THE GENEROSITY EXPERIMENT

Flowers, candy,  cards, and romance.
Did anyone notice it was Valentine’s Day this week?
Whether we choose to celebrate it or not, the impact of LOVE in all of our lives is powerful. Jesus understood this and modeled some unique ways to help us consider how we love others.

This week at Storyline’s Gathering we considered the opportunity we each have to love others generously and how it might make a difference in our own lives as well as those all around us.  

IN THE SAME BOAT(Forgiveness - Part 3)

There is no way to avoid it, sooner or later, we are going to have to forgive others.  It is just a reality of life.  To live with the bitterness and resentment of unforgiveness not only leaves us separated from others, it takes a huge toll on our personal sense of well-being.  Jesus understood this and has invited us into a unique and life-changing way to forgive one another.  

This week at Storyline's Gathering Mike Gathright considered this invitation and how it might help us move forward in life - together.

FORGIVENESS (Forgiveness - Part 2)

How we judge and assess other people plays a big role in how we treat them, feel about them and relate to them. This caused one writer to say, "The most important thing about you is what you think when you think about God."  If that's true, then certainly a close second would be what we think when we think about ourselves.  

This Sunday at Storyline's Gathering Mike Gathright considered how God's offer of forgiveness not only changes our relationship with Him, it can also transform our relationship with ourselves.

MOP SLIPPERS (Forgiveness - Part 1)

2017!  Wow. It is a year that sounds like the future, a time and place so much better and advanced than our reality.  Didn't you think, hope, by 2017 we'd be further along, more advanced, sophisticated, civilized, balanced, just, fair?  Why aren't we?  What is holding us back?

Lots of people came to Jesus with these same questions and he totally shocked them with his answer.  This Sunday at Storyline's Gathering Mike Gathright explored what Jesus seems to think is holding us back from the future we all want.

 

 

A NEW ANGLE

Just what is the meaning of Christmas?  It feels like a question that ends with an understood - "to you?"  And that is fine, it is something we should think about, but it assumes something doesn't it?  What does Christmas mean?  

This Saturday, at Storyline's Christmas Eve Gathering, Mike Gathright explored this question - and how it may help us all discover the meaning of Christmas...for ourselves.

WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

Christmas is the world's most celebrated holiday... and it's not even close. Just this year, American's will spend 6 Billion Dollars on Christmas decorations alone!! But why? Why do we invest so much time and energy and money into this holiday over all of the others? What makes December 25th so special? 

This week at the Gathering, Paul Knapp asked these questions and explored why an ancient story from the 1st-century middle eastern world continues to capture an audience nearly 2,000 years later.

THE GREATEST GIFT

There are only fifteen shopping days left before Christmas! Are you done?  Maybe the better question is - have you started?  
This Sunday at Storyline's Gathering Mike Gathright considered the possibility that the greatest gift we could ever give would be ______ . 
The good news, it is free.  The even better news - giving this gift will change everything.

CHAIN REACTION

It is easy for us to get caught up in who has the power and who doesn't because it seems like those have it always use it for themselves. Maybe that is why the bible shuns the love of power and instead insists it is the power of love that matters most.

Sunday at Storyline's Gathering Mike Gathright looked at the ways God is inviting us to move from the love of power to engage in the power of love.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Thanksgiving is a uniquely American holiday, but communal feasts for many different reasons are common throughout human history.  Jesus was invited to a feast once - and what happened there was the beginning of his mission on earth.

Sunday morning at Storyline's Gathering Mike Gathright  explored just what happened at that feast and how we are invited not only to enjoy it but also to become a part of it as well.

DRAWBRIDGE DOWN

This last election cycle had a lot going on, some of it was pretty ugly.  Yet underneath there a common theme that linked voters from both parties together - this theme was also present in the life and mission of Jesus.  What was it and how could it help us to live with more purpose and passion?
This was the question Mike Gathright considered Sunday morning at Storyline's Gathering.

CERTAIN UNCERTAINTY

Have you ever thought you knew something for sure?  Like you were absolutely certain and then... It is not a good feeling.  We all long to have more control over life than we actually, really have.

This Sunday at Storyline's Gathering Jill McNabnay looked at the nature of certainty, why it is so important to us and how it just might be keeping something very important from us.

THE WHOLE STORY

Families, schools, companies, organizations can sometimes look very different from one another.  But sometimes they look very similar - but FEEL very different.  Why do some groups, organizations, families and communities feel open, friendly, inclusive and others feel stiff, closed, exclusive and judgmental?  
All kinds of people felt included, welcomed and loved by Jesus.  How did he do it? And why do communities of faith in Him so often fail to "feel" like this?
These are the questions Mike Gathright  explored  Sunday morning at Storyline's Gathering

BRICKS

Greatness... It's a word that comes with so many implications. It suggests success and triumph and legacy. It instills images of winning a race or conquering a fear. You may think of great moments in history like landing on the moon, The 1980 Miracle on Ice, the crumbling of the Berlin Wall. But what did Jesus think of greatness? How would he have defined it?
This week at the Gathering, Paul Knapp ask that and explored what greatness might mean when it comes to living the life of faith.