The Upward Look
Part 3, Sermon on the Mount series: The most famous teaching ever points us down some unexpected paths. Blessed are those who mourn. You are the salt of the earth. Do not judge or you will be judged. Love your enemies. You are a city on a hill. What does Jesus mean? Whether you’re just exploring the claims of Jesus, or a seasoned traveler, this series will help you discover the kind of life into which Jesus invites all of us.
The Outward Reflection
Part 2, Sermon on the Mount series: The most famous teaching ever points us down some unexpected paths. Blessed are those who mourn. You are the salt of the earth. Do not judge or you will be judged. Love your enemies. You are a city on a hill. What does Jesus mean? Whether you’re just exploring the claims of Jesus, or a seasoned traveler, this series will help you discover the kind of life into which Jesus invites all of us.
The Downward Ascent
Part 1, Sermon on the Mount series: The most famous teaching ever points us down some unexpected paths. Blessed are those who mourn. You are the salt of the earth. Do not judge or you will be judged. Love your enemies. You are a city on a hill. What does Jesus mean? Whether you’re just exploring the claims of Jesus, or a seasoned traveler, this series will help you discover the kind of life into which Jesus invites all of us.
The Star of Christmas
It’s easy to be just a little self-centered at Christmas. Looking at the peripheral characters in the Christmas story highlights this tendency. While the star in the sky shone brightly above the babe in a manger, more than a few cast members imagined they were the “main character” of the moment. In this four-week Christmas series, we’ll look at the Magi, Joseph, the Innkeeper, and Caesar’s administrators and learn ways to avoid the trap of spotlighting ourselves in the celebration of the King.
Letters From Future Me
Imagine opening a mysterious envelope with your name on it, only to discover it was sent to you, by you, from the future! Like Biff from Back To The Future sending himself sports scores, Future Me knows exactly the best path to find the life my heart longs for. This new teaching series, Letters From Future Me, will help us all appreciate the crucial insights from "future us" to keep us from being the dreaded Monday Morning Quaterbacks of our own lives.
Is God...?
Ever wondered, "Is God loving?" "Is God just?" "Is God real?" These are the questions that skeptics, seekers, and curious minds have pondered for ages. To complicate matters, the most grandiose claims about God's character don't come from people of faith. They come from the mouth of God himself! This brand-new teaching series takes seriously the statements God makes about himself and seeks to understand how we harmonize the existence of such a great God with the reality of living in such a harsh world.
HEARTLAND
What God started in the basement of a Johnson County home way back in 1986 is still alive and growing through us today. Over the next four weeks, you’ll be introduced to the heartbeats of Heartland as we celebrate the past and look to the future, together!
In Wilderness
Life can leave us confused, lonely and spent. Where is God in seasons like this? We believe God is present and protecting us in the hard and the joy filled seasons. We just need to learn how to locate him in the hard and orient ourselves to his presence.
The Good Life
Too often, we think of “the good life” as floating down a lazy river with the sunset in front of us and a cocktail in our hand. Jesus has a lot to say about what a full life looks like. In this series out of the book of Luke, we’ll see moments where Jesus describes his version of the good life, and how we can finally find all that our hearts long for.
Finding Home
What do you do when this world leaves you feeling homeless? That was the case for the first followers of Jesus, whose faith left them feeling socially, politically and economically homeless. This question is answered in the example of the first Jesus followers, whose faith in Jesus caused them to be exiled from their homelands. They were encouraged by Peter to double down on the hope of the good news Jesus brought, and bless the world that doesn’t bless them. In this way, their very lives would proclaim the holy hope of heaven, our true home.
Kick The Habit
Ignite purpose and invite God's power into your life through a month of intentional habit building.
Double Or Nothing
Where is God asking you to double down? What do you do when you can't see into the future but you have to take a step?
Quick To Listen
Who doesn’t like being right and winning arguments? As social media rants and combative conversations become more frequent, is it possible to stop talking past one another and find understanding? This 3-part series will look to the practical wisdom of scripture to show us how to talk about things that matter with the people we disagree with, in healthy and grace-filled ways.
It Brings Me Joy
Joy isn’t happiness, it’s a deeper, more enduring emotion. You can be happy your team won the game today, but they might lose tomorrow and your happiness will be gone. But win the championship, you have joy forever. Joy has a deeper grounding, something sustaining . . . joy is even possible in hard situation. But, how do you get joy? What brings YOU joy?
Asking For A Friend
Your friends say more about the direction and quality of your life than you think. In this series we’re talking about the importance of meaningful friendships and how to be the friend we all need to have.
Greatest of All Time: Promises
A teaching series highlighting some of the greatest promises ever made by God in the Bible. What is your greatest promise of all time?
MINDFULL
Sometimes life has us tied up in knots. Not just with a busy schedule or complex relationships, but internally… how we think and feel. Anxiety, stress, depression, and conflict are normal challenges we all face. So how can we love God fully when our minds are already full? This new five-week teaching series will help us each become mindful of our mental health as we follow Jesus.
TELL ME WHY
Even Jesus asked why. God’s incredible plan brought purpose out of pain. While Jesus' pain on the cross was incomparable - he shouldered separation from God with the purpose of our being close to God - we see that there was a purpose to the pain, he was ending the reign of sin over the world he loves. Jesus finds Mary in her pain and sorrow and surprises her with new life. She wasn’t looking for a resurrected Jesus, but Jesus changed her purpose and changed her life. Eventually Jesus appears to his disciples, who were hiding in the upper room of a house. The power of the resurrection wasn’t immediately clear to them - they were still afraid of what the Romans would do to them, not realizing that Jesus had already conquered the very thing they were afraid of - death.
ALL ACCESS
Jesus doesn’t have a scheduling assistant, secret handshake, or personal security detail. His life and his home are all open to whoever would simply come to him. In fact, he not only welcomes us to himself, he wants us to be with him! And when we do accept his invitation, we find that he gives us everything he has and holds nothing back.
BRING YOUR DOUBTS
Childlike faith doesn’t always translate into an adult-capable faith. In fact, many of the experiences we have cause us to question and doubt the foundations of our faith in God. A child dies. A relationship is lost. A tragedy strikes. Church people act hypocritically. Where do we go with our doubts? What does unsettled doubt mean for the Jesus Follower? Some of Jesus’ closest followers experienced doubt, even after the resurrection, and in bringing their doubt to Jesus, they found more of his presence and saw with clearer eyes his new life. Doubt is often a vehicle toward deeper faith.
REVOLUTIONARY
What does it look like, to live in light of the gospel? To live out the revolutionary call of Jesus to love Him first, and then love others as you love yourself? We believe that living the Jesus first life wholeheartedly today would be revolutionary. It would change our homes, our neighborhoods, our workplaces and our communities, if everyone could learn to love & lead like Jesus did.
In Acts, Jesus’ call to the first church was revolutionary in their time . . . and it continues to be today. The call is to declare our faithfulness to Jesus alone. Not to manmade places, structures or ideas . . . Paul’s invitation on his missionary journeys was so revolutionary precisely because Jesus’ message & movement was for Everyone. Every human. Regardless of where they came from, or what they looked like. Jesus’ first followers made space, for building relationships, that made Jesus first – and our world has never been the same.
You and I have a role to play. We are commanded to not hold back in pursuing that role of making Jesus’ voice the loudest, most caring, life changing voice in the room. How can we be a people . . . a community . . . that changes the world one person, one place, one conversation at a time? How can we be a people that trusts in the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit to lead the way forward? What might our courageous next steps be into living out the Jesus first life?
RESILIENT
Resilient—tending to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change. Resilience is a trait we are all developing right now. The early church followers and leaders developed it as well, and we are learning from them today. Resilience. Confidence. Joy. Boldness. What did they tap into in extreme times that led them to this posture? How can I draw on resilience as a follower of Jesus today? How do we develop resiliency? We stay in the fight. We may fall, but we get back up. Every day a better day, every breath a better breath. We seek to encounter God, and our lives are changed because of each encounter.
The Story Continues
Unified togetherness. All people welcome. An uncomplicated faith. A community of believers united around the person of Jesus, and pursuing him with every ounce of their being. They . . . and you and I today . . . are God's "plan A" to reach and impact our world. God committed everything He had to work with and through a ragtag band of followers and build his church. God could have done all of this without us . . . and probably been more efficient. Yet, he chose to take us on the journey with him. To prepare the way, to teach and guide us, and to walk a path of partnership with his people. The journey continues . . . from the Acts of the Apostles through the winding path of scripture and all of time . . . to you and me today. How will you engage this story?
First Things First
The story of Jesus. Radical healing. Acts of compassion. Offers of mercy. Love. Forgiveness. A savior who will go to the ends of the earth to rescue us, to bring us home.
Jesus came in power to invite us to draw near . . . to dare to believe . . . to go on an adventure that he had written for us from the beginning of time. To give us unprecedented access.
One thing he asks of us . . . and it goes against everything in our human nature . . . that we stop pretending we are doing better than we really are. He comes to be a healer, a restorer, and he asks us to admit our need for healing . . . to ask for it and to be open to it. To receive it. He knows we want to be in control. And we know that we are not. It is when his incredible love for us, and our humble confession of our need meet that his power is unleashed.
As we journey through Luke, consider Jesus’ words and actions and their bearing on your story. Consider your own need for rescue, healing, dignity and forgiveness.
Let There Be Light
Radical healing. Acts of compassion. Offers of mercy. Love. Forgiveness. A savior who will go to the ends of the earth to rescue us, to bring us home.
Jesus came in power to invite us to draw near . . . to dare to believe . . . to go on an adventure that he had written for us from the beginning of time. To give us unprecedented access.
One thing he asks of us . . . and it goes against everything in our human nature . . . that we stop pretending we are doing better than we really are. He comes to be a healer, a restorer, and he asks us to admit our need for healing . . . to ask for it and to be open to it. To receive it. He knows we want to be in control. And we know that we are not. It is when his incredible love for us, and our humble confession of our need meet that his power is unleashed.
As we journey through Luke, consider Jesus’ words and actions and their bearing on your story. Consider your own need for rescue, healing, dignity and forgiveness.
Threshold
Threshold: point of entry; beginning; magnitude or intensity that must be exceeded for a reaction or phenomenon to be manifest.
Discover God where you are, in your surroundings, actively pursuing you in your daily life. How can we discern His voice? Can we trust what He is saying? If He is actively pursuing you, if He is speaking to us and those words can be trusted, what are the next steps on how to act on what he is saying?