Friends, A year ago, the leadership of Union Church earmarked Easter 2022 as a time of reassessment, looking into the health and progress of our ministry. One year as a church planting resident plus four years of solo pastoring seemed to warrant a fresh evaluation of resources, infrastructure and stamina. After scrutinizing internal and external giving, personnel changes and leadership health, as well as an extended season of prayer and fasting, we have made the excruciating decision to close Union Church. Three different times, locations and re-launch attempts (most of which, occurred insid ..read more

This is the time of year to focus on the arrival of Jesus and the thousands of blessings that come with the miracle of his incarnation. It is also a time to reflect on the previous year – to both celebrate and lament what the Lord has done in our community. Even by the most optimistic of perspectives, 2020 has been a difficult year. We have endured a contentious and divisive presidential campaign. We have navigated the largest racial justice movement since the Civil Rights era. And all of it has be done in the context of an unprecedented, global pandemic. Locally, COVID 19 has contributed to a ..read more

(originally posted September 2018) It is easy to be disoriented by the South. Underneath the charm of sweet tea and bow ties, sear sucker onesies and SEC tailgates lies a devastated region. At its foundation, Southern culture was designed to accrue wealth for Christians – with a workforce that was considered to be sub-human. This stunningly efficient economic strategy was able to flourish because of a predominant worldview that normalized and then institutionalized Christian hypocrisy. To a large degree, the church in the South either directly promoted or passively allowed the creation of a so ..read more

Courage tends to be contextual. An athlete could be very bold and aggressive on a football field and yet timid and withdrawn in a classroom. An extrovert might have the courage to take the stage in front of a crowd and yet completely panic in isolation. It seems that a great deal of courage is actually just confidence in situational talent. This begs the question, what is real courage made of – what is its consistent, internal source as opposed to its external, situational stimulus? The apostle Paul has a simple but brilliant recipe for courage that is embedded in the structure of his letter ..read more

Whether we are enjoying sunshine and tacos or experiencing ‘Threat Level Midnight’ anxiety because of Coronavirus, there are two realities Christians need to consider. One, this world is not our home, we have always been exiles (Hebrews 13:14) and two, we are saved through faith and not work (Ephesians 2:8-9). Oddly enough, the thread that runs through both of these spiritual realities, is courage. Courage is essential for life as an exile. Eugene Peterson defines exile this way, “The essential meaning of exile is that we are where we don’t want to be. We are separated fro ..read more

Description: Lent is a season of prayer, fasting and contemplation leading to Easter. Many Christians commit to abstaining from certain foods, habits or luxuries as a spiritual tool to sharpen prayer and declutter the mind in anticipation of Jesus’ resurrection. Lent lasts for 40 days (mirroring Jesus’ 40 days of fasting prior to his public ministry), beginning on Ash Wednesday (February 26) and ending on Holy Saturday (April 11). Lent incorporates 46 calendar days (the six Sundays during Lent are considered feast days and therefore not counted in the 40 days of Lent). Th ..read more

Starting this July, Tokyo will hold the 24th edition of the Summer Olympics. The Olympic Games are considered to be the most elite and greatest sporting events in the entire world. Only the best athletes from each country are allowed to compete which naturally draws a great deal of attention worldwide. The last summer Olympics (2016 Rio de Janeiro) drew in an audience of 3.6 billion people. It’s by far the biggest stage in sports. Because of the sheer level of competition, people train their entire lives to not only be a part of the Olympics but to compete and win a medal. The goal is to not j ..read more

This fall we are preaching through our third full sermon series. Our first series was a study of the book of Ephesians (the foundational document of the New Testament church felt like an appropriate place to start). Over the summer, we turned our attention to 9 different marks of Christian maturity (discipleship characteristics that our church is designed to help one another grow into). This fall, we have been working our way through the book of Exodus. We landed on Exodus for three reasons: One, in many ways, the story of Exodus is the story of the entire Bible. We see the narrative arc of cr ..read more

This past spring, our church completed its first sermon series by going through the book of Ephesians. Many scholars view Ephesians as the foundational document of the church, a type of New Testament “constitution”, making it a timely and helpful guide for our newly formed community. As we transition into the summer months, when many of our people are temporarily scattered from the body, we wanted to preach a series that focused less on the life of the community and more on individual maturity - with the hope that the more mature each disciple becomes, the healthier the entire church becomes.W ..read more