Resurrection City Church - St. Paul Minnesota

Ordinary Faith | Building With God in Our Work

On this special Res City Commissioning Sunday, Angela Hermanson preaches on what is most ordinary about the work we do: it never seems to end. As she focuses on the story of Nehemiah and the efforts of the Jewish people to rebuild the city walls of Jerusalem, she notes different encouragements to remember when our own work feels repetitive and ordinary.

Ordinary Faith | Surrendering to God’s Will and Love

We tend to view maturity as being the opposite of a child—someone who is independent, can make their own decisions and get what they want without help. Someone with willpower and assertiveness is someone we look up to. But at the same time, Christians pray a prayer that says of God, “Your name be hallowed, your kingdom come, your will be done.” The mature Christian, if we take that prayer seriously, is someone who can surrender their will to God because they are surrendered to the love of God.

To be honest, we struggle with this. In this message, Pastor Joel talks about why, what happens when we try to use all our willpower for the purpose of kingdom of self, and why surrendering to God’s love first is the key to surrendering to his will. Come check it out!

Ordinary Faith | Why Easter Is Extraordinary

Easter weekend is sacred because it’s the interruption of what’s ordinary: death. There is perhaps nothing that is as ordinary as death because it’s something all people do, no matter who they are. Except for one man, Jesus. By definition, the resurrection is extraordinary, and disciples of Jesus are people who come into an encounter with the extraordinary, risen Jesus. Yet, as we’ve been talking about recently as a church, we also are ordinary, and ordinary is good. What is the relationship between the ordinary faith Christians often have and extraordinary treasure we have within us? In this Easter message, Pastor Joel walks through it all.

Ordinary Faith | Finding Meaning for Everyday Tasks

Ordinary Faith | Telling the Truth in the Ordinary

Imagine this: You get poor feedback at work, or you get a poorer grade on a test than you thought. You are more winded after a workout than you thought. You find out something you said a week ago actually rubbed a friend the wrong way. Bumping up against the truth like this is ordinary, but how often do we make confessing and surrendering to the truth ordinary? Those are not the same thing. In reality, we often find telling the truth to be a nuisance. It contradicts our self-image, or it gives us something to fix. We often would rather suppress it than surrender to it. But what if ordinary moments of being confronted with the truth are more than just annoyances, but are good for our soul? What if those moments can become sacred because they draw us into God’s love in a way we can’t do when we ignore them? In this sermon, Pastor Joel talks about why we need to make telling the truth ordinary, and how it opens pathways of healing to us when we do.

Ordinary Faith | Sustaining Spiritual Life in the Ordinary

One of the tensions Christians live with is how to sustain their spiritual life of discipleship with the often chock full, fast paced life of their ordinary, which fills up their schedule and can squeeze out the time necessary to have a robust life with God. While God finds the ordinary good, our ordinary can lead us away from him too. We need to learn how to be intentional with our ordinary, because the truth is that the disciplines needed to sustain a flourishing life of discipleship are not going from spiritual high to spiritual high, but are ordinary, repetitive, and quiet.

In this message, Pastor Joel talks about two ways to sustain a flourishing life of discipleship in the midst of the ordinary.

Ordinary Faith | Why Your Ordinary Matters to God

Author and Anglican priest Tish Harrison Warren writes that, “We tend to want a Christian life with the dull bits cut out. Yet God made us to spend our days in rest, work, and play, taking care of our bodies, our families, our neighborhoods, our homes. What if all these boring parts matter to God?” In this new series, we will talk about why these things matter to God and look at how we can live our ordinary lives in such a way that what seems ordinary becomes extraordinary as we find where God meeting us in the routine. Pastor Joel lays the foundation for the series in this opening message by exploring why ordinary matters to God, how a desire for the constantly extraordinary can crush us, and more.

Know, Grow, Go, Together | A Portrait of Discipleship

Jesus offers to all his disciples a simple portrait of what it means to follow him, and at Res City we believe the words Know, Grow, Go, Together helps us to keep this portrait in front of us. In this message, Pastor Joel takes those four ideas that we’ve been covering in this series and walks through them all in Luke 5, a simple story of discipleship to wrap up this series on the core concepts that drive us at Res City.

Know, Grow, Go, Together | Together

As we talk about what it means to KNOW, GROW, and GO, we want to do all of those things TOGETHER. We’ve all been adopted into the family of God, and as a local church community, we are an extended family. Even though we may all have different backgrounds, interests, and life stages, we come together to follow Jesus and support one another along the way. In this message, Julie explores practical ways we can act as a family in the local church.

Know, Grow, Go, Together | Go Part 2

At Res City, we believe a healthy disciple of Jesus is someone who is Knowing, Growing, Going. When we are Knowing and Growing, we desire to Go, which means serve the needs of the world around us and invite others to be disciples. In this message, Res City member and former campus evangelist Nathan Van Zee shares why Invitation is so important but also why we must be very thoughtful about how we do it in a very practical and approachable way.