Faces of Our Faith – Week 7 (6.28.21)
Guest preacher Deborah McCreary invites us to consider what Shiphra and Puah’s story may have to say to us today.
Faces of Our Faith – Week 5 (6.13.21)
Elliot leads us through the extremely short, and often overlooked book of Philemon – inviting us to ask what Onesimus, Philemon and Paul may have to teach us about our vocation.
Faces of our Faith – Week 4 (6.6.21)
After considering the ‘After-Times’ in the month of May, we pick up a series we started in April: Faces of Our Faith. This week, we look at Priscilla and Aquila. They are only mentioned in four places in the NT – and yet their story instructs and challenges us for what our lives might look like today.
Faces of Our Faith – Week 1 (4.18.21)
We begin a new series this Sunday which invites us to look at a number of biblical characters who are often overlooked. Their stories, although obscure, are instructive for our lives.
Intersection – Week 4 (3.14.21)
Discerning our vocation can be aided by considering a unique intersection. Where does our deep gladness, the world’s deep hunger and the work of God’s Spirit intersect? We explore this together by looking at Luke 10 and the sending of the 70.
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.
