03 | Love

Advent | 03 | Love

We love to be loved. We love to love. We love the idea of love. We love to think we know what love is. We love to celebrate love - especially during the holidays. Our feel-good culture assumes that there is a common, agreed-upon working definition of love. But, our experiences, reasoning, culture, and traditions fail to properly pattern love. We are often sold misery, labeled as love. In this world, we are left wanting. Instead of defining love, our weary world becomes the host of love incarnate. The third week of Advent is a celebration of the coming of love. In Jesus, love is perfectly displayed and extravagantly offered! The love of God was made manifest among us! Love has arrived!

December 19, 2021 - Gabe Shippam

02 | Peace

Advent | 02 | Peace

Some of the favorite verses for this time of the year declare “peace on earth and goodwill to men,” and that Jesus is going to come as the “prince of peace.” And yet, the promise of peace seems to elude the practical felt lives we lead. What we are going to search through is that “Peace is the conscious possession of adequate resources.” If that is true, and that adequate resources are provided in Jesus, then our conscious possession needs to focus on something different this season. We need a switch in what we see, lean on, and worship as our resource for life.

December 12, 2021 - Scott Cooley

01 | Hope

Advent | 01 | Hope

Advent means “arrival,” and is traditionally a time to consider what it would have been like to live before Jesus came, holding to the promises of God’s rescue but not yet seeing them in real-time. It is also a time of wonder and surprise because God’s rescue did not come as anyone expected! On Sundays in December we are looking at the traditional themes of Advent — the arrival of Hope, Peace, Love, and Joy in Jesus — and hearing from a variety of Soma people as they share how they’ve experienced these gifts in the last year.

December 5, 2021 - Matt Beumer