Role Reversal

This Sunday, we continue with week 3 of our Jonah series. Jonah finally obeys God, but only just — he delivers a five-word warning and immediately turns to leave Nineveh. Somehow that half-hearted sermon works: the entire city repents, and the king orders sackcloth and fasting for people and livestock alike.

God's mercy clearly doesn't depend on how enthusiastically Jonah shows up, which raises an uncomfortable question for the rest of us. How often does grace work despite us, rather than because of anything we did right?

Come reflect with us, Sunday at 8:30, 11:00, or 11:15 am. See you there!

Last week, Jonah's story took a turn — swallowed whole after asking to be thrown overboard. This week, from inside the fish, he prays a psalm of thanksgiving instead of the death he asked for. He remembers God in the depths and rejects the idols around him (Jonah 2:6-9). The fish spits him out, and God asks him to do the one thing he already refused. Join us Sunday for a new take on an old story.

Our new sermon series opens with a challenge: do you really know the stories you THINK you know? The story we are "diving" into is the story of Jonah and the Big Fish.

Jonah runs the moment God calls him. God tells him to preach repentance in Nineveh, the capital of Israel's fiercest enemy, and Jonah bolts for a ship heading the opposite direction. A storm nearly sinks the whole crew, and desperate sailors cast lots to find the cause — landing squarely on Jonah. Jonah asks the sailors to throw him overboard, expecting death, and a great fish swallows him instead. But that's not the end of the story...

Leading courageously rarely feels comfortable, and it often stretches us right at the edges of what feels safe. 🕊️ This Sunday we close our series with Peter, who once followed quietly but now stands before the believers to defend a vision that upended long-held Jewish tradition: that the Gospel of Jesus Christ was for the Gentiles too, with no distinction.

It's a reminder that God is still in the business of pushing us past our comfort zones and into deeper, bolder leadership. We'll share some of our own stories of being nudged toward that kind of courage.

Join us Aug 30 at 8:30, 11:00, or 11:15 am as we close out Lead Courageously, week five, and the finale of our journey through Love Boldly, Serve Joyfully, Lead Courageously.

Before we can serve like Jesus, we have to notice the servants already around us. 🙏 The clearest picture most of us have of service comes from something as simple as a server at a restaurant, and starting there can help us understand what it means to embrace our own role of service in God's Kingdom, as Kingdom greatness looks less like being served and more like serving others.

Some people talk about the church like it's a business, but the two couldn't be more different. 💛 Where business culture often runs on transactions and self-interest, the Church is meant to be grounded fully in love: love of God, love of neighbor, and love of self.

This Sunday, we open 1 Corinthians 13, the passage that reminds us what love is and, just as importantly, what it isn't. Bold love means caring for people others have called unlovable. It means giving someone the gift of your time and presence. And it means speaking up when you see people pushed to the fringes.

Join us Aug 16 at 8:30, 11:00, and 11:15 am, as we kick off Love Boldly, week three of our journey through the new United Methodist Church's Vision statement.