Series Overview Documents
Series Overview Documents
Series Overview Documents
What if it offered us a grand story that we could find ourselves in? What if this story could offer coherence instead of chaos, connection instead of loneliness, hope instead of despair? What if this grand story could define us in a way that would develop us into the humans that we were intended to be? What if it could remind us who we are, where we have come from, what we are doing, and where we are going? What if it could make sense of our prior experiences, significant relationships, meaningful events, failures and wounds, triumphs and loves, future hopes and aspirations?
Date: 5-15-13
Speaker: Bart Garrett
Text: Genesis through Revelation
In 1942, C.S. Lewis wrote a satirical novel entitled, The Screwtape Letters. The story takes the form of a series of letters written from a Senior Demon, Screwtape, to his nephew, Wormwood, a Junior Tempter. Wormwood’s assignment is to procure the damnation of an Englishman referred to in the letters as “The Patient.” Screwtape mentors Wormwood in the ways of “Our Father Below” (Satan) as he seeks to undermine “The Enemy” (God).
Date: 2-5-13
Speaker: Bart Garrett
Text: Proverbs 1:1-7
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The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel: for gaining wisdom and instruction; for understanding words of insight; for receiving instruction in prudent behavior, doing what is right and just and fair; for giving prudence to those who are simple, knowledge and discretion to the young— let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance— for understanding proverbs and parables, the sayings and riddles of the wise. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Twenty centuries ago an itinerant tentmaker was tossed into prison for creating a public disturbance. There he spent considerable time dictating a letter that might have taken up a dozen sheets of stiff, scratchy paper. Today few people would recognize the name of the Roman emperor at the time and, although Nero was a prolific author, nothing of his literary output remains. Paul’s name, on the other hand, is instantly recognized by millions, and existing copies of his letter to the Philippians, in many languages, run easily into the millions. Indeed the time has come...when people call their dogs Nero and their sons Paul.
Date: 8-28-12
Speaker: Bart Garrett
Text: Philippians
If you want to know about the Greeks, then read Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey.
If you want to know about the Romans, then read Virgil’s Aeneid.
And if you want to know about Israel - and more particularly Israel’s God - then read the Five Books of Moses.1 Exodus is the founding story of God’s people and a great seminal text of Biblical literature, the central theme of which is God’s redemption of His people from bondage.
Date: 5-6-12
Speaker: Jonathan St. Clair
My mentor used to ask, “When I say ‘human being,’ what is the first thing that comes to mind?” As he poses this question in churches all over the world, people blurt out, “Sinner!” We are Pavlovian in this response. But, what was the first thing on God’s mind? When God created human beings, He said, “It is very good!” God looked at his hu- man creation as being fearfully and wonderfully made. What follows is tragedy. We asserted ourselves in our pursuit of autonomy. We didn’t want to be God’s creation--we wanted to call the shots. And as the story unfolds, we snatch the fruit--we walk out the door! We trade in being with God or even like God for becoming gods ourselves, and thus, our capacity to be human is greatly diminished. Our thoughts, words, and actions de-humanize us and dis-integrate others.
Date: 2-16-2012
Speaker: Bart Garrett
The Bay Area is a start-up culture. Entrepreneurs, innovators, and creatives have converged upon our locale, and start-ups have proliferated. Most will not make it. Some will. A few will become so successful that their names will become verbs in our vernacular (i.e. Google, Facebook, and Twitter). What do you need to start a successful start-up? The people that think about this stuff a lot say things like a good idea (not a brilliant idea, but something that could alter a current reality for the better), the right people (a salesperson, a technician/programmer, a leader/visionary), a product that customers want, enough money to make it go, and a commitment to not spend it too fast.
Date: 1-8-12
Speaker: Bart Garrett
Text: Colossians
What is the book of Hebrews? A letter? A sermon? It is difficult to tell. It does not begin with an opening prayer for grace and peace, and there is no introductory thanksgiving or blessing, all of which you would find in a letter. The author and audience are not identified. On the other hand, the document ends like a letter, with its benediction, personal remarks, and final farewell (Heb. 13:20-25). The author speaks of his discourse as “a word of exhortation” (13:22). Is it a homily or a series of homilies that has been written as a rather anomalous letter? I think the best we can do is to refer to this book as a “sermonic letter,” written to a particular group of people and read aloud as a Sunday sermon.
Date: 9-22-11
Speaker: Bart Garrett
This chart shows the outline of the series as well as the relationship of Creation, Fall and Restoration.
Date: 8-4-2011
Speaker: Bart Garrett
Text: Genesis 1-3
I recently asked a good friend who is a young Old Testament profes- sor what he thought Genesis 1-3 was all about. I suggested, “Is there a thesis?” Pausing, musing, then reflecting, as only a professor could, he offered, “Relationship!"
Thematically speaking, this notion of relationship gets worked out in myriad ways--one’s relationship to the cosmos, to God, to others, to evil, to rest, and to work to name six of them. And so, we will spend six weeks looking at our relationships to these six entities.
Date: 8-3-2011
Speaker: Bart Garrett
Text: Genesis 1-3
Most followers of Christ have no idea what Easter really means. We chant the familiar refrain: “Christ has risen. He has risen indeed”. But still, what sort of relevance to today does a dead man walking in 1st century Palestine hold out to us?
Well, if it happened, if Jesus stepped out of the grave, then the world has already been turned upside down!
The future has invaded the present. For Christ followers, it isn’t a matter of waiting until God eventually does something at the end of time. God has brought his future, his putting-his-world-to-rights future, into the presence of Jesus of Nazareth and he wants that future to be implicated more and more in our present life.
Date: 4-7-2011
Speaker: Bart Garrett
Text: John 20:1-10
Lent is a season lived in the shadow of the cross. During Lent, as each day passes and as Easter approaches, one might envision the Mes- siah’s dirty feet, shod in sandals, shuffling down a dusty road--a road that leads to the cross. Our teaching series, entitled “The Fruit of the Cross,” will traverse the Gospel of Luke, chapters 12-19, a section com- monly called, “the way to the cross.
Date: 3-2-11
Text: Luke 12-19
This little letter, tucked into the back of the New Testament and followed by 2 and 3 John, was more than likely written by John, the Apostle (an eyewitness to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus)—his authorship attested unanimously by the early church fathers. After the destruction of the Temple and fall of Jerusalem to the Romans in 70AD, John more than likely fled to Ephesus, a highly influential, wealthy, port city in the Roman province of Asia, renowned for its Temple of Artemis (Diana). This letter was probably written while there and intended to be read by the church in Ephesus and perhaps also by other churches in the surrounding cities.
Date: 1-9-2011
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That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete.
Where do we go for forgiveness when we can’t even seem to forgive ourselves? Where do we go for counsel? Where do we go to find wis- dom? Where do we go to more deeply and fully know ourselves? How do we uncover the deepest desires of our heart? How do we break the shackles of addiction? Does money treat us as its currency, or can we grasp its true value? What does healthy sexuality look and feel like? How do we handle power without it handling us? Should I even care about the environment, and if so, then why? What sort of perspective should I take toward my life’s work? Will community always be elusive or is it really possible? What is a good neighbor or citizen and does a Christian qualify?
Paul addresses these questions and many more like them in his epistolary correspondence with the young church of Corinth.
Date: 8-23-2010