Author: admin_tgc

The Bible is full of beautiful prayers.  Glorious metaphors, poetic imagery, mind expanding allegories and symbols describing the way people love God.  But those four ordinary little words might be the boldest and most beautiful declaration of human love for God in all of scripture.

In this season, when we’ve finally been able to return to in-person worship, we are trying to focus on a less visible but more life-giving journey–one we can all make together no matter where we worship on Sunday mornings–a return to our first love for the Lord.  Shadrach, Meshack and Abednego have a lot to teach us about what that looks like.  These three friends are remembered for the way God rescued them from the fiery furnace, but their absolute devotion to God is the hidden treasure in their story.  I’m excited to share their story with you.

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This Sunday we move deeper into our worship series ‘First Loves,’ remembering the time a righteous Pharisee named Simon invited Jesus to dinner but went out of his way not to welcome him, because the invitation was not about friendship or hospitality. It was Simon’s opportunity to size Jesus up and put him in his place. Nobody said anything, but everybody knew what was going on.

I’ve been to parties that felt like that, I’ve even been to churches like that.  Where everyone says the right words, and everything looks beautiful, and no one dares to tell the truth about anything.

But then a sinful woman broke into that righteous man’s party.  Everyone knew who she was and none of them wanted her there.  Except Jesus.  She broke in–because she knew that anyplace Jesus was, was a place she belonged–and she brought love and generosity and freedom with her.

In this season we return to the Lord, not our building or our righteous routines.  And this story reminds us that the people we most want to shut out are the very people who teach us how to belong.

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This Sunday we launch a new worship series called ‘First Loves.’ We’ll explore what binds us and grows us in Christ. Hint: it’s not fear or obligation or doctrine. Hint, hint: it’s also not favor, blessing or even salvation. A healthy relationship with God can’t be motivated by desire for what we might gain or fear of what we might lose.

The only thing strong enough and holy enough to secure us to God is love. Our love for God–which grows out of God’s love for us.

That’s why, in this season, we’re not encouraging people to come back to church. We’re calling people to come back to Jesus.

Please join us as we look at the letter Jesus wrote to the church in Ephesus and pray for a revival and rekindling of our love for God.

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This Sunday, we are able to gather together physically for worship for the first time in more than a year. We have survived an absence that has turned out to be longer than we ever could have imagined. I thank God that, last March, we had no idea how long we would be forced to stay apart. I don’t think my heart could have handled the truth. Like many of you, I have been praying for and dreaming of this day for months and months.

But this Sunday, we will NOT be celebrating our return to the sanctuary. We will be celebrating Pentecost. We will not be celebrating our return to the church building, but the miraculous and improbable gift of the Holy Spirit that makes us the church.  

I hope you will listen-in as we experience together the life-changing story of Pentecost and discover our spiritual origin story.

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Nehemiah, our “hero” says and does some unsavory things. What are we supposed to do with that? We Christians like to put people into categories. Hero/villain. Good guy/bad guy. Positive example/negative example. But, these last chapters of Nehemiah’s autobiography really complicate things.

The truth is—Nehemiah isn’t a good guy or a bad guy. He’s a typical human mixture of both. Church—only comic books have heroes. The Bible, however, has saints and a savior. And, Nehemiah might be the former, but he’s certainly not the latter. 

And he doesn’t need to be.

Jesus is our savior—the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. When we look to him, we see how to have right expectations of other people, even the ones we meet in scripture.

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This Sunday, we continue the wisdom-soaked story of Nehemiah rebuilding the city of Jerusalem.  Surprisingly, the construction work is completed in chapter 6, but the process of rebuilding and restoring the city isn’t. 

Nehemiah leads the people in a time of celebration and rejoicing, which makes perfect sense to us. But, what he does next is shocking. It’s the last thing we ever want to do—but this part we would avoid is the most crucial part of the rebuild. 

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This Sunday we welcome Pastor Cedric Lundy to the pulpit. Cedric is a StreetLeader Director at UrbanPromise Charlotte, and a Teaching Pastor at Watershed Church. Previously, he has served Charlotte churches in roles such as Pastor of Mission and Justice, and Pastor of Middle School Ministry. Cedric’s faith is characterized by his passion for justice, his heart for young people, and his zeal for the Lord. He and his wife, Emma (a native of Scotland), share a daughter, Isla. In his free time, he co-hosts a wonderful the podcast, Token Confessions, runs a small coffee-roasting business, and enjoys making pasta and bread from scratch.

Preaching from the first half of Nehemiah 4, Cedric will be sharing Nehemiah’s strategic response to the opposition and resistance that he encountered as he fulfilled his call to rebuild the city of Jerusalem. As believers, we, too, are called to join God in the work of renewal and redemption. And, since we have a call like Nehemiah’s, we should not be surprised if and when we experience the same painful backlash and hostility that Nehemiah faced. But, also like Nehemiah, we can learn how to remain steadfast in this work.

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We are spending this month learning about rebuilding and renewal from the book of Nehemiah, an ancient autobiography that sits right in the center of scripture. 

Last week we met Nehemiah and learned that he rebuilt the city of Jerusalem, but not because he had superior engineering skills, relevant experience, or exceptional spiritual gifting.  It’s really much simpler and more challenging than any of that. 

God used Nehemiah to rebuild Jerusalem because when Nehemiah heard the city was in desperate need of renewal, he chose to go and let God use him. 

For most of us, when we hear something tragic, is not to go but to wait–to wait for a perfect leader to follow, to wait for a gilded invitation, to wait for a sign from the Lord.  But Nehemiah knew he wanted to be part of God’s good work.  He was an ordinary guy who understood that God uses ordinary people.  He knew it wasn’t his call to wait–he knew it was his call to go.

And this Sunday we are looking at the next chunk of Nehemiah’s story and marveling at the next remarkable thing about Nehemiah.  Nehemiah knew it was his call to be part of the rebuilding.  But he also knew it wasn’t only his call.  

So often when we are brave and foolish enough to believe that God has called us to be part of something–we make the mistake of believing that God has only called us.  Nehemiah avoided that trap.  He began his work by inviting others in.  We must do the same.

I hope you will listen in as we learn from Nehemiah that the first step of living out our calling is sharing it with others.

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This Sunday we begin a new worship series on the book of Nehemiah.  Buried in the middle of the Old Testament, it is a record of the struggle to rebuild the city of Jerusalem after a long period of forced absence.  For more than a generation, tragedy separated God’s people from their sacred city.  For more than a generation, the people had been praying and crying and dreaming of returning.  When the time to return finally came–it was bittersweet and unexpectedly difficult.  Is it possible for scripture to be too relevant?

As we begin to prepare to return to our campus–to one another, to the sacred space we love and the rituals we have missed so terribly–we too will have the work of rebuilding and repair to do.  And like our ancestors, we will discover that while we can come back to the place, we can not return to who we were before we left.  We can learn so much for Nehemiah about the challenges we will face and how to walk with great hope, vibrant faith, and the right expectations in this season.

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We are made in the image of God–and our God is a creator. 
So we were made to create.
When we think of God creating, our thoughts spring to galaxies and mountains, ecosystems, and cellular systems.
But that kind of creation was complete after the 6th day (and God said it was good).   

After that, God’s creative force took a different direction. God began creating a people–a peculiar people who can be ‘salt-seasoning to bring out the God flavors of the world’ and ‘light bringing out the God-colors of the world.’ A people who are known by their love–for God, for one another, for the least, the lost and the enemy. A people who already live on earth as they will in heaven. A people who are alive together in Christ.

That’s our final communal spiritual practice–creating a community with God, in the image of God.  It’s not something we get or find or buy–it’s something we make together with God. And our part is so simple, so practical, so spiritual–that if you aren’t careful, you can be so busy ‘doing ministry’ you miss it altogether.

I hope you will listen-in as we learn the very unlikely way we co-create community with God.  

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