Words of Welcome

Hebrews 10:19-25 Imagine for a moment that you’re watching two men talking. You can’t hear what they’re saying – they could be talking about football, politics, the best place to get burgers, and maybe even religion. At first the discussion seems fairly congenial, but then it gets a bit heated, and you see one man put his finger into the chest of the other, and shouts: “Don’t provoke me!” It would seem that this word -- “provoke” – carries a lot of negative baggage. When we hear it, we hear argument, heated discussion, or even a fight. Wars start with provocations, and in Ephesians parents are told not to “provoke [their] children to anger” (Eph. 6:4). Now, I wish the message had been -- children, don’t provoke your fathers to anger, but that’s not what it says. Oh, by the way, if you turn to 1 Corinthians 13, you’ll find Paul saying that love isn’t “irritable,” which is the same word in Greek as provoke. And, who wants to be irritable? So, from what I can tell, it’...

This sermon is the first of six that will lift up the six core values discerned to guide Central Woodward Christian Church. **************** John 11:28-35 When we gathered in February for a retreat, we discerned six core values that define our mission and vision as a congregation. We discerned these values in a context of prayer, worship, and study. We talked about our community and what it means to be a Disciple in the context of this community, beginning with our 5-mile radius, and expanding outward in concentric to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). As we discerned these values, we assumed that we are called to be a missional congregation, and that these values will help guide our practice of mission. It’s been a few months since we met, and with a new season of ministry in front of us, over the next two months we will explore these six core values in a series of sermons. As we think about these six core values – compassion, service, acceptance, worship, witness, and spi...