A Deeper Dive for Authentic, Hopeful, Worshipful Faith

Over time, God transforms our desire to control and exert power over others into a spiritual will to use power for the benefit of others, especially for the undeserving and the "least of these."

Sermon by guest speaker Rev. Woody Garvin

Sermon by guest speaker Rev. John Owen

Guest speaker Rev John Owen

Sermon by guest speaker Woody Garvin

Sermon by Guest Rev. Rick Melin

“God wants humanity to be His creature. Furthermore, He wants us to be His PARTNER...God wants light, not darkness. He wants cosmos, not chaos. He wants peace, not disorder.” ― Karl Barth

"The covenant is not only quite as old as creation; it is older than it. Before the world was,before heaven and earth were, the resolve or decree of God exists in view of this event in which God willed to hold communion with man, as it became inconceivably true and real in Jesus Christ" -Karl Barth

"On the basis of the eternal will of god we have to think of EVERY HUMAN BEING, even the oddest, most villanous or miserable, as one whom Jesus Christ is Brother and God is Father; and we have to deal with him on this assumtion. If the other person knows that already, then we have to strengthen him in the knowledge. If he does not know it yet or no longer knows it, our buisness is to transmit...

"To be pilgrims means that men must perpetually return to the starting-point of that naked humanity which is absolute poverty and utter insecurity...The veritable pinnacle of religious achievement is attaned when men are thrust down into the company of those who lie in the depths. Where this is overlooked, the first must become the last, for only the last can be the first" - Karl Barth

"To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world" - Karl Barth

Creed God has created the peoples of the earth to be one universal family. In his reconciling love, God overcomes the barriers between sisters and brothers and breaks down every form of discrimination based on racial or ethnic difference, real or imaginary.  The church is called to bring all people to receive and uphold one another as persons in all relationships of life: in employment, housing, e...

"Religion is the possibility of the removal of every gound of confidence except confidence in God alone." - Karl Barth

"We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousandfibers connect us with our fellows; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects" -Herman Melville

“Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.” -C. S. Lewis

 “Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him.” -Martin Luther King, Jr.

“The ordinary think inside of the box, the extraordinary think outside of the box, but genius thinks inside, outside, below and above the box.” -Matshona Dhliwayo

Scripture Readings  Shirley Russell  Old Testament:  Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18   (Link to text:   https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=603296864 ) New Testament:  Luke 14:28-33   (Link to text:    https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=603296917 ) Sermon:  Detachment or Focus? Scott Starbuck Focus:   “The terrible thing, the almost impossible thing, is to hand over your whole self–all your wishes and precautions–to Chri...

“You’ve got to think about big things while doing small things so that all the small things go in the right direction.” -Alvin Toffler

“This is our great challenge and consolation. Jesus comes to us in the poor, the sick, the dying, the prisoners, the lonely, the disabled, the rejected. There we meet him, and there the door to God’s house is opened for us.” Henri Nouwen

"It is said that the age of a tree can be reckoned by looking at the bsrk - one can also truly know a person's age in the good by the inwardness of the repentance." - Soren Kierkegaard

“The True Self is not our creation, but God's. It is the self we are in our depths. It is our capacity for divinity and transcendence.” -Sue Monk Kid

"Every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving." -Albert Einstein

Old Testament: 1 Samuel 1:1-19 (Link to text: https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=603295174) New Testament: Luke 18:1-8 (Link to text: https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=603295198) Sermon: Self Advocacy Scott Starbuck Focus: “It keeps our hearts chasing after God's heart. It's how we bother God, and how God bothers us back. There's nothing that works any better than that.” -Barbara Brown Taylor

Scripture Readings Jill Cathey Old Testament: Deuteronomy 15:7-11 (Link to text: https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=603295429) New Testament: Luke 16:1-13 (Link to text: https://bible.oremus.org/?ql=603295453) Sermon: Heavy Realism Scott Starbuck Focus: “Perfect is the enemy of good.” -Voltaire