Cascade Church Portland

Faces of Cascade:: Theresa Monteverdi

What do you think about when you hear the word hope?

Is it a fresh and familiar word that mostly marks your thoughts about the future? Is it a distant word that had significance in the past, but doesn't mean much anymore?

A lot of times we can get into cycles of hopefulness or we can get in cycles of hopelessness. Both being hopeful and hopeless has a kind of momentum to them that seems to gain steam the more we entertain them. 

Listen to hear more about how you can choose to entertain hope instead of despair from the story of Theresa Monteverdi. She is an incredible woman with an incredible story. Whether you have hope or hopelessness today, you're not going to miss this conversation about God's desire for each of us to entertain hope. 

Faces of Cascade:: Tom McCoy

Work means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. For some it is purely about translating a skill or talent into a money. For others it is a about following your passion to do meaningful work in the world.

Whatever our starting place with work, we usually battle a tendency to be find identity from our work before too long. One of the major questions that we need to evaluate from time to time is, who am I apart what I do? That’s usually a scary question to answer because few of us truly know. 

The reality is that Jesus Christ comes to give us identity apart from what we do and this identity is prepared to stand the test of time. The circumstances of our life could be incredibly good or painfully bad, but the identity that Christ offers us all as daughters and sons of God anchors our souls in way that can sustain anything that life can throw our way. 

I invite you to listen to Tom McCoy’s story to help you walk the journey of seeing who you truly are and finding that person apart from the things you do. 

Acts & Thessalonica to Berea

How do you react when things don't go your way? I usually just get mad. I may act and pretend I'm fine with how things worked out, but inside I'm at least a little bitter. I have a way that I'd like things to go because I think it's the best way for things to go. If I didn't think it was best, I wouldn't be doing it, right?

I heard once that anger is the result of our will being blocked. 

That has always stuck with me and I think it's so incredibly true. I get mad and frustrated when my sons don't help me get them dressed in the morning. Am I mad at the potential nudity if the situation goes unresolved? Am I frustrated that the boys will be too cold because they aren't properly dressed? 

Nope. 

I'm mad and frustrated because I have written a story in my head that needs to be followed (it isn't normally very flexible) and my boys aren't allowing that story to become reality with their wiggling, running, playing and avoidance. 

This message is about a story where one group hears information that shakes up their worldview and they riot where another group hears the same information and they investigate these new claims. Both groups are hearing a new ending to the story they had written in their heads. Their wills for the future are being blocked by new information. How do you respond to new information?

Acts & Jerusalem Council

The earliest Christian Church had some major controversy right from the beginning. It was out of the Jewish religious system that Christianity had spread and that begged some big questions about what things needed to stay the same and what things could change as they transitioned from being Jews to being Christians. It was the start of the age old tradition of church fighting. Church people loooove to fight about things. 

 

It makes sense when you consider all that is wrapped up in church. It's one of the key places we build relationships with other people who've directed their lives toward Jesus. It's a key place for experiencing the nature of God. Opinions and feelings on a myriad of issues matter a lot more than they would in most organizations.

 

A bank can change their wall color and its a matter of style. A church changes the wall color and it's a matter of theology

 

Let's look at the nature of change inside of the church and the tension that creates. How do we allow the conflict that comes with change to help grow us together instead of driving us apart? 

 

Acts & Saul's Conversion

There was a man named Saul who's life and world was consumed in a moment with crushing this burgeoning following of Jesus Christ. He was on his way to persecute people when Jesus broke into his world and changed the trajectory of Saul's life forever. The change was so complete that his name changed from Saul to Paul and he ended up writing the majority of the New Testament. 

Saul's life was oriented towards destruction. It was oriented towards ending a new thing that was being created. God creates us so that we can also create. How does God want to reorient the parts of your life geared towards destruction into areas of creativity and building up? 

Acts & Choosing the Seven

In Acts 6 there’s short story featuring bread that’s about a lot more than bread. There is tension and conflict in the earliest church because some widows are being excluded from the distribution of bread because they are different from other people in the community. This painful discrimination threatens to unravel the message of grace and openness that is being preached by Jesus' followers. This week we look at the apostle’s response to critique and try and how they empowered those who were being marginalized to see the Kingdom of God really grow. 

Acts & The Pentecost

On the celebration of Pentecost (50 days after Passover) there were Jews from all over the region celebrating the giving if the law to Moses. Little did they know that Jesus' promise of the Holy Spirit was about to come upon all the disciples gathered to preach the good news of Jesus to everyone in their own language.

Hear about how the Holy Spirit comes upon followers of Jesus regardless of age, gender, race, income level or social standing to share God's best with everyone. 

Philip & The Ethiopian Eunuch

Traveling down a dirty and dangerous road was a man named Philip. He was exposed and vulnerable to any thief that wanted to take from him. In that place an angel called Philip to go running up to an Ethiopian Court Official in the first century equivalent of a tank, a chariot. This encounter of a man who is vulnerable and alone on the road and a man who is well-protected and respected takes an unlikely turn where the Ethiopian man allows Philip to become his teacher. 

Who are your teachers? Do you just listen to voices of people who are like you and from similar places and times? The Ethiopian Court Official was surrounded by others in his chariot and could have decided just to listen to people closest to him, but his ability to look outside of himself and his world yielded some surprising results!

David & Shimei

This week we are finishing up the Life of David series with one of my favorite stories in the Bible. 

There's a smaller incident in the life of David that doesn't make the headlines, but is very interesting. There's a guy named Shimei who was related to Saul, the former King of Israel, and at one of David's lowest moments Shimei shows up to hurl insults and rocks at him. 

What do you do with bitterness and a desire with revenge? How do you respond when someone is celebrating a very difficult time in your life? Take a listen to what a Christ-driven response to those who celebrate your failures can be and ways that we can stop the flow of violence in our relationships. At the very least you'll learn some sweet 1000 - 950 BCE insults to use on your friends. 

David & Jonathan

The nature of friendship is a fascinating study of how human's operate. What is it that draws you to be friends with one person over another? Is it proximity? Similar backgrounds? A love of similar movies, music and hobbies? A deep soul connection that betrays logic?

 

Let's take a look at the nature of friendship and loyalty this week through the lens of David and Jonathan's story. We'll specifically look at how we can be the kind of friend that honors God and honors those made is God's image. Hopefully you can reflect on your friendships and step more fully into those gifts from God!