Restoration Church

The more we follow the Holy Spirit into the world around us, the more we will encounter people of different faiths and backgrounds. So how do we know what it means to faithfully witness to the Gospel without antagonizing or belittling those who are different from us? This week, we’re looking to Paul’s time in Athens in Acts 17 – a story that helps us see how we can bear witness to our hope with neither condemnation or compromise. (Acts 17:16-34)

The most persistent problem that the Church in Acts faced wasn’t persecution or competing beliefs. It was division. As the Church expanded into new countries and cultures, the differences between the Jews and Gentiles came to a head. In the end, they found a unity that did not erase their differences. It empowered them for mission. The same can be true for us. (Acts 15:1-19)

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All kinds of things can hold us captive: our emotions, our addictions, our circumstances, our past… but when we encounter the good news of Jesus, we find a liberation that upends our story and changes the trajectory of our lives. This week, we’re looking at two very different people who both experience freedom – and we’ll explore how that we can find liberation, too. (Acts 16:16-40)

What is a disciple of Jesus to make of our life as an American citizen?
Acts gives us the backdrop to answer that question – through the witness of a Church that disrupted the power of empire not through the Senate or the sword, but through a radical, shared way of life that centered on our primary allegiance: Jesus. (Acts 22:25-29)

What do you do when God calls you outside of the comfort and culture you’ve always known? In Acts 10, Peter is led by the Holy Spirit to cross what had previously been uncrossable boundaries – a call that challenged both his identity and his sense of belonging. But on the other side of his certainty, he watched God move in a way he’d never imagine. It begs the question: what stands on the other side of our comfort? (Acts 10)

In Acts 9, we witness the dramatic conversion and commission of one of the most important men in the history of our faith: the apostle Paul. But Paul’s journey begins through the ordinary obedience of an otherwise unknown man named Ananias – a man who simply had the courage to see what God was doing… and join him. (Acts 9:1-18)

In Acts 8, Philip followed God’s leading into an unexpected place and discovered that God was already at work in the life of the Ethiopian eunuch. This story reminds us that being the church means joining God’s mission beyond Sunday mornings by paying attention to where He is leading and who He is placing in our path. (Acts 8:26-40)

As the early Church continues to move forward after Pentecost, they are confronted by the deep needs of the world around them. So what does the resurrection of Jesus mean for those who are in need around us? This weekend, we explore the centrality of compassion in our Spirit-empowered mission with Jesus. (Acts 3:1-10)

In the aftermath of the power of Pentecost, a new kind of community is born. Through a deep devotion to a shared way of life, they lived an embodied and empowered life of love together that still challenges our vision of who the Church is called to be. So what does this new kind of family mean for us? And how might we find it here? (Acts 2:42-47)

There’s all sorts of signs, wonders, and miracles in the book of Acts. But perhaps the most overlooked miracle of all? The birth of a new kind of family – empowered by the Spirit for a mission that breaks down divisions and transcends the boundaries the world tells us not to cross. This is what begins in Pentecost – and i’s what we’re after together.