Eastertide 2017 teaching series
Hunger + Thirst
Our teaching series for Lent 2017 is Hunger and Thirst: Fasting from the World, Feasting on God. We believe Lent is about cultivating new taste buds, fasting for the sake of hungering for God. Learn more about Lent at TGC Williamsburg here.
Epiphany is the revelation of Jesus Christ on earth. We will celebrate Epiphany as a church by recognizing the range of Christ’s life and what happens when one encounters this "God in the flesh." This teaching series explores the mechanics or salvation, giving language to the spiritual transformation happening in the lives of many of our parishioners.
Salvation Appears
All-Parish Gathering
Two times a year we step outside of our normal rhythm of meeting in our individual neighborhood gatherings to celebrate as one family of believers at our All-Parish Gathering.
Origins
For the first three weeks of the year together we are journeying back to the origins of the church, remembering what Jesus taught about abiding, generosity, and community.
Advent takes us back and brings us forward. In preparing us to celebrate Christ’s first coming, it places us alongside the ancient prophets, who awaited with aching intensity the fulfilled promise of a messiah, and Joseph and Mary, whose pregnancy made the expectation all the more palpable; it also strengthens our longing for Christ’s second coming, when he will return to fully and finally establish his kingdom on earth. Thus, Advent is a season of waiting and rejoicing.
It is an intentional season waiting, identifying with the longing of previous generations, stirring our own hope. It is also a season of rejoicing, celebrating the revelation of Jesus reconciling us to God. The birth of Jesus was announced by a host of angels making the declaration, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.” During Advent particularly, we join that declaration.
Advent 2016
Every religion does not have relationship, but every relationship has a religion, meaning practices and actions enabling the flourishing of that relationship. James is a letter written for practical instruction on following Christ, summed up in the phrase “pure religion.” This teaching series is a five week reflection on the themes highlighted in James 1.
Pure Religion
All-Parish Gathering
Ephesians 3 calls the church, “the manifold wisdom of God made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms,” but the very few people, inside or outside of the modern church, would describe their experience in those terms. In modern culture, the church has lost its intrinsic value. This teaching series is about regaining Jesus’ vision for the church. He asked his disciples, “Who do you say I am?” when Peter first identified him as the Messiah. We, as the church, are asking that question of Jesus, “Who do you say we are?” Each sermon in this series explores one of the primary biblical metaphors used to identify the church.
Who Do You Say I Am?
This teaching series takes a look at accounts of great spiritual awaking in the Scriptures—Revivals led by Elijah, Jacob, Asa, and many others. These revivals serve as clear examples of what God can, and even longs, to do in our time and place.
Revive Us Again
Due to technical difficulties, the sermons from August 7, August 21, and September 4 were not able to be recorded.
“The Way of Love” is a teaching series focused on knowing, understanding, and loving one another well through life stages - Marriage, Singleness, Friendship, and Parenting. After a seven week series focuses on the presence and power of God through the gift of the Holy Spirit, we turn our focus to relationship because, as the Apostle Paul points out, "If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
The Way of Love
On the Day of Pentecost, Jesus’ followers received the gift of his indwelling presence in the Holy Spirit. 2 Corinthians 3 explores the implications of that gift in the life of the believer, helping us understand and live a life empowered by the very presence of God.
The Spirit Gives Life
Most of us believe that Easter is a one day event, but the book of Acts states that between Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, “He appeared to them over a period of 40 days and spoke about the Kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3). During his ministry, Jesus spoke about the Kingdom of God through Parables: Stories that gave earthly pictures to heavenly realities. For 40 days, as a church we will explore Jesus’ parables, allowing them to shape our vision of His Kingdom.
In Your Midst
Easter
Matthew 23 records some of the hardest truth spoken by Jesus, which was directed at the Pharisees. We spend the season of Lent exploring the idea that it is not only those outside the confines of religious practice who are in need of “converting.” Often, it is those inside the walls of the church, but who have lost the heart of the story, that Jesus is calling into His Kingdom.
Converting the Church
A message from Jon Tyson
All-Parish Gathering
Jesus "manifests" something truly profound about the nature of God. In the words of the apostle John: God is love. But what does this love look like? During Epiphany we are challenged to look at how God's love crosses borders to reach every single one of us.
Love Beyond Borders
Jesus's first followers were often baffled at how he operated because in many ways it was different than their expectation for the Messiah. We face a similar reality when we simply think of Jesus as improving our lives in the ways we would choose and not confronting us with the true reality of Himself and His Kingdom to invite us in to something more than we would ask or imagine on our own. This series explores how radically different the hope that Jesus offers us if from the alternatives in the world, how it is an invitation to root ourselves in a coming Kingdom that will outlast all other Kingdoms. It is a meditation on how Jesus has become our peace not by conquering Rome through might, but by absorbing the world's sin and violence, offering anothre way that would crack the empire's hold over time. We look at the surprising means that God has used to offer us his joy in the middle of scandal and outside on the margins of our world, a joy beyond circumstantial happiness. And lastly, how the love of God is expressed so fully in the coming of Jesus, but not in a way that is ours to control or commodify, but that confronts, pulls us in, and changes us.
Come Thou Unexpected Jesus - Advent
Developing a framework for how to live as friends of the world where the dominant narratives and most celebrated values are not our own.
A Creative Minority
A message from Jon Tyson on Hebrews 5:11-6:12.