The Practice Podcast

C.S. Lewis once said that our ideas about God are not "divine ideas." As much as we'd like to believe that our views of God are always biblical, we all bring assumptions and default beliefs to the table through our lived experience. Our culture, relationships, childhood hurts, and even our churches can all wrongly influence and shape our beliefs about who God is – often without us even realizing it. Rather than following the one, true God, we end up worshiping a God shaped by our own experiences. In this series, we'll examine some common default views of God many of us carry – often unconsciously – and ask whether they tell the whole story. We'll invite God to shatter some of these false images to make way for a clearer view. And as we do, we'll pray to be reshaped into the kinds of people who don't project our fears onto God but rather reflect God's wisdom and ways into the world. This week, we considered how we respond once we have recognized our default pictures of God. How can we move toward God so our pictures can be re-formed and grounded in a truer, more beautiful picture of who God actually is? If you are interested in the guides we shared in the gathering, you can find them here: Breath Prayer Scripture Memorization Examen If you would like to practice a reflection on our pictures of God here is one we did in Practice Tables If The Practice Church is your home community, please join the Core Team. If The Practice Church has been meaningful to your journey, would you consider a tax-deductible gift? You can give at https://thepracticechurch.com/give/

C.S. Lewis once said that our ideas about God are not "divine ideas." As much as we'd like to believe that our views of God are always biblical, we all bring assumptions and default beliefs to the table through our lived experience. Our culture, relationships, childhood hurts, and even our churches can all wrongly influence and shape our beliefs about who God is – often without us even realizing it. Rather than following the one, true God, we end up worshiping a God shaped by our own experiences. In this series, we'll examine some common default views of God many of us carry – often unconsciously – and ask whether they tell the whole story. We'll invite God to shatter some of these false images to make way for a clearer view. And as we do, we'll pray to be reshaped into the kinds of people who don't project our fears onto God but rather reflect God's wisdom and ways into the world. This week, we explored the role of expereinces, emotions, and explanations in our default pictures of God. How do they shape meaning in our lives and impact the way we relate to God? If you would like to practice a reflection on our pictures of God here is one we did in Practice Tables If The Practice Church is your home community, please join the Core Team. If The Practice Church has been meaningful to your journey, would you consider a tax-deductible gift? You can give at https://thepracticechurch.com/give/

C.S. Lewis once said that our ideas about God are not "divine ideas." As much as we'd like to believe that our views of God are always biblical, we all bring assumptions and default beliefs to the table through our lived experience. Our culture, relationships, childhood hurts, and even our churches can all wrongly influence and shape our beliefs about who God is – often without us even realizing it. Rather than following the one, true God, we end up worshiping a God shaped by our own experiences. In this series, we'll examine some common default views of God many of us carry – often unconsciously – and ask whether they tell the whole story. We'll invite God to shatter some of these false images to make way for a clearer view. And as we do, we'll pray to be reshaped into the kinds of people who don't project our fears onto God but rather reflect God's wisdom and ways into the world. This week, we considered how our stated beliefs about God can differ from the default beliefs that drive our actions and relationship with God. If you would like to practice a reflection on our pictures of God here is one we did in Practice Tables If The Practice Church is your home community, please join the Core Team. If The Practice Church has been meaningful to your journey, would you consider a tax-deductible gift? You can give at https://thepracticechurch.com/give/

The music, scripture, prayers, teaching, and practice of our liturgy tells a story about who we are and what we believe. Liturgy forms us, but it is not meant to stay within the walls of a Sunday service. The story we rehearse together is meant to be lived out in the ordinary moments of our lives. So, it is good to remember why we do what we do and consider if our liturgy is forming us to become more like Jesus. We are not called merely to rehearse the liturgy. We are called to live it. In this series, we will explore how the liturgy we practice together shapes us. We will take a closer look at elements of our worship gatherings and ask what kind of story they are inviting us into. Then we will consider how we might live out that story in the small moments of our everyday lives – so we may be formed by Jesus to be like Jesus for the sake of the world. This week, we considered the practice of confession. Recognizing how confession is a practice of surrender which free us to live in the truth of our identities as God's beloved children. If The Practice Church is your home community, please join the Core Team. If The Practice Church has been meaningful to your journey, would you consider a tax-deductible gift? You can give at https://thepracticechurch.com/give/

The music, scripture, prayers, teaching, and practice of our liturgy tells a story about who we are and what we believe. Liturgy forms us, but it is not meant to stay within the walls of a Sunday service. The story we rehearse together is meant to be lived out in the ordinary moments of our lives. So, it is good to remember why we do what we do and consider if our liturgy is forming us to become more like Jesus. We are not called merely to rehearse the liturgy. We are called to live it. In this series, we will explore how the liturgy we practice together shapes us. We will take a closer look at elements of our worship gatherings and ask what kind of story they are inviting us into. Then we will consider how we might live out that story in the small moments of our everyday lives – so we may be formed by Jesus to be like Jesus for the sake of the world. This week, we explored three questions about liturgy. Why do we intermingle prayers and scripture with song? How does this form of worship help us show up as we are with one another? How does it recalibrate us to the way of Jesus and remind us of who God is and what God has done? If The Practice Church is your home community, please join the Core Team. If The Practice Church has been meaningful to your journey, would you consider a tax-deductible gift? You can give at https://thepracticechurch.com/give/

The music, scripture, prayers, teaching, and practice of our liturgy tells a story about who we are and what we believe. Liturgy forms us, but it is not meant to stay within the walls of a Sunday service. The story we rehearse together is meant to be lived out in the ordinary moments of our lives. So, it is good to remember why we do what we do and consider if our liturgy is forming us to become more like Jesus. We are not called merely to rehearse the liturgy. We are called to live it. In this series, we will explore how the liturgy we practice together shapes us. We will take a closer look at elements of our worship gatherings and ask what kind of story they are inviting us into. Then we will consider how we might live out that story in the small moments of our everyday lives – so we may be formed by Jesus to be like Jesus for the sake of the world. This week, we considered the invitation of generosity. We explored the radical love and grace of God, and how our identity as children of a generous God invites us to embody that generosity to the world. If The Practice Church is your home community, please join the Core Team. If The Practice Church has been meaningful to your journey, would you consider a tax-deductible gift? You can give at https://thepracticechurch.com/give/

We live in a world that prioritizes the tangible and practical, but what if there were practices that opened us to another way of seeing the world? What if God is inviting us to kingdom lives, encountering and walking in God's loving and active presence in all things? The sacraments are an invitation to do just that. In these holy practices, the kingdom of heaven breaks into our world in a tangible way. God is profoundly present in the most ordinary elements of water, bread, and juice. Baptism and communion are more than mere symbols. They are a visible sign of God's active presence in all things. They are a mysterious place where we encounter God's grace. And they invite us into an intimate relationship as they embody God's sacred, loyal love to creation and our commitment to find ourselves in God's salvation story. In this series, we will explore a sacramental way of life and walk intentionally through the waters of baptism and sit at the banquet feast of God's holy communion table. This week, we consider the central practice of all our gatherings, the communion table. If The Practice Church is your home community, please join the Core Team. If The Practice Church has been meaningful to your journey, would you consider a tax-deductible gift? You can give at https://thepracticechurch.com/give/

We live in a world that prioritizes the tangible and practical, but what if there were practices that opened us to another way of seeing the world? What if God is inviting us to kingdom lives, encountering and walking in God's loving and active presence in all things? The sacraments are an invitation to do just that. In these holy practices, the kingdom of heaven breaks into our world in a tangible way. God is profoundly present in the most ordinary elements of water, bread, and juice. Baptism and communion are more than mere symbols. They are a visible sign of God's active presence in all things. They are a mysterious place where we encounter God's grace. And they invite us into an intimate relationship as they embody God's sacred, loyal love to creation and our commitment to find ourselves in God's salvation story. In this series, we will explore a sacramental way of life and walk intentionally through the waters of baptism and sit at the banquet feast of God's holy communion table. This week, we explored our doctrine of baptism. We shared how we as a community view this sacrament and then practiced in our very first baptism service! If The Practice Church is your home community, please join the Core Team. If The Practice Church has been meaningful to your journey, would you consider a tax-deductible gift? You can give at https://thepracticechurch.com/give/

We live in a world that prioritizes the tangible and practical, but what if there were practices that opened us to another way of seeing the world? What if God is inviting us to kingdom lives, encountering and walking in God's loving and active presence in all things? The sacraments are an invitation to do just that. In these holy practices, the kingdom of heaven breaks into our world in a tangible way. God is profoundly present in the most ordinary elements of water, bread, and juice. Baptism and communion are more than mere symbols. They are a visible sign of God's active presence in all things. They are a mysterious place where we encounter God's grace. And they invite us into an intimate relationship as they embody God's sacred, loyal love to creation and our commitment to find ourselves in God's salvation story. In this series, we will explore a sacramental way of life and walk intentionally through the waters of baptism and sit at the banquet feast of God's holy communion table. This week, we considered the tremendous love of God incarnate in Jesus. If The Practice Church is your home community, please join the Core Team. If The Practice Church has been meaningful to your journey, would you consider a tax-deductible gift? You can give at https://thepracticechurch.com/give/

"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1:14) Since the very beginning, God's dream has been to dwell with His creation— to walk with us, to speak with us, to share life with humanity. During Advent, we remember the God of the universe who broke into the human story with a tangible, in-the-flesh presence—entering our world to rescue and restore us to this original vision of Immanuel, God with us. In this series, we'll explore how Jesus brings hope, peace, joy, and love into the everyday places of our living, breathing lives. Through the practice of Immanuel Journaling, we will learn to recognize his nearness and listen for the ways we are invited to embody God's presence in the world. This week, we considered the tremendous love of God incarnate in Jesus. If The Practice Church is your home community, please join the Core Team. If The Practice Church has been meaningful to your journey, would you consider a tax-deductible gift? You can give at https://thepracticechurch.com/give/