?

Do you remember the board game slogan, “You learn about life when you play The Game of Life”? It’s true. We do learn about life when we play games. But too often, the lessons we learn aren’t healthy ones . . . especially when we play The Mind Game. Relationships built on The Mind Game can’t survive.

We all love games, but playing games in relationships is dangerous. Approaching relationships as though someone has to win and someone has to lose is a bad idea. One game we tend to play in our relationships is The Change Game. There’s nothing more toxic to a relationship than secretly trying to change the other person. It feels awful. It doesn’t work. And it will eventually destroy the relationship. The good news is there’s a better way.

For thousands of years, the Bible has contained the best financial principles to help people achieve financial freedom. These principles worked thousands of years ago, and they’re just as effective today - they are timeless financial truths.

We make investments in life to provide for something in our future. But have you ever thought about how you can invest in your eternity? Is that even possible? You may be surprised!

By it’s very definition, eternity it timeless. And when we think about eternity, we think about Heaven. The popular misconceptions about what Heaven is like hinder our pursuit of a truly significant life. Why? Because we tend to tend to prioritize the temporal things of this life over what has eternal value. At the end of the day, we’re not convinced that eternity is going to be much different than the here and now. And yet, the opposite is true. When we understand what the Scriptures teach about Heaven, it not only gives us a greater and grander vision for eternity, it also gives us a greater and grander vision for the next seven days.

We’re all headed somewhere. Arriving at our new destinations requires change. For most of us, change creates stress. Sometimes you know what’s coming next—graduation, wedding, new baby, new job, retirement. But there’s no correlation between knowing what’s next and being prepared for what’s next. So, how do you prepare for the next season when you can see what’s coming?

We’re all headed somewhere. We’re all moving toward a new season. And none of us has been where we’re going. Yet it’s up to us to figure out what we need to pack in our bags so that we’re prepared for that coming season. But how can you know what you’ll need when the coming season is a mystery? How can you know what you don’t know?

We’re all headed somewhere. Arriving at our new destinations requires change. For most of us, change creates stress. Just like when we travel on a boat, plane, or in a car, traveling through life can give us motion sickness. We’re knocked off balance. The ground beneath our feet doesn’t feel solid. So how do you prepare for what’s next when the anxiety of transition has you fighting motion sickness?

Life is full of change. Transitions can be both exciting and stressful. That’s because we can’t see into the future. We can’t tell what comes next. But what if there was a way to prepare for the next season? What if you could do something now to influence where you end up then?

Eschatology (es·cha·tol·o·gy) is a Christian term that references the biblical teachings about the study of the “last things,” including the second coming of Jesus. While Christians hold to a wide variety of beliefs about the details surrounding the second coming of Christ, there is one central truth on which there is broad agreement: Jesus is coming again, and he will come in a literal and visible manner. The return of Jesus is necessary to bring redemptive history to its ultimate conclusion where God sets all things right and restores his created order.

When the church launched, it began to grow quickly. A quick survey of the first several chapters of Acts will show that they kept track of how many people were embracing the message of the Gospel. What was the focus of the early church? What led to its rapid growth?

After his resurrection, Jesus spent 40 days with his closest disciples pouring into them and teaching them from the Scriptures. At the end of that period of time, he gave them a mission: take the message of the Gospel to every nation on earth and make disciples for and of Jesus. But what is a disciple? What exactly was the message of the Gospel? How were they to accomplish this mission?

Everything in Jesus’ ministry led up to a singular crisis climax: his death and resurrection. Even though Jesus told his disciples that his death was coming, they couldn’t wrap their minds around it: the Messiah wasn’t supposed to die prematurely. Upon the first reports of his resurrection, it seemed to his closest followers as an unrealistic fantasy. Yet this dramatic event was the centerpiece of God’s plan and became the foundation of his plan to restore a broken and fallen world.

Though few people could put their finger on exactly who Jesus was, everyone had an opinion about the things he did. He came as a powerful teacher who gradually revealed his true identity and demonstrated the kingdom of God though his character, attitudes, words, and deeds.

It had been about four centuries since any prophet had spoken for God and any Scripture was written. The Jews had been scattered around the world while bing subject to various empires and only experienced occasional periods of freedom and independence. In the eyes of many, God seemed to have abandoned his people and his plan. During God’s “silence,” he was making preparations for the arrival of the Promised One, the Messiah. Messiah’s birth was a miracle foretold and announced by angels. As an infant, enemies sought to destroy him and foreign sages traveled for months to worship him. From the time of his birth to the beginning of his public ministry, God was faithfully preparing Jesus to fulfill his divine plan of redemption.

This message contains both a special video and an interview with two of our volunteers.

For centuries, God sent his prophets to warn his people that unless they repented and walked in obedience to him that he would judge them. Though they had seasons of revival, the southern Kingdom of Judah would continue to rebel against God. Therefore, God used pagan nations to deliver judgment against his people. They were conquered, Jerusalem leveled, and the majority of people exiled in a foreign land, many as slaves. Ahead of time, God sent prophets to say that their exile would be limited and they would ultimately return. These same prophets would also foretell of a coming Messiah and of a kingdom that would never end, where righteousness would dwell.

For a brief moment in time, the nation of Israel had shown signs of their potential glory. But like Adam and Eve in the garden, they fell. And fell again. And again and again. Like the rest of us, they sought sustenance, significance, and meaning in life. But also like many of us, they sought it in the wrong places, straying from God until he gets our attention.

The nation of Israel has inherited the land and territory that God had promised to Abraham. They are coming out of a dark period of time in their history where there was no king and where everyone was doing what was right in their own eyes. Into this environment the nation comes together to receive their first earthly king. While it was a time of great accomplishment, it was also a challenging time for the leaders and the people. We can learn from their struggles and not have to experience their regrets.

Moses has brought the Israelites to the edge of the land of promise and passes the baton of leadership to Joshua. They set out to inherit what God had promised to Abraham, but it would require them to obey God and trust in his protection and power. After they defeated the enemies of God, they settled into the land. At the end of his life Joshua challenged the people to continue to follow God and walk in his ways. After Joshua and the elders who served with him died, the nation was thrown into a 350 year period where they would stray from God and experience God’s judgment on them to bring them to repentance.

After more than four hundred years of the Israelites being enslaved in Egypt, God heard their cries for help. In Exodus we see him delivering his people from slavery and rescuing them from their enemies. In Leviticus we see God giving explicit instructions on how to live and how to relate to him. In Numbers we witness God guiding, providing for, and disciplining his wayward people. In Deuteronomy we hear him patiently reminding the next generation of Israelites of how to live lives that honor him, bless the world, and bring personal fulfillment.

We tend to view the Bible as a bunch of fragmented bits of history, poetry, and moral tales, but in reality, the Bible tells a story. And it’s a true story. Ultimately, it’s a story about God and our part in the story he is writing. It’s a story that gives meaning to our existence, our daily lives, and to every other story on earth. As you read through the Bible, resist the tendency to get bogged down in the details and make sure you never loose sight of the magnificent story that is unfolding.

Many people feel intimidated by the Bible. When they've tried to read it they have been confused and found it hard to understand. In this message, you'll discover how to read the Bible, understand what you're reading, and how to apply what you're learning.

Everything Christians believe is based on the teachings found in the Bible. However, many people wonder if the Bible is a reliable source of information about God and his ways. After so many years of copying and recopying the ancient Biblical text, aren’t there many mistakes in the manuscripts? Aren't many of the events the Bible speaks of just made up fairy tales? How can you know if they really happened? Doesn’t science conflict with the Bible? In this message, James Brummett will tell you about his own crisis of faith and what he discovered about the reliability of the Bible that served to ground him in the Christian faith.

If you have ever been confused or frustrated when reading the Bible, then you will appreciate this first message which he explains how the Bible is structured, what the most readable and reliable versions are, which 13 books capture all of the stories and history in the Bible chronologically, and much more!

Most of us want this year to be better. But “better” requires a bit of honest and awkward evaluation. So what are you holding onto that’s holding you back? If you’re holding onto something that’s making a monkey out of you, maybe it’s time to let go of the banana and run away!