519 Church Sermons

We may say we "believe in God," but what do you actually believe ABOUT God? That's what we are looking at in this series. This week, we look at the journey from seeing God as a tyrant king—and Jesus who saves us from God—to hearing God as a loving father—and Jesus as the ultimate example of a love that pursues us at all costs.

Family is messy and messy is actually good. It might not fit our ideal vision of perfect family, but that ideal is distorting our ability to be REAL family by limiting our definition and stripping our relationships of vulnerability.

When keeping balance in our lives becomes the focus, we lose focus on the things we are trying to balance—the most important things, in fact. And balance becomes, for us, an idol, a burden from which God desires to free us.

It's not easy work, but it is important work — that is, if we are going to take Jesus at his word when he says "whatever you have done for the most marginalized of those among you, you have done for me." We generally tend to sort those people out of our neighborhoods, grocery stores, schools and even our line of sight. Making room for Jesus means making room for "those people".

Our version of Hospitality is vastly different from many other cultures and that of our spiritual ancestors. They were always prepared to be interrupted, and honored to host the one who interrupts. We tend to work better on a scheduled basis — but is that demeanor changing the way we prepare to be interrupted by God. Let's make some room, shall we?

The thing intended to unify us in one body has become one of the most divisive practices in the church—how we baptize people. Here about the evolution of baptism and why it, in any form, is an irreplaceable part of our worship life together.

We don't like to talk about death, but it is an important part — we might even say the most crucial part — of life. Without death, there is no resurrection. Without resurrection, the point of life drastically changes.

While not a sacrament in the protestant church, anointing with oil for healing has been a normal way that people have marked their prayers and God's presence in times of illness and trial.

What is a sacrament and why is it important for us? Also, why do we do communion the way we do it? Finally what does it mean for us? We get to these questions and more, come dive in with us!

Wrapping up our series on Luke 15 with the familiar but very rich story of a father whose love for both of his wayward children is great news for all of us.

Refresh yourself on the mission and vision of 519church as well as get an update on where we have come and where we are going.

The shepherd comes back for only one of one-hundred sheep. That's barely a margin of error. It's hard to think of ourselves as the 1%, but in so doing we remember that the shepherd has come back for us not because of our significance, but because of his benevolence. The powerful act of remembering this compels us to act differently towards the 1% in our lives.

Investing in a spiritual family take time, consistency and effort that does not necessarily pay off immediately. But, when you need it, it is there.

Over the last 500 years the church has been mostly about dispensing information, because our definition of discipleship is learning. Learning = faith and faith = salvation, therefore learning = salvation. Since the early church, a struggle has existed between learning and doing—something we still struggle with today teaching 90% of the time, and serving 10%. What if we flipped the church and spent our time inversely?

Part of the issue we and our culture have with “church” today is that we are so limited in our definition of it, and we are trying to achieve all that we expect from it in just one way, one iteration. Unless we bring the two parts together (table and temple) and see them as one whole, we will always be disappointed. Today, we are going to look at the church gathered—what I think are some of its greatest qualities. We will talk about its limitations later, but for today—why gather like this.

These days, many feel that gathering for worship is at best unnecessary. While this has caused fear among those attempting to preserve an institution, it creates a great deal of opportunities for us to actually be the church—one both Gathered and Scattered.