Ministry Resources

A seven week series for the Easter season, which follows the assigned lectionary texts. (We will update regularly with new worship weeks so be sure to check back!)

A seven week series for the Easter season, which follows the assigned lectionary texts. (We will update regularly with new worship weeks so be sure to check back!)

A seven week series for the Easter season, which follows the assigned lectionary texts. (We will update regularly with new worship weeks so be sure to check back!)

Worship for Pentecost weekend, beginning our theme of Catch the Spirit. See accompanying scripture commentaries in the below section for more information. 

For the first nine weeks of summer,  our series is called Catch the Spirit. This series is a departure from the lectionary and through the first ten chapters of Acts, focusing particularly on the movement of the Holy Spirit in forming and activating the new community of Christ.

For the first nine weeks of summer,  our series is called Catch the Spirit. This series is a departure from the lectionary and through the first ten chapters of Acts, focusing particularly on the movement of the Holy Spirit in forming and activating the new community of Christ.

For the first nine weeks of summer,  our series is called Catch the Spirit. This series is a departure from the lectionary and through the first ten chapters of Acts, focusing particularly on the movement of the Holy Spirit in forming and activating the new community of Christ.

For the first nine weeks of summer,  our series is called Catch the Spirit. This series is a departure from the lectionary and through the first ten chapters of Acts, focusing particularly on the movement of the Holy Spirit in forming and activating the new community of Christ.

For the first nine weeks of summer,  our series is called Catch the Spirit. This series is a departure from the lectionary and through the first ten chapters of Acts, focusing particularly on the movement of the Holy Spirit in forming and activating the new community of Christ.

As we move from July into August, we make a return to the Revised Common Lectionary with texts from the Gospel of Matthew. Throughout this series, we will differentiate between living in Christ aligned with God’s vision of love and oneness for creation vis a vis living in crisis aligned with the world’s systems of hierarchy, division, violence, and injustice.

Throughout this series, we will differentiate between living in Christ aligned with God’s vision of love and oneness for creation vis a vis living in crisis aligned with the world’s systems of hierarchy, division, violence, and injustice.

Throughout this series, we will differentiate between living in Christ aligned with God’s vision of love and oneness for creation vis a vis living in crisis aligned with the world’s systems of hierarchy, division, violence, and injustice.

Spirit Unleashed is the name of the series AH will be doing for October-November and it will focus primarily on generosity. During the series, AH will also conduct a joint appeal for Forward in Faith and Generous Life campaigns to garner commitments for 2021. This series is on lectionary, which places us in the final weeks of Year A focusing on Matthew’s Gospel. 

Spirit Unleashed is the name of the series AH will be doing for October-November and it will focus primarily on generosity. During the series, AH will also conduct a joint appeal for Forward in Faith and Generous Life campaigns to garner commitments for 2021. This series is on lectionary, which places us in the final weeks of Year A focusing on Matthew’s Gospel. 

Spirit Unleashed is the name of the series AH will be doing for October-November and it will focus primarily on generosity. During the series, AH will also conduct a joint appeal for Forward in Faith and Generous Life campaigns to garner commitments for 2021. This series is on lectionary, which places us in the final weeks of Year A focusing on Matthew’s Gospel. 

Spirit Unleashed is the name of the series AH will be doing for October-November and it will focus primarily on generosity. During the series, AH will also conduct a joint appeal for Forward in Faith and Generous Life campaigns to garner commitments for 2021. This series is on lectionary, which places us in the final weeks of Year A focusing on Matthew’s Gospel. 

We will be following the theme of Hope, Peace, Joy, Love for this Advent season. These areas of focus will speak to our current and ongoing situation with the pandemic and other societal stresses. Advent is a time to reflect on such things in order to surrender them so that God can continually birth us anew. As Advent 2020 stands as the beginning of Year B for the new liturgical year, Mark will become our primary focus through the season with a little bit of John and Luke included.

We will be following the theme of Hope, Peace, Joy, Love for this Advent season. These areas of focus will speak to our current and ongoing situation with the pandemic and other societal stresses. Advent is a time to reflect on such things in order to surrender them so that God can continually birth us anew. As Advent 2020 stands as the beginning of Year B for the new liturgical year, Mark will become our primary focus through the season with a little bit of John and Luke included.

Worship for the two weekends after Christmas. 

Our 2021 theme, Love and Life Win! aligns quite well with the Gospel texts for the season of Epiphany this year and so I think it makes sense to use this theme for our first series as an opportunity to introduce it into the new year. We continue into Year B of the Revised Common Lectionary which is based primarily on the Gospel of Mark. 

Throughout the Marcan texts we discover that Jesus has come to “proclaim the good news that the reign of God has drawn near” which is exemplified not only through his preaching but through unleashing human beings from all that holds them back from living as children of God. Jesus proclaims and reveals the needed and welcomed message that Love and Life Win!

Our 2021 theme, Love and Life Win! aligns quite well with the Gospel texts for the season of Epiphany this year and so I think it makes sense to use this theme for our first series as an opportunity to introduce it into the new year. We continue into Year B of the Revised Common Lectionary which is based primarily on the Gospel of Mark. 

Throughout the Marcan texts we discover that Jesus has come to “proclaim the good news that the reign of God has drawn near” which is exemplified not only through his preaching but through unleashing human beings from all that holds them back from living as children of God. Jesus proclaims and reveals the needed and welcomed message that Love and Life Win!

Our 2021 theme, Love and Life Win! aligns quite well with the Gospel texts for the season of Epiphany this year and so I think it makes sense to use this theme for our first series as an opportunity to introduce it into the new year. We continue into Year B of the Revised Common Lectionary which is based primarily on the Gospel of Mark. 

Throughout the Marcan texts we discover that Jesus has come to “proclaim the good news that the reign of God has drawn near” which is exemplified not only through his preaching but through unleashing human beings from all that holds them back from living as children of God. Jesus proclaims and reveals the needed and welcomed message that Love and Life Win!

Our Ash Wednesday worship this year will be a short digital service in conjunction with a drive up imposition of ashes. 

We are calling our Lent worship series A Necessary Death. As we explore the Gospel texts for Lent this year, a common thread is the call to turn from the corrupted ways of the world to be rebirthed as children of God, our true-identity from the beginning.

We are calling our Lent worship series A Necessary Death. As we explore the Gospel texts for Lent this year, a common thread is the call to turn from the corrupted ways of the world to be rebirthed as children of God, our true-identity from the beginning.

In the cross we see the stark contrast between God’s pure love and acceptance for all against humanity’s guile and rage toward God and one another. While in the cross, humanity utters an emphatic “NO!” toward God, God responds with an even more emphatic “YES” toward humanity through the empty tomb! Death appears to have the last word, but A NEW DAY has arrived!

In the cross we see the stark contrast between God’s pure love and acceptance for all against humanity’s guile and rage toward God and one another. While in the cross, humanity utters an emphatic “NO!” toward God, God responds with an even more emphatic “YES” toward humanity through the empty tomb! Death appears to have the last word, but A NEW DAY has arrived!

The theme for this part of summer will be Re-Connect. God’s mission in the world is to draw all humanity into full communion with God, one another, and creation. God’s vision is a universe where all things dwell in oneness through love. This vision and mission are actualized when human beings trust God and order their lives in such a way that the divisive barriers are destroyed and all people are unleashed to be the children of God we are created to be.

Throughout the pandemic many of have felt isolated and alone. We’ve missed seeing one another at work, school, or church. During these two months we will encounter stories where the trust of individuals generates oneness, connection with God and others. We will also encounter stories where people living outside of trust perpetuate the division, violence, and destruction within our world. When we live fully into trust that life and love win, we are drawn into deeper connection to God, closer to one another, closer to the creation, closer to living fully as children of God, closer to God’s reign in the world, closer to the image of Christ. How are we being called to Re-Connect with God, with the Creation, with others as we near the end of the pandemic and begin to emerge from quarantined lives?

Our worship focus for August and September is In Christ or In Crises, highlighting God’s story and the world’s story knowing that both stories can’t be true. Through Jesus’ life and ministry, we see that as children of God we can fully live into God’s story. As we journey through this series, I invite your small group to center on the gospel text and engage the contemplative questions posted below.

Welcome to our VBS ONLINE! Our theme this year is “In the beginning…” We will look at the great poem of creation from Genesis and explore how amazing and miraculous creation is, from the BIG BANG to plankton. We will explore the 7 days of creation with awesome lessons, songs, crafts, and much more! This is a self-guided program that can be done at any pace your families desire. 

This COVID-19 Spiritual Resource Guide is meant to help you become more aware of what
you’re feeling physically, emotionally, and spiritually. And in doing so, your awareness will
help you to respond to yourself and others with more grace and, most importantly, help you
to experience the many ways in which God is with us, especially during this time of crisis and
trauma.

In this devotional resource, Pastor Laura Bostrom draws on the spiritual memory of both old and new treasured hymns of the church. Each devotion includes a hymn, a short story or illustration, several
contemplative questions, and a closing prayer. There are a total of fourteen devotions, meant to be read over a two week period. They can be used in various settings: by an individual for personal devotions, as a family, or in a small group

Rev. Dr. Doug Hill’s commentaries for the first eight weeks of summer, a series called Catch the Spirit. This series is a departure from the lectionary through the first ten chapters of Acts, focusing particularly on the movement of the Holy Spirit in forming and activating the new community of Christ.

Rev. Dr. Doug Hill’s commentaries for the second half of summer, a series called In Christ or In Crisis. This series is a return to the Revised Common Lectionary with texts from the Gospel of Matthew. Each story conveys Jesus revealing to the disciples his identity as the son of God and, as a result, their true-identity as children of God. By doing this, Jesus is not creating a new religion but drawing all people into lives consistent with God’s vision of love and oneness for the world. Unfortunately, many of the existing power structures and systems work against love and oneness for all people and so Jesus has to consistently demonstrate what life as children of God is intended be. Throughout this series, we will differentiate between living in Christ aligned with God’s vision of love and oneness for creation vis a vis living in crisis aligned with the world’s systems of hierarchy, division, violence, and injustice. 

Rev. Dr. Doug Hill’s commentaries for the second half of summer, a series called In Christ or In Crisis. This series is a return to the Revised Common Lectionary with texts from the Gospel of Matthew. Each story conveys Jesus revealing to the disciples his identity as the son of God and, as a result, their true-identity as children of God. By doing this, Jesus is not creating a new religion but drawing all people into lives consistent with God’s vision of love and oneness for the world. Unfortunately, many of the existing power structures and systems work against love and oneness for all people and so Jesus has to consistently demonstrate what life as children of God is intended be. Throughout this series, we will differentiate between living in Christ aligned with God’s vision of love and oneness for creation vis a vis living in crisis aligned with the world’s systems of hierarchy, division, violence, and injustice. 

Spirit Unleashed is the name of the series AH will be doing for October-November and it will focus primarily on generosity. During the series, AH will also conduct a joint appeal for Forward in Faith and Generous Life campaigns to garner commitments for 2021. This series and Doug Hill’s commentaries are on lectionary, which places us in
the final weeks of Year A focusing on Matthew’s Gospel, except for Reformation weekend which uses the familiar passage from John.

We will be following the theme of Hope, Peace, Joy, Love for this Advent season. These areas of focus will speak to our current and ongoing situation with the pandemic and other societal stresses. Advent is a time to reflect on such things in order to surrender them so that God can continually birth us anew. As Advent 2020 stands as the beginning of Year B for the new liturgical year, Mark will become our primary focus through the season with a little bit of John and Luke included.

Our 2021 theme, Love and Life Win! aligns quite well with the Gospel texts for the season of Epiphany this year and so I think it makes sense to use this theme for our first series as an opportunity to introduce it into the new year. We continue into Year B of the Revised Common Lectionary which is based primarily on the Gospel of Mark. 

Throughout the Marcan texts we discover that Jesus has come to “proclaim the good news that the reign of God has drawn near” which is exemplified not only through his preaching but through unleashing human beings from all that holds them back from living as children of God. Jesus proclaims and reveals the needed and welcomed message that Love and Life Win!

Abiding Hope’s theme for 2021 is Love and Life Win! We will still not be experiencing “in-person” worship during Lent so this is reflected in our lenten worship series, which we are calling A Necessary Death. As we explore the Gospel texts for Lent this year, a common thread is the call to turn from the corrupted ways of the world to be rebirthed as children of God, our true-identity from the beginning.

The concept of Tomb as Womb is a prevalent image for our Lenten season in which we acknowledge that Jesus was changed, different after his resurrection, after his “tomb” experience. In the same way, we are called to die to the things that rob and drain us of real life, the life that God intends for us, so that we can be re-birthed as new human beings.

The past year has been extraordinarily difficult for all of us. Now that we are (hopefully) nearing the end of the pandemic as vaccines get distributed, all of us will have to grapple with the question of “what’s next?” Some will want life to return to the way it was before the pandemic. Others will wait and see what develops. We have the opportunity as people of the resurrection to call for and invite others into A NEW DAY where love and life prevail.

The season of Easter is an excellent time to return to the baptismal waters, to the very Source of our being, to discover who we are and why we’re here. We are gifted each weekend with stories of transformation and new life. We can incorporate and reflect upon other stories such as the flood narrative, the exodus, and the prophets’ calls for new ways of being to support the message that the Spirit is driving us toward A NEW DAY of life for all people. There is no going back. Jesus envisioned this new day and his resurrection inaugurated it. The only thing remaining is for us to live fully into A NEW DAY in which inclusion, oneness, hope, joy, peace, and love prevail. God is counting on us to live as new human beings so that Christ’s vision for A NEW DAY may come to fruition.

June and July bring us into “Ordinary Time” or “Sundays After Pentecost” in the Lectionary Year B, landing us squarely in the Gospel of Mark. Mark is the first of the four Gospels to be written, circa 70 CE. The primary issue throughout these Marcan passages is “trust.”

The theme for this part of summer will be Re-Connect. God’s mission in the world is to draw all humanity into full communion with God, one another, and creation. God’s vision is a universe where all things dwell in oneness through love. This vision and mission are actualized when human beings trust God and order their lives in such a way that the divisive barriers are destroyed and all people are unleashed to be the children of God we are created to be.

Throughout the pandemic many of have felt isolated and alone. We’ve missed seeing one another at work, school, or church. During these two months we will encounter stories where the trust of individuals generates oneness, connection with God and others. We will also encounter stories where people living outside of trust perpetuate the division, violence, and destruction within our world. When we live fully into trust that life and love win, we are drawn into deeper connection to God, closer to one another, closer to the creation, closer to living fully as children of God, closer to God’s reign in the world, closer to the image of Christ. How are we being called to Re-Connect with God, with the Creation, with others as we near the end of the pandemic and begin to emerge from quarantined lives?

A thread that ties all of the August-September Gospel texts together is that Jesus is consistently doing something new. Therefore, I’d like to suggest the theme Becoming for our worship series for August through November. Each week we can mine deeper into how the Spirit is drawing us into becoming new in our identity as children of God, in our awareness of our oneness with God and all things, and our in service of God’s mission of life for the world. Each week the preacher is invited to identify that “thing” into which we are becoming and communicate that focus with the worship planning team.

As we move into October, we will begin our Forward in Faith focus. The theme Becoming can continue to be utilized through this time as our generosity is directly tied to who we are becoming personally and who we are becoming collectively as the Christ community. Our October-November texts address the issues of divorce, the dangers of wealth, again the issue of greatness, and then the healing of blind Bartimaeus. Reformation and All Saints’ weekends follow during which we will hear passages from the Fourth Gospel regarding remaining in the word and the raising of Lazarus.

The word “catholic” comes from the Greek “katholikos” which was then transliterated into the Latin “catholicus”, both of which mean “universal.” The reason that the word “catholic” became associated with Christianity is that the early church held a universal view of God, Christ, and creation. In other words, all things came into being through God/Christ and all things dwell in God/Christ. This study will explore how the Fourth Gospel, known as “John”, articulates the Universal Christ and lays the foundation for Christianity. We will also address the call to return to this early Christian mindset by reorienting our lives through the lens that we and all things dwell in God.

The word “catholic” comes from the Greek “katholikos” which was then transliterated into the Latin “catholicus”, both of which mean “universal.” The reason that the word “catholic” became associated with Christianity is that the early church held a universal view of God, Christ, and creation. In other words, all things came into being through God/Christ and all things dwell in God/Christ. This study will explore how the Fourth Gospel, known as “John”, articulates the Universal Christ and lays the foundation for Christianity. We will also address the call to return to this early Christian mindset by reorienting our lives through the lens that we and all things dwell in God.

The word “catholic” comes from the Greek “katholikos” which was then transliterated into the Latin “catholicus”, both of which mean “universal.” The reason that the word “catholic” became associated with Christianity is that the early church held a universal view of God, Christ, and creation. In other words, all things came into being through God/Christ and all things dwell in God/Christ. This study will explore how the Fourth Gospel, known as “John”, articulates the Universal Christ and lays the foundation for Christianity. We will also address the call to return to this early Christian mindset by reorienting our lives through the lens that we and all things dwell in God.

The word “catholic” comes from the Greek “katholikos” which was then transliterated into the Latin “catholicus”, both of which mean “universal.” The reason that the word “catholic” became associated with Christianity is that the early church held a universal view of God, Christ, and creation. In other words, all things came into being through God/Christ and all things dwell in God/Christ. This study will explore how the Fourth Gospel, known as “John”, articulates the Universal Christ and lays the foundation for Christianity. We will also address the call to return to this early Christian mindset by reorienting our lives through the lens that we and all things dwell in God.

St. Paul wrote more in the New Testament than any other person and his writings greatly influenced the writings of others. He is often called “the Architect of the Church.” In this four session study we will explore how Paul juxtaposed love and the law to demonstrate that only love can truly unleash humanity to generate hope, opportunity, and liberation for all people. Our aim is to challenge and equip each participant in letting God’s love flow freely through us as we strive to generate a love-based culture of hope, opportunity, and liberation in our homes, schools, work places, neighborhood, and beyond.