The Local Church

A foundational value at TLC is Awe & Wonder. We believe that when we gather together as a church, the power and presence of Christ is uniquely present. When we're in the assembly, we experience awe and wonder.

TLC believes that our response to the weak and vulnerable is our response to Jesus. Our acts of justice and mercy as a church are the outflow of a heart that has been redeemed, restored, and rejuvenated by Jesus. This belief is what shaped our value "Would She Weep?".

You have an individual calling, and our church has a calling. As we develop disciples, multiply churches, and extend the reach of the gospel, we see our value "We Create the Future" coming to life.

The Bible is our guide, but it can be hard to know how to engage with it. A good method is to envision yourself sitting down with God and going through a cycle: read, reflect, respond, review. Visit our website Teaching Archive to download the worksheet referenced.

Can the Bible be trusted? It's an oral history, coped over 3,500 years, in multiple languages, and in multiple cultures. As we dig into this, we see that the Bible is, in fact, one of the most trustworthy ancient texts available today.

The Christian Canon is made up of 66 books, 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. But where did it come from and how was it decided on?

Have you ever asked - or been asked - “Do you really believe this?” about the Bible? As Christians strive to answer this question, we need to first understand what the Bible is and its intention. It's not about us; it's all about Jesus.

The prophetic calling recorded in Jeremiah 1 reminds us that everyone is designed with intention by God, is known intimately by Him, and has been set apart for a purpose.

Today we often see the words of Jeremiah 29:11 on coffee mugs and journals. But they were originally meant as an encouragement for the Jewish people who God disciplined by sending into exile in a wildly different culture. This short verse reminded them - and us - that He meets us even when we're in a hard place, and His intention is for us to prosper.

Jeremiah is in prison, the Babylonians are invading Jerusalem, and all hope seems lost. This is the setting of Jeremiah 32:1-15. Even then, Jeremiah does something unexpected: he buys a field in the land occupied by the enemy. This prophetic act of hope declares God's presence in the midst of chaos, and His promises for the future. That’s the same hope that God wants to speak into our lives today.

Our faithfulness to God can be compared to the kind of faithfulness required in the high and low seasons of marriage. In Jeremiah 7:1-15, Jeremiah gave a sermon challenging the Israelite people about their faithfulness to God beyond the temple gatherings, similarly to the faithfulness needed beyond the wedding day to the actual marriage. We can come with this same mindset of faithfulness on a Sund...

Few people lived life with God and for God better than the prophet Jeremiah. This life did not come easily for him though. There were plenty of times when Jeremiah was frustrated and angry at the hardship that he faced. He complained to God in Jeremiah 12:1-5 and God responded....” if you have raced with men on foot and they have wearied you, how will you compete with horses?” The question was an...

In Luke 7, we follow John the Baptist as he waits in prison and begins to wonder - is Jesus the King he's been waiting for? Jesus isn't saving John the way he desired or expected to be saved. What do you do when your faith and hope crashes into suffering? Unmet expectations? Disappointment?

In Part 2, we looked at Luke 3:3-6 again as John the Baptist announced that Jesus was coming, he urged his audience to clear a path for a road in their hearts to make way for the king. One of the ways the road is prepared in our hearts is by raising up the valleys. Valleys are raised up when you relax in Jesus and understand you are more loved and accepted than you could ever dare hope. This opens...

John the Baptist is the hype man for Jesus.  His message in Luke 3:1-18 serves to make way for Jesus the coming King by smoothing and straightening the path, similarly to how roads would be prepared for kings of their day. For us to be prepared for the arrival of the King today, we need to treat Jesus as King in our hearts through reliance and obedience.

Instead of James going for his typical punch in the gut approach, James ends his letter with a push—a push to pray. In James 5:13-20, James lists out a variety of scenarios in that we should labor in prayer: when we are suffering, sick, and in sin. We should labor in prayer in a similar way to a woman in labor so that we can birth whatever it is that God has for us in the same way Elijah did.

James 4:13-5:6 contains some of the harshest words in the book, addressing wealth, pride, greed, and self-interest. As Americans - the generally wealthy in today's world - we must keep our pride in check and acknowledge that we do not control our financial futures. We should use our positions to advocate for fair payment of others, and pay attention to how we engage with our money and systems that...

We all have a choice to make. James 4:1-10 points out that you can choose to be a friend of the world or a friend of God. Both options talk a good game, but one is empty and one is full of life. Friendship with God requires us to turn away from friendship with the world toward humility and repentance, trusting that God will lift us up.

What good is it if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? James 2:14-26 asked this question and others like it to make sure we look under the hood and search the engine of our faith because faith without works is dead. As we search for what drives our faith, it is critical to find that it is fueled by our head, heart, and hands. All three of these create the synergy to make our faith compl...

"Sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me?" No. James 3:1-12 carefully spells out that the tongue is dangerous and can be used by evil to corrupt. The words that Christians say should be wholly aligned with the values and beliefs of Jesus. If they're not, we must address what's in our hearts so that we can be trusted to consistently speak words of life to others.

In James 2:1-13, James gets all up in our business again instructing us that the church is to be different from the world by not having favorites. There are many scenarios to consider to help us assess where we tend to show favoritism based on class, appearance, and power. We must be different from the world by seeing the value in the people that are often cast out.

In James 1:19-27, James tells us to look into the Word of God to see ourselves honestly, and to walk away changed: Take time to stop, look, and listen as you address patterns of anger and controlling your tongue. Care about the the oppressed and changing the systems that perpetuate injustice, because this is at the heart of who God is. Do not become stained by the world we live in.

The key to understanding James 1:5-8 is to avoid our understanding of wisdom. James helps us see that wisdom is not knowledge; it's the right heart and mind needed in order to live like Jesus. It's the ability to see things from God's perspective and live accordingly.

10.2 Summary: We kicked off our new series, James: All up in your business. James wrote a letter to share his wisdom with the scattered believers of the first century. In his letter, James didn’t set out to share something new with his audience, but rather attempted to challenge how they lived. James starts off his entire letter by addressing that when we face trials of many kinds, it will test ou...

Faith is an action: believing something based on evidence and living your life as if it was true. Mark 9:14-29 - where a father brings his demon-possessed son to Jesus and demonstrates a faith of desperation - gives us a starting point to examine the three levels of faith. Crises force us to acknowledge who or what our faith is really in, and provide the opportunity to “level up”, surrendering our...