Posts from June 2019
What Is the Worth of Our Religion?
It is hard to read the book of James and not feel deep conviction over the ways we fall short of God’s glory. Even James himself said that we all stumble in many ways (James 3:2), and this truth really comes into focus when we read his letter. I often joke that if James was alive today and simply read his letter during the sermon time, many churches would accuse him of not being Gospel-centered enough. How does this imperative-driven…
Rescue, Fulfillment, and Freedom
The Old Testament can be intimidating. Unpronounceable names. Long lists of places. Hundreds of laws. Sometimes confusing stories. Prophets. Priests. Kings. An angry God? In the history of the Church, some wanted to throw out the Old Testament because it didn’t seem to depict the same loving God of the Gospels and the rest of the New Testament. Do we treat the Old Testament, at least functionally, the same way? How can we understand it? Where do we even begin?…
Vacation Bible School and Childhood Wonder
Vacation Bible School at CGS hits me with fresh joy and grace every year. I wasn’t raised in the church, but I did have some experience in one–the church where I attended VBS nearly every summer of my childhood. I recall with clarity the skits, songs (some of which I can still sing), crafts, and snacks. I remember being intrigued by the teenage volunteers’ vibrant faith, how they spoke of Jesus in ways that seemed so personal and endearing. While…
Updates from the Community Formation Team
The Community Formation Team (CFT) exists to equip CGS to form healthy, gospel-rooted, redemptive relationships that flow into a beautiful, loving culture where we invite our friends and neighbors into our family. The CFT meets about once a month and oversees the Community Group ministry, the Party Planning Committee, the Young Adult Community, the College ministry, the Welcome Team, and the newly-implemented Neighborhood model for pastoral care. We spent this month focused on the Community Group ministry. By adopting us…
Updates from the Mission Formation Team
The Mission Formation Team (MFT) exists to guide the congregation in our missions involvement, both domestically and overseas. We desire to connect our members with opportunities for outreach in many places outside of our church campus, including Durham, Chapel Hill, and overseas. On June 3, we met to frame a new missions policy that combines the existing global and local policies into one single unit. We spent most of our meeting time dreaming about vision points that can grow out…
Updates from the Session
The Session met on June 3, and opened their meeting with prayer. Chuck taught out of 1 Peter 1:22-2:3 and shared some reflections on what it might look like to become more distinctly a community of love. The only business conducted was to pass the 2019 – 2020 fiscal year budget that the congregation supported. After closing, they split up into formation teams to meet and work the rest of the evening. They will meet again on July 1. If…
Gathered and Shared
Every so often, we’ll share what we’ve been reading. Even if we may not agree with it all, we’re passing it along to stoke conversations about faith, love, and hope. The Ground of Hospitality by Norman Wirzba “I spend less time playing in the dirt than when I was a kid, but I still ponder the origins of my food whenever I eat. Wirzba not only provides a powerful metaphor for hospitality in the soil and in gardening; he also…
Book Recommendation: The Imperfect Disciple
“My heart,” writes Jared Wilson in The Imperfect Disciple, “is a haunted house – broken, ramshackle, weathered and boarded-up and filled with the mournful sound of the Hound of Heaven howling through the slats” (p. 22). Wilson wanted to write a book on discipleship that didn’t cast its readers into a spiral of guilt and frustration, and so, along with stories of his own failures and struggles, he welcomes us to explore “grace for people who can’t get their act…