07 | On Politics and Power

07 | On Politics and Power: We affirm the need for Christian civic and political involvement to be marked by a thoughtful, intentional, and theologically-informed cultivation of good citizenship. While our primarily allegiance is to Jesus and His Kingdom, we believe we are called to honor our political leaders as servants of God. We are to be marked by reasonableness, gentleness, and common courtesy, resisting the temptation to speak evil of anyone or to misrepresent the perspectives of those with whom we disagree. We are called to be salt and light in the world, people of deep virtue and abundant good works. Like our King, we are to use whatever power or privilege we’ve been graciously given to serve all people. And we are to root our identity, security, and hope in the good news of the gospel, freeing us to devote ourselves to good works, especially toward the most urgent needs of our world.

1. Read Titus 3.1-15. What commands does Paul give in regards to Christian civic engagement?

2. Compare and contrast Paul’s commands with your experience of the church’s involvement in politics.

3. What are the “good works” that you are particularly passionate about? How does it show up in your life?

4. What does it take to shape a community that is zealous for good works, but that doesn’t fracture around causes?

5. In what ways do you need to change your civic or political engagement to embrace Paul’s directives here?

June 26, 2022 - Steve Hart

06 | On Sexuality and Gender

06 | On Sexuality and Gender: We affirm a historic Christian view of the goodness of the human body, the purposeful creation of humans as male or female, and the sacredness of the marriage covenant between a man and a woman, designed by God to signify the relationship between Christ and his Church. Sexual intimacy is intended by God to enjoyed within that covenant. We believe sin has impacted every aspect of creation, including human sexuality, and that same-sex sexual desire and incongruence between one’s biological sex and one’s gender identity was never a part of God’s intention for humanity. Through Christ, God is redeeming his people, and empowers us by His Spirit to a life of increasing holiness, conforming to the image of Christ, including the redemption of our sexuality and sexual desires. Because we belong to Jesus, we are called to turn away from thoughts, actions, desires, or behaviors that do not align with God’s intentions for human sexuality. In the church — which is the Family of God — relationships of mutual interdependence and non-sexual intimacy ought to abound, so that all people experience the reality of our shared identity as brothers and sisters as we yearn toward holiness together.

1. Read 1 Thessalonians 4.1-12. What are the marks of a life pleasing to God?
2. How does the Bible’s vision of human sexuality differ from both religious and secular versions?
3. What is your relationship with your body and sexuality like? (Consider breaking into men and women to discuss.)
4. What does it look like to yearn toward wholeness in our sexuality? How can we support one another?

June 19, 2022 - Steve Hart

05 | Complementarian

05 | Complementarian

 We are deeply committed to the equality of men and women, to the shared identity of brothers and sisters in Christ, and to the complementary roles of men and women in marriage and the church.

Both men and women are created in the image of God and are therefore equal before God as persons, possessing the same moral dignity and value, and have equal access to God through faith in Christ. In the church, men and women relate to one another primarily as brothers and sisters, in relationships marked by honor, care, and sacrifice for one another. Men and women are together charged with the Great Commission, and are recipients of spiritual gifts designed to empower them for ministry in the church and world. Therefore, men and women are to be encouraged, equipped, and empowered to utilize their gifting in ministry, in service to the body of Christ and in mission to the world. While both husbands and wives are responsible to God for spiritual nurture and vitality in the home, God has given to the man primary responsibility for his wife and family in accordance with the servanthood and sacrificial love characterized by Jesus Christ. This principle of male headship should not be confused with, nor give any hint of, domineering control. Rather, it is to be the loving, tender, and nurturing care of a godly man who is himself under the kind and gentle authority of Jesus Christ. Men of qualified character may serve as elders of the local church, overseeing, shepherding, and protecting the church family under the headship of Jesus Christ. Both qualified men and qualified women may serve as deacons, leading ministry teams according to role and gifting.

1. Read Ephesians 5.1-2. What ought to characterize our relationships within the Family of God? What most stands out to you?

2. Read Ephesians 5.22-33. What ought to characterize our relationships within Marriage? What most stands out to you?

3. What is most difficult for you in these instructions? What sounds the most desirable?

4. For those married: Take a marriage inventory in your M/C - Where are we embodying this well? Where do we need to grow?

5. For those single: How can you support the marriages in your community? How can married people better support you?
   

June 12, 2022 - Steve Hart

04 | Spirit-Led

04 | Spirit-Led

We recognize and rest upon the necessity of the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit for all of life and ministry.

The Holy Spirit is fully God, equal with the Father and Son, whose primary ministry is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. He also convicts unbelievers of their need for Christ and imparts spiritual life through regeneration (the new birth). The Spirit permanently indwells, graciously sanctifies, lovingly leads, and empowers all who are brought to faith in Christ so that they might live in obedience to the Scriptures. The model for our reliance upon the Spirit and our experience of his indwelling and empowering presence is the Lord Jesus Christ himself who was filled with the Spirit and entirely dependent upon his power for the performance of miracles, the preaching of the kingdom of God, and all other dimensions of his earthly ministry. The Holy Spirit who indwelt and empowered Christ in like manner indwells and empowers us through spiritual gifts he has bestowed for the work of ministry and the building up of the body of Christ.  We recognize the gifts of the Spirit as divine provisions central to spiritual growth and effective ministry, and affirm the full range of spiritual gifts to be eagerly desired, faithfully developed, and lovingly exercised according to biblical guidelines.

1. Read 1 Thessalonians 1.1-10. What is Paul describing? What happened to those who believe in the gospel there? (See Acts 17.1-9 for the history)

2. Paul describes how the Spirit brought conviction, transformation, and power to the Thessalonian Christians. How have you experienced that in your own life?

3. What is your ongoing experience of the Holy Spirit? To what degree do you know his presence and power?

4. Spend some time in prayer together, asking the Spirit to fill you, confirm your adoption, produce Christ-like character, and empower you for ministry!
   

May 29, 2022 - Steve Hart

03 | Reformed

03 | Reformed

We celebrate the sovereignty of God and his grace in saving sinners, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone.

We affirm that God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, not on the basis of foreseen faith but unconditionally, according to his sovereign good pleasure and will. We believe that through the work of the Holy Spirit, God will draw the elect to faith in his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, graciously and effectually overcoming their stubborn resistance to the gospel so that they will most assuredly and willingly believe. We also believe that these, the elect of God whom he gave to the Son, will persevere in belief and godly behavior and be kept secure in their salvation by grace through faith. We believe that God’s sovereignty in this salvation neither diminishes the responsibility of people to believe in Christ nor marginalizes the necessity and power of prayer and evangelism, but rather reinforces and establishes them as the ordained means by which God accomplishes his ordained ends.

1. Read Eph 2.1-10.

2. Answer the 4 Questions: Who is God? What has he done? Who are we? How are we to live?

3. What does Paul seem to be emphasizing about salvation? Why?

4. What would mark a church & community that deeply believes this text?

5. Spend time in prayer or worship giving thanks to God for all he's done to save!
   

May 22, 2022 - Steve Hart

02 | Missional

02 | Missional

We embrace a missionary understanding of the local church and its role as the primary means by which God establishes his kingdom.

The Scriptures reveal a God on mission, sending his Son to seek and save what has been lost, and then sending his Spirit to empower his people to carry on his mission. In the life and ministry of Jesus, and through his death and resurrection, the Kingdom of God is breaking into this world. The church has a clear biblical mandate to look beyond its own community to the neighborhood, the nation, and the world as a whole; thus, mission is not an optional program in the church but an essential element in the identity of the church. We are called to make Christ known through the gospel and, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to bring his lordship to bear on every dimension of life. The primary way we fulfill this mission is through making disciples, training leaders, forming missional communities, and planting churches that plant churches. Our aim is that Jesus Christ would be more fully formed in each person through the ministry of those churches God enables us to plant around the world. We also believe we are responsible neither to retreat from our culture nor to conform to it, but with humility, through the Spirit and the truth of the gospel, to engage it boldly as we seek its transformation and submission to the lordship of Christ.

1. In what ways do you replace the mission of Jesus for lesser, often busier missional activity?

2. In what areas are you functioning out of a place of overflow from the goodness of God? What areas feel more forced and closer to burnout?

3. Where do you see God giving you favor?

4. Read together our Missional summary. What excites you about living missional?
   

May 15, 2022 - Gabe Shippam

01 | Gospel Centered

01 | Gospel Centered

The gospel is the good news of what God has graciously accomplished for sinners through the sinless life, sacrificial death, and bodily resurrection and soon return of his Son, our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ — namely, our forgiveness from sin and complete justification before God resulting in our adoption as his sons and daughters. This gospel is also the foundation for our confidence in the ultimate triumph of God’s kingdom, and the consummation of his purpose for all creation in the new heavens and new earth. This gospel is centered in Jesus Christ, is the foundation for the life and mission of the church, and is our only hope for eternal life. This gospel is not proclaimed if Christ’s penal substitutionary death and bodily resurrection are not central to our message. This gospel is not only the means by which people are saved but also the truth and power by which people are sanctified; it is the truth of the gospel that enables us to genuinely and joyfully do what is pleasing to God and to grow in progressive conformity to the image of Christ. The salvation offered in this gospel message is received by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone; no ordinance, ritual, work, or any other activity on the part of humanity is required in order to be saved.

1. Read Matthew 11.28-30. What is Jesus offering? And to whom does Jesus offer it?

2. In what ways have you experienced the restful yoke of Jesus? What has it looked like?

3. Where would you like to know more of his restful yoke?

4. Read together our Gospel-Centered summary. What marks a church committed to Gospel Centrality?
   

May 8, 2022 - Steve Hart