As we approach the Advent season, the first theme of the traditional Advent calendar is hope. Biblical hope is different from the way we use the word in our modern contexts. We hope it doesn’t rain and our event gets moved inside. We hope a certain candidate wins an election. We hope this suffering passes.

Whether this applies to you today as you gather with friends or family or is just a helpful reset for your heart, let’s be a people walking in thanksgiving. Let’s be a people walking in what is good, right, and true that the light and love of Christ might be seen through us.

The longer I walk with Jesus, the more I want to make my life count for the sake of his Name, and the more I realize that if I’m not intentional then I’m likely coasting in a way that’s not likely to produce good stewardship of the time I’ve been given.

What a joy it is to partner with the other elders and staff to keep watering and planting. But it has been and will always be God that gives the growth.

It’s amazing how often the Bible talks about God being with us and how often the Bible encourages us to love each other in ways that would actually require us to be together enough to know each other. And yet it’s amazing how little we can feel the grace, love, and fellowship of our triune God, practically, in our daily lives. It’s amazing how alone we can feel in a crowd of people on Sunday morning.

We serve a global God who cares about his global glory. He is working to save a people from their sins by the blood of the Lamb that will worship him from every tribe, tongue, people, language, and nation. And we believe the pattern in the word of God for how he will accomplish his mission is through the church.

What I want for us as a church this summer, I couldn’t think of a better word to describe it than “abide.”

I want us to stay near to Jesus individually in word, prayer, and fasting that leads to deep and sweet fellowship with him so that we bear fruit and prove to be his disciples.

I’d like to share with you about how faithful God has been to me once again by helping me to worship Him—not only when I hear the hymns I love but also when I hear the many beautiful newer contemporary worship songs.

The warmth, the people, the new life always seems to invigorate my prayer life as I go for runs, take my kids to parks, and spend time outside with family and friends. So I want to encourage you to simply listen to these verses in Colossians and do them in a two-fold way. We’ll call this our South Cities Summer Prayer Challenge.