What makes you tick? What gets you out of bed? What leads you to speak, work, pray…
On the Second Sunday of Advent, churches around the world will celebrate and reflect on "peace." What is it? Where does it come from? How do we cultivate it? At a time when peace feels so elusive in so many places, we invite you to gather this Sunday to consider the power of imagination in our efforts to build peace - in our lives, in our country, in our world. Come reflect on God's word, connect with God's people, and be renewed in God's peace-filled presence.
All around us, we've been getting messages about how it's Christmas time and present-buying time and planning time. We're supposed to rush and hustle and go. But...not only is this the first day of December, it is also the first day of Advent - a season that tells us not to rush but, rather, to wait. Join us this Sunday for beautiful music, beloved community, and a reminder of the power to be found in the holy and counter-cultural work of waiting in hope.
"Why would you go to church a time like this?" It's a good, if challenging, question, because it forces us to reflect on what, in especially trying times, we go to church for. Is it inspiration? Is it hope? Is it, even, just habit? This Sunday we explore what it means to "worship God with curiosity and creativity" (First Congo's 4th Pillar), and how our worship can train us to step into an unknowable, uncertain, and unpredictable future.
In a world that likes to put people in boxes, even the church has put people in boxes. The LGBTQIA + community is one people group that has been put into a box by society, culture, and the church. Our brothers and sisters in the LGBTQIA+ community are crying out for a place to grow spiritually, to have a place that loves them, supports them, and fights with them when needed. The LGBTQIA+ spiritual seekers are working to break the box that churches have put them in. They are working to break the boundaries that separate the church and the community. This week I will be speaking how 1st Congo has broken through this box, pushed through these boundaries, and the work that is still left to be done. Join is for a special box breaking and boundary moving service. Sermon originally preached by First Congo's Pastoral Intern, Robert Morgan Pearson, on November 17, 2024.
It's been an emotionally intense week. So many of us are in search of answers, desperate to make sense of how we got here. This Sunday, we come together to consider how we might find not only sense but also meaning in this season - as a community of folks who seek to make wide space for the power and love called God. Join us as we look at a passage from the Gospels and consider how the Jesus movement calls us to enact justice amidst incredible challenges.
This Sunday we look at First Congo's origin story and the uniquely "strange" name it first had. We'll consider what this community's forbears had in common with the First Congo of today - from their sense of identity to the tense circumstances that were shaping the U.S. in their era, too. Join us as we consider how time, empathy, and mission connect us - with each other, with the people who founded First Congo, and, even, with the very first followers of Jesus.
Many of us feel overwhelmed right now. Be it politics or personal issues, be it environmental collapse or everyday efforts to just get by, many of us are feeling tired out at best and, at worst, terrified. In times like these, what can we do to find hope, purpose, and meaning? When we don't have a map or even model to lead us, what can we turn to? Join us as we take up these very questions and consider how a passage in Genesis might help us move through crisis.
So much of the New Testament is devoted to helping people learn how to make community. As a radically diverse movement that drew in laborers and tax collectors and enslaved folks and outcasts, Jesus and his earliest followers challenged themselves to figure out how differing people with differing needs could find space in one beloved group. Join us this third Sunday in the Season of Giving as we consider three words that start with C: three words that can help us make real, lasting relationships with others.
Hope can feel in short supply these days. Watching or reading the news means risking a reminder of just how fragile things seem. When hope's hard to feel, what is there to do? Join us this first Sunday in the Season of Giving as we consider how to anchor in hope as we navigate the challenges of our moment.
Muley & Friends preached a fun, important message about environmental care for our "Everybody, Every Age" Sunday! This was a special worship service designed with the youngest members of our community in mind from start to finish. The audio of their final song sadly cuts in and out on our recording, but the sermon offers a valuable lesson for kiddos and grown-ups alike as we close out our Season of Creation. Enjoy!!
Scripture Reading by Izzy Seigel
Muley the Mule assisted by Kevin Williams
Buford the Dog assisted by Martheus Wade
Missy Mule assisted by Janet Wade
Roy Duck assisted by DaMarco Randle
Human, voter, consumer, individual, warrior...clay? Even before we get to the question of "who" we are, messages all around try to tell us "what" we are. This Fourth Sunday in our Season of Creation, we look at the importance of place in our journey to understanding our own potential, considering how "where" fundamentally shapes "what." Let's come together to reflect, connect, and inject some more depth into our lives.
From climate change to political strife to personal challenges - for every problem, there are countless proposed solutions and celebrated remedies. This Third Sunday in our Season of Creation, we look at the very first step in making change, no matter the scale or the issue. Come reflect, connect, and inject some joyful depth into the start of your week!
These days love can feel like a played-out platitude. Friendliness isn't so much a serious topic of discussion as it is an idea reserved for elementary school lessons. However, what if love and friendliness are not just nice ideas but, in fact, critical elements of our evolutionary survival. Join us this pet blessing Sunday as we meditate together on Jesus's command to love each other and how it might be a key to preserving our future.
What's required to have a dream - not only the kind we have in our sleep but, more importantly, the kind that guides us when we're awake? This Sunday we look at the Book of Daniel and consider how he went from interpreting his captors' dreams to being bold enough to have his own.
Approval - the desire for it or the rejection of it - can drive so much of how we act in the world. We try our hardest to be liked by folks we care about, or, we dress and talk and act the part of the rebel, or, we do something in between. What's it mean (and feel like) to be truly comfortable in our own skin, though? And, also, what might an invisible God have to do with that journey?
Being in relationship can be hard - whether we’re talking about a friendship, a romance, a family, a church, or a whole country! Part of what makes relationships hard is, also, what makes relationships beautiful: we’re different. We have different approaches and personalities, different perspectives and skills, different hang-ups and sets of baggage. This Sunday, we look at one of the squabbles that ancient Christians got caught up in, and we’ll look at some ancient wisdom about how to make relationships work.
What might a big ol’ billboard and Psalm 42 have to teach us about faith? That’s what we’ll be reflecting on this Sunday as we consider what it means to worship a “living God” in a world that venerates shallowness and encourages us to settle for less.
At a time when so many people treat Christian beliefs like bludgeons - tools meant to hammer a particular set of values into laws and public policy - it can be easy to lose faith. Join us this Sunday as we consider how the Christian tradition doesn't only teach us what to believe - it teaches us transformative, life-giving and life-sustaining ways to behave.
Rev. Dr. Mary Lin Hudson guest preaches!
On this Sunday after July 4th, we come together to reflect on why memory (personal, collective, national) deeply matters - how it shapes our present and how it forms our future. Looking at Jesus's teachings about taxes, empire, and belonging, we'll consider how intentionally remembering certain sacred truths might help us navigate our tense and challenging times.
The teachings of Jesus changed things - a lot of things in his day, everything from ideas about religious righteousness to the practices of religion itself. However, it is important to remember that his teachings didn't just spring from no where. On the contrary, his changes were actually deeply connected to what he believed were the roots of his religion. Join us to consider the importance of being rooted in the midst of changing circumstances and changing needs.
Our society is segmenting into deeply entrenched silos. As meeting and mingling spaces decline (everything from bookstores to bowling alleys to churches), we're turning inward, stuck in echo chambers that just confirm what we already think or feel. And...it's making us lonely, scared, and angry. This Sunday we look at two ancient Christian concepts and explore how they might offer us both a sharp diagnosis and a profound remedy for this time.
"Oh...stop all that crying and look on the bright side!" we might have heard. "Are you really laughing at a time like this?" somebody else might have asked us before. We don't always think about it, but there are so many moments in life in which we're told what to feel, particularly when we're encountering the reality of change. Join us as we consider how "holy chaos," rather than emotional simplicity, might be critical for spiritual health--ours, our country's, and our world's.
Making change is hard work. Whether it's personal transformation or a societal shift, one of the very first steps necessary for making real, deep change is a direct encounter with the truth. But...how do we do that? How do we even get to the truth, particularly at time like this? Join us as we explore the wisdom embedded in an early morning, lake-side conversation from the Gospel of John.
Much of our culture divides the world into opposites - true/false, holy/evil, good/bad, us/them. Then, we're pushed into picking the "right" side, the "right" group, the "right" identity. Jesus's time was no different. This Sunday we look at the story of a stranger asking Jesus to stretch beyond his opposites and reach a deeper understanding of who he is and whom he's for. Join us to consider the critical importance of steadily going deeper in our journeys to and with God.