All Things New: Wineskins

As we gathered together in worship for the first time in 2024, we revisited Jesus’ Parable of the Wineskins, and the ways it invites us to reconsider our assumptions about the form of the Church. How might God be calling us to embrace unfamiliar paths in which the life of Christ would resound anew in our lives and in the place we have been uniquely rooted?

Scripture & Quotations

Luke 5:36-39

“So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an arch-defender of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church's silent--and often even vocal--sanction of things as they are. But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If today's church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. Every day I meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust.”

― Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”

Reflection

Questions to consider for our upcoming Home Group Gathering, Sunday January 28th (contact Mike or sign up at the bottom of the page to receive a weekly update.

• What keeps you coming back to church, or have you come back to church in search of?

• What resistances are you fighting or unresolved hurts and disappointments which keep you guarded from fully leaning into a faith community?

• What are your hopes for the Vessel community in the seasons yet to come as we seek to be a faithful expression of Jesus’ love in this neighborhood and beyond?

Pew Research Center - Modeling the Future of Religion in America

NPR - The Importance of religion in the lives of Americans is shrinking