Author: admin_tgc

Our fifth guiding principle at The Grove is “We seek to be led by the Holy Spirit.”

Who among us could argue with that ideal? We all agree that following the Spirit is faithful and leads us to a life of loving abundance. We’d all like to turn over our most difficult choices to God. But, how do you actually do it?

How do you figure out what to do? How do you know if you are following the Spirit or if you are just doing what you want to do and calling it faithfulness?

This Sunday, four of our very own Grove friends (listen in to find out who!) will each share a story of a time in their life when they allowed themselves to be led by the Spirit. You’ll hear about what the Lord called them to do, what it cost them, how it blessed them, and what they understand now about being led by the Spirit that they didn’t know before.

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We — that is, those of us who call the Grove community home — have been called to be a ministry of hope in our East Charlotte neighborhood and beyond, always believing and proclaiming what we know to be the truth: the same power that conquered the grave lives within us.

A place in the Hebrew scriptures (II Kings) where God demonstrates his power at work, in and through his people, is a story of Elisha’s visit to a certain widow. He tells the widow to ask all of her neighbors for empty jars and then, as a prophet filled with God’s power, helps to break the curse of debt enslavement. How? By multiplying the small resource of one person and the empty jars gathered from her friends.

The truth is, when community transformation is our larger goal, God will both bless and astonish our community; he will set the captives free and fill all those empty places in our lives where we lack and are lost in need.

How can we invite our neighbors to bring with them, not just their resources, but also their emptiness? How can we live trusting God’s power to use everything we bring, even the things that our culture says aren’t valuable?

I hope you’ll listen in to find out.

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We believe in the power of God to change lives. Including yours. Including mine.

“You must be born again,” Jesus told Nicodemus. It’s a message for us too.

This Sunday, we examine our third guiding principle and one of its root biblical stories. We also look at the legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and how embracing the way of Christ changes lives—making possible the perpetual chain reaction of changed lives changing communities that change nations. Listen in to hear a message at the very foundation of who we are as a community of believers, remembering that we are believers not merely in the existence of Jesus, but in the transformation he made possible.

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The second guiding principle of The Grove is a both a confession and a call to action:  “We are a broken and sinful people who practice forgiving and being forgiven.”

That statement is easy to affirm while seated in the pews on Sundays, but it’s easy to ignore when someone does you wrong.  How do we respond when, despite our authentic desire to live in a loving community, we hurt each other?  Do we shake our heads and walk away to search for a new community more worthy of us? Do we stay but disengage, swallowing our pain and anger and hiding behind masks?

Friends—the love of God is not fragile. It is powerful and robust and well-equipped to redeem our humanity. God has given us a way to transform pain into healing and division into healthy relationship. That way is the process of forgiving and being forgiving.  Listen in and and learn how you can play a part.

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This Sunday, we begin a new year and a new worship series, “This Is Us.” It will be a passionate look at the unique mission of The Grove and the culture we are called to create through the lens of our church’s guiding principles—the core concepts that direct and define our congregation.

Our first principle is, “We believe Jesus Christ is Lord—therefore we welcome, include, respect and serve all people.” This isn’t a matter of hospitality—we learn in Paul’s letter to the Philippians—it’s a core requirement of faithfulness to Jesus Christ.

So, listen in and find out why you are welcome and how and why we welcome others, too. 

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Our Advent theme this year is The Glorious Impossible because that is what comes with the birth of Jesus—a hope, a peace, a joy, and love that we believed weren’t possible. This impossible goodness is the glory of God—and it is for us, not against us. We don’t have to earn it or make it, God is already lavishly pouring out his presence into our lives. But we do have the power to reject it. That’s the choice Zechariah made…you can read about it here.

God sent an angel to announce the glorious and impossible thing He was about to do in Zechariah’s life. His response?

“No way.” 

He simply couldn’t accept that God would be that good to him. I hope you’ll listen in and find out what stopped—and what couldn’t be stopped—after Zechariah said no to God’s Glorious Impossible. We need to know, because God is still alive and manifesting gloriously impossible things in the world.

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Years ago, artist and author Madeleine L’Engle coined a beautiful phrase that describes the incarnation. “The birth of Jesus,” she writes, “is a glorious impossible. It cannot be explained, it can only be rejoiced in.”

So the question for us becomes how do we embrace and celebrate the glorious impossible? How do we reconcile impossibility come by the glory of Christ’s birth? How do we believe in the truth that God promises the impossible and that it is a good and glorious impossible?

The prophet Isaiah’s prophecy declared that there would come a messiah—a righteous king who would rule with justice and power and goodness. He prophesied that under this new king reality would shift. That, “the lion and lamb would lay together”—all so impossible and glorious that it cannot be explained. It can only be rejoiced in.

Listen in to the message from this Sunday as we celebrate Advent—this season that invites us to relive the anticipation and wait for the birth of our savior. We rejoice in the glorious truth that Jesus’ coming far exceeds our understanding of what is possible.

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If God loves us, then why is everything so bad? Why won’t God fix it? If God is all-powerful, then why is it still not better? 

If we’re honest, these are the anguished questions we all ask in times of deep suffering. This week, our series on the holiness of small things takes an unexpected turn. We’re looking at the Apostle Paul’s thorn in the flesh—a mysterious condition that threatened the health and ministry of the world’s most powerful evangelist. This portion of Paul’s letter to the burgeoning church in Corinth gives us one answer to these universal, anguished questions.

I hope you’ll listen in as we lean into the holy power of small things—even painful small things—to accomplish the glory of God.

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