The Circlecast

What does it mean to be a friend? It is a great question, but it has so many layers. Angela and a friend dialogue over questions people asked towards the Circle about what it means to be a friend in today's world and have faith in Jesus. Listen in as the discussion gets intense but insightful and getting to the depths of Scripture.

Does the Bible give us any guidance or tools to create self-awareness? Does the Enneagram (or other personality tests) harm or help us? What does it mean to have your identity in Jesus but struggle with knowing your personality —the qualities of you? If faith in Jesus and following Jesus as King and God is a relational movement between God, Others, and Self. How can we use human tools well in lived faith? Listen in as, Phil Worrall, one of the co-preachers and leaders explores how personality tests like the Enneagram can give us some self-awareness in order to best reflect our identity in Jesus Christ through our thoughts, actions, and behaviors.

Angela continues in with our series, Back to the Basics, talking over obedience. Obedience isn't a sexy word, definitely not something we have positive connotations when it comes to religion and faith. Angela helps us understand that obedience is worth doing because it keeps us in step with God's will for our lives. It brings us into new understanding and trust, which leads us to deeper engagement with God's Spirit. Obedience can be difficult; maybe, scary. But, obedience isn't always the big things. What if obedience has to do with making the small faithful steps first, then what seem to be big ones. All of us are on a journey with God either in following Jesus, or yet to follow Jesus. That first act of obedience is called repentance —turning around and embracing Jesus. Those of us who follow Jesus need to ask if we have gone through the next steps of obedience: baptism. Others of us need to re-examine our lives to see if we are continuing in obedience. God desires our quality obedience, not our quantity. It is the motivation and heart behind our obedience that will lead us into fruitful, flourishing lives as we follow Jesus as God and King.

We continue in our conversation about Jesus followers and Jesus' community getting back to the basics that the closest friends of Jesus practiced. Last week, Angela spoke on the concept of fellowship and bands (groups of 3-4 people) who dig into knowing, sharing, and caring for living full-devoted lives to Jesus. Phil continues our series by talking about a very familiar prayer and seeing how Jesus gives us the heart of prayer. The heart of Christian prayer is to partner with God, seeing God loved and moving out into neighborly love. The Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6 gives us some great resources on what to pray. Additionally, Phil has an uncommon idea that Jesus followers are called to just pray this prayer, consistently with intentionality.

We started a new series called Back To The Basics, wherein we are trying to understand and recover some of the earliest Jesus community's practices around worshipping and following Jesus. Angela opens up the conversation by engaging the topic of fellowship. However, Angela digs a bit deeper than just that you and I need or are built for being in relationship with others. Fellowship gets to the heart of truly knowing and being known.  It takes a band, a small group of people (3-4 max), that you can entrust and share your life with to a degree that enables vulnerability and forming each other towards flourishing. Our ultimate flourishing happens when we come around the person of Jesus Christ, who is and what he has done. So, when we get a band around us as we follow Jesus, then something amazing happens. What we get is fellowship, lived-loved, vulnerability, and accountability.

Most of the time when you and I think of worship, we imagine people come to stand or sit at a religious service within a building and where people sing. People sing whether they can carry a tune or not, but no matter what they are worshipping. But what if there is more to worship than merely using our time and voice to be with other people in a religious setting or church environment. What if worship is a weapon? A weapon that puts ourselves and others in a place of reminding ourselves and calling others to trust in God because we know of God's power. Worship is more than singing, music, and being a church service. Worship is ascribing to God's power the ability to accomplish the good in our lives. Worship is reminding ourselves of God's power to move and accomplish what we feel is impossible. Listen in as Angela walks us through 2 Chronicles 20 and what it teaches us about worship. 

Wrapping up our series in Ephesians, listen in as Phil explores Ephesians 4:17-32; where embracing all of who Jesus is gives us a new direction for living well in the world. It doesn't look like being a good person or the self-help genre. Instead, it comes from a new mindset that comes from embracing an identity found in Jesus that brings up for us a new behavior. You see, Paul has a core conviction that your behavior is surface level, and ultimately it stems from how you source your identity. If you're a Jesus follower, then you are called to do something great with your life now. You are called to mirror Jesus in the world —to live out your identity. It isn't a command, but it is an invitation from embracing the person and work of Jesus Christ. It is great news because you get the chance to live out the good news of a new life.

Listen in as Phil continues in our series of Ephesians, over the topic of hostility and how Jesus brings a new way of perceiving people. Within the 21st century, we all like to think that we aren't hostile to things or people, even when we do something like righteous anger. However, Paul has a conviction that because of the fallenness of humanity that we are hostile to others. In other words, we hate and pursue behavior and attitudes to isolate others. Human beings don't merely have a broken relationship with God and their selves; human beings have a broken relationship with every other human being.  Does Jesus answer any of this? Can Jesus heal and restore the brokenness of human relationships too? What is the way forward? What is the new humanity? 

Angela leads us into our second week on the book of Ephesians where we take a closer look at God's lavished love and grace found and known in Jesus Christ.

The Circle is launching into its first book series, starting in Ephesians! Phil Worrall (IG: @notthatphil) sets us up through a summary of the book of Ephesians.  Ephesians is a short, dense summary of all that Paul continues to say throughout all of his letters to Jesus' communities throughout time, that is, in Jesus, the God of Israel has unified all things together in order to create a new humanity that lives with new purposes in the world by the power of the Holy Spirit. Phil gives us a brief overview of the book by way of thinking on Ephesians 1:3-14. 

What does it mean to surrender to God? We have all been stubborn, skeptical, and sinful when it comes to surrendering, especially when it comes to Jesus. We don't know what it means because it means deciding to follow God's way or my way. We are nervous and scared to follow God's way because it means trusting that God knows better. Surrendering doesn't mean you let all of your life go; instead, it looks more like partnering with God and choosing God's way over and against merely your way. As Angela states, "God doesn't do anything inside of God's sovereign will that isn't  wise, loving, and good."  If that's true that God does what is wise, good, and loving, shouldn't be figuring and living into God's way mean living more closely to how we are made?

Many of us believe the story of the Bible is pretty simple that it gives you a way for you to get out of hell and get into heaven. Yet, whatever the story of the Bible was more compelling, beautiful and complex. What if the story of the Bible wants to invite us into Good News (The Gospel) about God and the World.  The Bible wants to tell us about the Good News of God found in Jesus where God wants to have heaven and earth collide into a new beautiful and good world.