Sacrament Church

A Deferring People

This Sunday, we continue our series: "A People," drawing from the lectionary texts. This week, we explore what it means to be A Deferring People. Christian virtue is characterized by a kind of humility. Our strength, identity, value and significance comes from somewhere else. Namely, it comes from God. Christians are constantly remembering and reorienting to the fact that we are dependent on God; we take our cues from God. We, therefore, must not primarily be concerned with things th...

A Confessing People

This Sunday, we are kicking off a three week series that we are calling "A People," drawing from the lectionary texts. Sacrament’s very own Ian Cullen will kick off our series looking at what it means to be "A Confessing People"-- the confession of Jesus as Lord and the implications it has for the words we speak to one another. I am so thankful to Ian for stepping in on short notice as my family and I attend the funeral of my grandfather. Ian and Katie have been a part of Sacrament Church fo...

Table Scraps

Following in the way of Jesus requires us to look at the world differently. It requires us to look at others differently. Maybe it's just good ole' southern hospitality, but we all inherently know that it is better to be accepting, loving, welcoming. We intuitively get that hospitality is valuable. And yet often our hospitality does not go deeper than the surface. We tend to really value those who a) we can get something from or; b) are like us. This Sunday, our texts weave together to tel...

Abba's Children - Guest Speaker David Walley

This Sunday we are blessed to hear from Sacrament's very own Dr. David Walley. David and his wife Ellen have been part of Sacrament for the past several months, and have already been such a blessing in the life of our church. David is a counselor in private practice in Nashville. He holds a Master of Divinity and a Doctor of Philosophy. David has worked on several church staffs over the past thirty-five years and for two years was a consultant for a large local publishing company. He is th...

Living as Resurrection People

This Sunday, we are continuing our series through the first few chapters of Ephesians, looking at what it means to be "Resurrection People." Paul shares some very practical fruit of this new life. There are certain things that we are called to reject (falsehood, stealing, unwholesome talk, bitterness, rage and anger, brawling slander, malice). And there are certain things that we are called to take on (usefulness, talk that builds up, kindness, compassion, forgiveness, love, and self-giving)....

Resurrection People Week 2

Resurrection People

The Dangerous Kingdom of God

In the C.S. Lewis classic The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, the four Pevensie children wander into the strange land of Narnia, a land plagued by a great curse. As a result of this curse, it it is always winter, but never Christmas. The children take refuge at the home of a Mr. and Mrs. Beaver, who tell them that the King, the Lord of the whole world, Aslan, is on the move. The Beavers quote an old Narnian prophecy, Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight, At the sound of his ro...

The Remaking God

The author of the gospel of Mark likes to use a very specific literary device where he squeezes one little story inside a bigger story. It's often called a "Markan Sandwich." The two stories then play off of each other and inform each other in rich ways. Mark is telling us something about Jesus in Mark 5:21-43, the stories of the healing of Jairus' daughter and the healing of the woman with the issue of blood. They tell about the One who meets us and our world in the midst of our fears, in ...

The Breath of New Creation: Align

The Breath Of New Creation: Cultivate

This Sunday, we will continue our series on "The Breath of New Creation," looking at Jesus' parable of the Sower in Mark 4:26-34 and what we mean when we say that God is cultivating his kingdom in our midst.  This is such an important story for us as we seek to be a people who follow in the way of Jesus, a way that is primarily unseen, in a world that values being seen. We will pray together that God will root us in our new neighborhood as co-creators and participants in His work of bring...

Sabbath

Guest Speaker Deborah Jackson from the Church at Indian Lake

Trinity Sunday

This Sunday is Trinity Sunday, and we are so excited to welcome Dr. Chris Green to preach and lead us to the table. Chris is Associate Professor of Theology at Pentecostal Theological Seminary (Cleveland, TN). He is the author of many works including: Foretasting the Kingdom: Toward a Pentecostal theology of the Lord's Supper; Sanctifying Interpretation; and his recently published The End is Music: A Companion to Robert W. Jenson's Theology. Dr. Green has also served as a pastor, a churc...

Sacrament's Next Adventure: Pie Town Here We Come!

I am so excited to announce that Sacrament will be moving to 618 Ewing on June 17th. Last month, we announced that Sacrament was looking for a new home as we have had to quickly transition from Sparkworks Union. We have found the right place, and it is beyond what we even hoped for!  Sacrament is excited to partner with the owners of 618 Ewing and Flavor Catering in an elegant, beautiful space with kids room, convenient parking, on-site storage, and the potential for midweek activities.  ...

Ascension Sunday

Easter Wk 5: Trust and Obey

Sacrament Transition

Hello Sacrament Family, Friends, and Partners The adventure of church-planting is often about change—the kind that is exhilarating and beautiful, and the kind that is treacherous and difficult. We don’t always know what is in store, but we do believe that the Holy Spirit goes ahead of us.  Yesterday we announced that Sacrament will be moving out of Sparkworks Union in June. When we first moved into the space last September, we knew that there was always the potential that Sparkworks would...

Reflections on Five Years of Church-Planting

Five years ago, Ashley, Lucy, and I moved from Tulsa, Oklahoma to Nashville, Tennessee to plant a church. We are so glad that we did. Ours is a “parachute” church plant, meaning that we did not have a pre-established root system in the city, and we only knew a few people We moved in, planted roots, and started gathering people. We have made a ton of mistakes, our character has been refined, and we have been so incredibly blessed.  Over the years, I have learned a few things that I would lik...

Sermon: Abiding and Bearing Fruit

This Sunday, our story leads us into an exploring on abiding in Christ. What does it mean that the Christian life is specific? We are called to make our home in God. We are called into a very particular way of being human, a way that is quite different from the other paths of our world. And yet...that specific story, that abiding or remaining, leads us outwards, beyond ourselves in order to join God as he heals and restores the world.

Sacrament Turns 4!

Sacrament is celebrating four years as a church!  The season of Easter is a time of celebration. On Easter Sunday in 2014, Sacrament Church was launched. God has been faithful every step of the way.  Join us for brunch, a service where our focus will be "Trust and Obey," and other activities.  Let's celebrate God's faithfulness in the past and look to where he might lead us in the future. All are invited to bring Energy Bars for the Maplewood High School Football Team as they begin summ...

Sermon: Easter Week 3 - Word and Sacrament

This Sunday, we continue in the Easter season as we explore what it means for Christ to be present with us in Story and Table. Life is full of many pursuits. We seek after dreams, relationships, experiences, success, and fulfillment. These are not bad pursuits on their own, but they too often become the pursuits of our lives.  In Luke 24, two of Jesus' disciples are leaving Jerusalem after his burial. They have lost their dream; their hopes are dashed. And yet, a mysterious figure appe...

Sermon: Easter Week 2 - Resurrection People

Events are important. They are markers. Events matter. In the Old Testament, we see places where God won a significant battle for the Israelites. And, they would mark it with an altar, a stone, what we call an Ebenezer (Do you know that old song that says, "Here I raise my Ebenezer”?). And yet, life is more than a series of events. We now find ourselves in the season of Easter. Easter is not just a day and then we go on to life as normal. As Americans, we are very focused on events. The B...

Sermon: Easter Week 1

Christians are resurrection people. We live our lives in a different way because Christ has conquered sin and death. N.T. Wright says, "The message of Easter is that God's new world has been unveiled in Jesus Christ and that you're now invited to belong to it.” Our full kids class will be available!

Easter Guide

A playlist featuring Jessie Early, John Mark McMillan, Melissa Helser, and others We've also make a playlist for you to listen to during the Easter season on Spotify. Listen below, or follow the playlist!

Sermon: Palm Sunday

This Sunday is Palm Sunday! We will step into the story of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

Sermon: Lent Week 5 - Laid Down and Lifted Up

This Sunday marks the fifth Sunday in Lent, a season of reflection, repentance, and making space for God in our lives. We will explore what it means to "lay down" our lives in the way of Jesus, letting go and trusting the better way to which Jesus invites us.

Sermon: Lent Week 4 - Guest Speakers Brent and Janis Sharpe

This Sunday marks the fourth Sunday in Lent, a season of reflection, repentance, and making space for God in our lives. And this week we welcome Preston's parents as this week's guest speakers. Brent and Janis are both Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists and operate a private practice in Tulsa, Oklahoma. They are pastors at Sanctuary Church in Tulsa, OK and have been involved in full-time pastoral ministry since 1982. Brent and Janis have a passion for helping develop the individual di...

Sermon: Lent Week Three - Wise and Foolish

This Sunday marks the third Sunday in Lent, a season of reflection, repentance, and making space for God in our lives. One of the most unsettling things about the Bible is that it's stories, letters, poetry, and prophecy are always provoking towards a different way to be human than what we would normally expect. Jesus resists earthly ways of power: nationalism, military strength, manipulation, etc. and chooses the path of self-giving.  In every time and every culture, Jesus upends cultural...

Sermon: Lent Week Two - Saving and Losing

This Sunday marks the second Sunday in Lent, a season of reflection, repentance, and making space for God in our lives. In the Gospels (perhaps most clearly in Mark's gospel), we see this interesting development: in a world that was longing for a strong leader, one who would stand up to Israel's enemies and take them back to empire status. Jesus (the one they hoped would be that guy) does a few odd things: - He heals people and reveals that he is the Messiah, but he tells them not to tell ...

Sermon: Lent Week One - Life and Death

This Sunday marks the first Sunday in Lent, a season of reflection, repentance, and making space for God in our lives. Lent also becomes about contradictions. The way of Jesus is counter-intuitive. At the cross, we see Death as the way to life; we are called to lose our lives in order to save them; God uses foolish things to confound the wise; Christ is lifted up only after he lays His life down.  The way to the cross will always mess with us as it offers us a better way to be human. Lent ...

Truly Human

This Sunday, we step into the story of the Transfiguration (Mark 9:2-9), this moment in the life of Jesus where the veil between heaven and earth is lifted, and Jesus is shown in glory. In that powerful moment, the Father speaks and affirms to the disciples Jesus' identity as His Son, and tells them that they are to listen to Him. The Father's command would be difficult for the disciples to heed as the story moves on. Their faith would be challenged as Jesus leads them, not to evident victo...

Lent Guide

You can download a PDF of our 2018 Lent guide here. We've also make a playlist for you to listen to during the Lent season on Spotify. Listen below, or follow the playlist! A playlist featuring Chris Quilala, All Sons & Daughters, Jon Foreman, and others

Proclaiming the Message

One of the most interesting and controversial things about Jesus was the way he spoke and embodied a unique kind of authority. In contrast to many of the other rabbis of the time who would attempt to call upon the authority Moses, or an earlier rabbi, Jesus spoke with the authority of God himself. He proclaimed forgiveness and freedom from sin, freedom from oppression, and freedom from disease. Jesus proclaimed this freedom for individuals and for the whole of God's people. In 1 Corinthian...

Eating Together

One of the major concerns present in a good chunk of the New Testament has to do with food. Why? It seems trivial. Why would the New Testament writers take so much time to address the issue of what to eat and how to eat it?  The answer is, at least partially, because of what food represented in the Roman world. Food was often associated with sacrifice, with worship, and, more generally, with culture.  The church was expanding. It was becoming a movement of Jew and Gentile, slave and free, ...

The New World

Have you ever noticed that human beings have this drive towards exploration, discovery, and surprise. There is something in us that points us outwards, beyond ourselves. Sometimes this drive towards exploration can be unhealthy (in the case of some of the early  explorers of "The New World", exploration quickly became exploitation), but the search for something new is deeply intwined in the human heart. But for what (or whom) are we looking to discover? The way of Jesus is surprising, upend...

Greater Things

Our story (John 1:43-51) points us towards what it means to be a disciple and what it means to invite others into the way of Jesus. Phillip invites his friend Nathanael to "come and see" Jesus, the promised Messiah. But Nathanael is skeptical, primarily because of where Jesus was born (Nazareth, a small backwater town in Galilee). “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked.  How often do we write off people, places, or things in our lives or in our world because we deem...

Epiphany

Epiphany. It is a day when the church lives into the reality that Christ's light has come into our world that that this light goes out to all nations. Traditionally, the Western Church has told the story of the Magi, these visitors from far away who sought out the baby Jesus at the invitation of a star. We will reflect on this story on Sunday. This day, and the season following speaks to us about mission, about surprise, and about God's light going into all the world.

Living Life

Merry Christmas! We are resting in the season of Christmas, basking in God’s grace and glory, recognizing where light has shined in darkness. According to the historic church calendar, there are 12 days of Christmas (Remember that cute, and sometimes annoying song?). The Christmas season does not officially end until the day that we call “Epiphany,” January 6th, this Wednesday. January 6th and the season following is called “Epiphany.” Epiphany is this day where we recognize that this beau...

Advent: Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve Sermon by Preston.  "Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a mansion prepared for himself; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen."

Advent: Shine

In this sermon, we will look at the song of Mary, often called The Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55). We often picture the Christmas story in a peaceful setting: "meek and mild." But Mary's song is dangerous. It speaks truth to power, calling out oppressors and pointing to the coming overthrow of systems of power. And the song comes from the a young woman who has been immersed in God's story her entire life, who knows Israel's longings, and conveys them with power and authority.  Join us as we seek...

Advent: Prepare

This Sunday, we look at what it means to PREPARE for Christ's coming.  Throughout scripture, we see a pattern of God raising up prophets to challenge the political and religious rulers of their day. They constantly call God's people to be true to who they are: God's people. The word often used in their calling is the word "Repent." Repent means to change direction, to re-orient. Israel was consistently called to remember who they are, and to live out that identity.  It was believed that, o...

Advent: Reveal

Guest Speaker Gene Reynolds. First Week of Advent.

Christ The King Sunday

This Sunday is Christ the King Sunday,  a day when we recognize and give special emphasis to the reality that Jesus is King of the World. Christ the King Sunday is kind of a bridge between Ordinary Time and Advent. During Ordinary Time, we have followed the teachings and parables of Jesus. We are disciples learning the ways of our Rabbi. But on this Sunday we remind ourselves that we are not following any ordinary rabbi. We are following the inaugurated King.

Parables of Jesus: The Bags of Gold

This Sunday, we will be challenged by Jesus' parable about servants who are given bags of gold. Some are faithful and invest it. One is not and, instead buries the gold in the ground. When the master returns, he is pleased with those who invested the gold and is angry towards the one who does not. Whenever we hear these kinds of stories where people are examined and judged, it can be tempting for us to slip into thinking that the Christian faith is a kind of religious or moral test, that Go...

Parables of Jesus: The Bridesmaids and the Lamps

It has often been said that Jesus has a way of "comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable." Our story this Sunday is no exception. In Matthew 25:1-13, Jesus tells the story of ten bridesmaids, each with oil lamps. It is a story about judgement and preparation. For many of us, judgement is seen as a scary or negative thing. Certainly, this story calls out the religious leaders of Jesus' day, those who believed that they were in a secure place because of their religious purity. Y...

All Saints Day (Grand Opening)

When choosing the date of our Grand Opening, we did so along with the observance of “All Saints Sunday,” (All Saints Day was Nov. 1st) when the Church throughout the world celebrates the reality that we are part of a beautiful tapestry-those who have gone before us, the great cloud of witnesses. Any time the Church gathers, in any neighborhood, village, or urban center, we are simply adding our voice to that great story. This year's celebration of All Saints Day is particularly special as ...

Being Sacrament: Missional

Being Sacrament: Holistic

Being Sacrament: Relational

The Devil's Greatest Hits