Awaken Community

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 world. It's like an atom...no one has ever seen an atom, but we have this picture that carries the idea.

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?

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?

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.

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

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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”.

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.

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.

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 the year.