Reading City Church

Today, Vince introduces the "J-curve of Jesus." This is the idea that Jesus' path did not follow a typical upward slant of success. Instead, he interrupted his relatively normal, human existence to suffer and die before ascending to his rightful place. By choosing this path, Jesus showed his love for humanity and transformed reality for the rest of time by making it possible for us to receive his...

People had all sorts of theories about who Jesus was and the reason why He came to the Earth. In Luke 9:7-9, Jesus addresses this question with his disciples. Peter is the only one who is able or brave enough to answer with his heart. Over and over again, Jesus invites us to answer the same question for ourselves, because over and over again we need to evaluate our own feelings and faith apart fro...

The places in our lives that may feel desolate are an invitation to go deeper into the riches of Christ from which we can feed others. We continue our study in the book of Luke with the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000. In this empty place, Jesus feeds his people. The more stripping away of our own power happens, the more power from God to bring goodness and life settles upon us. When we are weak,...

The invitation for this message is to consider Jesus’ sending of the 12 as a model for how we can share the goodness of His Kingdom through dependency and loving others in His power. It is impossible to have our hearts turned to and deeply resonate with the heart of God all the time. We are too wounded, too suspicious, too fickle, to formed by a fallen world and too likely to contribute to it’s pa...

In this message, we focus on “normal” human fears and our normal human reactions to them… the stuff that often trips us up in our spiritual life, our relationships, our careers, our ability to enjoy life. The root of fear is in the story of our separation from God, the story we tell ourselves that we are on our own in a scary world. Tony Blair is our guest speaker this morning and he shares Jesus'...

Here are two questions we're very familiar with in the church: who is Jesus? and What is His kingdom like? We're exploring these questions through another story in Luke, one that is probably confusing to most readers. In this story, we see Jesus act, but we also should notice the reactions of the people around him. Some responded with fear, some with awe and gratefulness. Our healing and salvation...

Jesus’ revolutionary explanation redefines the fabric of family and is the exact inclusiveness that so many need today. At the core of every family structure, whether traditional or not, is the deepest human desire to be a part of something. Healthy Christian families are meant to have opened arms, opened hearts, and opened homes to the larger eternal family. On this Father's Day, we pray that you...

The secrets of the Kingdom of God are not actually riddles we may never understand. God wants us to know these things. He desires us to seek them out and He is glad to help us. True growth through the revelation of God takes time. We need to consider the whole context of scripture, hold loosely to what we've heard in the past, and put in the time to experience growth.

Jesus' tendency to speak in parables confused a lot of people. We have the benefit of being on the other side, with the interpretation of the story included in Luke's gospel. Jesus is telling us how different His kingdom is from what we expect. There is so much freedom in that truth and yet we often don't understand, just like the crowds who listened to Him. Jesus wasn’t interested in telling peop...

Today, we unpack the counter-cultural approach Jesus took to the role of women and men in his life and ministry. He wants to abolish the fears and harsh divisions that keep men and women from serving together as brothers and sisters in Christ. The world would then see a more full picture of God in our relationships and leadership - for both are created in the image of His likeness.

We are starting a new portion of the book of Luke and focusing specifically on the Kingdom of God and how Jesus shows us the better and more beautiful realities that are to come. The goodness of God’s realm is clear any place and time His desires are fulfilled.

We're continuing to look at the story of Jesus on the Emmaus road with two disciples who did not recognize him at first. In part one, we acknowledged the deep grief of the disciples - in the anguish of their dashed hopes. Now, we look at all that Jesus wanted them to realize in the midst of their pain. Inviting Jesus into the conversations in our heads, expressing to Him the depths of our desires,...

After the Resurrection, there was still hopelessness among the disciples who did not yet know that Jesus had returned to them. We pick up their story on the road to Emmaus. We sit in their grief with them, even as they talk to their Savior without realizing it. How often in our own seasons of pain do we miss Jesus walking with us? What new thing does he want us to see? Today, we talk about a new k...

Easter is always a celebration in the church because we honor Christ's sacrifice. We're celebrating even more this Sunday because of several church family members who chose to be baptized during the service. Today we talk about the death and resurrection of Jesus and the ramifications of this great act of love for us.

What would be your first response if you were asked "What is the meaning of the cross?" In this continuation of our series on the book of Luke, Pastor Vince goes into detail about the full reason why Jesus died for us. This goes beyond the Sunday School answers that we've been taught. God's reason for His death was much deeper and richer than we may know.

We're covering more scripture than usual this Sunday as we approach Easter and these are difficult verses to study. Jesus purposefully laid down his rights and power to submit his body to his own creation, who mocked him and tried to destroy him. He chose a season of surrendered passivity. We also may experience times when we feel stripped of our own power. We realize in these seasons how much is...

We continue our series on the book of Luke by studying Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. This is one of the most vulnerable glimpses of Jesus in his humanity that we are given in the gospels. He is wrestling with the reality of what is coming and feeling the weight of extreme loneliness. Jesus identifies himself with our struggles because he felt every temptation and pain just as we have suffered...

We're jumping ahead a few chapters in our study of Luke to read about The Last Supper and Jesus' final instructions to his disciples. There was so much that he wanted them to understand, but they missed. Now we can study these scriptures with the benefit of knowing how the story ends, but we also tend to miss important truths about Jesus' message. Gary Christman was our guest speaker. Gary and his...

We're taking a quick break from our Luke series to explore the meaning of Lent before beginning the season together.

We think we know and are sure of what we see, especially when the whole the town sees and knows it too...But Jesus invited us to see & know differently. In this next passage of Luke, we're introduced to the "sinful" woman who anoints Jesus' feet. What was it like to be in her place? What about the dinner guests and the host who were watching her? Jesus was safe for her to approach, he didn't just...

Luke 7:18-35 has some curious statements of Jesus. He addresses questions from John the Baptist's disciples, but His answers aren't very satisfying. This week, we're considering how the Kingdom of Heaven appears upside down to us. Jesus' words often caused offense because His audience didn't fully understand His meaning. What does this mean for us when something we read triggers an uncomfortable f...

This week we read about the raising of the widow's son, which is a unique story because there doesn't seem to be any other "lesson" that Jesus brings into this interaction. He doesn't pronounce forgiveness of sins or ask the mother to do anything specific. For such a momentous interaction, it seems very simple. Yet, there is so much in this short story of how Jesus cares for the grief, sadness, an...

On New Year's Day, we had a special service dedicated to reflecting on the past year and taking a moment to set our hearts for this new year. The focus on this devotion was surrender, healing, and love. The meditative questions were: What do I need to let go of? What do I need to accept? What way of thinking or way of acting is getting the way of my own healing? What active steps can I commit to i...

This is our last Sunday of Advent so we are concluding our study of the earlier chapters of Luke by considering the message of Jesus' birth. Luke 2:1-38 is often read at Christmas and so we may not hear it for the amazing news that it is anymore. But God came to Earth as a human, lowly in a manager, recognized by the poor and forgotten, yet heralded by angels to humble men and women. Let us unders...

This is part 2 of our series-within-a-series on Advent and the wonder of Jesus coming to Earth as a human. This is a continuation of our study of Luke. Today we read about Mary's response to the calling of God on her life and the implications of bringing the Son of God into the Earth.