Jesus-Centered Family on Mission

What do you think of when you hear the word church? 

A building?
A weekly habit?
A place to celebrate Easter and Christmas?

What if we told you that the church is supposed to be nothing less than God's plan to change the world? For 11 years, we have strived to be a Jesus-centered family living on mission with God in our city of Columbia. We believe we're called to be a city on a hill. A community of transformed lives that testify to the power and promises of God Himself. Join us as we study Romans 12 to recapture a picture of God's vision for His people: a Jesus-centered family on mission.

STUDY GUIDES & KIDTOWN HOMELINKS

To help facilitate LifeGroup discussion we'll be posting resources for each week of the series. Homelinks are a tool used to connect parents and their children by helping them review what's being taught on Sundays, we'll be posting one for each week of the series. 

Week 1: Transformation (Study Guides) (Homelink)

Week 2: Belong like parts of a body.  (Study Guide) (Homelink)

Week 3: Participate like parts of a body. (Study Guide) (Homelink)

Week 4: What genuine love looks like. (Study Guide) (Homelink)

Week 5: Winsomely weird. (Study Guide) (Homelink)

Week 6: Overcoming evil. (Study Guide) (Homelink)

You Are Here

We are constantly being preached to. Everywhere we look, we are being told what’s true
about who we are and how the world works:

“You need to find yourself.”
“Do whatever makes you happy.”
“Follow your heart.”
“If you do good things, good things will happen to you.”
“Everyone has to decide for themselves what is right and wrong.”
“Eliminate negative people from your life.”
“One day you will find the one.”
“You only live once.”

But have we ever stopped to ask ourselves if these common cultural phrases actually make
sense? Join us on an eight-week study as we examine why these phrases may not be as
helpful as we think.

STUDY GUIDES & KIDTOWN HOMELINKS

To help facilitate LifeGroup discussion we'll be posting resources for each week of the series. Homelinks are a tool used to connect parents and their children by helping them review what's being taught on Sundays, we'll be posting one for each week of the series. 

Week 1: "You need to find yourself." (Study Guide) (Homelink)

Week 2: "Do whatever makes you happy." (Study Guide) (Homelink)

Week 3: "Follow your heart." (Study Guide) (Leader Guide) (Homelink)

Week 4: "Everyone has to decide for themselves what is right and wrong." (Study Guide) (Homelink)

Week 5: "If you do good things, good things will happen to you." (Study Guide) (Homelink)

Week 6: "Eliminate negative people from your life." (Study Guide) (Homelink)

Week 7: "One day you'll find 'the one'." (Study Guide) (Homelink)

Week 8: "You only live once." (Study Guide) (Homelink)

Stand-Alone 2017 | State of the Church

Sermon by Brandon Clements on August 6, 2017.

Proverbs

The book of Proverbs is a collection of wisdom one-liners, with the goal of repetitively hammering on foundational truths for how to live a well-lived life. We’ll spend the last two months of the summer diving into selected proverbs that teach us how to live winsomely and wisely with God, with others, at work, at home, and throughout everyday life.

STUDY GUIDES & KIDTOWN HOMELINKS

To help facilitate LifeGroup discussion we'll be posting resources for each week of the series. Homelinks are a tool used to connect parents and their children by helping them review what's being taught on Sundays, we'll be posting one for each week of the series. 

Week 1: Invitation to Wisdom (Study Guide) (Homelink)

Week 2: The Pathway to Wisdom (Homelink)

Week 3: Wisdom and Words (Study Guide) (Homelink)

Week 4: Wisdom and Community (Study Guide) (Homelink)

Week 5: Wisdom and Decision Making (Study Guide) (Homelink)

Week 6: Wisdom and Sloth (Study Guide) (Homelink)

Week 7: Wisdom and Wealth  (Study Guide) (Homelink)

Week 8: Wisdom and Sex (Study Guide) (Homelink)

Week 9: Wisdom and Pride (Study Guide) (Homelink) 

Home

Starting on April 23, all three of our churches will start a series called Home. Home is a six week series looking at God’s intentions for using our homes and families as tools for the advancement of His Kingdom. Our goal is to help our church family understand how God repurposes our homes, families, and relationships to help reconcile people back to himself. Join us for our new sermon series, "Home".

STUDY GUIDES & KIDTOWN HOMELINKS

To help facilitate LifeGroup discussion we'll be posting resources for each week of the series. Homelinks are a tool used to connect parents and their children by helping them review what's being taught on Sundays, we'll be posting one for each week of the series. 

Week 1: Theology of Home (Study Guide) (Homelink)

Week 2: Togetherness (Study Guide) (Homelink)

Week 3: The Home in the Hands of a Loving God  (Study Guide) (Homelink)

Week 4: Dads, Moms, Arrows in the Quiver (Study Guide) (Homelink)

Week 5: Brought Up in the Instruction of the Lord (Study Guide) (Homelink)

Week 6: Bloom Where You're Planted (Study Guide) (Homelink)

Crisis of Faith

Have you ever found yourself doubting Jesus? Do you end up wrestling with tough questions that leave you confused about what you believe? Starting on March 5, all three of our churches will take 6 weeks to look at pivotal moments where people were faced with the same types of questions after interacting with Jesus. Our goal is to help people address the issues that consciously and subconsciously keep them from following Jesus. If you've ever experienced moments like this, you're not alone. Join us for our new sermon series, "Crisis of Faith."

Study Guides

To help facilitate LifeGroup discussion we'll be posting resources for each week of the series. Homelinks are a tool used to connect parents and their children by helping them review what's being taught on Sundays, we'll be posting one for each week of the series. 

Week 1: Isn't Faith Irrational? (Study Guide) (Homelink)

Week 2: Why Isn't My Life Turning Out How I Hoped? (Study Guide) (Homelink)

Week 3: How Could God Love Someone Like Me? (Study Guide) (Homelink)

Week 4: What's It Gonna Cost Me? (Study Guide) (Homelink)

Week 5: Why Did God Let This Happen? (Study Guide) (Homelink)

Week 6: I'm A Good Person, Why Do I Need To Be Saved? (Study Guide) (Homelink)

Stand-Alone 2017 | Psalm 23

Sermon by Michael Bailey on February 26, 2017.

Precious In His Sight

We are a society where race often has a profound effect on life experiences, life opportunities, and social relationships. Segregation ended a long time ago, but even to this day practical separation between black Americans and white Americans often still exists. Somehow we often end up living in different neighborhoods, attending different schools, watching different TV shows, listening to different music and even joining different churches. Racial separation, tension, and misunderstanding have anything but vanished, as many recent controversial events prove.

The truth is, the current racial issues in America didn’t come out of nowhere. There is a history. A story. However, the hope that God’s people walk in regarding the potential of racial reconciliation didn’t come out of nowhere either. 

If we are going to have any shot at being a faithful church in our context, we have to know the story of God and the story of America. When we are equipped with both of these stories and an identity that goes deeper than skin color, Gods people have much to offer in the face of long-standing racial issues.

To help our LifeGroups grow in our understanding of American history and God's story, we decided to write a book for this series. Inside of the book, you will find a chapter to go along with each week of the series, corresponding study guides and black pages for taking notes. To get the most out of this series we encourage you to read each chapter, take notes and discuss it with the members of your LifeGroup. We won't be having bulletins for this series so please remember to bring your book each week to the Gatherings.

|giv| 2016

One of our goals is to be a growingly generous people. So every year we take 3-4 weeks around the holidays to press into generosity; to think on God’s generosity to us and to talk about how we can grow in walking in the kind of generous love He shows to us every day. We call it our |giv| series.

Study Guides:

Week 1: Generous Hearts (View Study Guide)
Week 2: Generous Rewards (View Study Guide)
Week 3: Generous Contentment (View Study Guide)

Sermons:

Exiles: A Study of 1 Peter

"Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you."

- 1 Peter 1:1-2

All three of our churches will take 14 weeks this fall to rally our family of churches to become the beautiful, God-glorifying, counter-cultural family that God desires His church to be. Peter uses the concept of living as exiles to help Christians connect and understand how to seek God’s kingdom and His mission no matter what level of hostility we find in the surrounding culture. Peter also helpfully hits on timely and practical issues like marriage, politics, community and suffering all within the context of living life as a regular exile.

STUDY GUIDES & LEADER GUIDES

To help facilitate LifeGroup discussion we'll be posting study guides for each week of the series. You can find each week's study guide here:

Stand-Alone | An Honest Conversation About Race In America

Again and again we are shocked by the events we see on social media and the news regarding race relations in our country and it seems that everyone has a particular stance and opinion. But in light of all of the tragedy, anger, and confusion what does the Bible say? It's time we had an honest conversation about race in America. 

Recovery

No matter who we are, where we're from, or what we've done, we all need Recovery. In this series, we explore how the gospel of Jesus brings us healing and hope from the seemingly unbeatable things in our lives. 

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Sermons: 

Ordinary ≠ Insignificant

Somehow we've been convinced that making disciples has to be something extravagant or extraordinary when the Bible would tell us it has a lot more to do with you just being an ordinary Christian in your ordinary life.

G.K. Chesterton said, “The most extraordinary thing in the world is an ordinary man and an ordinary woman and their ordinary children.”

In this series, we’ll look at the seemingly ordinary things in our lives that in light of the gospel and God’s mission are anything but insignificant.

Sermons:

Stand-Alone 2016

Sermons:

Unholy Week

What happened to Jesus during the last week of his earthly life? Jesus was betrayed, mistreated, rejected, scorned, beaten, and mocked, just to name a few. What was the purpose of these events? Why did Jesus insist on going through them?

This three-week series takes a look at the unholiest things ever done to the best man who ever lived. We explore how he can relate to us in our pain, and how we desperately needed him to die for our sake.

Unholy Week helps us think on and appreciate the cross, and what Jesus accomplished on it.

Sermons:

Theology of Sex

There’s no shortage of oversimplified narratives about gender, sexuality, and marriage. These days it seems that everyone’s opinion is the right one and if you don’t share that opinion, you’re the enemy. But what is actually true? What do we do when confronted with difficult questions and even more difficult situations? How do we love our neighbor without compromising what is true? For something as complex as gender and sexuality, we need something far bigger. Far richer. Far more nuanced. We need a theology of sex.

This series spends seven weeks unpacking God’s design for gender and sexuality in an effort to understand ourselves, love our neighbor, and live out our mission.

Sermons:

Six Dreams for Our Church

On January 10 we took time to dream and look towards the future of our church.

Christmas Gathering 2015

On December 20 our entire family of churches gathered for one city-wide Christmas Gathering. 

The Plan

For the launch of our church plant, we will be doing a series on the early chapters of Acts called The Plan. Our desire is to trace back Jesus' plan for the church to be a compelling, counter-cultural witness to the good news of Jesus on the Earth. There are a hundred different strategies for growing a church in the 21st century, but the only one we care about is the simple, revolutionary plan laid out in the New Testament.