Future
Church
Series Overview
What challenges will the post-covid church face? When can we dream about the future again? Listen along to our the series as we reimagine the kind of church we want to become–moving from anxiety to possibility, and finding a way of life for the church of the future.
Community Guides
Follow along with the Bridgetown Community Guides for this series.
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Over the next two months, we want to stretch the atrophied muscles of our hope and practice dreaming: about our future together in Portland and about the kind of church and followers of Jesus we want to be on the other side of COVID-19.
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The American experience and western culture in general are rooted in radical individualism. Yet, the way of Jesus and our experience show us that while looking out for our own interests and living in extreme independence—while it may be easier in the short term—leads to unhappiness in the long term. For better or worse, we need each other.
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While the ideologies of our day are new, the temptation to mix the way of Jesus and what the New Testament calls “the way of the world” is as ancient as time. In the face of this temptation and moment, the invitation of Jesus is to “demolish strongholds” of the mind and to instead take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ, to fight for orthodoxy.
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Holiness means to be set apart. It is not just about behavior, but about the inner life. Holiness is about the whole body. It seeks to rescue us from a culture whose view of the body is low, and to put us into a worldview in which our bodies are the very temple of God. What we do and don’t do with them matters because we matter.
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Jesus himself often withdrew to “lonely places” and prayed. Those lonely places, as they were for Jesus, are for us the places of encounter with our true selves and with God, and the place where God will transform us.
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Jesus had an uncanny ability to turn enemies into guests and guests into family. He did this through “radically ordinary hospitality,” just eating meals around a table.
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Take some time to consider and pray through what your next step in vocation might be, and what God is inviting you into in this season of your life.
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Over and against our culture of progress and burnout, the scriptures and the way of Jesus invite us to what Hebrews calls “a Sabbath rest for the people of God.” On the Sabbath we are freed from progress and from our internal pharaohs. Sabbath is a rest that we can set our watches to, that we can build our lives around, and that will bring us into the rest we really need.
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In our world, it’s expected that we put ourselves above others; but Jesus instructs us to lay our life down for others. In and through the life and teachings of Jesus, we learn that in God’s Kingdom the last will be first. The question we want to lean into in this season is: How can we help make the last first today?
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Future Church
- Feb 7, 2021 It's Time to Dream Again Feb 7, 2021
- Feb 14, 2021 A Community of Tight-knit Loving Relationships in a Culture of Individualism and Tribalism Feb 14, 2021
- Feb 21, 2021 A Community of Orthodoxy in a Culture of Ideological Idolatry Feb 21, 2021
- Feb 28, 2021 A Community of Holiness in a Culture of Moral Relativism Feb 28, 2021
- Mar 3, 2021 Lecture: Deconstruction & Doubt with A.J. Swoboda Mar 3, 2021
- Mar 3, 2021 Q&R: Deconstruction & Doubt with A.J. Swoboda Mar 3, 2021
- Mar 7, 2021 A Community of Peace in a Culture of Outrage and Fear Mar 7, 2021
- Mar 14, 2021 A Community of Peacemakers in a Culture of Political Polarization Mar 14, 2021
- Mar 21, 2021 A Community of Contribution in a Culture of Careerism Mar 21, 2021
- Mar 28, 2021 A Community of Rest in a Culture of Exhaustion Mar 28, 2021
- Apr 4, 2021 Future Church for the Future World Apr 4, 2021
- Apr 11, 2021 A Community of Justice, Mercy, and Peace in a Culture of Social Darwinism Apr 11, 2021