Imago Dei Community

Dr. Nijay Gupta challenges us to live out the values of the one true God. The church lives a different culture, and we should come across as strange and inviting in the way we interact in the world. By looking at the uniqueness of Christ as described in Philippians, we can see the uniqueness of his church.

In his famous passage on “the foolishness of the cross,” Paul says that the message of Jesus frustrates both Jew and Gentile. For the community deep inside the story of Scripture and the community outside of it, Jesus’ cross was called “a stumbling block”—literally, “a scandal,” in the original Greek. What makes Jesus so scandalous to ideological and religious categories?

What does it mean to be seen by God? This Easter Sunday, we look at the way Jesus meets us in life and truly sees us. He is the living God who is present and seeking us out. 

Michelle preaches on Palm Sunday in anticipation of Easter.

God’s people are called “a royal priesthood, a holy nation” (1 Peter 2:9). Jesus called his followers to a citizenship of the kingdom of heaven and the earliest church fathers gave their allegiance to Jesus before their country. What does it mean to be a nation of Jesus followers inside a nation like America? And how do we live as responsible and courageous citizens of both?

The New Testament assures us that the church is a dwelling place for God. We are likened to a “temple” and a “holy city”—places where God’s presence permeates reality. But church often feels like a dwelling place for dysfunction. What role does God’s presence have in our formation as a community? And how does it change how we commit to one another?

More than any other metaphor in all of the New Testament, it is the image of a family that permeates everything. In the simple address of “brothers and sisters,” which covers nearly every early Christian writing, we can easily see the familial nature of relationships inside the church. A family is a beautiful and difficult place. What happens when we take our family of origin into the family of Go...

What does it mean to be the Body of Christ? In the New Testament, Paul employs this metaphor several times, but never in a way of striving—as if we have to “become” the Body. He, instead, simply tells us that this is what we are and we must care for the Body of Jesus the way we might care for our own body, so that we might be built up and strengthened—healthy and ready for action.

Lent is a time of repentance, of coming back to God through the acknowledgement of our humanity. Who are we before God and in his sight? For lent this year, we are repenting of the distorted images we carry of the church, the people of God, through an inspection of the biblical metaphors of us. Most of our visions of our community are distorted by our own history and lack any connection to the ric...

Is God’s community worth investing in? The church used to be a place where we received cultural and social benefits, a place where we “found our people” and grew in our relationship with our surrounding community. But as culture has rapidly secularized and been inundated with technology, we don’t need the church for a good social life or even for spiritual content. The early followers of Jesus see...

Haggai is a minor prophet whose book is just two chapters. But it is packed full of a massive question: do we prioritize what God prioritizes? Hidden in this book is a call for the people of God: “Consider your ways,” Haggai says, and think about all the effort you put into all you prioritize: is it fulfilling? So much of modern life involves experiences of losses that we disguise as gains. What w...

For two weeks, we will be listening to Jesus pray. During his time on earth, the gospel writers record dozens of moments where Jesus cried out to God in public and in private. What did Jesus pray about and why is that important? While this series could last all year due to the number of prayers he prayed, we will spend three weeks looking at three different prayers of Jesus to ask this question: h...

For two weeks, we will be listening to Jesus pray. During his time on earth, the gospel writers record dozens of moments where Jesus cried out to God in public and in private. What did Jesus pray about and why is that important? While this series could last all year due to the number of prayers he prayed, we will spend three weeks looking at three different prayers of Jesus to ask this question: h...

With the cultural rewards of church attendance gone, what reasons are left to be a part of a church? We no longer rely on the church to build community, receive Christian teaching, or even to serve worthy causes. So what’s left? We are in need of fresh vision for God’s mission and church. This Sunday, we will look at our mission and our vision as a church and consider why on earth anyone in Portla...

Preacher: Bob Howard Text: 2 Corinthians 13:4

The wise men saw a star and went looking for God only to realize that the star was God looking for them. Meeting with Herod, they asked the whereabouts of the God incarnate, the king of the Jews, but none of their tactics worked. The strategy, might, and political power of Herod offered them nothing. Their own efforts to “seek God” only resulted in the great realization that God had sought after t...

Joseph is the first story in Scripture to unpack (in a major way) God’s transformational presence in darkness. No one in all of the Old Testament gets as low and near death as Joseph: he is literally thrown in a grave, betrayed by his own family, and left for dead only to be sold as a slave. His narrative is one where we as readers are challenged to see the shocking presence of God in the depth of...

When David is made king, he makes his first move a simple but profound one: he moves the ark of the covenant back to the center of life for God’s people. His willful action doesn’t bring the presence of God, rather, it brings the peoples’ attention to the fact that God is present. The season of Advent reminds us that no matter how dark, God is near. God’s presumed absence is often an invitation to...

Simeon spent his whole life waiting for the Messiah to come. He spent his life alongside God’s people in darkness. And then he saw the child Jesus. His prayer shows us a profound theological reality of what happens to darkness when God arrives upon its depths.

Jesus is good news even when things fall apart. In this episode, Pastor Seth King looks at the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman.

The final stanza of the Apostles’ Creed is, “I believe in the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting.” The early church paired its belief in the church with its belief in forgiveness and resurrection. How do these two things relate? How can thinking about forgiveness and resurrection help us be more firmly committe...

At first glance, the Holy Spirit seems to get the least press in the Apostles Creed, just a single line. But the Holy Spirit actually pervades the entire creed, starting with the first two words: We believe.  The Holy Spirit has been working through all of history and is the power that brings us to belief. But how often do we turn to the Spirit for help, guidance, companionship and power? Regardle...

“He will come to judge the living and the dead.” This is the final line about Jesus in the Apostles’ Creed. We often think of judgment as a terrible aspect of God’s nature and work, but Paul told the church in Thessalonica to “encourage one another” in issues around the second coming of Christ. How is God’s judgment good news? And how can we encourage one another as we await his return?

This week, we look at the line, “And in Jesus Christ, His Only Son…He suffered…crucified…descended…rose again and ascended…” from the Apostles’ Creed. Everyone today is trying to answer profound questions of life. Most often, we look to elite thinkers, culturally aware artists, and educated professionals to guide us. What does the Christian story have to offer to answer these deep questions about...

This week, we look at the line, “I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth,” from the Apostles’ Creed. What do we mean when we say we believe in God? Which God is this? The Apostles’ Creed leads us to the one who laid the foundations of the earth, who precedes time and space. To be a Christian is to be one who acknowledges creatureliness. We are not our own; we are made . Wh...