Scripture Text: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Matthew 25:1-13
Our Glory & Joy
Scripture Text: 1 Thessalonians 2:9-20; Matthew 23:1-12
A Common Hope
Scripture Text: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13; John 21:15-19
To be a member of Redeemer Anglican Church is to share our Common Hope, to embrace our Common Role & to participate in our Common Priorities. Membership means that we belong to Christ and to each other and are committed to living out the implications of both.
The Living Church
Scripture Text: Acts 2:42-47; Luke 14:12-24
It is as impossible, unnecessary and undesirable to be a Christian all by yourself as it is to be a newborn baby all by yourself. The church is first and foremost a community, a collection of people who belong to one another because they belong to God, the God we know in and through Jesus.
Walking the Anglican Way
Scripture Text: Romans 12:1-2; Matthew 16:24-26
Our culture has an affinity for words like organic, authentic, natural and intuitive. When applied to faith, these words become near synonyms for spontaneous, “true-to-myself”, effortless and “the-way-I-already-think.” In other words, the cultural assumption is that spiritual growth will happen when I am in the right place that nurtures my “true-self.” This approach to formation is from the inside out - first we change on the inside, then our lives look differently on the outside. This rings true for most people. “First, I’ll learn to love the right things, then I’ll do them.” This way I’ll avoid being a hypocrite and living inauthentically. Right?
As inviting as that may sound, it is almost entirely contrary to the prescribed pathway for spiritual growth given to us in the Bible. God’s invitation to us is, rather, to come and die that we might live. Receiving the redemption of Jesus means the end of the “old self” and the birth of a “new self.” And while this is, spiritually speaking, a one time event that occurs when a person puts their faith in Jesus and is baptized, it is also the paradigm for spiritual growth going forward. So Christians (and especially Anglican Christians) may use words like: intentional, discipline, struggle, tension, work, effort and change. By using these words we are not denying the grace of God, nor are we saying that we can somehow direct our own spiritual future. Rather, we are simply embracing Jesus’ “life-through-death” approach towards faith. We are saying, that discipline is to spiritual growth as eating and exercise are to physical health. We are not in control of our own health, our health lies in the hands of the Lord, but we have a role to play in stewarding our own bodies. We ought to eat healthy foods and exercise our bodies in order to play our part in promoting our own health. In the same way, we ought to employ spiritual disciplines in order to promote our own spiritual health. This is not legalism, this is formation from the outside in. We acknowledge that we do not desire or love the right things, and so we discipline ourselves and wait for our affections to catch up. The idea here is, “First I’ll do the right things, trusting that eventually I will learn to love them too.”
And so, with the goal of loving and trusting Jesus, and the philosophy of formation from the outside in and not the inside out, let’s ask a question, “What does it look like to walk the Anglican way throughout your day, your week and your year?”
The Compass Rose
Scripture Text: 1 Corinthians 12:12-20; John 17:20-23
Our goal as a church is not to “do religion the right way.” Members of Redeemer share the common hope to see God redeem us, our neighbors and our city with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We live out this hope within a particular tradition - the Anglican Communion. The Anglican Communion encompasses over 80 million people globally. It is a very diverse family with very diverse understandings of what exactly it means to be a Christian in the Anglican tradition. This class can not and does not speak for all Anglicans. Rather - the goal of this class is to communicate the best of Anglicanism as it has been practiced down through the centuries. Redeemer desires to bring the best practices of the historic church into the present in a new and fresh way.
Living the Story
Scripture Text: Romans 8:18-25; John 20:24-29
In Part 4, we discuss what it means to live in the story God is telling through His creation, and seek to identify where we find ourselves in God’s story as a church seeking to serve one another and our city in the 21st century. As we explore God’s story, we discover four distinct chapters: (1) creation, (2) fall, (3) redemption, and (4) new creation. And, within each one of these chapters, we find four key relationships at play, namely: (1) the relationship every human being has with God, (2) the relationship every human being has with themselves, (3) the relationship every human being has with other people, and (4) the relationship human beings have with the world.
Reflecting the Image
Scripture Text: Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Mark 12:29-34
In Part 3, we descend from the great heights of a theological conversation about the person of God and into the details of our everyday lives. We will ask the question, “what does it mean to reflect God’s image both individually and corporately?” We will answer this in four ways: by worshipping, by prayer and studying the Bible, by belonging to and participating with the Church, and by working for renewal. As we move through these four ways of reflecting the image of God, our hope is that a vision for a counter-cultural life of faith will take shape - a life that is defined and ordered by God’s story, our deep longings and His character and not by the temptations and pressures of our contemporary society.
Staring at the Sun
Scripture Text: Genesis 12:1-3; John 1:14-18
In Part 2 we descend from the grand meta-narrative of the world and the over-arching themes of human existence to the particular story of the God of the Bible and His historic people - the nation of Israel. We hope to answer a few questions:
Who is God?
What is the role of the nation of Israel in God’s story?
Who is Jesus?
What is the role of Jesus in God’s story?
Who is the Holy Spirit?
What is the role of the Spirit in God’s story?
Echoes of a Voice
Scripture Text: Ecclesiastes 3:11-13; John 7:37-38
In Part 1, we will take a step back and look at four areas of our contemporary life that point towards something. What that something is is not immediately clear to everyone - but we can perceive that there are clues ingrained into the fabric of the universe and our lives that act as “strange signposts - pointing beyond the landscape of our contemporary culture and out into the unknown.”
These four signposts are things that we all have in common, they are echoes that every human being can hear. They are: the longing for justice, the quest for spirituality, the hunger for relationships, and the delight in beauty.
The Tyrant's Boast & the Victim's Prayer
Scripture Text: Psalm 10:1-18; Mark 4:35-41
Of all the books in the Bible, there is only one which is composed entirely of prayers. The Psalms are God’s Word to us and they can become our words to God. If we have put our faith in Jesus and He has come to dwell within us, then when we pray the Psalms, Jesus prays within us - and our voice joins with His voice as our collective Psalm of prayer rises and is heard by God the Father.
Refuge for the Oppressed
Scripture Text: Psalm 9:1-20; Luke 11:9-10
Of all the books in the Bible, there is only one which is composed entirely of prayers. The Psalms are God’s Word to us and they can become our words to God. If we have put our faith in Jesus and He has come to dwell within us, then when we pray the Psalms, Jesus prays within us - and our voice joins with His voice as our collective Psalm of prayer rises and is heard by God the Father.
Psalm 8
Scripture Text: Psalm 8:1-9; Matthew 21:12-17
Of all the books in the Bible, there is only one which is composed entirely of prayers. The Psalms are God’s Word to us and they can become our words to God. If we have put our faith in Jesus and He has come to dwell within us, then when we pray the Psalms, Jesus prays within us - and our voice joins with His voice as our collective Psalm of prayer rises and is heard by God the Father.
Lament for Justice
Scripture Text: Psalm 7:1-17; John 5:25-29
Of all the books in the Bible, there is only one which is composed entirely of prayers. The Psalms are God’s Word to us and they can become our words to God. If we have put our faith in Jesus and He has come to dwell within us, then when we pray the Psalms, Jesus prays within us - and our voice joins with His voice as our collective Psalm of prayer rises and is heard by God the Father.
Lament for Salvation
Scripture Text: Psalm 6:1-10; Matthew 26:36-39
Of all the books in the Bible, there is only one which is composed entirely of prayers. The Psalms are God’s Word to us and they can become our words to God. If we have put our faith in Jesus and He has come to dwell within us, then when we pray the Psalms, Jesus prays within us - and our voice joins with His voice as our collective Psalm of prayer rises and is heard by God the Father.
Lament for Guidance
Scripture Text: Psalm 5:1-12; John 15:18-25
Of all the books in the Bible, there is only one which is composed entirely of prayers. The Psalms are God’s Word to us and they can become our words to God. If we have put our faith in Jesus and He has come to dwell within us, then when we pray the Psalms, Jesus prays within us - and our voice joins with His voice as our collective Psalm of prayer rises and is heard by God the Father.
Psalm 121
Scripture Text: Psalm 121:1-8
Of all the books in the Bible, there is only one which is composed entirely of prayers. The Psalms are God’s Word to us and they can become our words to God. If we have put our faith in Jesus and He has come to dwell within us, then when we pray the Psalms, Jesus prays within us - and our voice joins with His voice as our collective Psalm of prayer rises and is heard by God the Father.
Relief in Our Distress
Scripture Text: Psalm 4:1-8; John 16:16-24
Of all the books in the Bible, there is only one which is composed entirely of prayers. The Psalms are God’s Word to us and they can become our words to God. If we have put our faith in Jesus and He has come to dwell within us, then when we pray the Psalms, Jesus prays within us - and our voice joins with His voice as our collective Psalm of prayer rises and is heard by God the Father.
Rest from Our Anxiety
Scripture Text: Psalm 3:1-8; Matthew 22:41-46
Of all the books in the Bible, there is only one which is composed entirely of prayers. The Psalms are God’s Word to us and they can become our words to God. If we have put our faith in Jesus and He has come to dwell within us, then when we pray the Psalms, Jesus prays within us - and our voice joins with His voice as our collective Psalm of prayer rises and is heard by God the Father.
Confidence in Our King
Scripture Text: Psalm 2:1-12; Matthew 3:13-17
Of all the books in the Bible, there is only one which is composed entirely of prayers. The Psalms are God’s Word to us and they can become our words to God. If we have put our faith in Jesus and He has come to dwell within us, then when we pray the Psalms, Jesus prays within us - and our voice joins with His voice as our collective Psalm of prayer rises and is heard by God the Father.
