Story Church GR

Have you ever tried to navigate a maze blindfolded with everyone around you screaming instructions?  Some instructions are helpful while others aren't- isn't this how it feels so often in life?  The world and many things around us are screaming for our attention, our passions, and ultimately our life,  but how do we navigate life well?    The answer: the guidance that come...

 

Sitting in solitude for many of us is challenging.  Often times we view this practiced as unproductive, not worth the effort, or even a waste of time. But what if we truly looked at this practice for what it is, a place where God desires to ignite in us His passion for our lives, each and every day.   Join us as we discover what it means for us to sit with God and have Him sit with us.

Submission is not a topic that we like to think about in our skeptical, distrusting, self-sufficient society. We are afraid of being let down, taken advantage of, or quite frequently abandoned. But it is only when we submit our will to the will of the Father that His amazing plans for our life will be fully realized. He doesn't promise us an easy road, but he does promise to never let us down, alw...

Simplicity is something that is often talked about, yet most of us have 300 million things in our house and lives. Of course I'm exaggerating a little, but how do we seek to live a life in His presence that is seeking simplicity and not just a "Get rid of it all" mentality? When we dive into this discipline, we will discover that simplicity isn't so much about "things", but mor...

When most of us hear the word "study", we instantly get transported back to a classroom, sitting at some uncomfortable desk and slaving over textbooks or worksheets. So when it comes to studying the Bible, we approach it with disgust, agony, or feelings of helplessness, but what if studying His word can have greater impact than what we truly understand in our lives? ...

Have you ever asked how it is that you can detach from the chaos, the noise, the craziness and connect to the peace, the calmness, and the presence of God?  One of the most ancient and beneficial spiritual practices is doing just that- denying yourself the things of the world to receive the things of God instead- particularly food.  Food touches on almost every area o...

When it comes to prayer, how do we view it and use it?  Prayer is one of the most powerful things that we can engage in with our Savior.  When we pray, mountains and oceans move- in His name.  Oftentimes though, we look at prayer as a last resort or worst case scenario bail out.  What if we are called to view and use prayer radically different?

Have you ever had to take care of something really important? Scripture addresses the innermost part of who we are and refers to this as our “soul.” We are more than just skin and bones. We have a soul that is designed to walk in daily communion with God. Why do we often struggle to take care of this part of us? What if there were ancient practices that can help us flourish? Join us this summer as...

If we can point out one of many negative things that the last couple of years has done to our world it's that we have come to believe that isolation is a good thing. We spent the better part of 2020 in lock down mode completely isolated from every community we knew. Even when the world did reopen we were encouraged to stay distant, be careful, and choose isolation when possible.  But, as chri...

Have you ever done something that you hid from a parent because you really just thought they would be angry with you? We can often hype up the reaction in our own minds to the point where the scenario in our heads becomes far worse than the reality of the situation. The thing is, we do this with our heavenly father too. We don't bring our worries, fears, anxiety, or even our shortcomings to him be...

When we think about the war in our minds we can often see how the negative things in life take center stage. It may become increasingly difficult to find the positives in the world around us, but there is always a reason to rejoice.   Join us as we look at the story of Paul and Silas finding reason to rejoice and praise God even after being beaten and thrown in prison and how we too can chang...

In all of our lives, we have the chance to look at the events and things that happen through different lens and different perspectives.  As we continue in the series, we ask ourselves today what lens or perspective are we seeing things through, and when our lens or perspective has to shift, how can we do that? Join us as we see how we can shift and reframe o...

Have you ever felt stuck, and no matter what you do, no matter what you think about, you just can't seem to get out of the negative thoughts?  What if you were stuck in a rut and needed assistance to get out and operate in a new path?    Join us today as we look at how to get unstuck from the ruts in life and operate in the trenches God has made for us.

Thoughts are powerful. They change our perspective, impact our decisions, and influence our habits. What do we do when we become trapped by our thoughts? What if the path to a deeper life in Jesus was through our mind? A quick scan of Scripture reveals that most of life’s battles are won or lost in our mind. This Sunday, let’s learn how to take our thoughts captive and win the war in our mind.

We all love a good restoration story... house restoration, car restoration, antique restoration...  We love to see what was and what could be, but so often we also resist this exact thing in our own personal lives.  Join us this morning as we conclude our Pursued series and we look at how Jesus truly is the only one who can (and will) restore all things back to Him... back to perfection.

We all long for something greater than what we ourselves can do.  From the very beginning, we have longed to be restored back to God and His perfection here on earth as it is in Heaven.  We try hard to make things perfect here, but ultimately we fall short and fail. But what if God is restoring us not just back to the perfection of Eden and the garden, but rather a gloriou...

Listen in as we continue the 4th and final movement in our Pursued series talking about restoration. This week we hear from Joe Burns as he brings the word and digs in to the idea of holiness and how we can pursue holiness in our lives.

Today we begin the final movement of Pursued talking about restoration. Although we have been redeemed in Jesus Christ, we still live in the brokenness of our current reality. We find ourselves looking forward to or anticipating things of this world that are temporary, but all they can offer is a better version of that brokenness. We are stuck in the in between of redemption and restoration. John'...

We have so many songs about love in our world, don't we?  There are songs that tell us a lot about love, how to love and who to love, and even ones that ask "What is love?", but what if there is more to love than just some song lyrics and warm fuzzy feelings?  What if we had a model of what love truly is and how to love to the fullest? Love was modeled to perfection for each an...

Our world sets us up to feed off the affirmations of those around us.  When we fit in, when we go with the flow, and when we do what the world desires, we are affirmed in our identity.  The message and attitude of Christ is radically different though. He seeks transformation over affirmation.  He is willing to work and operate in the "uncomfortable-ness" of life to tr...

We all love to be on the winning team, but oftentimes in life we don't feel like we are winning.  We may feel like we are being beaten over and over, that the world  just keeps pulling out all of the stops, and we can't seem to get an inch.  It's almost as if we just hope for someone to step up on our side and our team.   What if someone already has?  And what if, when we...

We all a love a great rescue mission- rescue from the evil guys who are trying to overtake the world or rescue from the end of the world as we know it as aliens try to invade.  Maybe it's rescue from the forces of nature and all the chaos that comes with it.  The reality is, we naturally all want those who are in trouble or facing trouble to be rescued and survive.  This is the case...

Our lives are full of rules to follow and rules to live by- and when we fall short of following these rules we feel..well, less than spectacular.  We hear about the public failures each and every day of those who have failed to obey the rules or have failed publicly, leaving us feeling with little hope.  But what if rules and laws weren’t there to force us into obedience, but rather they...

I'm sure that we can all relate to the ripple effect of our actions on the relationships around us. One single action can truly have long lasting effects, and it is no different when we talk about sin. Sin affects our relationships, the relationships with our friends, family, and coworkers, and especially our relationship with God.    Join us today as we talk about how the entrance of si...