Life & Culture

The pervasive passivity among Christian men leaves a huge gap in the church where men are absent and women are having to continually step up and lead out. Konnor shares how this gap leaves unhealthy churches, how men can step up and bring flourishing to the church when leaving out of biblical masculinity.

We have all tasted the bitterness left in our mouths from great disappointment. It’s easy to remember and stirs in us the impulse to avoid it at all cost. What do we do when the floods of disappointment are overwhelming and the muscle to rejoice is fatigued? Eric writes how the valley of disappointment can lead to worship when we are honest about the unmet expectations of life.

Jess shares a poem to highlight how often we let the world around us tell us who we are instead of clinging to who our Creator says we are.

The feeling of loneliness aches through every human heart. COVID multiplied those feelings as we all quarantined and isolated from one another. Jordan explores this feeling through the lens of the Gospel and how we can be people who pursue the One who satisfies the depths of our loneliness by drawing near through a relationship with him.

Tim helps explore God's presence through the depths of our sadness. Reminding us that the Christian life is not void of sadness, but in our grief, we are comforted by our Heavenly Father.

In our continuation of exploring "The Feels" this week, we walk through hurt through Lamentations and how hurt brings healing from a broken world and highlights God’s goodness despite the pain of our hurt.

In our sermon series "The Feels" we explore what God has to say about certain emotions. In this blog, we walk through goldy guilt versus worldly guilt by looking at the story of David and Bathsheba and how David handles both.

Scripture is clear that we obey God and bring glory to him when we honor our parents. How can we do this well, especially if our parents do not follow Jesus? Or maybe they do but can't understand God's call to be sent? This week we look at how we can do both.

At times it can be easy to let worldly fear stop us from loving strangers and sharing the gospel. Jordan provides helpful insight and reminds us that when we fear God and respond to His love in faith, it gives us the boldness and perspective to love strangers fearlessly. Give the blog a read to see how we can fearlessly love strangers and how we can fearlessly share the gospel.

Hard Questions Part 6: Developing biblical understanding and studying the word of God is crucial for our growth as Christians. This week, Bruce and Ann Scallorn give us helpful guidance for studying the word. Through these tools, we can develop confidence in our understanding and the joy of knowing God’s word more deeply.

Making decisions can be challenging. It is safe to say that after a year of upheaval and change that decision making has become even more difficult. Jess reminds us that if we are close to the Lord and aware of our convictions, community, and impact that we can re-center and make wise decisions no matter what is happening around us.

"I love Jesus, but hate the church" - a phrase that doesn't make sense to a God who designed the Church. What happens when we are hurt by the broken people who make up the Church? Eric helps us to see past hurt, grasp forgiveness, and points us to God's design for the Church.

Hard Questions Part 5: God created us to desire sex - but only in the safety of a marriage covenant. How do we honor God with physical boundaries in dating? Preston lays a clear biblical foundation and prinicples we should follow to honor God with physical boundaries in dating.

Dating is hard, messy and confusing. How are we suppose to do it well? Emmalee highlights the messiness and beauty of dating all the while helping us remember that Jesus is at the center of it all.

Chelsy interviews Brian about what he’s learned through spending his 20’s as a single person. Brian shares the three things he learned about who God is in the midst of that and what he wish he would have known when he was younger.

Hard Questions Series Part 4: Dating and romance are on everyone's mind all the time. Have you ever stopped to think: "What if God is calling me NOT to get married?" Chelsy responds through her own story and how God shows us that singleness is actually a gift and not a curse.

Hard Questions Series Part 3: Depression and anxiety; common words addressing the mental wars that many of us face. How do we have faith, let alone bring God glory when we barely get out of bed in the morning? Maria Royall addresses what it means to glorify God from the deepest pits of struggling mental health, our third part of the Hard Questions.

Christmas is a significant part of American culture. How do we as believers celebrate the coming of Jesus through the secular chaos that has become the Christmas season? Here Eric pushes to do away with what culture says and pursue the simplicity of who Jesus is, remembering the original why of celebrating Christmas.

After learning about who God is, who we are, and how we fight against racial injustice from understanding the Gospel, we learn from Ben some guiding principles to honor God in how we fight against the racial injustice embedded into our American society.

This month in our Hard Questions series we are asking: "As a Christian, what is my role in fighting for racial justice?" Ben Wenzl responds to this questions in a two parts, starting with who God is and who we are to better understand what we are actually fighting for.

This election has everyone on the edge of our seats. How should we respond as the final results come into a clearer focus? This week we look at how we can respond in a way that shows our belief in the Eternal King who appoints earthly rulers.

Everyone is divided. Us against them. Him against her. Me against you. What if we laid down our defenses and instead of furthering the divide with hate, we closed it with love? Jesus tells us to love our enemies, we wanted to give some practical steps on how to do that.

In our current environment, the news, social media, and conversations are filled with the views of different political parties. Who represents us the best? The bible tells us that we, as Christians, have come to be the ones who represent the kingdom, not this world. It is here where we explore how to be Christ's ambassadors well.

We all have felt the weight of shame in our lives. Yet, it's something we are all too afraid to talk about. In this week's blog we boldly confront the lies that shame tries to tell us and try to look at the truth of the Gospel instead.

In part one of the Hard Questions series and with the impending presidential election coming up, we explore, "How do I vote to the glory of God?" There is a lot of noise in the media about how evangelicals should vote, but in this post, we look to scripture's authority instead to discern how we should vote as followers of Christ.

How do you keep going when it feels like you are continually being knocked down? Stephen shares how God was faithful through the long seasons of hard labor in church planting, sharing his wisdom on why its important to keep going - even when it feels too hard or too much.

"Play for an audience of One." Jordan shares though he heard this from his mom thousands of time, but how it changed meaning when he became a Christian and what it means to live with a confidence that comes from an unshakeable God.

Life is rough - 2020 has proven that to be true. What kind of people does Christ call us to be in the midst of hard seasons? He calls us to be thankful - Sarah helps shares some tools on how to posture our hearts to be one filled with thanksgiving.

Why is creating community so hard? Matt shares the secret sauces for a healthy church and how we can people who live towards health in our communities.