Northstar Church Blacksburg

In our final night of Renewal Services for 2024, we hear from Sarah Couch about how God has used the people of Northstar to help her love Jesus better. Jeff also shares how our heart postures should adjust in light of how God loves, works, invites, speaks, and teaches us more about himself through obedience.

In our third Renewal Service of 2024, Emily and Matt Simpson share their story of God's work in their lives in recent years. Jeff follows their story by highlighting that when God invites us to join him in his work, we face a crisis of belief that requires faith and action. Additionally, we must make major adjustments to join God in his work.

On our second night of Renewal Services, Josh Bellefeuille shares his story of how God has worked even through times when Josh was reluctant to follow. Jeff used the examples of Moses and Saul (Paul) to show how God invites us to join him in his work and speaks.

On the first night of our 2024 Renewal Services, we hear from Damon Thompson about what God has been showing him in his life recently. Then Jeff shares the foundation for what our Renewal focus is going to be this year: God is always working, everywhere around us, all of the time.

A situation had arisen in the Corinthian church that exposed how they had become permissive in the name of tolerance. However, Paul makes it clear that when we tolerate sin, and allow it, promote it, and even even redefine it as “not sin," we are ultimately belittling the work Christ did on the cross. Furthermore, since the goal of rebuke and discipline is restoration, the beauty of the gospel can...

Celebrate what God has done through Northstar in 2023 and ponder how God is working today, both for salvation and for calling his people to honor him.

When you think about who to listen to and learn from, do you usually look for "successful" people? After all, the fact that they are successful and profitable by worldly standards means that they must be getting something right! 1 Corinthians 4:6-21 shows us that all those that follow Christ will experience opposition and suffering, even the leaders of the church! Leaders of the church, and all of...

These days, it seems like public opinion drives everything. Companies, celebrities, politicians, everyone seems intent on trying to appeal to the most people in the most effective way possible. "People-pleasing" is just part of the culture. In contrast, 1 Corinthians 4:1-5 teaches us that the leaders of the church should not be overly concerned with people's opinions - they ultimately answer only...

"The beauty of the gospel is in the word 'while.'" While we were helpless, sinners, and enemies of God, Christ died to reconcile us. This message focuses on the new life in Christ that comes through repentance and faith, based on nothing that we could do. While we were in open rebellion against God he drew us into salvation through the work of Christ. And, as we have been reconciled, we in turn ar...

"The people walking in darkness have seen a great light..." Isaiah 9:2a Christmas Eve hums with anticipation. God is at work. As the light of the world broke into the darkness so many years ago, so Jesus is still banishing darkness from the lives of those who turn to him in faith. Will you respond to him calling you out of darkness?

Is the Christmas season really the "most wonderful time of the year"? For some, it can be full of stress, exhaustion, even perhaps loneliness and grief. In the midst of all the cultural trappings of Christmas, Sean reminds us to reflect on what Christmas is really all about - that Jesus came as a Savior, for you.

Christmas can conjure up images of the sweet, little baby Jesus lying in a manger, surrounded by his parents and a bunch of cute farm animals. Of course, this is all part of the Christmas story. But, if we are not careful, we can have a beautiful but short-sighted view of a "Christmas Jesus," and forget that Jesus came to earth on a mission to save us.

Christmas is a magical time of year. The real meaning of Christmas draws us into the awe and the wonder of God's story - culminating in him coming to us in Jesus Christ. This "magical" time of year points us to hope and wonder in the midst of tragedy and confusion, and ultimately to the salvation we can experience because of the coming of Christ.

We live in a divided world full of constant noise, and this often antagonistic and one-sided. Furthermore, we don't even know who to trust! Even the church can become a fractured place where Christians fight over anything and everything. In the midst of this chaos, Christians must remember that because of Christ Jesus, "everything is yours." All wisdom, narratives, and perspective must bow to King...

Is the church just a place where some people get together once a week to listen to live music and a nice talk, and then go home? Or is it something more? The Corinthians had devalued church by making it all about themselves, something that Americans can do as well. But, outside the prison of individualism, there is joy to be found by being part of the temple of God - God dwelling in us personally...

The Corinthian church thought they had it all together. They considered themselves wise, spiritual, and mature. However, in 1 Corinthians 3:1-4 Paul makes it very clear that even though they think they've reached spiritual maturity, they are actually incredibly immature Christians. For us today, Paul's words can be convicting as we consider what spiritual maturity really is or isn't - and how the...

How is a Christian supposed to know and understand the things of God? Many people rely on worldly wisdom to navigate their day-to-day lives, and sometimes they even try to know God based on their own natural wisdom. But by God's grace, we are able to know the things of God in a transformational way through spiritual wisdom, given to us by being in fellowship with God through his Holy Spirit. In th...

We have no lack of "celebrity" these days. This infatuation with celebrity has even infected the pulpits of some churches, where polished orators attempt to use emotional manipulation and reasoning in order to push people to "make a decision" for Christ. This can lead to people to believe they have genuine faith when really they may have made an emotional decision rooted in human logic and underst...

It's Covenant Renewal Sunday! This is the Sunday every year where Northstar "kicks out" all of its members in order for them to have a chance to reflect on and consider their membership at Northstar seriously. Being a member of a local church should be a normative thing for a Christian, but many people seem to think that they can just "float" in and out without ever actually committing to a local...

On October 15, 2023, Northstar Church celebrated 20 years of worshipping and following Jesus together! Northstar has been formed and sustained by individuals following Jesus wherever he may lead. Listen as Bob Jackson, Dave Farris, and Jeff Noble all share about how Jesus has impacted their lives and how their own personal faith journeys have intersected with what God is doing through Northstar Ch...

The gospel doesn't make sense - at least in the way that worldly wisdom would try to make it "make sense." Would the Son of God really come down to us, giving himself on the cross? It doesn't fit within any worldly paradigm of wisdom or knowledge. However, the only way to be made right with God is to humbly accept the scandalous, unexpected, illogical work of the cross. In this message in our 1 Co...

The Corinthian church was in trouble, in so many ways. One of the first issues Paul deal with in 1 Corinthians is how they had begun to divide themselves up, following different teachers who they esteemed highly. They were so focused on their favorite teachers that they had begun to forget the gospel and Christ himself! In this message from Northstar's series on 1 Corinthians, Matt looks at the pr...

As a Christian, it can be really easy to sometimes feel like a "hot mess" spiritually. There are so many moments where we realize the we are not measuring up to who God has called us to be, and how much sin we still struggle with. In both our best and worst moments, instead of turning to hopelessness we can rest in the identity we have in Christ - that God has enriched us, equipped us, and won't g...

In the second message of our series on 1 Corinthians, Jeff covers the greeting that Paul gives to the Corinthian church. Although greetings are not usually something that we focus on when reading a letter, there is a richness in Paul's greeting that sets the stage for the rest of the letter. Paul reminds the Corinthians of their identity in Christ, and ultimately of the fact that Jesus is Lord of...

In this introduction to our series on 1 Corinthians, Jeff provided us with an overview of Corinth, its people, and its culture to give us context for our study of this book. We looked at Paul’s ministry in Corinth in Acts 18 and we learned that Paul wrote to the Corinthians to ground them in the cross of Christ and the importance of humility before the body of Christ.