Flagstone Church of Christ

When it comes to investing financially, those who are unwilling to make long-term investments are often either worried about the risk involved or are too impatient to wait for their investment to produce results. But what about spiritual investments? What about investing in my relationship with God or investing my time, my energy, maybe even my stuff so that someone else can be blessed? When I can...

During this final Sharing Jesus class, we will remind ourselves of the reasons why we need to be engaging in spiritual conversations when the opportunity arises. We will also get some practical tips for effectively sharing the good news about Jesus and helping non-Christians see the need for Jesus in their own lives.

We have a clearer picture of where non-Christians are coming from, and we’ve recognized what’s at the core of some of our own hesitations when it comes to sharing our faith. Now it’s time to get a little more practical. How do we engage in a spiritual conversation with an unchurched person? What do we need to say? What do they need to hear from us?

Debt is not uncommon...at least not in our American culture. It is estimated that approximately 80% of Americans are in some kind of debt right now. Debt has become so commonplace that it almost doesn't bother us - we expect to live with at some amount of debt in our lives. And yet debt can be a cruel master, taking control of our thoughts, actions, and relationships. So how do I get free from...

After gaining a little bit clearer understanding of the perspective and mindset of non-Christians in our community, in this lesson we turn our focus more towards ourselves as Christians. What are ways we have tried to share our faith with others in the past, and how effective have those methods been? We need to also take an honest look at some of the factors that can cause us to be hesitant when i...

When we think of "greedy" people, we think of folks like Ebenezer Scrooge in "A Christmas Carol" or Gordon Gekko in the movie "Wall Street." Most of us don't consider ourselves to be greedy. And yet, when we take an honest look at our perspective and our actions when it comes to our finances, we may discover that we have an unhealthy craving to get more money and...

My relationship with money can be complicated. Money can be the thing I work hardest to acquire yet complain about the most. It has potential to help me accomplish wonderful things, and it has potential to consume every aspect of my life. I’m called to trust God with my money, but I often end up trusting money to be my god. But what if I shifted my view of money and changed my relationship with it...

The mission is simple: "Make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:19) and sharing Jesus makes all the sense in the world when you are surrounded by fellow Christians, but in the real world it might look intimidating and even anxiety inducing. Does it really matter? Am I even allowed to share my faith in corporate America? In this class we will seek to better understand the "unchurc...

Welcome to Unscripted! Church leaders Marshall Brown and Brandon Dodd engage in meaningful conversations and topics aimed at asking questions honestly about culture and faith. This week's episode is about meaningful community, and more specifically about online friendships and relationships. For a long time, there's been a stigma about online relationships, but can they actually be healthy...

God promises to bless His followers, right? That's part of being a child of God - receiving His love and His grace, but also His blessings and His protection. If I believe that to be true, then it becomes very easy for me to expect that I'll never have hardships, nothing will ever go wrong, and God will keep bad things from happening to me. But that's not the reality, is it? What happe...

Welcome to Unscripted! Church leaders Marshall Brown and Brandon Dodd engage in meaningful conversations and topics aimed at asking questions honestly about culture and faith. This week's episode is about meaningful community, and more specifically how we are biologically designed for connection. We know that we have a natural desire to connect with people and be a part of a community, but how...

The excitement and anticipation of the work I'm doing can fade pretty quickly, especially when the expectations I had going into that job are not being met with my actual experiences. I may have had a vision of a positive, teamwork-oriented, fulfilling environment when I started working at a particular job only to find out that my perfect picture is not my reality. So how am I supposed to hand...

I might have a perfect picture in mind of how flawless my marriage will be, how awesome this dating relationship is going to be, what an amazing connection I'll have with my kids, or how well my friends and I are always going to get along. But then problems come, mistakes are made, and feelings get hurt. My picture-perfect relationship becomes anything but picture-perfect. What do I do what my...

If we were to come up with a list of things that we get excited about, some of our responses might include vacations or ballgames or opening gifts or going to a certain concert. Something that probably isn't on the list, or at least isn't very high on the list, would be giving...especially giving to the church. It's not that we don't want to give; it's not that we don't thi...

Scripture tells me that, when I am a child of God, I have the same power in me that God used when He raised Jesus from the dead. That's a lot of power! And yet I often find myself struggling to use the "power" - the gifts and talents and abilities - God has given me. I consistently let opportunities to be a blessing to others pass me by. Why is that? What are the barriers that keep m...

Mahatma Ghandhi once said, "What a man thinks, he becomes." While Ghandi was a very wise individual, he's not the first to recognize the power our minds have. Scripture tells us multiple times how important it is to make sure our minds are pure, because it's our minds that end up dictating our actions. So what are the things that pollute my mind and make it impure? And how do I c...

The need to go through some kind of physical detox is rarely because of one incident. More often a detox becomes necessary because little by little I have allowed toxins to pollute my body and corrupt my physical health. In the same way the need to detox my spiritual self is rarely because of one incident. More often it is because little by little I have allowed sin or guilt or habits or other thi...

It's time to say goodbye to 2023 and welcome 2024. Often when the new year rolls around we hear plenty of advice on how to make some significant changes and how to make sure the upcoming year is better than the previous one. But at Flagstone this Sunday, we're going to approach the new year from a different angle? Instead of finding ways to make sure we have a healthy/productive new year,...

It's time to say goodbye to 2023 and welcome 2024. Often when the new year rolls around we hear plenty of advice on how to make some significant changes and how to make sure the upcoming year is better than the previous one. But at Flagstone this Sunday, we're going to approach the new year from a different angle? Instead of finding ways to make sure we have a healthy/productive new year,...

Even when things are hectic and frazzled, there can be moments of calm in the middle of the chaos. When we look at the messiness of the events surrounding the birth of Jesus, we can still see at least a moment of beauty and serenity and peace in the middle of the mess...because that's what God has always done. He quiets the storms. He calms the chaos. He even cleans up the mess.

Jesus' birth story seems to be messier than we would expect. For the King of the Universe to finally arrive here on this planet, why so messy and full of drama and underwhelming? In scripture we see that God consistently chooses the broken, messy, and underwhelming people and situations in to do his best work. In fact, he takes those very things and redeems and redefines them for his purposes....

We all have different "messes" we have to deal with from time to time, especially when we make a hurtful choice or a wrong decision that becomes a problem of our own creation. But sometimes we find ourselves in the middle of a mess we didn't create. Someone else's choices, someone else's actions, or maybe just life itself causes us to find ourselves in the middle of a stressf...

In spite of all of our best intentions during the Christmas season, Christmas can have often have its share of messes. Some of the problems we have to deal with are the result of other people's choices and actions. What can be even more frustrating are the messes we create on our own. This Christmas we need to recognize that we have some difficult situations in our lives that in all honesty we...

We say "grace" over a meal. We talk about a person who can handle stress as having "grace under pressure." Someone who does things in an effortless way is described as being "graceful." The word "grace" may have become so common to some of us that we have lost the wonder and the amazement we should experience when we think about the grace God has given us. W...

The problem with our day to day lives, money, and aspirations in this life is that if we're not careful, we can let those things consume us. We become unable to function due to worry, we end up purchasing things we don't need just to feel good about ourselves, and we walk paths that can lead to destruction if left unchecked. So how can we combat getting overwhelmed and choked out by these...