Jason Miller
Advent poses a question for us: what are you waiting for? But hidden in that question is a paradox, because sometimes it confronts us with the powerlessness we face in our unfulfilled longings, and sometimes it calls us to step into our power and make a difference. During this season of Advent, we’ll lean into that paradox through teaching and practice.
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Since the founding of South Bend City Church, we’ve focused on the practice of generosity as one way of celebrating Christmas, with gratitude for God’s generosity to us in the gift of Jesus. This year’s practice includes three invitations to give: (1) to support the church’s general fund and sustain our regular ministries, (2) to give to the Tribune project to ensure that we are able to cross the finish line on the phase 1 renovation, and (3) a special Christmas offering. As with past years, this Christmas offering goes to support objectives in line with our calling as a community of grace and peace for our city and the world.
In this episode, we speak with leaders and stakeholders who represent the causes we’ll be supporting this Christmas. To give to our Christmas Offering, The Tribune Project, or our general fund, click below and make sure the correct fund is selected.
Give to the Christmas Offering
Give to the Tribune Project
Give to our general fund
In the last few months, we’ve made major progress on the Tribune Project. We’re not just talking about the building renovation, though. We’ve also been in conversations with our downtown neighbors and other city stakeholders about the future of downtown. Catch this update with Matt Graybill, our executive pastor, and Jason Miller, our lead pastor, about where the project stands.
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In this third week of series on gratitude, we bring the two weeks of teaching into practice. In this gathering, instead of hearing a teaching, we spent some time in three movements — Notice/Capture, Reflect, and Express — in an effort to practice gratitude individually and collectively.
If you’re a long distance community member, or a local one who wasn’t able to join us, we hope that you jump in to these practices with us. Our time will culminate with the practice of Eucharist so make sure to have some form of bread or cracker and wine or juice with you.
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In this weekend’s liturgy, we offered time to offer gratitude to the Divine as well as get honest about the ways in which gratitude might be counterintuitive to our current circumstances. We hope that this time of reflection, reading, and singing offers a space to get honest and, if it’s aligned with our hearts, to be moved to gratitude.
To follow along with a transcript, scroll below.
While many of us recognize that cultivating a posture of gratitude is beneficial for us and our lives, it isn’t our natural response and can oftentimes feel like a tiring burden to try and live into. Using Psalm 126 as a guide, we’ll consider what it looks like to reframe the way we narrate and interpret our past stories, the implications that has for how we imagine our future and live with gratitude in the present. Finally, Mike offers us a simple practice to try this week in order to cultivate gratitude as a more normative and less burdensom posture.
Ways to Get Connected
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A community of grace and peace for our city and the world | P.O. Box 1578 South Bend, IN 46634