Blog (Page 11)

“To Become One” – Christena Cleveland

The relationship between racism and the church is a complex one. It touches on many aspects of our experience, from the sense of welcome we receive in the church, to our theology of the cross, to what we imagine the purpose of the church to be—and more. Christena Cleveland (PhD) is a social psychologist who has helped the church confront the ways we are divided by racism for many years. She is the author of Disunity in Christ: Uncovering the…

Lament for Ahmaud Arbery & Doug Lewis

Hey Roots Family, Just a few months ago, we were journeying through the season of Lent together with Isaiah 58 framing our thoughts. We focused on how God’s people are called not just to observe personal spiritual practices like fasting which are good, but that our worship of God is to form us into a people who have eyes to see injustice in society and that our love for God is expressed in our love of our neighbors. In that series,…

Ears to Hear: The Parables of Jesus

Why Parables Now? This week Roots is starting a new teaching series on the parables of Jesus called “Ears to Hear.” We’re going to be taking another look at these enigmatic stories with an ear for what they might be saying to us now. Jesus told these parables as a way of drawing people in, and as a way of shifting paradigms. You see, not only are we daily being formed by the practices in which we participate, we are also…

On Worship & Physical Distancing

Since the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the gathering together of Jesus’s disciples for fellowship and worship has been an essential aspect of what it means to be the church. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions…