Renaissance Church

2 Corinthians 6: 14 - 7:1 God calls us to be fully in communion with Him. As Christ followers we can’t have one foot in the world, one foot with God. Yet throughout the centuries, determining what it means to be separate from the world and fully aligned with God has been challenging for the Church, and sometimes this separation has gone to the extreme. Pastor Scott sorts through what it means in c...

2 Corinthians 6:1 - 13 Is there any part of your life that you're holding back from God, and why is that? God continues to dole out grace, yet believers can neglect to tap into His treasures. Pastor Scott challenges listeners to “open wide” their hearts to God, in the context of Paul displaying His wholeheartedness to Christ and the Corinthian church through sorrow and joy.

2 Corinthians 5: 16 - 21 As Christians, we are “new creation[s].” Jesus has given us a new identity. The challenge is to keep walking the path of reconciliation in the redeemed identity. Pastor Scott unpacks the complex themes in 2 Corinthians 5: 16 - 21 about being reconciled to God, what it means to take sin seriously and walk toward righteousness, especially in a contemporary culture that’s nor...

2 Corinthians 5: 9 - 15 What motivates us to do the things we do? In Corinthians 5, Paul highlights that his motivation for doing good, sharing the gospel, and working for God’s kingdom is that he will be rewarded by Christ after death. There is an underrated theme of divine reciprocity in the Bible. What Christians do with their lives to honor God is accounted for by God and will reap a reward. T...

2 Corinthians 5: 1 - 10 Who we are in our bodies is a reflection of who we are in our souls. On the day of judgment, the way we conducted ourselves in our real bodies will give an account for the way we stewarded our spiritual vitality. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil” (2 Cor...

2 Corinthians 3: 12 - 18 We know that the fullness of Christ is meant to dwell within his believers, and yet we all sin, even after coming back to Christ. Through this struggle between sin and freedom, what is required of us to further pursue the fullness of Christian life? In this message, Council leader Vicky Griffiths clues us in on practical applications for transformation, the ways in which b...

2 Corinthians 3: 7 - 16 There’s a strange tendency as Christians to not realize what we have in Christ and to not take full advantage of all that is available to us. We settle for less than what God has for us. This malnourished approach to the Christian life has become the norm in this western corner of the world. Passages like 2 Corinthians 3: 7 - 16 spur believers to refocus on what we truly ha...

What people have had the most theological influence on you? What is the criteria you look for to trust the person’s spiritual expertise? Whether we’re aware of it or not, we tend to be on the lookout for people to emulate, and it’s important to discern the level of truth we hear from different teachers. The 1st century Corinthian culture was no exception to sifting out false teachers, and in the m...

2 Corinthians 2:17 What habits do Christ followers fall into that turn them into “peddlers of God’s word,” that cheapen or distort the gospel? How can we better understand and walk in the righteousness that Christ declares over his followers? Chris Waugh walks us through what gets disguised as Christ’s authority and Christ’s authority actually looks like.

Luke 24:13-34 Let’s talk about an Easter story after Easter! What if you already had the sign you were looking for? Council Leader Vicky Griffiths goes through the encounter of Jesus with the people on the road to Emmaus after the resurrection, how Jesus’ explanation of the scriptures and his breaking bread with the travelers both point to Him as the Savior we are looking for.

Church spaces all throughout the globe are talking and singing about the resurrection of Jesus, and Christians have hope to be raised from the dead at Christ’s second coming. But there are ways we can experience resurrection life now! Somehow, the Spirit of the living God can raise us out of spiritual death today and seat us with the resurrected Christ in heavenly places. We can be raised out of t...

2 Corinthians 2:12 - 16 What does it mean to be “the aroma of Christ to God?” The aroma refers to the fragrance of a sacrifice burning up to the heavens. Imagine a person’s heart, marked by the sacrifice of Christ, set ablaze by the Holy Spirit, with smoke reaching up to please the Father—this is the pleasing aroma to which Paul in 2 Corinithians refers. Chris Waugh challenges some of the common h...

How should a church respond to scandal within its community? Because the church is made of people who still sin, Christians need to prepare for how to disciple repentance and how to respond well to people’s sinful behavior. Pastor Scott talks about when to respond with tough love and when to respond with mercy by studying how Paul advises the Corinthians about a situation within their church commu...

In 2 Corinthians 1:23 - 2:6, Paul refers to the grief he felt when addressing the corruption in the Corinthian church community. The portrait of Paul in the Corinthian letters brings us up against this question: do we possess this kind of abundant love for the Church, that her condition intensely produces deep grief or joy? How much are affected by the state of the Church? Or affected by the peopl...

One day, followers of Christ will receive praise from Him for pursuing a life of righteousness. In the mean time, our present need is to motivate each other to seek Christ’s righteousness in the midst of trials and temptations. Following the model of church leaders encouraging believers in 2 Corinthians 1:12-22, Mark Skillin encourages us today to live in such a genuine way where Jesus is Lord ove...

Pastor Scott shares thoughts and updates for the Ren community this season related to Lent, the move out of the 184 Broad St building, and Core membership in 2024. Chris Waugh closes out with a brief word on communion and the full measure we can have of Jesus in our lives.

2 Corinthians 1: 8 - 11 In our own strength and wit, do we really have what it takes to live the way God wants us to live? Can we really rid ourselves of pride? God will help us get to a point of humility, endurance, and trust in Him when we’re in circumstances beyond our ability to handle on our own. When He calls us to do impossible things, He will give us what we need, but we must rely on Him....

We’ve all had our share of suffering—it’s part of the human experience. It’s a reality that we struggle to understand, and it frustrates us because we know what suffering can do to the human spirit. Suffering can lead us to despair; it changes us for the worse—or for the better. Trials can lead us to lose faith or could bring character, even intimacy with God. Suffering provides an opportunity to...

As followers of Jesus, how do we prioritize our love for God, our love for one another, and our love for neighbors in our spheres? Pastor Scott gives a pastoral talk on the most important essentials for Christian living to set us in the right direction for how we live and how we are a church together in 2024.

There is no one God is not willing to pursue. The wise men, doing their job as well-off astrologists, followed an unusual star and discovered the true King of the Jews—Jesus. It’s worth looking at our own stories to ask, how might God today meet us in our communities and in our passions and interests? By studying the Magi story in Matthew 2, Ren Church member Vicky Griffiths helps us reflect on ho...

Listen for a short word on the joyous arrival of Jesus and the way God included shepherds as part of the celebration.

We may know in our mind that God loves us, but this truth does not always move to our hearts. We may feel our flaws are too much for God, or the experiences of being failed by others may affect our view of love. In these moments, we can ask God to help us with a fresh revelation of His love. As you listen to this message, let the truth of God’s depth love for you sink into your heart.