North Suburban Vision Series - Christ-centered Community: Sunday, January 19, 2014 - A committed, nurturing community

We are in a series focusing on North Suburban's Vision Statement which exclaims:

"As a living body of Jesus Christ, our vision at North Suburban Mennonite Church is to be a Christ-centered community, embodying Christ-like compassion, living with Christ-led courage"


Our focus on Christ-centered community is expanded in the following statement:

Being Community

To be a Christ-centered community, we will be a committed, nurturing Anabaptist community, which celebrates our unity in Christ in the midst of the diversity of God's family. We will support each other in our spiritual, human and material needs. We will challenge each other to faithful living. We will maintain open communication with each other in a spirit of love and respect. We will commit to spiritual discipline to further our relationship with God.

The message of this Sunday focuses on a promise that we make to one another, namely that we are "a committed, nurturing community."  In exploring Acts 2: 42-47 and Acts 4: 32-35 as a basis for understanding our promise to each other, we discover that such commitment to be nurturing does not derive out of our own desire, but grows out of our worship of God, our extending hospitality, our being generous, and living lives of witness.  

Link to Message: Being a committed, nurturing community

North Suburban Vision Series - Christ-Centered Community: January 12, 2014 - A community centered in Jesus Christ

We begin a new series in 2014 focusing on North Suburban's Vision Statement which exclaims:

"As a living body of Jesus Christ, our vision at North Suburban Mennonite Church is to be a Christ-centered community, embodying Christ-like compassion, living with Christ-led courage"


Our focus on Christ-centered community is expanded in the following statement:

Being Community

To be a Christ-centered community, we will be a committed, nurturing Anabaptist community, which celebrates our unity in Christ in the midst of the diversity of God's family. We will support each other in our spiritual, human and material needs. We will challenge each other to faithful living. We will maintain open communication with each other in a spirit of love and respect. We will commit to spiritual discipline to further our relationship with God.

The message from this Sunday focuses on exploring that we are not merely centered in the ways of Jesus, but in fact are in relationship with Christ Jesus, and centered in the One who is the Living Lord.  And in being centered in him we are a life-giving community in the world identifying with Jesus in such a way that we are human in the world the way he was human.

Link to Message: Being Community: Being a community centered in Jesus Christ

Advent 2: Sunday, December 8, 2014 Overflowing in Hope! O, the mystery of God's dwelling in our relationships

On the second Sunday of Advent we continue focusing upon God's coming to dwell amongst us.

In God’s mysterious ways, death blossoms into new and abundant life, the dissonance of violence resolves into the harmony of God’s created order, and the presence of enemies becomes an opportunity to restore relationship rather than to take up arms. So let us seek harmony that we may abide in the house of the Lord—there is peace!

In God's presence we are filled to capacity, no filled to overflowing with hope.  May we express the hope of Christ Jesus in all our relationships.

Message link:  Overflowing in Hope! O, the mystery of God's dwelling in our relationships

Advent 1: Sunday, December 1, 2013 Open House! O, the mystery of God's dwelling in our present

During this Advent season our focus is God's coming to be with us.

In God’s mysterious ways, the weapons that diminish us are turned into the tools that sustain us, the assurance of God’s continuing presence is both sudden and expected, and ordinary living resounds with extraordinary implications. Let us wake to the establishment of the house of the Lord—there is hope!

What we discover on this first Sunday of Advent is that God's House is an Open House - open to all whom God invites.  And since God has invited all who are invited, may we welcome those whom God is calling.

Messsage link:  Open House! O, the mystery of God's dwelling in our present.

November 24, 2013 “I myself will gather my people”: “Christ is before all things and in him all things hold together”

This is our last Sunday in the series of Hearing from the Prophets.  And on this last Sunday the warning is directed at the "shepherds of God's people."

Often as pastors, we think ministry hinges on our leadership, our competency - and because we do believe this, this warning is appropriate for us.

Actually, the One who leads is the Lord for God is the One who gathers God's people.  And we are gathered together as the body of Christ - being held together by Christ.

Christ being before us and being held together by him is how we are called to live in this world - to be led by the Spirit, rather than being led by we who are pastors who think more highly of ourselves than we ought.

Link to message:  "I myself will gather my people"

November 17, 2013 Promise of Healing - Promise of Life: Revering God's Name

Many of us reading the prophets hear words of judgment, words of the destruction of the wicked.  But who are the wicked?  Maybe not as many as we think.  In the midst of the prophet Malachi talking about the destruction of the wicked we hear God promising life to all who revere his name.

What does that mean in light of the meaning of God's name?  If God's name bears striking resemblance to the Hebrew verb for "being," for "life" could God be saying - all who revere who I am and what I am are filled with life?

Something to consider . . .

Link to message:  Promise of Healing - Promise of Life: Revering God's Name

October 20, 2013 Living Within Culture: The Word of God Written on our Hearts

There are so many different things written on our hearts - in fact the cultures in which we live often shape what is written on our hearts.  But we are a people who are called to live within culture, live within the world exhibiting a life-giving reality among the many life-inhibiting realities all around us.

As God's people we come living in the presence of the Spirit because we have a different reality written on our hearts - the Word of God in its many manifestations - God's Word, the embodied Word of Jesus, the written word of Scripture and the declared word of proclamation in the power of the Spirit.  We participate with God in God's transforming mission in the world as we live in light of the Word of God written on our hearts and minds.

Link to message:  Living Within Culture: The Word of God Written on our Hearts