Three days later after the death of Jesus, we have a plot twist in history, he is resurrected. With this resurrection Jesus brings the hope of new life because what took place on the cross was proved true. Listen as Pastor Darren guides us in understanding what is the good news that Jesus proclaimed with his life, death, and resurrection.
In order to understand the significance of Jesus’ death on the cross, we must understand the Gospel. The Gospel is good news for all who hear, and the faith of Christianity hinges on what took place on the cross. It all starts in the Garden of Eden, and that is where Michael Petrila leads us in our reflection of Good Friday.
On Palm Sunday, Jesus came in on a donkey completely subverting the perspectives of his disciples and followers. When they wanted a conquering king that would overthrow Rome, Jesus let everyone down by coming in God’s way. Pastor Bill, teaches us how Jesus will constantly let us down if we hold on to our perspectives of God’s plan for the world. In order to properly align ourselves with the subversive reality of Jesus, we must let go of our plans.
We are continuing with our focus on the spiritual discipline of 'fasting'. Pastor Bill helped clear the foggy nature of this discipline, by defining what it is and what it isn't. Fasting is a way that realigns, clarifies, and centers our minds and souls to God. Listen this week as we learn how this discipline has given prominent figures throughout scripture guidance in walking in step with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
"Appetites are not the driver for behavior." Continuing with our discussion on Fasting, Pastor Bill walks us through how fasting equips us to fight Satan and the flesh. We revisit Matthew 4, as Jesus is in the wilderness, assessing how he is not at his weakest, but because of the discipline of fasting, Jesus was at his strongest. Join us as we learn to join in the fight against spiritual warfare through the discipline of fasting.
In Matthew 4, Jesus is taken by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness where Jesus is tempted by Satan. By analyzing how Satan attacks Jesus, we are able to know how he also attacks us. Guest teacher Listen, as guest teacher Chris Weinand helps us understand the tactics of Satan and how we as the church can stand against his advances.
Fasting is a discipline that invites humanity to pray with our bodies. It also is an avenue where we can stand in solidarity with the poor. Pastor Darren leads us through Isaiah 58, as we understand how we can intentionally fast to relate to those who are poor and marginalized in our world. Join the Garden as we learn how to stand against oppression and stand for justice, one meal at a time.
Once confronted by Jezebel, Elijah is sent into an escape from his homeland. During this time, God turned Elijah's escape and turned it into an encounter with God. Pastor Bill, walks us through this story of Elijah going to Mt. Herman and the lesson he learned about the power of silence. It is here where we are invited to join Elijah to listen to the sound of silence and find God speaking in the midst of it.
In the wilderness away from people, work, traffic, music, television, and all other distractions, we find silence. For most, if not all of humanity, silence can seem to be violent to our souls. However, upon examining the lifestyle of Jesus we find that he found strength in silence and solitude. It seems that when Jesus was away from everything that the world deems important, he was able to find communion with the Father. Listen as Pastor Darren invites us into our first Spiritual Discipline as ...
While community, practice, and teaching may all help with transformation, they are not the primary source of transformation. The final step of transformation changes when our environment is changed and replaced with the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit that comes in and uses our community, our practices, and teachings to transform and strengthen our will. Listen as Pastor Darren helps us understand, fully, how we can change into Christ-likeness.
The Way of Jesus, or the Way of the Cross, is not a way to be taken lightly. As Bonhoeffer said, "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die." How do we live a life marked by carrying our cross, self-denial, and death? Pastor Bill Dogeterom helps us walk through this paradigm and what it means for us in the midst of our everyday ordinary lives.
Discipleship needs to be done in community. Especially, during our current age where communities can be found through social media, blogs, and websites. Authentic community that builds, sustains, exposes, challenges, and forms us into Christlikeness is found in the church. Listen as our guest speaker, Megan Fate Marshman helps continue our Practicing the Way of Jesus series, and helps us understand the role of community in our relationship to each other and God.
Doing something is different than wanting to do something. I order to live a life in the way of Jesus, we have to reshape the way we do life. This includes the way that we incorporate practices of Jesus. These practices take many shapes and forms but ultimately are rooted in the person of Jesus. Listen, as Pastor Darren walks us deeper into Intentional Spiritual Formation, as we discuss the importance of, practices.
We as humans are constantly being formed by the world around us. If we are not careful, we will be shaped to look more like the culture of the world, while thinking we are moving more towards Christ-likeness. Listen as Pastor Darren helps us set up a paradigm that will help us live lives of intentional spiritual formation. This will be our foundation to practice the way of Jesus, by being with Jesus, becoming like Jesus, and doing what Jesus did.
With the start of each new year, there comes an overarching sense of reflection of the past year, and the hopeful planning of the year to come. Pastor Bill walks us through his reflection of becoming more like Jesus, and why because God is always there in the midst of victories and failures we are called to tune our hearts to him and his voice. Listen as we start this new year off with a new sense of our place in the relationship between Creator and creation.
Christmas has become so familiar to us. However, when we take a closer look at the Christmas story, we realize that Jesus' birth is anything but familiar. Join us as Pastor Darren helps reintroduce us to the Christmas story, as the radical arrival of the Messiah, Jesus.
"I have to get to this meeting. I have to make sure I can post this. I have to make sure I have time for my family, friends, and myself." Our culture is constantly moving us into a space that is marked by hurry, and it is stretching us thin and wearing us out. In order to thrive in the midst of the 21st century, we need to adopt the lifestyle and pace of our God and Rabbi, Jesus. Listen as Pastor Darren walks us through practical steps in living an unhurried life.
John Rinehart joins us in his second message at Garden Church on the practicals of generosity. In order to live a life that is rooted in the generous God of the Bible, we need to make drastic shifts in our day to day. We do not want to be people marked by how much we earn, but by how much we give. Join us in learning practical ways to implement a generous lifestyle.
Because YAHWEH is so generous and loving, his people should be just as generous and loving. God has been so good since the beginning of creation, the redemption of His people, and the continual outpouring of His Spirit. Once we truly understand this about God, we can then live out a radically different life marked by generosity. Listen as our guest speaker, John Rinehart, walks us through the 'Theology of Generosity'.
In order to be a redemptive presence in today's world, followers of Jesus have to go deeper. It takes more than just being with Jesus and becoming like him, we are also called to do the things that Jesus did. We are a living and breathing representation of Jesus' ministry in the 21st century America, meaning we are to be continuing his ministry here and now. Join us as Pastor Darren lays out this final overview of our Practicing the Way of Jesus series.
A product of being with Jesus, is becoming like Jesus. Pastor Darren describes how we need to reshape the environments that we are in to make sure the product is Christ-likeness. Listen with us as we continue to radically reshape our lives in order to take part in Jesus' upside-down kingdom.
During a power outage Pastor Darren did an impromptu sermon all around the Hebrew word Selah. We constantly need holy pauses to reflect and contemplate how God is working in us, where is God taking us, and who is God forming us to be? Listen as we refocus Garden Church through this Selah.
During a power outage Pastor Darren did an impromptu sermon all around the Hebrew word Selah. We constantly need holy pauses to reflect and contemplate how God is working in us, where is God taking us, and who is God forming us to be? Listen as we refocus Garden Church through this Selah.
Pastor Darren begins our series Practicing the Way of Jesus as we look to the first principle of discipleship, to be with Jesus. Currently, we are constantly pulled in multiple directions every day, work, family, friends, the gym, and Netflix. When can we have time to be with Jesus? In order to live the life that Jesus calls us into, we also need to adopt the lifestyle of Jesus. This means a radical reshaping of how we spend our time, primarily how we spend time with God.
Discipleship to Jesus is more than just attending a Sunday service. True Discipleship is marked by accepting the call to be with Jesus, to be like Jesus, and to do what Jesus did. Pastor John Mark Comer of Bridgetown Church in Portland, Oregon helps us end our "Garden Church" series as we transition into a year-long series entitled "Practicing the Way of Jesus."
Our current age is plagued by the lie that "material things will make you happy, and the more you have will only make you even happier." This idea is completely foreign to Jesus and should be alien to his followers. Pastor Darren walks us through the value of Simplicity as a way of life that should be prevailing in our church, a life marked my simple living so that we may live abundantly generous lives that reign in Heaven on Earth.
What is God's primary way of moving forward the Kingdom? Generosity. God is a generous God that models giving wholeheartedly. Pastor Darren continues our value series, Garden Church, with the introduction of our fifth value - A life committed to extravagant generosity. Join us as we walk through this value together in order to bring God's generous love in our every day lives.
We as Garden Church want to live a life moved by compassion. Pastor Bill helps us wrestle with the difficulty of living a compassionate lifestyle in our modern age. Where the world, culture, friends, and even family are so inward focused, how can we possibly begin to take a step for those who are "others" to us? Listen and learn how we can invite those who are "other" to us, into the present Trinitarian reality that we are all invited into.
In Romans 12:1-2, Paul urges the church to offer their lives as living sacrifices to God, which is pleasing to God. However, in order to live a life pleasing to God, it needs to be filled with God and dedicated to God. This can only happen when the Holy Spirit invades our lives, our everyday and normal lives. Our guest, Alan Scott, guides us in our third value "being empowered by the Holy Spirit," and shows us how God can break out of the holy and extraordinary and break into the plain and munda...
In Romans 12:1-2, Paul urges the church to offer their lives as living sacrifices to God, which is pleasing to God. However, in order to live a life pleasing to God, it needs to be filled with God and dedicated to God. This can only happen when the Holy Spirit invades our lives, our everyday and normal lives. Our guest, Alan Scott, guides us in our third value "being empowered by the Holy Spirit," and shows us how God can break out of the holy and extraordinary and break into the plain and munda...
