We serve a God that is “beyond our understanding”, so in order for us to know Him more, He presents us with stories and metaphors to help us understand Him. Frames is a series that will explore these different pictures that God gives us of Himself, and how we should live in light of them. Potter and clay, shepherd and sheep, father and children, and others will be discussed as we seek to deepen our walk with our brilliant God.

Have you ever noticed how easy it is to share your faith on missions trips or how bold you are for God on retreats or at church? What happens when you get back to your job on Monday morning? Why is it so difficult to share your faith at your workplace?

The marketplace in Greco-Roman cultures was referred to as the Agora. It was where goods were bought and sold, conversations were had, and relationships were deepened. Phobia refers to an illogical fear or dread of something. Agoraphobia is a real disorder that refers to someone that has a crippling fear of public places. A “safe place” is run to when anxiety overwhelms agoraphobics.

Agoraphobia is a series that deals with our fear of being a Christian in the marketplace, with the church as the “safe place” that many run to when frightened by our calling to be marketplace ministers. We will walk through topics such as workplace evangelism, the great commission, faith in context, calling, and much more as we seek to empower each other to further the Kingdom of God through the marketplace.

In Hebrews chapter 11, the writer lists many Old Testament people that are commonly referred to as “Heroes of the Faith”. Part of the explanation offered as to how these ordinary people were able to do extraordinary and even supernatural things was that they considered themselves “aliens and strangers – they were longing for a better country, a heavenly one.” Their unbelievable faith and courage was grounded in the fact that they saw themselves as strangers on earth with their true citizenship in heaven. Strangers.

Also, many of the stories that are told about these strangers haven’t been heard since we were little kids and they were shown to us on those Flannel Graph boards. So in a very practical sense, Noah and others are Strangers to us because we haven’t heard their stories in many years.

When Jesus began his earthly ministry, he sought to have disciples to teach and train to carry on his work when he left. Entrusted with the enormous responsibility of spreading the message of the Gospel to the ends of the earth, the TWELVE (XII) disciples proved to be men chosen by God and ready for the task.

XII is an in-depth look at each disciple, his background, his relationship with Jesus, his expectations of the Messiah, and his eventual martyrdom. We pray that your knowledge of these men will be deepened and challenged, and in turn your own desire to be a true disciple of Jesus would become a consuming passion.

Words have a lot of power in our world, but over time the meanings of our words can change because of culture, context, etc… This is not only true in language, but it is especially true in the church. The (re)definition series is an attempt to look at words that have deep and profound meaning for followers of Jesus today, and to reveal the difference between the original ancient meaning and our current understanding. Hear words like Christian, Worship, Baptism, Evangelism, Missions, Church, Creativity, Culture, and Commitment redefined for a new generation.

We are all intrigued by innovation in our world. The newest product, method, or piece of art that brings the most cutting edge innovation truly capture the imagination of our culture. Imitation on the other hand, is seen as an attempt to be someone or something else inferior to the original. There couldn’t be two more opposite words, one is considered genius and new, whereas the other is considered to be a knock-off and cheap.

However, there was a man named Jesus who lived over 2000 years ago that lived, taught, and spoke of a new way of life that was so innovative and counter cultural that it literally changed the world. We call people that truly follow Jesus, Christians, which is a term that literally means “little Christ”. To grow in our commitment and passion to follow Jesus by becoming more like him is the goal of discipleship, therefore we consider it our highest goal to “imitate” Jesus.

The amazing thing is that when we Imitate Jesus in our world and culture, it is truly Innovative. So this series, “Innovation by Imitation” is made up of different actions and attitudes that we can do to imitate the most innovative person in the history of civilization. We’ll look at The Heart, Sabbath, Politics, Money, Prayer, Humility, Feasting, Peace, and Solitude. We pray that these thoughts would help you on this journey of discipleship.

These are messages from Lighthouse that are not a part of any major series, they literally stand alone. Oftentimes, they are stories from leaders within the Lighthouse Collective or messages delivered by Guest Speakers.