Looking to 1 Thessalonians 1, pastor Luke shared how the early church preached the gospel by word, works, and wonders. This missional method was developed in the home and formed the context for the early church's rapid growth.
Building off of the Parable of the Prodigcal Son (Luke 15), pastor Luke shared a powerful sermon on the beauty of being a church that feels like "home" for people who come to experience the love of God and love of others.
Continuing our series on Gospel & Community, pastor Luke looked at Hebrews 10:24-25 and discussed why gathering together is such an important aspect of the Church.
Please overlook the sound quality issues as we were unable to record via our usual process and had to pull audio from the Facebook Live feed!
In this sermon, pastor Luke looked at Romans 12:9-21, especially the Apostle Paul's invitation for us to "always be prepared to show hospitality." As a church that values the relationship between the gospel, community, and mission, the role of showing kindness to others is a powerful means of making a difference in people's lives. After all, as Luke points out, much of the Roman Empire was evangelized for Christ due to hospitality!
Check out the book that Luke mentioned, Total Church. It's a really helpful and practical read!
In Matt. 16:18, Jesus said that he would build his Church. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesians that church leaders would equip the Church to build the Church.
In this sermon, pastor Luke talked about how a beautiful metaphor for the Church is that of a ship, yet the ship is a missional ship and it's navigating toward the Kingdom.
The Bible uses many mataphors and pictures to describe what the Church is. In this sermon, pastor Luke explored how the picture of a garden or vineyard is very fitting for the community of God's kingdom.
The Stoll Fire caused a significant amount of loss for the city of Red Bluff. In order to process this event, pastor Luke spent some time talking about suffering and the work of the Spirit, pressing into Psalm 34:18. We also spent time praying together.
For three days, pastor Luke spent time participating in the Evangelical-Catholic Dialogue at the Univeristy of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota. In this sermon, Luke shares some thoughts on how the Vineyard can continue to both value and pursue Church unity with other denominations, while also maintaining a commitment to our theology, values, and distinctives.
Our final sermon in our Living in Community series looked at 2 Peter 1:1-8 and considered how Community is both safe and grace-filled while also being risky and dangerous!
In pastor Wes' first sermon, we learned a little bit about him and his background and then were challenged to be a community that is grounded in hope and love.
