Resurrection City Church - St. Paul Minnesota Resurrection City Church

In this series, we’re talking about the ordinary. Something that is ordinary for Americans is elections, and we have another contentious one coming up in a few months. We’re hunkering down for the fear, the anxiety, the conflict seeking, the black and white, back alley, bare knuckles, street fighting with the other side nature of it all. It’s exhausting. Is it how we should approach it as Christians? The answer is emphatically no, and in this message, Pastor Joel talks about why Christians have a whole different agenda when it comes to politics than we normally are told. Join us as we study 1 Peter and find out what that looks like.

Most upper and middle class Americans are uncomfortable with suffering, and we often think of our faith in terms of the triumph and success we can get from it. But when we read Scripture, we find stories of suffering are a lot more common than we think, and we need to be exposed to them so that we can learn how to speak and think about our seasons of suffering.
Suffering is ordinary. What are we going to do when we enter it? In this message, Pastor Joel walks through how to speak the language of lament, looking at the book of Lamentations.

Having a body is a lot of work! It requires a lot of ordinary maintenance, and we can get annoyed by it or view our body simply as a machine. But according to Scripture, our bodies are spiritually very significant to God. In this message, Pastor Joel explains why that is the case, from why it has significance, the stories it tells as we maintain it, and the sacredness of how God dwells in us and when we engage it in worship.

On this special Res City Commissioning Sunday, Angela Hermanson preaches on what is most ordinary about the work we do: it never seems to end. As she focuses on the story of Nehemiah and the efforts of the Jewish people to rebuild the city walls of Jerusalem, she notes different encouragements to remember when our own work feels repetitive and ordinary.

We tend to view maturity as being the opposite of a child—someone who is independent, can make their own decisions and get what they want without help. Someone with willpower and assertiveness is someone we look up to. But at the same time, Christians pray a prayer that says of God, “Your name be hallowed, your kingdom come, your will be done.” The mature Christian, if we take that prayer seriously, is someone who can surrender their will to God because they are surrendered to the love of God.
To be honest, we struggle with this. In this message, Pastor Joel talks about why, what happens when we try to use all our willpower for the purpose of kingdom of self, and why surrendering to God’s love first is the key to surrendering to his will. Come check it out!

Easter weekend is sacred because it’s the interruption of what’s ordinary: death. There is perhaps nothing that is as ordinary as death because it’s something all people do, no matter who they are. Except for one man, Jesus. By definition, the resurrection is extraordinary, and disciples of Jesus are people who come into an encounter with the extraordinary, risen Jesus. Yet, as we’ve been talking about recently as a church, we also are ordinary, and ordinary is good. What is the relationship between the ordinary faith Christians often have and extraordinary treasure we have within us? In this Easter message, Pastor Joel walks through it all.