Intersection – Week 2 (2.28.21)
As we continue a look at the the idea vocation, we consider the end goal. What is every calling and vocation leading us toward? Luke 4:1-21
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Stories of (Unexpected) Strength – Week 5 (2-14-21)
In our final week of this series we look back on the last four weeks and consider an idea that makes all the others possible: I need you.
https://anchor.fm/the-branch
One of the most destructive voices in our lives is the voice of shame. Shame tells us that we’ll never be enough — that there’s no way we are worthy of love. If people only knew the real us…
The Scriptures speak to us not with a voice of shame, but compassion. In a story from Luke 15, we see shame at work in the lives of two brothers. The way out is to listen to the words of their father. Can we do the same?
Stories of (unexpected) Strength – Week 3
This week we look at Acts 15 and 1 Corinthians 18 — windows into how some of the first Jesus followers navigated disagreement. This is a critical topic today as our handling of disagreement, both personally and societally is dysfunctional at best. Where do we need to grow so that disagreement becomes a transformative opportunity?
Stories of (unexpected) Strength – Week 2
Showing up is an incredible act of strength. To show up as we are, with what we have, takes great courage and vulnerability. And…and…showing up is what is required to grow, heal and be changed.
https://anchor.fm/the-branch/embed/episodes/Stories-of-unexpected-Strength—Week-1-ep80h0
Stories of (unexpected) Strength – Week 1
Strength is typically through of as muscle and grit — it leads to success — it’s powerful and bold. And while that is true, this view of strength is one-dimensional. What makes a person strong is more than muscle or a superior intellect. Strength comes in unexpected ways; ways our world may even tell us are weakness.
Join us as we look at a number of stories from the Scriptures of (unexpected) Strength.
This is week 1 in a five-week series.
Those Who Dream – Week 4 of Advent (12-20-20)
Week 4 of our Advent series
Those Who Dream – Week 3 of Advent (12.13.20)
Week 3 of Advent brings the theme of joy, something that has often felt in short supply this year.
The lectionary text (Luke 1:39-55) invites us to consider how joy might find its beginnings in anticipation of what is to come; in faith and trust in a promise made.
Those Who Dream – Week 2 of Advent (12-6-20)
Those who dream God’s dreams not only heed the call to stay awake (week 1) but also to prepare the way. We look at Isaiah 40 and Psalm 85 (two of this week’s lectionary texts) and then reflect together what it might mean for us to make straight a highway for God.
Those Who Dream – Week 1 of Advent (11.29.20)
The first week of Advent brought a Sunday filled with the art of A Sanctified Art and the lectionary texts of Mark 13 and Psalm 80 as we focused on the need to stay awake through the practice of lament.
A New Humanity – Week 7 (11.15.20)
We’ve been talking a lot about love – love of our neighbor, love of enemy. This week we consider love from a different angle, viewing as a creative force for redemption. What would it mean to love creatively? What new, innovative ways do we need to think about love?
A New Humanity – Week 5 (11.1.20)
Those we disagree with — those who offend us — those who are our ‘enemy’ — create great discomfort, unease and even hurt. And it seems quite human to try to avoid these things when they arise; to do our best to wall ourselves off from the discomfort. But what would happen if we did exactly the opposite?
As we look at sections of Matthew 7 and 5 we see Jesus calling us to look inward. To ask what the discomfort may have to teach us. To carefully reflect on what may be in our ‘eye’ — to pray for our enemy (an act that does a great deal to change us). Yes, it’s radical, but if lived into, it could change us, and the world.
A New Humanity – Week 4 (10.25.20)
During this week we consider how we might work to find commonality — a transformative work that can lead us to greater compassion for our enemy/other, and even the possibility of collaboration.
A New Humanity – Week 3 (10-18-20)
This week we lean into Luke 10:25-35 and Christena Cleveland’s book, Disunity in Christ, to consider the ways we categorize each other, how it causes so much damage, and a possible alternative as we work to live into God’s new humanity.
A New Humanity – Week 2 (10-11-20)
Last week we considered our shared identity as a starting point for loving our enemies. This week, we build on that identity by considering the call to humility. What does humility look like? What might we do and say if we embodied humility more greatly?
A New Humanity – Week 1 (10-4-20)
A new series begins this week. Together, we’re asking questions and seeking answers to how we can embody the new humanity that Christ set in motion through his life, death and resurrection. We’re not sure there’s anything more relevant or important in our crazy, hostile and divided world.
Ephesians 2:14-15 and Genesis 1:26-28
Rest for Your Soul – Week 4 (9.27.20)
Our final week considering Matthew 11:28-30. Today we ask ourselves what it would look like to more closely walk with, work with and watch Jesus in order to learn his way and put on his yoke.
Rest for Your Soul – Week 2 (9.13.20)
We continue our look at Matthew 11:28-30 considering what the metaphor of a yoke might mean for us in our lives today.
