Feast and Follow with Knollwood

Here is part two of Church History 101! Tonight we look at the Gnostics, Polycarp, and everyone's favorite heretic, Marcion! 

Thus far in our series, there has been a lot of talk about Who worship is for (God), and how that is directed (God's Word). We've seen the Word visualized in the sacraments, and declared in the sermon. In other words, we've covered in depth the things that are declared to you. We have to have these as our starting points. We have to know what has been said to us before we can respond. And that is...

Welcome back to our Sunday Night Lecture series! This semester we will be looking at Church History! In this episode we look at how God used three different cultures to build the world of the New Testament! 

Is there ever a time on Sunday where it feels like the worship stops? Many would assume that occurs right about now. This was an assumption that was hammered out of us at seminary. Someone from a church would talk about how we would "have a time of worship AND THEN we will hear the sermon." Did you catch what is being assumed there? Worship is all about the singing, because that is when we are *fe...

In our worship services, you may notice that there isn't much to look at. There are no elaborate stain-glass pictures of Jesus. There isn't much choreography to my movements. There aren't a lot of mysterious symbols and rites. But should there be? After all, is that not what many people are looking for these days? A return to older, embodied, dare I say, *enchanted* ways of doing things?  God know...

Before I was a pastor, I was a photographer. I remember one of my first weddings I did, I was assisting a friend. The wedding was to take place on this beautiful outdoor venue looking out over a mountainside. Lovely location in the middle of a state park. There was one issue, however. The GPS didn't know where it was. We had no clue what it looked like. The wedding was starting in 45 minutes. And...

If you could improve one thing in your life right now to make your life so much better what would it be? I think for many this time of year, the answer to that question is health related. If we could just lose weight, moving and pain would be eased. Or maybe it is financially related. If only I could make/save more money live would be easier. But even if we do those things it only does that, makes...

The decade thus far hasn't been known for its predictability. With everything changing around us every day is there something that stays the same?  On this episode of Feast and Follow, we explore exactly what this one constant is out of Lamentations 3. 

Over the last few weeks, we have been looking at the various, individual offices of Jesus. We have seen Him as Prophet, Priest, and King. But there is a more common title that we use for Him that in some way wraps all of these titles together, Savior. Now, like all church terms we have some sense as to what they mean, but if we are actually stopped in the street and asked to give a definition, we...

Have you ever wondered why Jesus came so long after Genesis 3 ? “Hark, The Herald Angels Sing” has the line “late in time, behold him come.” We know that Jesus isn’t one of those folks who has a hard time getting out the door on time. So why wait? Could it be that Jesus coming down was Plan B? Let’s think about that possibility. I mean we do see this elaborate system of worship in the Old Testamen...

Jesus as King is probably the hardest part of Jesus’ identity for Americans to understand, much less submit to. The only king we ever had we threw off with a cup of Boston Harbor tea. Ever since, we’ve built our national identity on the concept of self-rule, by the people, for the people, able to swap leaders every four years, potentially handicap their authority every two, and, at least in theory...

Who is Jesus? Who is he fully? There has been a recent survey that's gone out.  It's called the State of Theology Survey, where they're asking people, both your average everyday Americans and even your regular churchgoing folk, a series of questions as to what is the Bible? Who is Jesus and this sort of thing. And one of the things that was amazing is when they asked the question, who is Jesus?   ...

What do we think about saying, "Thank you"? Is it just something that we are expected to do, or is there more to it than that? As we look at 1 Thess. 5, we will see that thanksgiving is an essential foundation of the Christian life. 

The more modern the world gets, the more relevant passages like this are. I know it doesn’t seem that way at first reading, but if you follow along with me, I think you will see that this is a very interesting passage with a critical concept for us to grasp. That concept is regular times of celebration before the Lord.   One of the challenges of modern life is a loss of the sense of time. I don’t...

Today, we look at the final passage in Genesis. It has been quite a journey. We’ve watched God create a world, see Adam ruin it, yet a promise of care in the very same chapter. We’ve watched the world flooded yet out of that a sign of the covenant written in the sky to this day. We’ve seen the rise and fall of Babel, divine blood oaths, and stairways to heaven. Yet we’ve also seen the humdrum wait...

What do you want the end of your life to be like? Or to put it in a slightly more morbid way, how do you hope you will behave at your death? I know those sound like odd questions, but really of all things that we can prepare for in life, this is the one certain thing. Only the Christian has the answer for how to prepare oneself for such an event. Only the Christian can view death for what it is, a...

As we celebrate the Reformation, we will take a brief pause on our journey through Genesis to take a look at another hard won recovery of the the doctrine of the Lord's Supper 

This is an important question that a surprising amount of the American church gets incorrect! 

Don’t you wish you could know the future? I think all of us if given the chance would love even a glimpse or a hint of what is to come in our lives. But as many popular stories tell us, how that future gets to us is often very confusing. Israel is about to die, but before he does, he is going to place his blessing on all of his sons. The last verse of our passage is going to reiterate that each bl...

In light of recent events, there has been a robust online discussion about whether Mormons are really Christians. In this episode, we examine some of the basic beliefs of the Mormons and see that they are not compatible with Christianity. 

How do you think about God's promises? For Christians, they are the central hope of our lives, because God's promises can't be stopped even by death itself. Because of this, we want to be able to pass on these promises to our children, and a big part of our ability to do that is because of this passage right here. Abraham has been promised that there will be a seed that will bless the nations. Ult...

Last week, we saw that there is a certain restlessness amongst the people of God. The family of Abraham has been wandering the entire book of Genesis, knowing that they will eventually settle in the land that God has promised them. We also, in our own way, are wandering through a strange land waiting for our final, promised inheritance as well. But what do we do in the meantime? Are we just sittin...

One thing that often isn't mentioned in Christian circles is fasting. With the great help of Don Whitney and his book The Spiritual Disciplines of the Christian Life, we will attempt to fix that! 

Do you feel unsettled where you are? That’s normal. There is a feeling of something missing here in this world. We aren’t settled here. We shouldn’t be. The world actually isn’t our home, and we are wanderers within it, journeying towards our final destination. Sometimes it can feel aimless, inefficient, and looping. A lot of “Why did we spend so much time there?” But we aren’t charting our own co...

After discussing prayer, Bible reading, and meditation, we might wonder if we are falling into a trap about seeing ourselves as "brains on a stick." How are we to address that? With some help from Matthew Bingham and his book A Hearth Aflame for God we will answer that question!