Driftwood Community Church

This Sunday, we continue our new series leading us toward Advent. Together, we’ll look at Scripture’s first picture of empire—Babel—and see how even the mightiest power collapses when it’s built on pride and set against God’s way. Then we’ll turn inward, asking where the seeds of that same impulse might be taking root in our own hearts.

This episode is meant to cover some ground between each of our stories.  Two things are happening throughout this series: (1) we are covering a lot of ground in a short amount of time, and (2) I'm assuming an interpretive lens in my storytelling.  In this second bridge talk, I cover both the distance between last week's sermon and next, Babel, and talk about civilization, patterns,...

This week we continue a new series that will carry us through to Advent. This week we begin to look at the seeds of empire and how they arose from the first sin, and continued until their natural production and foundation of violence gave way to the flood that destroyed it all. Destruction is never the end; it is sort of a built-in self-purification, and so as throughout all of scripture, sin...

This episode is meant to cover some ground between each of our stories.  Two things are happening throughout this series: (1) we are coving a lot of ground in a short amount of time and (2) I'm assuming an interpretive lens in my story telling.  In this first bridge talk I cover both the distance between last week's sermon and next; and I address the interpretive lens I use to tell these...

This week we begin a new series that will carry us through to Advent. Over the coming weeks, we’ll be telling the story of the Hebrew Bible—the Old Testament. We’re doing this for a few reasons. First, many of us as Christians aren’t sure what to do with the Old Testament or why it matters. Second, we want to paint a picture of the world that made a Messiah necessary—or, put another way, the world...

In the final sermon of our Liturgical Theology Series, we turn to the familiar subject of Word —Scripture itself. This week, we’ll examine some common but unhelpful (and at times even destructive) ways of approaching the Bible. From there, we’ll build a healthier framework for engaging Scripture—one that honors what it claims for itself and leads us deeper into the life it points toward.

In this week’s sermon, we turn to the familiar subject of Prayer . Before prayer is about receiving answers, it is about realignment with God. Like every liturgy we’ve explored, prayer is a practice of formation—shaping us to live more fully in God’s way. In a world driven by wants and needs, Jesus invites us through prayer not to get more, but to become more—more like him.

In this week's sermon, we wade into the waters of mystery.  We begin by talking about sacraments in general, and funnel down to the speak specifically about communion. While communion is an act of memory, it is so much more when we approach it with a heart of faith. 

This week’s sermon is about confession - the liturgy of truth-telling. Long before it became liturgy, it was part of Israel’s rhythm. Because confession is truth-telling, it’s therefore formational. In a world that prizes curated facades, the church resists by practicing confession as worship.

In this week's sermon we embark on the touchy subject of giving.  Before giving is about meeting needs, which it is.  Before giving is about attempting to steward our possessions, which it is.  Before giving is about paying church salaries, which at times, it is.  Giving is about formation.  In a world that bows to the idols of accumulation, a growing bottom line, and...

Today we continue our series on Liturgical Theology, again asking: "Why do we do what we do—and what happens when we do it?" Music and singing have been central to Christian worship throughout history. But because it's so familiar, we rarely pause to consider: What is actually happening when we sing? And what does singing do to us? Let’s reflect on the formational power of music in our worship. To...

Today we begin a new summer series exploring the question: "Why do we do what we do in worship—and what happens when we do it?" For over two thousand years, the Church has practiced things like giving, preaching, singing, and confession every week. Yet it's easy to go through the motions without asking why. Our hope is that this series helps us breathe fresh intention into these practices—so...

This week we stand with Jesus, Mary, and Martha at the tomb of Lazarus and we do so from Dostoevsky's perspective. The power in the story of Lazarus, is not, for me, at the resurrection of the dead man, but when Jesus, who knows what will happen, still stands with the sisters and mourns with them.  This is the Jesus we serve, the man of sorrows who stands in the place of sorrow with us, and c...

This week we pick up where we left off last week.  Last week we focused on three ideas that seem so important, but often lead to blindness.  This week, we talk about what the place of sent delivers.  When we are willing to go to the place of sent, we receive, vision, healing, and formation. 

Mission or being sent was never meant to be a department of the church, being sent is what the church does - we are a sent people.  Went sentness becomes an optional program everything else that is good about the church becomes a blinding agent for the people that are supposed to see clearly.  In today's sermon we talk about the importance and centrality of being sent. 

For 2,000 years the church has selectively thrown stones.  Our stone-throwings has been camouflaged with words like purity, holiness, and righteousness; but in reality, it has been guided by the sins that make us feel most uncomfortable.  Jesus has an alternative to this, rather than throwing stones, letting them fall at our sides so we are free to fully embrace the other.  In...

For the past several weeks we have been following John, as he continually introduces us to stories about people who are unable to see or truly hear what Jesus is saying due to the reality they submit to.  In today's text, we are invited into a different logic, and a reality that plays by a different set of rules.

This week we take a look at the man healed by the pools outside the temple.  We take a dive into Israel's history in order to empathize with the pharisees, which helps us take a look at what is actually happening in this story.

This week we jump back into the Gospel of John and pick up with the famous story of the Woman at the Well.  In this sermon, we do three things: Dig into some history about who the origins of the samaritans, rescue the woman at the well from our projections, and get to the heart of the text, of the hospitality of the unlikely messenger. 

I'm not really into models when it comes to following Jesus or being the church, but if there is one, I believe it could be inferred from the Emmaus story in Luke 24.  So, this week we delve into Jesus' post-resurrection walk to the village of Emmaus as he enters into relationship with two disciples. 

The cross without the resurrection leads to nothing more than another grave site.  Because of the resurrection all things are being made true, and so we are not simply beneficiaries of the resurrection, but we are called to participate! 

The message we all have been waiting for, how does sin, chaos, and the cross work on an individual level?  There is no better way to explain this, than telling a good story that encompasses the other layers we have been talking about.  Today we will learn how sin and chaos work to dehumanize individuals, but the cross of Jesus is the project of rehumanization. 

In this weeks sermon we are working our way down through the orders of magnitude in the way of sin and the cross.  This week we discuss how sin and chaos both create and manifest themselves in mob logic; while the cross creates community for the good world.  

This week in our Lenten series on sin and the cross, we consider the impact and influence of sin and chaos expressed through political, economic, and social systems.  Then we take a glimpse into the logic of the Cross and how they create a counter intuitive way to live within our worldly systems. 

Over the next four weeks we are going to take a deep dive into sin and the cross.  Each week we will be discussing different effects of sin and the cross on different arenas through the universe.  This week we are taking a look at sin and the cross from a cosmic level.