Renaissance Church

John 12: 1 - 8 The Stories of God series highlights countless narratives in the Bible. This message looks at the account of Mary anointing Jesus’ feet with perfume one evening at dinner. One of the disciples rebukes her unusual offering, but Jesus advocates for her. Just as Jesus responded to Mary’s motives, Jesus notices and delights in the things we do for Him today.

Matthew 9:35 - 10:1 In this message, guest speaker Emily Cordon Drainville, a pastoral resident from Sanctuary Church in Providence, preaches about Jesus’ compassion for lost people. While it seems that people in Providence do not appear “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36), many are walking with deep hurt inside and are searching for answers. In recent months, Emi...

2 Corinthians 13: 11 To conclude this series on 2 Corinthians, Pastor Scott unpacks what it means to live a life that aims for restoration and living in peace with one another. “Finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.”

2 Corinthians 12: 1 - 10 Why doesn’t God always deliver us from hardship, even when we cry out to Him? What if we tried everything we could to remove intense suffering, yet nothing seems to change? While there is some mystery, we do know that God permits troubles in our lives to form us into the image of Jesus. He cares more about our character than our comfort. Pride, unaddressed, would destroy u...

2 Corinthians 10 The problem of people being deceived by teaching is more relevant now than ever. A flood of information comes at us through social media, TV, and YouTube, and so much of it is biblically messed up. Many Christians fall for the persuasions, falling away from the true gospel. In 2 Corinthians 10, Paul defends the validity of his gospel preaching and calls out the false teaching goin...

2 Corinthians 9: 5 - 8 The stress of dealing with money in our time—it’s real. Sometimes we operate out of a shame state or a scarcity mentality when it comes to managing time or money. But contact with Jesus can heal this worry within us. He takes us from an exacting compulsory life to a spacious life of grace. In this message Chris Waugh shares life stories to help listeners imagine where God ma...

2 Corinthians 8 The practice of generosity is a huge part of our spiritual formation and even combatting spiritual warfare, as giving is the antithesis to a culture that hoards money and fears of not having enough. Reading about the church in 2 Corinthians 8, Pastor Scott shares what it looks like to be wise with money while giving much in light of what we have. The posture of giving can be an act...

2 Corinthians 7:8 - 13 What does it look like to have a healthy process of repentance and growth in your church community? It involves church leaders addressing sin instead of ignoring the problem, to respond to discipline with “godly sorrow,” and to commit to loving people instead of ostracizing them, hanging in there for the whole process of salvation. Mark Skillin unpacks several nuances to thi...

2 Corinthians 7:2 - 16 2 Corinthians 7 gives a snapshot into the life of the apostles, such as Paul and Titus, who endured suffering through their travels and gospel teaching, yet their love for the local church and hearing about the Corinthians’ growth in repentance magnified their joy that could not overshadowed by troubles. Mark Skillin goes through the backstory of this passage and from it gle...

2 Corinthians 6: 14 - 7:1 God calls us to be fully in communion with Him. As Christ followers we can’t have one foot in the world, one foot with God. Yet throughout the centuries, determining what it means to be separate from the world and fully aligned with God has been challenging for the Church, and sometimes this separation has gone to the extreme. Pastor Scott sorts through what it means in c...

2 Corinthians 6:1 - 13 Is there any part of your life that you're holding back from God, and why is that? God continues to dole out grace, yet believers can neglect to tap into His treasures. Pastor Scott challenges listeners to “open wide” their hearts to God, in the context of Paul displaying His wholeheartedness to Christ and the Corinthian church through sorrow and joy.

2 Corinthians 5: 16 - 21 As Christians, we are “new creation[s].” Jesus has given us a new identity. The challenge is to keep walking the path of reconciliation in the redeemed identity. Pastor Scott unpacks the complex themes in 2 Corinthians 5: 16 - 21 about being reconciled to God, what it means to take sin seriously and walk toward righteousness, especially in a contemporary culture that’s nor...

2 Corinthians 5: 9 - 15 What motivates us to do the things we do? In Corinthians 5, Paul highlights that his motivation for doing good, sharing the gospel, and working for God’s kingdom is that he will be rewarded by Christ after death. There is an underrated theme of divine reciprocity in the Bible. What Christians do with their lives to honor God is accounted for by God and will reap a reward. T...

2 Corinthians 5: 1 - 10 Who we are in our bodies is a reflection of who we are in our souls. On the day of judgment, the way we conducted ourselves in our real bodies will give an account for the way we stewarded our spiritual vitality. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil” (2 Cor...

2 Corinthians 3: 12 - 18 We know that the fullness of Christ is meant to dwell within his believers, and yet we all sin, even after coming back to Christ. Through this struggle between sin and freedom, what is required of us to further pursue the fullness of Christian life? In this message, Council leader Vicky Griffiths clues us in on practical applications for transformation, the ways in which b...

2 Corinthians 3: 7 - 16 There’s a strange tendency as Christians to not realize what we have in Christ and to not take full advantage of all that is available to us. We settle for less than what God has for us. This malnourished approach to the Christian life has become the norm in this western corner of the world. Passages like 2 Corinthians 3: 7 - 16 spur believers to refocus on what we truly ha...

What people have had the most theological influence on you? What is the criteria you look for to trust the person’s spiritual expertise? Whether we’re aware of it or not, we tend to be on the lookout for people to emulate, and it’s important to discern the level of truth we hear from different teachers. The 1st century Corinthian culture was no exception to sifting out false teachers, and in the m...

2 Corinthians 2:17 What habits do Christ followers fall into that turn them into “peddlers of God’s word,” that cheapen or distort the gospel? How can we better understand and walk in the righteousness that Christ declares over his followers? Chris Waugh walks us through what gets disguised as Christ’s authority and Christ’s authority actually looks like.

Luke 24:13-34 Let’s talk about an Easter story after Easter! What if you already had the sign you were looking for? Council Leader Vicky Griffiths goes through the encounter of Jesus with the people on the road to Emmaus after the resurrection, how Jesus’ explanation of the scriptures and his breaking bread with the travelers both point to Him as the Savior we are looking for.

Church spaces all throughout the globe are talking and singing about the resurrection of Jesus, and Christians have hope to be raised from the dead at Christ’s second coming. But there are ways we can experience resurrection life now! Somehow, the Spirit of the living God can raise us out of spiritual death today and seat us with the resurrected Christ in heavenly places. We can be raised out of t...

2 Corinthians 2:12 - 16 What does it mean to be “the aroma of Christ to God?” The aroma refers to the fragrance of a sacrifice burning up to the heavens. Imagine a person’s heart, marked by the sacrifice of Christ, set ablaze by the Holy Spirit, with smoke reaching up to please the Father—this is the pleasing aroma to which Paul in 2 Corinithians refers. Chris Waugh challenges some of the common h...

How should a church respond to scandal within its community? Because the church is made of people who still sin, Christians need to prepare for how to disciple repentance and how to respond well to people’s sinful behavior. Pastor Scott talks about when to respond with tough love and when to respond with mercy by studying how Paul advises the Corinthians about a situation within their church commu...

In 2 Corinthians 1:23 - 2:6, Paul refers to the grief he felt when addressing the corruption in the Corinthian church community. The portrait of Paul in the Corinthian letters brings us up against this question: do we possess this kind of abundant love for the Church, that her condition intensely produces deep grief or joy? How much are affected by the state of the Church? Or affected by the peopl...

One day, followers of Christ will receive praise from Him for pursuing a life of righteousness. In the mean time, our present need is to motivate each other to seek Christ’s righteousness in the midst of trials and temptations. Following the model of church leaders encouraging believers in 2 Corinthians 1:12-22, Mark Skillin encourages us today to live in such a genuine way where Jesus is Lord ove...

Pastor Scott shares thoughts and updates for the Ren community this season related to Lent, the move out of the 184 Broad St building, and Core membership in 2024. Chris Waugh closes out with a brief word on communion and the full measure we can have of Jesus in our lives.