Pastor Chris Seay continues our series revisiting the foundational Rhythms of Ecclesia, casting a vision for Christian hospitality during a time in which it is a challenge to invite many into our homes. As followers of Jesus, we are to continue extending open arms to the world, always cultivating space for care, community, and growth.
Quarantine Made Sacred: My Slave, My Child
People are experiencing and reporting higher and higher degrees of loneliness and disconnection — even as we spend more and more time with fewer people in our homes. Part of our loneliness is our general disconnection. Even before COVID-19, our lives mostly moved around one another rather than toward one another. Add to that increasing division via social media and we are not only disconnected, but contemptuous to our relationships.
This week, Pastor Sean introduces three powerful questions that the Apostle Paul revealed while he was locked away at home that will help make your relationships more whole.
Beautiful
Quarantine Made Sacred: A Smaller You
When you're stuck at home it's easy to feel stuck. Add to that the chorus of voices in our culture saying that quarantine is the perfect time to finally write your book, launch a business, develop a new hobby, plus the opposing voices that remind us that we are in the middle of a pandemic and that just living through it all and maintaining our sanity is an accomplishment and it all equates to confusion.
But what if God is up to something powerful in the midst of us all staying-at-home? What if we are being invited to encounter the world differently, and the only way God could encourage us to embrace a great reboot was a complete shutdown?
Divine Mothering
Quarantine Made Sacred: Mothered
Mother’s Day is this weekend. And while Mother’s Day is not on the Liturgical Calendar, mothering is a calling, task, sacrifice, and surrender unlike few others. Regardless of who we are, through the hardships, joys, beauty and pain someone somewhere has mothered us. God, in fact describes God’s care and redirection as a mother. This week, we enter into mothering, a task that couldn’t be more opposite than distancing, and we see God mother us in love in the midst of it all.
Kindness Cascades
Pastor Chris offers a reminder of the vitality of kindness as we face the difficult circumstances of this season. As we receive God’s kindness, and extend that kindness both to ourselves and those closest to us in this crisis, we find that it will begin to ripple outward in ways beyond anything we could expect or anticipate. Through the simplest act of kindness, you never know when and how someone may be drawn toward the heart of Christ.
Quarantine Made Sacred: Iron-Clad Relationships
If absence makes the heart grow fonder, then right now we have never been more fond of our friends. Many of us are discovering that we may have taken our friendship for granted or didn't appreciate them as much as we should. And maybe that's because friendship requires more of us than we've ever admitted. What if being a friend — a true friend — is more than hanging out and convenience, but rooted in covenant and commitment?
Mirror Images
Pastor Chris invites us to consider honestly what God is revealing in us through the challenges of this season. Self-awareness is not self-absorption, and is vital for us to discern both the gifts God has given us, and also our opportunities to repent and renew, as together we navigate this troubled time. We hope you will continue to join us through whatever these weeks may hold. You are beloved.
Corona Conversations: Paul Unsworth
Join Pastor Chris as he continues his series of conversations with friends serving around our nation and around the world, discussing the common call we share in response to this global pandemic, and exploring in depth some challenges that may be contextually unique. Today Chris speaks with Paul Unsworth, founder of Kahaila, a unique combination of cafe, church, and charity in east London.
Quarantine Made Sacred: Finding Keepers
Are you sensing that you need your friends and deeper friendships more now than ever before? Maybe you find yourself appreciating your existing relationships in ways you never thought you would. The scriptures call us to a kind of loving and relating with one another that is expansive and beyond what most people know and experience. In times of distancing, we need one another more than ever. Maybe the opportunity in this season is for you to lean in to bolder, deeper, more rewarding friendships.
Endless Easter
As we continue to gather online, here is the weekend audio for you to revisit as we continue rejoicing in this very different Easter Season. Pastor Sean considers what jazz has to do with the story of King David, and the ways we choose to either live within or fight against God’s rhythm in the world.
Corona Conversations: David Gungor
Pastor Chris continues his series of conversations with friends serving around our nation and around the world, discussing the common call we share in response to this global pandemic, and exploring in depth some challenges that may be contextually unique. Chris’s guest today is David Gungor, a long-time friend of Ecclesia living in New York City.
Quarantine Made Sacred: The God Who Holds
We live - and have lived for a long while - in an age and culture of fear. Right now, with every day bringing us more and more fear-inducing news, it's almost impossible to not be afraid. But how do we approach and handle our fear? With shame? With embrace? And how do we walk the people closest to us through their fear? In this episode, we come close to the hope of Easter while living with very human fears.
Easter Sunday: Keep The Questions Coming
We hope you were able to join us for our Resurrection celebration on Sunday. Here is the audio for you to revisit as you continue rejoicing in this very different Easter Season. Along with special messages from Sandra McCracken, Bob Goff, Propaganda, and David Gungor (& friends), we are offered an encouraging word from Pastor Chris. The truth of Christ’s Resurrection is beyond spacious enough to hold our questions and doubts; just ask believing Thomas.
Corona Conversations: Episode 3
Pastor Chris continues his series of conversations with friends serving around our nation and around the world, discussing the common call we share in response to this global pandemic, and exploring in depth some challenges that may be contextually unique. Today Chris talks with two friends from one of Ecclesia’s long-standing global partners.
Quarantine Made Sacred: Becoming Aware
We know more about more than ever before. We are constantly drawn to the busyness and hurriedness of life. All that busyness conspires to make us less-aware people. That lack of awareness is at the heart of disenchantment and relational distance. In the midst of a pandemic, with news constantly changing, we have never been more informed. But informed is not the same thing as aware. How often do we pause to consider what's right in front of us? What if a blessing of this really painful time is God's ability to bring forward our deep inattentiveness to the people God has given us to love and care for? What in your life would change if you were able to pay attention?
Palm Sunday: Ordinary Heroes
Though we remain in this season of physical distancing, we long to remain connected as a family, especially as we enter into Holy Week. On this Palm Sunday, Ericka Graham leads us with a timely word on Jesus’ not-so “triumphal” entry into Jerusalem, the faith we are called to summon in times of trial, and the ordinary acts of compassion that help us collectively to bridge the gap.
Corona Conversations: Elisa Moed and Christina Samara
Pastor Chris continues his series of conversations with friends serving around our nation and around the world, discussing the common call we share in response to this global pandemic, and exploring in depth some challenges that may be contextually unique. Chris’s guests today are our dear friends from the Holy Land, Elisa Moed and Christina Samara.
Quarantine Made Sacred: The Pace of Return
Ferris was right, "life moves pretty fast," until it doesn't. In the midst of a pandemic, one of the first things we notice is that life doesn't always move that fast. Maybe we've been trained to move fast, but what does that speed mean? What does it do to us? What if we have been living at a pace that fundamentally disconnects from our deeper wants, truer selves, and the people God has given us?