Crossings Knoxville

Each year, on the second Sunday of February, we celebrate our birthday with Cheesecake. This year Crossings turns sixteen! This Sunday we studied Genesis 32 where Jacob wrestles with God and has his name changed to Israel at the river Jabbok. What does it mean for a faith community to wrestle with a God we can't always name but who still gives us a blessing? How do we understand the persistence of...

What does it mean to study Scripture like 1 Corinthians in a world and in a community that we affect and in turn affects us? What does it mean to be the church that extends the argument about the story of God in the world?

How does a proper understanding of Resurrection change the way we live our lives? How do we seek and embrace a sense of newness that is beyond ourselves?

How can we seek to build up others around us rather than seek our own self-importance? How can we strive to make everything we do about helping people find their way back to God?

1 Corinthians 13 is one of the most well-known chapters in the Bible. How can we avoid an individualistic understanding of love and put this passage back in the context of community? What would it look like if we all embodied this perfect love in our world?

In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul suggests that the church is the Body of Christ, a unified body made up of diverse parts for the common good. But who decides what the common good is? How do we bring ourselves into a community without comparing ourselves to others, thinking too much of ourselves, or seeking to exert power? Are we willing to stay in community even if we don't "win" every time?

What do Google, Ecclesiastes, John Green, and the song "Auld Lang Syne" say to us about beginning 2023? For some, the start of a new year can be depressing while for others it is deeply hopeful. What does it mean to be here, to be us, to be together?

What does it mean that we have "God-with-us" and not a "God-up-there-somewhere?" In what small ways are we able to sense the holy, sacred, and divine among us? How do we rebuild a faith that, we hope, can be amazing?

In week three of Advent, John the Baptist asks Jesus, "Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect another?" Can we build a life of faith around questions? How do we find joy in our questions about God?

The second week of Advent invites us to consider the meaning of "peace" associated with the coming of Christ the King. What are the social, political, and economic repercussions if this kind of peace was a reality?

What does it mean to hold the tension between the horizon of the past and the future in this present moment? How can we live as witnesses this Advent season as we await an arrival that we have not yet encountered?

The Corinthian church was hosting a church-sponsored dinner party each week that excluded the under-privileged members of the church. What does Paul have to say to them, and us, about radical inclusion in the Kingdom of God?

How do we know when our devotion to the Kingdom of God pushes us to embrace culture or resist it? What cultural factors motivate us when we read Scripture to either challenge the culture behind a Scriptural perspective or seek to salvage it? What do we do when we come across a text that is just weird?

What if the meaning of the Christian faith wasn't just being aware of how we know things, but to what end we use our knowledge? How can we live in a way that considers the needs of the other above our own desires and rights? How do we live as people who remember that we are part of a much greater story?

1 Corinthians 8-9 challenges our individualistic culture and vision of the "good life." How might it look to live by the "logic of the cross" in a world dominated by "these truths" of individualism?

How do we apply Paul's advice on marriage, divorce, and singleness to our lives when Paul wrote from a belief that the world would soon be ending? How do we treat our sexuality and our relationships in a subversive way that does not conform to the cultural values of power, but instead seeks to subvert power and bring healing and restoration to our own lives and the world?

1 Corinthians 6 invites us to ask questions about what we do with our freedom in Christ and what it means to be fully human. How might a more connected understanding sexuality and spirituality deepen our relationship with God, others, and ourselves?

Though we seek unity in diversity of thought, when do we need to draw lines in order to protect individuals and the larger community? What might the church look like if we believed that Jesus was our super-patron and stopped fearing the influences of money and power?

Though Paul's leadership style can come across as condescending and patriarchal at times, his intention is quite different. What leaders in your life are truly looking after you? What leaders are just babysitters? If you didn't have the Bible, to whom would you look to imitate the Way of Jesus?

How do we remain united with a crucified Christ as our foundation? What if we saw healthy deconstruction as the expression of a vibrant, honest faith instead of a danger to faith?

How do we understand 1 Corinthians as a part of the larger story of God? What if this New Testament letter is asking us to embrace the "weakness of God" in cross, rather than try to use God to exert more control over our lives and our world? What would it mean if Christians were "reverse graffiti" artists, humbly and selectively restoring our world without using power?

Why do we love "road trips" so much? What is it that we are hoping for, who is it we are ultimately truing to become as we walk this road that Jesus has sent His followers to walk?

What does it mean to be in a community defined by the Table that includes the left-out and rejected? How do we deepen our compassion and kindness in our relationships with God and one another?

Before we come to the table and are sent on the road, it is crucial for us to spend time in the cave to better know ourselves and God. What might caves look like for each of us, and what happens there?

How do we become more attentive to our lives, our world, and love? What would it mean for us to slow down, tune in, wake up, and reach out and discover a more enchanted world through the practice of the contemplative life?