Pray For…
This Sunday is our final Sunday before we venture outside for the summer gazebo services (it’s also our Mid-Year Business Meeting!). I’ll be doing a sort of one-off sermon on our role as the church in the world, to prep us and hopefully inspire us for our gazebo services. I love our time at the gazebo, because it gives us a chance to take the church outside, and into the world. It gives us a chance to be more of a
With My Own Two Eyes
My family and I just had the absolute gift of travelling to Italy for 9 days to attend a wedding, and while we were there, we saw as much of the magnificent country as we could. It was an unbelievable trip. We had never been across the Atlantic, so on many levels, it was simply amazing. I am so grateful for the trip. We saw a lot when we were there (Rome, Tuscany, Florence, Pisa, Venice, Cinque Terre), but the thing that kept
Boats, Booths, Banquets
A guest blog by Next Gen Pastor, Rebecca DeLucia This past Sunday we looked together at Luke 5:1-11 in which Jesus calls Simon Peter alongside James and John; his co-workers who also left behind that miraculous catch to follow Jesus. Last Wednesday evening during our first Central Youth Bible Discussion of the summer we looked just a few verses later at Luke 5:27-32 in which Jesus calls Levi. At first glance, the two stories feel very different. Peter, James, and John are
A Month & a Day Away
Tomorrow marks one month from our first gazebo service. I’m really looking forward to it this year, as I’m excited about what I’ll be sharing. It’ll be a series called “Off the Map” about finding Jesus in unexpected places, and it’ll be geared towards all of those people who think that God has written them off. We all know people like that…he people who think lightning would strike the church building if they ever walked in…the ones who, deep in
The God of Hope
Today’s a hot one. This whole week will be. Stay cool, and stay hydrated! If you need a place to cool down, please don’t hesitate to reach out.This week in Burning Hearts, our 2026 bible reading plan, we’re reading selections from the book of Isaiah. It’s a wonderful book, and as I said in the weekly video, it is a vitally important book when it comes to understanding how Jesus and the New Testament writers understood him. Don’t miss out on reading with
Paul & the Spirit
Recently in our Wednesday emails, I’ve been connecting our Sunday theme in the Jesus Breathed series (the Holy Spirit) with our daily readings and bible studies, to help draw out more understanding of the Holy Spirit’s role in our lives and community. Today, I want to draw on today’s reading from Paul’s letter to the Colossians.Colossians is one of those letters, however, where the Spirit barely plays a role. In most translations, in fact, the Spirit only appear in one verse (1:8). However, in
John & The Spirit
Right now on Sundays in our Jesus Breathed series, we are exploring the role of the Holy Spirit for our ongoing mission as Jesus’ followers. We spent last week in John 14, and in our bible studies this week, we looked at John 16. These chapters (13-16) all spring out of the reality that Jesus is trying to impress upon them: that he’s ‘going away’, and they won’t ‘see’ him any much more. What he means is, he’s going to die and won’t be
Peter & The Spirit
Last week, we continued in our “Jesus Breathed” series about the role of the Holy Spirit in the mission of the church. If you missed last week, here’s the logic of the sermon in a quick Q&A: Q: Jesus calls us to be his witnesses, but how can we be witnesses if we cannot see or hear Jesus ourselves? A: The Holy Spirit. Essentially, the Holy Spirit is who opens our eyes to see the risen Jesus who is unseeable (because he’s ascended
Bibles & Balloons
A guest post by Rebecca DeLucia, Next Generation Pastor I retroactively apologize for the popping, booming, and banging this past Sunday morning. During our BIBLEPALOOZA Sunday, we held what was affectionately dubbed BALLOONAPALOOZA. On Saturday evening, I blew up and labeled 66 balloons; one for every book of the Bible. The elementary students were then challenged to sort them into the Old Testament and New Testament. I was fairly impressed by how accurate they were, even though some of the Old Testament
More Than We See
A guest blog / short devotion from former (recently moved) member, Shawn Blythe: I recently attended a classical guitar concert featuring an award-winning classical guitarist with international experience and accolades (Leonela Alejandro). She played a piece written by a world-renowned composer, who composed several hundred musical works, nearly one hundred move musical scores and wrote twenty books (Toru Takemitsu). The musical piece Alejandro selected was composition well known within the classical guitar world and is celebrated for its ability to utilize