As the Savior departs, and his people await the promised arrival of the Spirit, this newly empowered community faces its first big decision “on their own”. How they handle it is a peculiar and perhaps liberating glimpse into the improvisational nature of our call to faithful engagement within the complexities of the spaces we inhabit.

Through this series, we have been engaging with the significant encounters which Jesus initiates following the Resurrection. Peter bears the weight of shame following his denial on the night of Jesus’ arrest, only to discover that his “failure” was unknowing preparation for the next chapter of the story.

During this season of Eastertide, we are engaging with the particular encounters which Jesus initiates with his disciples following the Resurrection. A fishing expedition comes up empty until the stranger calls from onshore, proposing that they think differently. As a people called to cultivate communities of care and belonging, are we “casting our net to the other side,” or sticking with what we think we know?

During this season of Eastertide, we are engaging with the particular encounters which Jesus initiates with his disciples following the Resurrection. Thomas needed to see with his own eyes, and is met with grace and understanding. Jesus comes back bearing the marks to remind us that ours need not be hidden either. When we abide in the love of God, tending to the wounded in community, we participate in the ever-unfolding resurrection story.

During the season of Eastertide, we will consider the particular encounters which Jesus initiates with his disciples following the Resurrection. Two followers walk the road away from Jerusalem in grief, and a stranger joins them on the road. In the midst of story, hospitality, and the breaking of bread, Jesus appears for a glorious and fleeting moment. We ask: how will we embody the resurrection life as a people always looking for the face of Jesus in that of the supposed stranger?

It was a profound joy to celebrate our first Resurrection Sunday together! The message was from “short ending” of Mark; reflecting the uncertainty and fear we often battle, even in the face of good news. Like the women departing from the tomb, we have a choice. Do we truly believe these things we have heard but not seen? If so, we must then decide where will we go, whom we will tell, how we will embody and share this good news of love and liberation which is for all people.

Making a turn toward Holy Week and Resurrection Sunday, we entered the story of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem and subsequent arrest. Now is the time to lay down our swords, whether we have swung them in anger and fear, or have suffered wounds self-inflicted, and choose instead to follow our Savior in trust toward the Cross.

In this season of newness, we continue to examine various dimensions of our shared faith and practice with fresh sight. This Sunday, Pastor Mike jumped back into our recent conversation about our rhythms and relationship to scripture. Engaging with the Bible is always an invitation to humility, and as we look to Jesus’ encounter with a certain young man we consider the things (tangible or not) that we cannot seem to release, including our own assumptions and certainties.

In this faithful season of newness, we continue to be examine various dimensions of our shared faith and practice with fresh sight. Last Sunday, our sister Stacie Kopczynski vulnerably invited us into her own winding story with the church, including the places of deep disillusionment and skepticism. She asks an important question that many are wrestling with themselves: how do we faithfully move forward when we feel “over” so much of what the Church has become, yet so much within us remains drawn to the heart of Christ and a longing to see it lived out in the places to which we have been called?

Part of our ongoing invitation in this faithful season of newness continues to be examining the dimensions of our shared faith and practice with fresh sight. This Sunday, we examined our often fraught relationship with the Bible, and began to consider a path toward a renewed engagement with the written word which points us toward the Living Word. If scripture has ever been used to harm you or someone you love, we honor and grieve with you in that pain, and long to be a safe harbor along the journey of healing.

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?

As we shared in our first Christmas celebration as a church family, Pastor Mike offered a word of hope from the nativity story; a reminder that God isn’t waiting for us at some unknown destination, but has drawn near to us right where we are.

On this first Sunday of Advent, our inaugural journey through the liturgical calendar as a community, Pastor Mike invites us into this season of preparation and patient waiting, as we anticipate celebrating the remembrance of God’s incarnation in Jesus’ birth. How might this season disrupt and shape our time of celebration? May these weeks not be defined by spending and stress, but by an encounter with the true and living God, who joins us in fellowship to model a path of sacrificial love.

The liturgy and teaching from our gathering on November 22nd. Pastor Mike asks us to consider what it looks like to voyage together, as a seedling community attempting to follow in the way of Jesus, within the particularities of the space and time we inhabit? The voice of the Shepherd will lead the way. In the beloved community of Christ, all of you belong, and all of YOU belongs.

The liturgy and teaching from our gathering on October 22nd. As a newly established community, part of declaring the Lordship of Christ is identifying and discarding the idolatrous versions of Jesus that have wrongly been allowed to take root in our homes and communities. Our journey, directed by the Holy Spirit, always beckons us from the supposed seat of power to the margins, from judgment to mercy, from fear to love.

The liturgy and teaching from our gathering on October 1st. Before you were anything, you were already beloved. As we continue moving toward the vision that God is giving us for this new community, we need not be afraid of the unknown, because our Savior knows the way even when all we can see is darkness.

The liturgy and teaching from our gathering on September 10th. As we together make a step of faith into this journey, Pastor Mike invites us all to prayerfully discern the particular ways that we are called into to the shared work ahead.

If you were unable to join us for our first Sunday liturgy on August 20, we would love for to you give a listen to hear a bit more about the genesis of Vessel and our guiding ethos as we continue gathering together in this season of new rooting.