Sermon and Group Study Series

“What’s the Least I Can Believe and Still Be a Chris­t­ian?”
Feb­ru­ary 5th through March 18th

What, when it comes right down to it, do Chris­tians need to believe?  Chris­tians need to believe in Jesus—his life, teach­ings, exam­ple, death, and res­ur­rec­tion.  These are to core of Chris­tian­ity.  A great ben­e­fit of these beliefs is that they pro­vide answers to life’s most pro­found ques­tions, includ­ing, What mat­ters most?  Am I accepted?  Where is God?  What brings ful­fill­ment?  What about suf­fer­ing?  And is there hope?

Dur­ing this series we will also focus on some things Chris­tians don’t need to believe.  For exam­ple, Chris­tians don’t need to believe that every­thing in the Bible should be taken lit­er­ally, or that God causes can­cer and car wrecks, or that God hates gay people.

Date: Sun­day Wor­ship Theme:
Feb. 5th Some of what you think is Chris­tian­ity is not Chris­tian­ity; it is merely the accrued junk of mis­un­der­stand­ing.  Pre­pare your­self for the real deal.
Feb. 12th Jesus was not much of a the­olo­gian; in fact, he almost never ref­er­ences dogma.  Nor does Jesus have much use for reli­gious rit­u­als.  What did Jesus teach?  That rela­tion­ships, with God and oth­ers, is what mat­ters most.
Feb. 19th We are flawed, sin­ful peo­ple; just look at the world we have made!  Yet God sees us as lov­able, redeemable, and of infi­nite worth.  He has acted on these beliefs by send us Jesus, his Son.  There is a name for this; we call it ‘grace’.
Feb. 26th How does God do his work in the world?  Through us, in Jesus’ name, via the Holy Spirit.
Mar. 4th Happiness—joy, really—comes for being God’s per­son in the world.  How is one God’s per­son?  By serv­ing oth­ers in God’s name.
Mar. 11th Jesus promised that those who fol­lowed him (believed and obeyed him) would suf­fer.  Why?  Because God enters into suf­fer­ing and redeems that suffering.
Mar. 18th Jesus’ res­ur­rec­tion gives us hope for life now and life eternal.

You can help us pre­pare for this dynamic seven week expe­ri­ence in the fol­low­ing ways:

  1. Pray for this impor­tant event
  2. Attend wor­ship every Sun­day dur­ing the ser­mon and study series
  3. Pur­chase, from the church office, a copy of the book, “What’s the Least I Can Believe and Still be a Chris­t­ian” and join in a study group (Dates and times to be announced)
  4. Invite fam­ily mem­bers, neigh­bors, friends, and cowork­ers to visit the church dur­ing this event.

One of the goals of this series is to help us reach out beyond our own con­gre­ga­tion.  Accord­ingly, the church has pur­chased, and makes avail­able to you at no addi­tional cost, copies of “What’s the Least I Can Believe and Still be a Chris­t­ian” that you can give to oth­ers as an invi­ta­tion to join us for this series.

I am look­ing for­ward to this series, and our time together.  Please con­tact me if you have any ques­tions about how you can make the most of this opportunity.

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