Hey guys, I hope you all enjoyed the discussion last night. Thanks to those who put in questions. I felt like, while some things were made a bit more clear for some of us, there were still some questions raised, which is good. Explore those questions with your home groups, with your family members, and with the Hope pastors. Next… Read more →
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Reflections on Spiritual Exile
I have just a short reflection on last night’s Living Room discussion on ‘Spiritual Exile,’ followed by some Scripture passages you can read and reflect on for yourself. Following on from what Courtney spoke about last night, spiritual exile speaks to the spiritual separation or distance from God brought on by our own choice to do so. In this… Read more →
Last Night’s Linger @ the Living Room
Hey everyone! Last night marked the very first Linger @ the Living Room service. If you weren’t there it was an extended time of sung worship for those who really connect with the Spirit through that type of worship. – side note – I know the term “worship” is often only a reference for music, and I get that it’s… Read more →
Reflections on Spiritual Gifts Panel Last Night: Evil Spirits
Last night at the LR we had a great discussion around the use of Spiritual Gifts. Gabe identified 23 gifts in Scripture that are given by the Holy Spirit (aside from Ephesians 4:11 which says, “Christ gave,” but lets be real here and remember that God is Triune, meaning 3 in 1, so to say Christ gave is essentially the… Read more →
Living Room Questionnaire
Hi there. If you have a few moments and haven’t done so already, please take some time to fill out this quick survey on how the Living Room is going. Thank you! Shalom. https://goo.gl/forms/SKiDFWVkyuzG3knF2 Read more →
Reflections on “Identity”
Last night at the Living Room we had a special guest speaker, Christy, talk to us about the theme of identity in the film Moana. She pointed out a couple things that really stood out to me. In short, one of them was that we can’t really fulfill our calling or our mission in life (of course first you kinda… Read more →
Reflections on Waiting
Last night at the Living Room I talked about how the ascension of Jesus thoroughly impacts what it means for us to be human AND to be the church. To refresh those who were there, and to briefly catch up those who weren’t, the ascension is important to us as humans because: in Christ’s death he took on our sin… Read more →
What’s the deal with infant baptism?
Kia Ora! First of all, it’s good to be back from our trip to the States where we were able to introduce our daughter, Emersyn (Emmy), to family and friends for the first time. Last night, as most of you reading this will know, we had the privilege and honour to baptise our 7 month old daughter, Emmy. If you… Read more →
Devotion: Living As Community
Soul Food series part 1 “Living as Community” Growth group devotion (The goal of this devotion is for your growth group to come up with combined goals of living as a community this year. By the end, the growth group will have a “rule of faith” which will guide and structure what you do throughout the year…feel free to change… Read more →