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What do children often do when they break something? They hide it. This is a problem for several reasons, but one of the biggest detriments of hiding what’s broken is that the child prevents their parent from helping them fix it.  This week in our series Better Together, we look at a story about the power of refusing to hide, and how this is the first step in our healing.

The Five Love Languages is easily one of the most important books ever written on how to love others well. Among the love languages, words of affirmation and gift giving are easy to identify as gifts. But, hidden within the love language of quality time is one of the most difficult ways to show someone love – listening. This week in our series Better Together, visiting teaching pastor Jeff Lucas shows us how listening to others is a way we model the behavior of God.

It’s natural to get hungry. Of course. And you can say you’re hungry. But at some point, you have to make a sandwich, drive through to grab a burger, or have a burrito delivered. Whatever it is, you have to decide and then do it. This week, in our series Better Together, we talk about doing the hard work of taking ownership of the work we need to do to bring the best version of ourselves to the relationships we desire to cultivate.

We can shop from home. We can work from home. We can even worship from home. Because of this, life has become so much more convenient. But it’s also become so much more lonely. And the sociological studies prove it. This week, we begin a brand new series called Better Together. In this series, we’ll explore how we were created for connection with others, and how even our walk with Jesus was never meant to be carried out alone.

Messing up can make us feel pretty bad, whether we lied to our friends or did something we knew we shouldn’t have done. It can take a mental toll. What if those slip ups become more than a one time thing. In that case we can start to make it apart of our identity. But what if they didn’t have to be? This week we look at shame and how even the apostle Paul in his letters experienced shame for his past actions. However, even Paul came to learn that God’s grace was way bigger than his sins.

Weddings are incredible events filled with deep symbolism. The rings, the unity candle, receiving communion, and the grand finale – the kiss! The kiss is when the officiant declares the couple to be husband and wife. So many symbols packed into one day. But none of the symbols was ever meant to only apply to that day. Every symbol is a declaration for how the couple will live every moment of every day of the rest of their lives. This week, we look at the story of baptism, one of the most important symbols in the life of a follower of Jesus, to see that it was never meant to be a one-time thing, but something we experience over and over again as we join God in his mission to restore the world.

How often do we hear someone say, “That’s impossible!” in a book or movie, only to find, just a short time later, it is possible? These words are often what signal us as the reader or viewer to get ready for something incredible – perhaps even miraculous – to happen. What if we began to live our lives with the same mindset we have when reading and watching these stories? What if we believed the impossible just might be possible. This week we dive into one of the most famous stories in the Bible to discover the kind of person God uses to do the impossible.

God always listens to our prayers. Whoever we are, whatever we’re reaching out to him for, he’s listening. But we all probably know “that person” whose prayers seem to get answered on a regular basis. This week in our series The Way, James guides us in how to become the kind of people who seem to have our prayers answered more frequently. And just to be clear: it has nothing to do with being more holy or a “better Christian” than others. But it does have something to do with our posture in his presence.

Being patient isn’t always easy. Waiting for your boss to finally give you that promotion after years of hard work. Waiting for your grade to come back after weeks of studying.But while patience is important, being passive and simply waiting without doing the work to prepare may not be the best way to go about it. This week in our series The Way, James challenges us to move beyond passive patience and learn how to be active in our waiting.

It’s good to trust. You can trust that having money in the bank will keep the lights on. You can trust having food in your refrigerator will keep your stomach full. You can even trust your well-maintained car will get you to work every day. But there’s a big difference between trusting something to serve you in life and trusting it to sustain and even save your life. This week in our series The Way, James warns us against putting our complete trust in even the most dependable things in this life because they can’t do a thing for us in the life to come.

Most of us know that we bend the truth sometimes. Whether that’s because we forgot to take the trash out, we woke up late or we just really wanted them to think we got a good grade.  Well this week in our series The Way, James pleads with us to not bend the truth and to just be honest with what we say and how we say it.

One of the most consistent questions Jesus Followers asking is how to discern God’s will for their lives. But how do we tell if we’re following our will or God’s? What wisdom does the Bible offer for navigating this crucial question? Visiting teacher Jeff Lucas is back to bring us another message in our series The Way. This week, we explore what James has to say about aligning our plans with God’s will.

If you have a stomach virus it’s not going to do you any good to ask your doctor to prescribe topical antibiotics and a torso cast. Why? Because the virus doing battle against your body is inside of you. This week in our series The Way, visiting teaching pastor Jeff Lucas explores James 4 and the things trying to destroy our character, reminding us that the real battle is not external, but within each one of us.

Everyone wants our reviews. Businesses send a text or email asking us to leave a review of our experience. We get a prompt to leave a review for our Uber and Lyft drivers as soon as we get out of the car. Rotten Tomatoes is built on those of us with no experience in writing and producing movies leaving a review of the film we just watched. We’re so conditioned to leave reviews that we think it’s our right to review people. But we don’t call it “reviewing.” We call it “judging.” And the consequences of judging are so much higher than the consequences for reviewing. This week in our series The Way, James calls us to a different way of engaging with those around us, one that brings the truth with a heart to build up, instead of tear down.

Most people know how to explain their “type.” Maybe you find a sense of humor attractive. Maybe a specific kind of job or hobbies draws your attention. Maybe it’s someone who champions a cause you’re passionate about. Or maybe your type is all built on someone’s looks. This week in our series The Way, James shows us what true beauty looks and acts like.