COMMUNICATION

Saturday, September 26, 2026

One Body, One Voice, One Sacrifice

The reading is divided into four thematic movements moving from Who We Worship (The God of Mercy and Grace) to Why We Gather (To offer ourselves as one body).

A Responsive Reading based on the Epistle to the Romans

Leader: Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable His ways!

Congregation: For who has known the mind of the Lord? No one is wise enough to be your counselor! (Romans 11:34)

Leader: We gather today to worship the Maker of all things, the God who justifies the ungodly. We worship the One who showed His love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Congregation: Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 5:1)

Leader: We stand in this grace, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

Congregation: For from Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever!

Romans 11:36

Jim: (Pause. Let's pray silently for a full minute. Sometimes silence is uncomfortable. Confess your own weakness and the need for God's direction in your life. Praise Him for Who He is as our Creator.)

Leader: Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn?

Congregation: Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that, He was raised from the dead and now sits at the right hand of The Father. He is interceding for us! (Romans 8:34)

Leader: We gather together because we have been rescued. The law of the Spirit of life has set us free from the law of sin and death.

Congregation: We have not received a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but we have received the Spirit of adoption. By Him we cry aloud together, “Abba! Father!” (Romans 8:34)

Leader: What then shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?

Congregation: No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. (Romans 8:37)

All: For we are sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39)

Molly: (Pray showing Repentance , asking Holy Spirit to show you where you need confession).

Leader: I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.

Congregation: This is our spiritual worship. We gather not just to sing, but to surrender. We offer Him our hands, our hearts, and our daily lives. (Romans 12)

Leader: Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.

Congregation: Lord, renew us today. By Your Spirit, help us discern what is Your will—what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12)

Leader: Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.

Congregation: We gather to practice this love. We will love one another with brotherly affection. We will outdo one another in showing honor. (Romans 12)

Leader: Do not be slothful in zeal, but be fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.

Congregation: Together, we will rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, and be constant in prayer. (Romans 12)

Evan: (Pray silently. Ask God where you are invited into His story to redeem a lost community. Ask Him how you should be reflecting Him in these spaces.)

Leader: We gather because we need each other. By the grace given to us, we are called not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought, but to think with sober judgment.

Congregation: For as in one physical body we have many members, and these members do not all have the same function. (Romans 12)

Leader: So we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.

Congregation: We come together to share the gifts God has given us. If prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation. (Romans 12)

Leader: Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.

Congregation: May the God of endurance and encouragement grant us to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus. (Romans 15:5)

Colleen: (Pray silently for the ongoing ability to Yield yourself before the Father - ask Him to bless you as you move throughout the week ahead.)

Leader: Let us welcome one another as Christ has welcomed us, for the glory of God!

Congregation: We gather so that together, we may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! (Romans 15:6)

Leader: Now to Him who is able to strengthen you according to the gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ!

All: To the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen. (Romans 16:27)

Monday, September 21, 2026

When the Old Strategy Stops Working: Listening for the Marching in the Trees

2 Samuel 5 ESV

22 And the Philistines came up yet again and spread out in the Valley of Rephaim. 23 And when David inquired of the Lord, he said, “You shall not go up; go around to their rear, and come against them opposite the balsam trees. 24 And when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, then rouse yourself, for then the Lord has gone out before you to strike down the army of the Philistines.” 25 And David did as the Lord commanded him, and struck down the Philistines from Geba to Gezer.

Early in 2 Samuel 5, David is crowned king and the Philistines immediately come looking for a fight, spreading out in the Valley of Rephaim. David does exactly what a faithful leader should do: he stops and prays. "Shall I go up against the Philistines?" he asks. God says go, David attacks head-on, and he wins a decisive victory.

But shortly after, the Philistines return to the exact same valley. It would have been incredibly easy for David to assume the strategy was the same. The enemy was the same, the battlefield was the same, and the goal was the same. But, as he's learned, David stops to pray again.

Ah, this time, God changes the plan entirely: "Do not go straight up, but circle around behind them and attack them in front of the balsam trees. As soon as you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, move quickly, because that will mean the Lord has gone out in front of you." (2 Samuel 5:23-24).

David didn’t rely on yesterday’s strategy for today’s battle. He listened for a new direction.

Right now, many of us involved in campus ministry are facing our own Valley of Rephaim. With the recent changes, some of the previous ways of reaching students on the downtown campus have run into some hiccups. It is no longer possible to just reserve a room, call out Christian students to gather, and then host a traditional Bible study.

Frustration has a way of infecting others within the same room. I've watched friends decide to simply give up, or try to shift their entire strategy off-campus, hoping to draw students out of their element and into local church buildings on Sunday mornings.

But what if these hurdles aren't a reason to retreat? What if, instead of giving up, we need to ask God if He is changing the strategy? What if He is telling us, "Do not go straight up, but circle around"?

I would suggest that when we look closely, the problem isn't actually that big of a hurdle… It's an invitation to shift our focus from merely talking about Christian values to actively demonstrating them.

Instead of organizing Christian students—sometimes even those studying in the same major, like Nursing—just to sit in a circle and talk, we need to pray and look for the gaps where God's presence can be seen. What are the deep, unmet needs in our community that align with the heart of God?

Consider the streets just outside the campus. Downtown Phoenix has a significant population of homeless men and women. Many walk around in grimy clothes, with knotted hair, grime-stained skin, and untreated physical ailments. The poor and marginalized are one of the four vulnerable groups that Scripture—throughout both the Old and New Testaments—relentlessly calls God's people to care for.

What if a group of Medical and Nursing students formed a club specifically to help properly wash and clean sores for these individuals? (Google “HopeFest Phoenix “ and their efforts from 2012 to 2016 and beyond. Vivienne Gellert starting BAKPAK & ELAINE. Or John Talley III in Surge Network’s Neighbor's Table). Sharing Christ verbally while sharing His Love physically.

This completely changes the paradigm. It shows the campus exactly how Christians shoulder together with others in the community, rather than just telling them what we believe. It meets people in their actual distress instead of waiting for them to walk through church doors on a Sunday morning.

The call to action for us today is simple, though it requires stepping out of our comfort zones:

Pray. Ask God to show you a gap in the community.
Organize. Gather a student group equipped to address that specific need.
Act. Let your actions declare who your God is.

This ancient Chinese proverb rings true ...

"Tell me and I'll forget,

Show me and I may remember,

Involve me and I'll understand"

Don't be satisfied with competing with busy schedules to gather Christian students to meet, talk about faith, and go home.

" Listen for the sound of marching in the trees. God is already moving out in front of us—we just need to be willing to follow Him along new paths. "

A couple of "Sounds of Marching" examples developing on our downtown campus.