Pastoral Notes

We are starting the new year looking to Jesus and listening to how he is shaping us as a community. We are starting a new sermon series on humility to frame the way we think about ourselves and how we relate to one another as Renewal Church. The great “Christ hymn” in Philippians, the pinnacle of the letter anchors this wonderful revelation: What is God like? And what does it look like to be God’s people? He is humble and He works in us to be like Him.

What if we embraced our life in God together as community, practicing a humble, self-emptying love in a culture of self-exaltation?

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We are embarking on a season of exploring "Sabbath" as a community as we enter into a new season, both in the natural sense (Fall) and in the season of "back-to's" (e.g., back-to-school, back-to-work, etc.). The Fall can seem anything but restful. It is precisely at this time that we need to embrace the rhythms marked out by the living God for us. When we take time to Sabbath, we are "ceasing what is necessary and embracing that which gives life," as Pastor Marc Buchanan puts it. Sabbath "works" for us by reminding and reorienting us to the necessary rhythms that we were made to enjoy God.

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We ponder afresh, in light of Christ’s life, death and resurrection, who we are together as a reflection and bearer of God’s glory and visible presence within creation. As God marveled at the creation of humanity: “He saw that it was very good!”.

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We enter into the season of Eastertide, one of the notable milestones of the year (the other being the season of Christmas). The Christian worship calendar (or also called the liturgical calendar) is a way of living together into greater awareness of the reality revealed by Jesus Christ. It organizes our time around the good news of Jesus Christ: the Triune God invites us to know Him, to enter into a divine friendship and to experience the fullness of life we see in Jesus Christ.

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We enter into the Lenten season, the 40 days before Easter through the Gospel of John. Lent follows the model of Jesus’  journey in the wilderness for 40 days. The priority of Lent is to drawing near to the living God and abiding in his Presence.  It is a season to put to death our attachments to worldly desires, through prayer, repentance, generosity and self denial.

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