Renovate

God has given us a place to belong; His church. In this message we will explore what it means to be a part of God's Church and why it is a place worth loving.    

Does God’s Word tell us that we are supposed to love ourselves? And if so, what is that supposed to look like?

Only God’s love, displayed through His people, can truly transform the darkness around us.

In the wake of another election season, we have the chance to get a glimpse of our hearts and where we may be misplacing our hope. This misplaced hope often leads to anxiety. Ben discusses how to place our hope in Jesus in a way that practically applies to our day to day life. 

At one or another, we can all struggle with loneliness, listen in as Ben and Cody walk us through what to do with that emotion, the fears and lies underneath it and the truths that help us fight it.

It's human nature to want to achieve. To be seen and known and admired. We stack ourselves up against one another through work and relationships and accomplishments. And those very things are where we're all tempted to put our identity, to seek satisfaction. And maybe that's you too, and maybe it's left you feeling if there's more to life, if there's something you're missing. In Mark 10:17-31 we'r...

Suffering is inevitable, but how we respond can show us a lot about ourselves and what we believe about the Lord. Listen in as Robert walks us through our different perspectives in suffering: sufferer, sinner and saint. 

As followers of Jesus, we are called to be ministers of reconciliation. It starts with forgiveness, something that Christ has already made available to us, but in practice reconciliation can be hard to pursue. Join us as Ben walks us through the how and why of reconciliation. 

We’re all prone to pride and we’re all called to humility. Listen in as Ryan McCarthy walks us through Luke 18:9-14 and shows us a story Jesus used to teach his audience about what pride and humility look like and how one leads to death and the other to life.

In Luke 15, we see the story of the Prodigal son and how he looks for satisfaction in all the wrong places. If you’re familiar with the story, you know he’s welcomed home by a loving and gracious father that gives us a picture of how our heavenly father loves us. A detail that often gets overlooked is how the older brother responds to the Father’s grace towards his wayward son. Listen in as Robert...

 John 8:3-11 is a story that shows us that Jesus is compassionate. Not just in His forgiveness of our sins but in how He calls us to live. Even in our worst moments, when He could meet us with condemnation, He instead looks on us with compassion. Does that truth impact your day-to-day? Jesus knows and cares for you more deeply than anyone else. Your relationship with Him doesn’t have to be marked...

Acceptance is something we all desire. And we look for it in all sorts of places. But we were designed to find true acceptance and full satisfaction in Christ alone. In Luke 19, we see a story of Jesus seeing, accepting and transforming someone no one would have bet on. Praise God, He does the same for us. Listen in as Ben unpacks the story of Zacchaeus and uses it to show us how being seen and ac...

The story of Hosea paints a beautiful picture of how God pursues us. We are prone to wander. We settle for far less than God's best. We are quick to choose things over God even when they lead to destruction. But God, in His kindness and mercy, pursues us and restores us. Listen in as Ben unpacks this beautiful story and how it reflects the heart of God.  To learn more about our community, visit ww...

We were created to worship, but we are prone to worship and put our hope in things that were not designed to satisfy. The story of the Prodigal Son found in Luke 15:11-32 shows us what it looks like to chase after things that won't satisfy us, fulfill us, or meet our ultimate needs, and how God meets us in that when we're far off. We have a God who designed us for a relationship with Him and He ma...

How are we supposed to handle the nagging presence of loneliness? Whether it's loud or quiet, whether you're aware of it or not, we all wrestle with wanting to be known, loved and accepted. Join us as Ryan teaches about how God answers the loneliness we so often feel. For more about this imperfect community, visit https:// www.renovateftw.org or check us out on Instagram or Facebook @renovateftw.

We want peace, healing and love — and we look for these things everywhere — but oftentimes we're looking in the wrong places. Did you know we've been given these things already? God has given us His Spirit to live with and help us as we live for Him. What an awesome promise! Join us as Ben shares about the Holy Spirit, who He is, what He does, and what healthy submission and dependency on God's Sp...

Christianity can be confusing. Maybe it's because our experiences have shaded our view of the gracious God who is supposed to love us where we are. Join us as we unpack the good news of who Jesus really is. Jesus loves us too much to leave us where we are! And that's why our ministry is called "Renovate" — because we believe in a gracious God who doesn't just leave us where He finds us. He is cons...

Do you believe God is a perfect Father? If the experience with the dad you grew up with left you really hurt, or your dad was gone from your life, you have a skewed view of father. Or maybe you have a great relationship with your dad, but it's hard to see God taking over that role in your life. Either way, the reality is our experiences shape our perspective of the idea of God as our perfect Fathe...

If God is supposed to heal and "bind up" our wounds, why do people in the church re-open them or make them worse? Let's talk about what's gone wrong within church community, what expectations we have or should have, and the way we are supposed to define and live out God's love with each other. We don't want church hurt to affect our worship of the Lord. So how do we restore and reconcile what is b...

Is Jesus really the only way? In a post-modern world where truth is a moving target and the ideology of the past is met with increasing skepticism, how are we supposed to navigate the claims of all the world religions when it comes to choosing rightly for ourselves? And if Jesus Christ really is the only way to get into Heaven, is it mean and exclusive of God to take away the option of a more cust...

What’s missing in your life? Is it a good career, a potential spouse, good friends? Maybe something less tangible comes to mind … like confidence, clarity about your future or freedom from a nagging struggle. What one or two things (or 30 things) need to come together before you can truly feel content in life? If we are honest, we could all identify areas where we secretly feel sorry for ourselves...

We can't deny that pain and suffering are realities in the world we live in. Yet, in churches around the world, a message is preached that there is a God who is in control. It seems like the we're left with only two options: God is cruel, or God is not really in control. Is He a loving and compassionate God but just isn’t in control enough to stop some of the horrible things that happen on a daily...

If you think people in the Bible didn’t doubt God, you should probably doubt that thought! They had their trust issues with Him just like we do today, and yet, the story of God through the Bible reveals a couple of very important things about God and His creation: He is a perfect and able Creator, and we are clouded and broken in our understanding of who He is. So when it comes to our doubts about...

Merry Christmas Renovate! 🎁 We got to steal a conversation with Bear Rinehart of NEEDTOBREATHE when he was here for Renovate Live on Dec. 1. In our studio, he opened up about his life, anxiety, worship, doubt, college football, Jesus, and his creative process among other things! It was a real treat to hear someone who is so stinkin' talented open up in such a real way and have such an honest conv...