Generations Community Church

It's EASY to forget what our grandparents' generation sacrificed or endured. It's easy to forget how long they waited to see change (the right kind of change) happen. That's why we build memorials and put up historical markers. In this message, Max Vanderpool explains the reason for memorials in Old Testament and why we shouldn't forget what God has done...because God's NOT DONE YET!

For hundreds of years, Christians were called to prayer by tower bells. DONG. DONG. DONG. DONG. DONG. It's time to stop and pray. For better or worse, we don't have anything like that here in America. In this message, Max Vanderpool offers some suggestions on how to leverage prayer three times a day.

He will say no. They're busy. I don't want to bother them. Face it: some of us have a problem ASKING others for things. And to make matters worse, we ask ONCE and, if the answer is no, we walk away and give up. But that's the WRONG approach to take with prayer. Prayer requires a stick-to-it-ness and a resolve to keep praying. It requires the P-word.

Mike LaSage reports back on his recent missions trip to Mexico. The LaSage family served there over 20 years ago as missionaries. This time, Mike got to see answered prayer and how God always does more IN and TO us than He does through us.

Tucked away in the Old Testament is the story of a man who wanted to be healed - and would reward handsomely to be whole again. It's also the story of someone who lied - and the consequences of being dishonest. Here's the teaching time from our May 2018 InterGen Worship centered around the virtue of honesty.

Prayer is communication. We talk to God; He listens. God talks to us; we listen. In this brief teaching time, Max Vanderpool describes a couple of tools that could help you better recognize the voice of God in your life: Praying in Color (a creative exercise where you draw or doodle as you pray) and The Examen (a set of questions that helps you get in touch with where you are emotionally and where...

The NATURE of the relationship determines HOW you talk to somebody. If they're a friend you can trust, the conversation comes easy. If they're a jerk you CANNOT trust, the conversation is strained, at best. But what's true of human relationships is ALSO true of our relationship with God. Which is why, of all God's attributes, there's ONE quality, ONE character trait, ONE aspect that matters MOST w...

Anyone 40 years of age (or older) understands there's a difference between what you hope and plan (to happen) and what actually comes to pass. And there's a LOT of waiting. Waiting to finish. Waiting to graduate. Waiting for that relationship. Waiting. In this message, Paul Huber, shares a bit of his life's twists and turns and how the story of Hannah is a story we can ALL relate to.

Was it Jesus's preaching that turned the world upside down? Was it the miracles? No. Jesus submitted to death on a cross, and he died. Jesus, the corpse, could do NOTHING - but God raised him from the dead. If you want to see God's power in your life, it just won't come from your strengths, your talents, and your connections. God's power is most displayed when we can't, won't, and don't want to.

Do you ever wake up and think: Man, I want to be powerless today? Have you ever asked God to render you incapable? Is one of your goals for 2018 to become completely dependent upon others? OF COURSE NOT! We try to deny our weakness, refute our weakness, defend our weakness, excuse our weakness and HIDE our weakness. But God says to us: I want to use them. In this message, Max Vanderpool shares one...

In America, we're enamored with the kind of leadership that's visionary, compelling, capable, and is able to muster results. But there's a difference between true leadership and false leadership. Ask anyone who's served under or worked for a talented individual...only to watch that person use them as a stepping stone to some bigger and better. In this message, Pastor Max begins to unpack strength...

Most of us, when we look at what others have or at what others are doing get a pang of jealousy. We sulk. We complain. We're envious. And we often get mad at God - why does He seem to love them MORE than He seems to love us? In this message, Max Vanderpool, gets to the heart of the issue and how to STOP playing the comparison game.

God is constantly doing the unexpected. When God's Son began His public ministry, they weren't expecting Him to go to the cross. Two thousand years later, it's the same way with God - He's always doing things you DON'T expect. In this message, Max Vanderpool makes a case for why rationality isn't enough...no one can think their way to God. It takes the Spirit.

Holy. It's a four-letter-word in America right now. And that's due, in part, to many years of hypocrisy (folks who SHOULD have been holy and weren't) and many years of holier-than-thou (folks who, because they do certain things and avoid other things, they're somehow better than everyone else). Holiness is also out of style right now, because Americans value authenticity and brokenness MORE. So wh...

Face it: America is full of inconsiderate jerks! They're everywhere - and they have a tendency, when thinking about Jesus, to think primarily or exclusively about what Jesus does for them. We Americans LIKE a Jesus who heals, who provides and who wins. But that Jesus doesn't capture the full picture of him we get in the Gospels. Jesus was going somewhere - and he calls us to join him.

Apparently, a while back we all stopped RSVP'ing to weddings...or birthday parties...or graduations...or anything, really. And even Facebook has developed a tool to help us keep our options open when it comes to events. Face it: we Americans have commitment issues. Which is interesting when it comes to church, because according to the Bible...marriage is way to talk about church and its relationsh...

Most Americans are looking for a place of worship where they feel comfortable: comfortable with the liturgy (or lack thereof), comfortable with the music, comfortable with the types of people there, comfortable with the preaching. But most of our (actual) experience IN church is awkward and UNcomfortable. In this message, Max Vanderpool, makes the case for why we should expect and embrace the awkw...

Pastors get asked all the time to pray for people. And when we do, we are passionate, hopeful and believing that God is at work. Sometimes, the results of all that praying causes us to think WOW, God! And sometimes the results of all that praying causes us to think WOW, God...REALLY?!? In John's Gospel is an important encounter with two sisters and a brother who's died - and what to do when God do...

Incarnation: it's a word we use at Christmas time, but do we really KNOW what it means? Incarnation means God shares our human frame, participates in our human limitations and enters INTO our world. In short, God moved into the neighborhood. Do you know that God is WITH you? Really know it...in a way that you believe it?

The people of Jesus's day were waiting for a Savior...one who would break the chains of Roman rule. Jesus (the baby, meek and mild) is NOT what they expected. Life is like that. And many of disappointments are tied to expectations which were unfulfilled. Tucked away in Luke's Gospel is the story of Simeon - who was open to the leading of the Holy Spirit - and open to the unexpected ways that God f...

Most of us don't mind getting a gift that has been re-gifted as long as it's new, in the original packaging and has never been used. But when someone tries to give us a broken, damaged, used or clearly worn item, watch out! We consider them a cheapskate. The good news is that our feelings about re-gifting allows us to understand something very important about God...something that affected the Isra...

How much is enough? $25,000/year? $75,000/year? What if you made $5.7 MILLION/year? Would THAT be enough? Because we live in America, we tend to focus on people higher up the economic food chain...people who have MORE than what we do. And that makes life hard for us. There's a better way. In this message, Max Vanderpool lays out ONE THING you can do, over the course of your life, that give you mar...

We're just like the Greco-Romans of the first century in two ways: (1) we are obsessed with the perfect form of the human body, (2) we think we can do whatever we want...because it's our body. Sadly, such thinking leads to misery (both in terms of self-esteem and in terms of general health and well-being). God CARES about our BODIES. And how we take care of them matters.

In America, we cheat. We cheat in school. We cheat in sports. And we cheat in relationships. ONE of the ways we cheat people around us is by putting work or hobbies consistently ABOVE our relationship with them. Doing so over the long haul creates problems. Not just for them, but for everyone. In this message, Max Vanderpool outlines how you need to cheat WELL and cheat WISELY so that the people a...

The language we use to describe time is woefully imprecise. Soon. Just now. One of these days. Before long. Any time now. Many of us have hopes and dreams that we plan to get to SOME DAY. In this message, Max Vanderpool explains what the Psalmist meant when he asked God to help him to number his days. Much of it has to do with moving SOME DAY to an actual day.