Micah wraps up our series on Generosity looking at John 8 and the generosity of things less seen. Will we be people who are generous with our assumptions, with our compassion, and generous towards ourselves?Bởi Awaken Community

Micah looks a few core principles about giving towards the church, or any organization. Do you align with the organizations mission, vision, and values? Do you trust the leadership? Does participating in the community bring value to your life? If so, do you invest in a way that is regular, proportionate, sacrificial, and cheerful?…

Micah looks at Luke 14: 25-33 and Jesus's words about our relationship to our stuff. What Jesus is saying goes beyond dollars and cents, instead addressing the influence that Mine'ing has over our lives.Bởi Awaken Community

Micah looks at Ecclesiastes 4:5-6 and how we can choose to engage the world. Do you hold your hands open, ready to give, receive, and be present with all that is happening around you?Bởi Awaken Community

Deuteronomy 24: 17-22 - God tells the Israelites to build generosity into their very way of life. To provide care for the most vulnerable among them, lest we forget the generosity we were made from and made for.Bởi Awaken Community

Pastor Jenna rejoins us after her parental leave and the birth of her son Caden. Today, she explores Genesis 17 and the promise given to Abram and Sarai and the name that is used for God in this passage - El Shaddai. Please note that this message includes themes of parenthood and childbearing. We recognize that these themes can evoke both joyful an…

Micah provides an honest reflection on the significance of Easter and the importance of faith in a story that can at times feel unbelievable.Bởi Awaken Community

Micah looks at John 12:12-19 and the paradox of Jesus' triumphant entry into Jerusalem, not with weapons and war, but in peace and sacrifice.Bởi Awaken Community

Matt 13:10-23 Micah explores the Parable of the Sower found in Matthew and what it means to truly listen/hear & understand.Bởi Awaken Community

2 Corinthians 8:1 -2: Paul urges the church in Corinth to follow the lead of the Macedonians, who’s desire for goodness was matched by their willingness to give so that the work would be seen through.Bởi Awaken Community

1 Kings 19:11-18 - Elijah flees to the mountains for his life, desperate to hear God's voice. God shows up in ways he does not expect, as a whisper of care and provision in the midst of hardship. Micah walks us through the heart of listening and the significance of its practice.Bởi Awaken Community

2 Sam 12:1-13, David listens to Nathan the prophet and repents when confronted with the reality of his sin. Are we listening and willing to HEAR correction when it comes to us? What does it take to be a person who is willing to sit in the discomfort of being wrong and repenting instead of defending?Bởi Awaken Community

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Guest speaker Jim Bear Jacobs sheds light on the complexities of Galatians 3 and Paul’s vision for a kingdom of God that does not recognize difference. How does this vision, written by someone within the dominant culture, impact those who find themselves outside of it? Jim Bear illustrates the difficulty of this passage with powerful stories of the…

1 John 4:7-12, John says "no one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us." Multiple times in John's gospel he says that no one has seen the father and has this idea of the "invisible" God that is made known in Jesus. In so far as we love one another, the image of God lives in us and in the …

1 John 3:11, 16-18, 4:18-19 - We begin in love, we don't work for it or earn it or attain it...IT IS. Because this gift is ours to receive/participate in, we should love others which begs the question: what is love and who gets to define it?Bởi Awaken Community

1 John 1:5-10, 2:7-11, God is light and that light has appeared. If God is trustworthy and true, then following and seeking after them should lead us to a love and light that illuminates the world around us. How do you know when you’ve seen and experienced it?Bởi Awaken Community

The book of 1 John taken outside of it's context can sometimes be counter productive to the heart of the gospel. Micah discusses the fundamental differences in our understanding of 1 John if God's revelation to humanity is limited to what's in the Bible and not also open to the continuous work of the Spirit in us.…

1 John 1:1-4, Awaken kicks off a new series on the book of 1 John, 11 years after Awaken's first journey through the text. Micah provides the background and context for the book to set the tone for the rest of our exploration together.Bởi Awaken Community

Micah brings our Journeys of Christmas series to a close with the arrival of Jesus into the world.Bởi Awaken Community

Luke 2:8-20, The shepherd’s journey from the fields to the manger. Micah introduces the different interpretations of who the shepherd's might have been and how that affects the deeper meaning of the story. How much more powerful is the story when it happens exactly as the angels described?Bởi Awaken Community

Matt 2:1-12 - The Magi’s journey to Herod and then eventually see the Christ child themselves. Micah unpacks myths about the magi and then draws attention to the religious leaders and how differently they respond to the reality of the christ. What is religion or faith without a physical embodiment of our beliefs?…

Luke 2:1-7, Joseph & Mary journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem. What happens when home no longer feels like home? Micah discusses the difficulty of leaving places that feel safe like home and the beauty of the spiritual journey through the process.Bởi Awaken Community

Luke 1:26-45, Mary journeys to visit Elizabeth and come to grips with the reality that she was going to bear the Christ. Micah invites to consider the human Mary, the woman who carried a child out of wedlock in a patriarchal society where that would have been a tremendous risk and danger.Bởi Awaken Community

Matthew 1:18-25 - Joseph goes through a journey that invites him to accept what the Holy Spirit has done in Mary. He accepts Mary as his wife and discovers the difficult role he must take as a righteous law abiding man in a culture whose laws might challenge his convictions.Bởi Awaken Community

Luke 1:5-22 & 57-64, Awaken kicks off a new series preparing us for the season of Advent. Micah starts with Zechariah’s journey from unbelief to belief in the Angel’s words about his son named John. He highlights the significance of a man that is silenced and what happens in the space that created.Bởi Awaken Community

Micah introduces pilgrimage as the final target in the Formational Targets series. This is an invitation to inhabit our lives in a particular way that includes awareness and intention about the spiritual journey happening all around us.Bởi Awaken Community

Micah takes us through our next formational target - Impact. How do we choose to invest our time, energy, and resources individually and as a community? We’ve been entrusted with working and tending to one another and the world around us.Bởi Awaken Community

Micah brings us back to our formational targets series by emphasizing the importance of learning through the journey of faith. He highlights the significance of engaging different perspectives, understanding lenses that inform those perspectives, and maintaining a posture of curiosity in our day to day lives.…

Genesis 1:11-13; 26-28; 31 - Steve Wiens talks through how God created trees to bear fruit and keep bearing fruit the same way humans were made to plant seeds and bear fruit. “Awaken is uniquely called in this season to plant seeds for a future where many will be nourished and given rest underneath the branches.”…

Stephanie Williams O’Brien takes Awaken on a journey through Mark chapter one and the deeper meaning of Jesus inviting the people to repent and believe - “turn toward God and step into the new Kingdom reality”.Bởi Awaken Community

While many are at Covenant Pines this weekend for the church retreat, Micah continues our series on the formational targets and this week he discusses the importance of sacred community in our efforts to grow closer to God and one another.Bởi Awaken Community

Micah unpacks the second of Awaken’s formational targets, listening. “Hear O Israel the lord thy God is one". What does the voice of God sound like and what does your own voice sound like? Spiritual maturity is holding both and paying attention to the many ways God can speak to us.Bởi Awaken Community

Awaken begins a new series that seeks to unpack what healthy spiritual formation looks like. We begin with the importance of liturgy. Liturgy is ceremony and ordered intention. It is the work of the people, accessing collective memory and doing something together. Liturgy consists of sacred times that are set apart for the people of God throughout …

Chapter 13:29-31, Nehemiah ends with a very honest and sobering reality. They kick out the foreigners and Nehemiah reforms the practices of the sabbath, marriage and what happens in the temple. Why do we keep returning to this pattern? How might our interpretations change when considering this from a marginalized perspective?…

In chapter 9, the Israelites remember those who have come before while asking, “How did we get here?” Awaken honors Melody Olson as she performs How Great Thou Art on her last Sunday as Worship Director.Bởi Awaken Community

Nehemiah 7:1-6, 8-18 - After the wall is done, the Israelites prepared for worship as a community, which began by remembering the names of the people, their lineage and their story/history. There is feasting and celebration in the temple. There will be days for weeping and mourning but today is not one of them…today we turn our attention to the gra…

Nehemiah 6:1-16 - Opposition to the work you've been called to comes in very predictable fashion. Distraction - 5 times Nehemiah was invited to a meeting of great import and invited to take his eye off the ball. Opposition begins to sow seeds of falsehood and rumors about what is going on inside the walls of Jerusalem. Nehemiah confronts this head …

Nehemiah 5:1-19 - Lessons in leadership from Nehemiah. The nobles and the rich were lending to their own countrymen and charging them interest just like non-Israelites would do. Nehemiah speaks against it and aligns himself with the people by living, working, and suffering WITH them.Bởi Awaken Community

Nehemiah 3:1-5 & 4:6-16, Lessons in leadership from Nehemiah. Chapter 3 is all about the myriad of people who are involved in the rebuilding of the wall. The list is so long that it appears no one is left out.Bởi Awaken Community

Nehemiah 2:1-20, The king asks Nehemiah what he wants and Nehemiah names his desires, then asks for what's needed to accomplish it. He faces opposition when he decides to champion the cause of the oppressed and marginalized which is to be expected and normal when you confront systems of power.Bởi Awaken Community

Nehemiah 1:5-11 - A plea for God's ear to be open and listening to the prayer of Nehemiah. Nehemiah personally asks forgiveness for the sins of his countryman, his family, and himself. They are tasked with remembering the promise that God made to gather the people and bring them home because they are God’s people.…

This week is an introduction to Nehemiah and how we've gotten to the place where we are. Who was Nehemiah? How did Israel end up oppressed and exiled under Artaxerxes? What was the root cause of their suffering? Micah highlights the importance of beginning a process of renewal with grief/lament.Bởi Awaken Community

Acts 15, Early christians meet as a council in Jerusalem to start the church in the book of Acts. They find that the spirit of God is leading them beyond the confines of their religious structure and are thus tasked with living as a people of God rooted in love and a new way forward.Bởi Awaken Community

Tom sheds light on the current worldwide refugee crisis and his engagement with it through the non profit organization, IAFR. He shares the significance of the Lord's Prayer in a world desperate for hope.Bởi Awaken Community

Ruth 1:6-18, Mary provides context for her experience as a refugee and invites us to consider the importance of support systems and staying proximate to people with different life stories.Bởi Awaken Community

Jeremiah 29:1-14 The people of God in Exile - even here God is with them in Babylon. Exile is the place where your entire conception of who God is and what God is like dies and you find out God is still with you in this place/iteration.Bởi Awaken Community

1 Sam 8:1-22 - God warns them of all the things they will become if they go in this direction. As the people go down this path, they forget where they came from and they become Egypt - the very thing they were liberated from.Bởi Awaken Community

Judges 2:16-23, The children of God in this book of the Bible are often portrayed as rebellious and forgetful of the ways of God. Micah invites us to consider the ways God is more patient, hopeful, and available to us than we might otherwise be led to believe.Bởi Awaken Community

Numbers 9:15-23, The Israelites follow a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night trusting that the spirit of God is in it. Micah recalls the journey of Awaken, the movement of the spirit in our midst and invites us to trust that God is present and guiding us through whatever wilderness lay ahead.…