Imago Dei Community

Between the threat of a deadly virus and the political division there have been many reasons to feel averse to hospitality. Pastor Bob Howard explains that when we see the way that Jesus welcomed us, it can fill us with deep love to wholly welcomes those we normally would not.

When you have lived in survival mode you know that it can serve you well, but if you remain there flourishing ceases to even be an option. Instead, you are always left waiting for the next attack. In the book of Jeremiah God promises a Messiah who will heal us and bring us into a place of thriving.

The pandemic and all of the recent turmoil put things into perspective. It stripped us of our illusions that we are able to control reality as our systems broke down on many levels. Isaiah 40 calls us to look to the God who keeps the cosmos in orbit, turn from our fragile idols, and see what really matters.

A series aimed at addressing and naming the loss and changes that have occurred over the last two+ years. It’s easy to move on and hope everything goes back to normal but this was not an interruption but a disruption. We picked up bad habits and laid down good ones, our faith changed, our spiritual practices suffered or floundered in faith or disappeared from church. Loved ones died, marriages ended, jobs were lost or changed, people moved in and people left. So much has happened. We will ask what it looks like for us to move toward wholeness in Jesus together in the year to come. But before we move forward, we should ask Jesus to help us name, and heal, and surrender and start again, afresh in grace, mercy and community.

Dr. David Wilkinson is an astrophysicist and theologian at Durham University in the United Kingdom. He explains that science is a magnificent pursuit describing how the cosmos operates and discovering the principles behind physical reality but it cannot dictate the value, meaning, and purpose that we all long for.

We live isolated lives and are especially prone to avoid those we disagree with. The author of Hebrews challenged his audience to practice hospitality even in the hostile Roman culture. As we learn to welcome strangers into our lives we become reflections of the Christ who welcomed us.

What do you do when everything you have built your life upon is shaken? In this teaching from Hebrews, pastor Rick McKinley explains that God is willing to rattle our idols and shake up our attachments so that he can show us Mt. Zion; the one kingdom the cannot be shaken.