89 episodes
Roots Church Sermon Podcast Roots Church
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- Religion & Spirituality
Roots is an intentionally multiethnic community of misfits on a mission, finding identity in Jesus. We consider ourselves “misfits” because many of us have felt like we didn’t fit in other settings—always too much or not enough. Many of us asked too many questions, or didn’t conform to cultural norms. When we look to the scriptures, however, we see Jesus taking misfits and forming them into a new people with a new passion and a new purpose. It’s in Jesus’s Kingdom where we belong; in following Jesus we find our most important identity.
Roots is a church community that gathers in the Hamline-Midway, Frogtown, and historic Rondo neighborhoods of St. Paul, MN. When we talk about “church,” we’re not talking about a building. Rather, we’re talking about a people, a community that is seeking God, learning how to be guided by the Holy Spirit, and experiencing new life in Christ. We have been meeting since 2014. We would love for you to join us for a worship gathering or small group some time!
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Under God’s Wing
In this sermon, Pastor T. C. explores the episode in Jesus’s story when he is warned that Herod wants to kill him but he is defiant, unflappable. But it’s what Jesus says next that has echoed through history. Jesus weeps over Jerusalem and longs to gather its children to himself like a mother hen.
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Missions
In this sermon, Pastor T. C. explores the problematic concept of “missions” and reframes it as God’s dream for the world to restore Shalom. God tells Israel to “seek the peace of the city” in Jeremiah 29—and that city was Babylon. What if the mission Jesus sends his disciples on was never about “conversion” but about declaring and demonstrating the Kingdom of God? What the mission Jesus sends his disciples on was always about sharing God’s peace?
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Unity
In this message, Pastor Osheta teaches on what Moravian history has to teach us about unity. We are united in our picture of God in Christ; united in our commitments to remembering our journey of faith, to being curious about the ‘other’, and to coming together around the Lord’s Table.
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Journey of Faith
In this message, Pastor Osheta preaches on the “Journey of Faith” from the story of Jesus calming the storm.
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Jesus-centered
In this message, Pastor T. C. homes in on another area of overlap between Roots and the Moravian Church: a Jesus-centered reading of the Bible.
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Community of Misfits
In this sermon, Pastor T. C. teaches on the kind of community God is forming in Christ—a community of misfits. Jesus didn’t gather the best and brightest, he gathered the overlooked and underestimated. Jesus did this to demonstrate the nearness of God’s Kingdom to all, not just the religious elite. In fact, God’s election has always been this way. Israel was not chosen because it was great in size or particularly devout. No, God’s choosing is always for God’s glory, not ours. That’s why Pastor T. C. translates First Corinthians 1.26–31 this way:
Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish ones of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak ones of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly ones of this world and the despised ones—and the ones who are nobodies—to shut the mouths of the ones who think they’re somebodies, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: ‘Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.’ ”
The Moravian tradition includes a theological innovation that facilitates the unity with diversity that Christ’s misfit community requires. For centuries, Moravians have been guided by these words:
In essentials, unity. In non-essentials, liberty. In all things, love.”
In this message, Pastor T. C. outlines what are “essentials” for Moravians, and what are not. This is vitally important for cultivating a community that prioritizes unity with diversity.