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News from a Far Country: Notes from an American Conversion
I. The Madman and the Arsonists: A Parable Let’s say that you have lived your whole life in a small town well-known for arson cases. Let’s say your parents lived and raised you here, as did their parents, back and back to time immemorial, so that you really don’t know...
The Comparison Games We Play: Grace is the Thief We Need
This article originally appeared on redtreegrace.com. Red Tree is a multi-church ministry effort started by Hope Community Church in order to connect the clarity of God's grace to our otherwise confusing lives and attempts at reading the Bible. As of 2023, the world’s...
How Do We Worship on Easter?
In less than a month, we will be celebrating Good Friday and Easter Sunday. I didn’t grow up with a strong Christian foundation. I’d overhear comments at church about special days, services, terms, and theology and wonder about their significance. What is Lent? Or Ash...
What Makes Hope, Hope?
A great part of my job is taking people out for a cup of coffee and hearing their stories. It also gives me a chance to hear people’s impressions of Hope. What brought them here? What keeps them coming back? If I had to boil it down to a couple comments that people...
Mighty God
The following is the second in a four part series on preparing your heart for the Christmas Season. It has been adapted from a sermon called “Preparing Your Heart for the Christmas Season” delivered at Hope Community Church by Steve Treichler on November 30, 2003....
Rhythm
Rhythm. As a musician, I hear rhythm everywhere I go. Rhythm is found as I practice songs for Sunday services on my guitar, the oscillating sound of the blinker in my car when I turn left or right, the song of the birds returning to sing in spring time, and even in...
Gender Roles
The conversation surrounding gender roles in the church has been an interesting one for me to consider because of the tension I’ve wrestled with regarding this topic, especially as a wife and also a woman who works in ministry full time. Until this year, I didn’t...
Grieving Unmet Expectations
Expectations. We all have them. Whether they are known or not, whether they are met or not. They can be sneaky and can reveal a longing, a desiring or a hope we didn’t know we had until that expectation was not met. Expectation is defined as the state of expecting or...
Worship Series: Running
“You see me limpin', I know you see me limpin' You can't tell on these CD's, but, bro, I'm knee deep in it I'm wading in my weakness, He made me dependent I'd be lyin' through my teeth to say I don't resent it Even as I write these lines I'm close to tears My body...
The Peace of Wild Things
https://resources.hopecc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/The-Peace-of-Wild-Things.wav When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests...