Renaissance Celebration Messages: Recent Episodes
Renaissance
This podcast is an extension of Renaissance - we're a grassroots church movement in the Boston metro area empowering, equipping, and sustaining microchurch communities. Listen in here to the monthly Celebration gathering messages.
“We are a people in the process of being shaped and being formed by God in the Kingdom and for the Kingdom.” - Damaris TaylorThis month, we continued our three-year trek through the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) in a series we’re calling “Kingdom Manifesto.” At this Celebration, we looked at the second part of the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:6-8), and framed out what these verses mean and why they matter today.
"...we might say that why you do what you do, is more important than what you do. Jesus 'kingdom values' (or, 'beatitudes') turned the cultural values of his day (and ours) on their head. Jesus calls us to radically reorient our lives." We continue our three-year trek through the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) in a series we're calling "Kingdom Manifesto." This month, we looked at the beginning of the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-5), and framed out what these verses mean and why they matter today.
“As a network, we’ve been saying a lot that we want to become beautiful kingdom people...people rooted in Jesus’ claim on reality. I don’t know about you, but that feels hard. It’s so easy to say you want that until you’re confronted with some random hard thing on a regular Tuesday. Suddenly it doesn’t feel very good. But we want to build every aspect of our lives on what Jesus says is good, true, beautiful, and satisfying. We want to be a community that is embodying what is flourishing and whole.” - Christine LeeWe kicked off a three-year trek through the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) in a series we're calling "Kingdom Manifesto." This month, we introduced the journey, and framed out what these chapters are and why they matter today.
"God can only love perfectly. God can only love purely."
At our final Celebration gathering of 2023, Renaissance stopped to worship and remember the season of advent. We heard from four members of our network as they shared on the four themes of advent - hope, peace, joy, and love.
"It's not that God just wants to help you with projects of self-improvement, or simply make you more moral, or better at following rules. But what I found is Jesus invites us into the kind of transformation that is beyond what we ourselves can imagine ourselves to be." At Renaissance, we believe storytelling is a sacred act. We believe it's important to tell the truth of our lives, struggles, pains, joys, doubts, triumphs, failures, and more. So, we’re taking a moment to experience the sacred in each other's stories, together moving toward our living, breathing, active God. This month we explored the theme - "A time when love surprised me..." with Jeremy's story.
“Gentleness is who He [Jesus] is. He is tender, He is open, He is welcoming, He is understanding, He is willing, He is accessible, He is merciful, He is compassionate.” What does it mean to understand Jesus' heart? How does this impact our view of life and faith? In this Celebration, guest speaker Bishop Andrew Williams shares with us at Renaissance.
"Redemptive participation means we don’t hate the world. We’re not protesting it. We’re participating in it with a vision of the way of Jesus. But in order to do that it must come from love. Love must be our motivation."
What does it look like to model this? What does it look like to be a community living out an alternative way of life? In this Celebration, Jace Rasche finishes out our "A Creative Minority" journey at Renaissance.
“If we’re going to live as a creative minority, if we’re going to bring renewal to the world, we must give Lordship to Jesus and follow his commands…”
What does it look like to model this? What does it look like to be a community living out an alternative way of life? In this Celebration, Fabricio Paes continues our "A Creative Minority" journey at Renaissance.
“True practices of faith are not performances. They’re encounters of love.”
What does it look like to model this? What does it look like to be a community living out an alternative way of life? In this Celebration, Christine Lee continues our "A Creative Minority" journey at Renaissance.
“Waiting is bound up with and tangled with the concepts and actions of anticipating, trusting, and hoping. By waiting we are declaring and living into the hoped reality that there exists a future. For the follower of Jesus, waiting in the present day is a statement of stubborn hope that Jesus is working now through the Spirit and will return to renew and heal a hurting world.”
What does it look like to wait? What does it look like to be a community living out a waiting posture? In this Celebration, Damaris Taylor helps us reflect on Advent at Renaissance.
"Daniel doesn't spend energy criticizing others or controlling others, but he leads by quiet example."
What does it look like to model this? What does it look like to be a community living out an alternative way of life? In this Celebration, Eamon Anderson continues our "A Creative Minority" journey at Renaissance.
"Worshipping God shouldn’t look condescending towards other people; it should look like an invitation for anyone to come experience who God is. Our worship of an almighty, all-knowing, intimately loving, life-giving God could be the example that invites someone else to worship Him too."
What does it look like to understand this? What does it look like to be a community knitted together in worship of God? In this Celebration, Johanna Beachy continues our "A Creative Minority" journey at Renaissance.
"A Creative Minority is fueled, driven, and framed by a compelling counter narrative – the full, Biblical story of God’s loving relationship with His people." What does it look like to understand this? What does it look like engage culture around us in a healthy way? In this Celebration, Robert Meyer continues our "A Creative Minority" journey at Renaissance.
“A Creative Minority is a Christian community in a web of stubbornly committed relationships, knotted together in a living network of persons who are devoted to practicing the way of Jesus together for the renewal of the world.” What does it look like to understand this? What does it look like engage culture around us in a healthy way? In this Celebration, Drew Thurman kicks off our "A Creative Minority" journey at Renaissance.
“Revelations are deep spiritual insights, offered by God, that usually bring clarity or a fresh understanding to whatever the recent circumstances you've been going through."
What does it look like to understand this? What does it look like to experience revelation on the road of faith? In this Celebration, Joe and Lauryn Carr continue our "From Here to There" journey at Renaissance.
“Struggling is a doorway. When we struggle we discover our weakness, but we also get to discover God’s strength. We discover that we follow a God who meets us where we hurt the most. We discover it is in God’s character to find those who are hiding and to sooth those who feel lost and shame. That’s who he is.”
What does it look like to understand this? What does it look like to feel the struggle in our faith? In this Celebration, Christine Lee continues our "From Here to There" journey at Renaissance.
“This is the kind of change we should experience when we first encounter the church. The church is such a radically different community, that lives by such radically different values, that by choosing to be a part of it we have to restructure everything in our reality.” What does it look like to embody this? What does it look like to learn new things as a Christian? In this Celebration, Robert Meyer continues our "From Here to There" journey at Renaissance.
“Calls are invitations from Jesus for everyone to trust him and follow him in bringing the Kingdom." What does it look like to hear God and follow his call? How can we discern his voice and help others do the same? In this Celebration, Jacob Vangen continues our "From Here to There" journey at Renaissance. Plus, we hear a story from Brittany Hakenjos.
“Discipleship is the process of becoming who Jesus would be if he were you.” - Dallas Willard
But what does that process look like and how do we know change is occurring? Well, 2022 is all about us unpacking these questions for our microchurches. In this Celebration, Drew Thurman kicks off the journey and looks at Luke 5. Plus, we hear a story from Jace Rasche.
C.S. Lewis famously stated, “Every Christian is to become a little Christ. The whole purpose of becoming a Christian is simply nothing else.” In other words, growth in the Christian life is about reorienting our lives around the values embodied in the life and teaching of Christ. At Renaissance, we want to discover Jesus in new ways and become intimately knowledgeable of what it looks like to live in his love. In our November Celebration, Drew Thurman looks at Jesus' encounter in John 20. (Plus an interview with Brian Bethke)
C.S. Lewis famously stated, “Every Christian is to become a little Christ. The whole purpose of becoming a Christian is simply nothing else.” In other words, growth in the Christian life is about reorienting our lives around the values embodied in the life and teaching of Christ. At Renaissance, we want to discover Jesus in new ways and become intimately knowledgeable of what it looks like to live in his love. In our October Celebration, Jace Rasche looks at Jesus' encounter in John 11.
C.S. Lewis famously stated, “Every Christian is to become a little Christ. The whole purpose of becoming a Christian is simply nothing else.” In other words, growth in the Christian life is about reorienting our lives around the values embodied in the life and teaching of Christ. At Renaissance, we want to discover Jesus in new ways and become intimately knowledgeable of what it looks like to live in his love. In our September Celebration, Christine Lee looks at Jesus' encounter in John 4. (Please note due to technical difficulties this is just a small clip of the message).
C.S. Lewis famously stated, “Every Christian is to become a little Christ. The whole purpose of becoming a Christian is simply nothing else.” In other words, growth in the Christian life is about reorienting our lives around the values embodied in the life and teaching of Christ. At Renaissance, we want to discover Jesus in new ways and become intimately knowledgeable of what it looks like to live in his love. In our August Celebration, Jacob Vangen launches our new series ReJesus, looking at Jesus' encounter with Nicodemus.