We hope you can join our annual Ash Wednesday service tonight at 7:00 PM as a reflective and meaningful kickoff to the season of Lent. This will also be the beginning of a new sermon series (description below). Tonight will include the imposition of ashes for those present in person and also a celebration of communion.

 What Are You UP to?

Lent is often known as a time of giving something up in order to make room in our lives for spiritual pursuits. Rather than just “giving up” in Lent, the scriptures ask us to consider all that Jesus is “up to” and all that He asks us to be up to in His name. Instead of bemoaning what we can’t do, or used to do, in a culture where “measuring up” to external standards seems impossible, this Lent we will celebrate the small things that we can do right now to respond to God’s call in our place, for our time.

Link to readable sermon PDF

On this Transfiguration Sunday, the last Sunday before Lent begins, we welcome a dear friend of Pastor Jessie’s to lead the service with her and gift us with a sermon. She was also the preacher at Pastor Jessie’s installation service back in May of 2016, and we are so excited to hear from her again. You can read more about her below.

In this final week of our brief series on James, we consider the impact of suffering on our faith. Struggles and trials in life are not something we can avoid, nor does Jesus promise that such a thing is possible. We cannot control what challenges we face, but what can we control? What role does prayer play, both in our personal lives with God and in community? How does our suffering connect to the larger suffering of the wider world? To be human is to wrestle with some version of these questions. Let’s wrap up our reflection of James together.

Link to readable sermon PDF

This week, we continue on with our series on the book of James. We have thought about how our actions matter because they reflect what we believe to be true. We have thought about how our words matter because they have power to shape reality. And this week, we will consider how actions and words spring from how we see ourselves; how we think about ourselves in relation to the world. Do we live with a posture of self-interest and ambition or a posture of humility and service? How does following Jesus affect our self-esteem? Does being humble mean thinking that we are nothing and not taking care of ourselves? We will explore all these questions together as a community as we dig deeper into one of the most practical books in the whole Bible.

Link to readable PDF

Last week, we opened up our exploration of the book of James with reflecting on integrity; walking the talk; living out what we say is important to us. But still, how we talk and communicate in this world does have power. Words can create whole realities, for better or worse. Nowadays especially, we are very aware of how toxic and divisive speech can become, especially when modelled by people in positions of leadership. We are humbled by the reminder that we too have been given the responsibility to speak like people of God in all of our spheres of life. How can each of us tame our tongues; such a small thing of such great power? How can the way we talk make the world a better place?

Link to readable sermon PDF