Downtown Community Church

Welcome to our new series Less Self  as we work to live more and more selflessly each day, and give Jesus full control of our lives! This is an individual call but a team effort that we want to do together as a church family! How do we even begin this journey?For more information on 21 Days with Jesus visit our website, app, or social media! You can find the digital copy of the booklet there!

When thinking and praying about a sermon to begin 2023 with, we were actually lead to a previous sermon given in 2019, it's from the vault! We believe the Lord has something to speak to each of us from this sermon on rest so lean in! Happy New Year church fam!

With every day comes more and more things to do, how will we ever break this cycle? God has designed the solution in the rhythm of creation! Join Dylan Nielander as he diagnoses  our societal problem of "busy sickness" and offers us the cure! We are praying over you, that you do not push back from all the ways Sabbath seems difficult or impossible, but lean into it! It will not be perfect, you may have to start with a few hours or half a day! But ANY effort is honoring to the Lord and how He created you to live!"You won't realize how much your unrest has effected you UNTIL you experience this true rest."

The holiday season tends to bring up an array of emotions around loss. Whether it's the loss of a loved one or family member, the loss of a dream, or just absence of a relationship, emotions can be heavy. Join Pastor Ben Kaempfer as he addresses this topic and teaches how to navigate through it from examples in Scripture.

Part of the holiday season is gathering with family and friends, which can involve strained relationships, bitterness, neglect, hurt, or even abuse. Join Ben Kaempfer as he walks us through how to remove this weight this holiday season!"Only if you have forgiven already can your motive be to correct the person for God's sake, for justice's sake, for the community's sake, and for the person's sake." -Tim Keller

The problem is we already live our lives with stress up to our neck so when life gets even busier in a season like the holidays, we drown! We have less and less time to work on our Spiritual life, we are trying to survive! Join Ben Kaempfer for our new series, this week teaching you how to practically conquer this season!

We work hard to build up things in our life to provide belonging, security or significance. But those "towers" only lead us to disappointment. Genesis 11:1-9John 17:20-23"the books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located in will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing. These things - the beauty, the memory of our own past - are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself, they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited." - C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory1. Blame the idol itself2. Blame ourselves3. Blame the world4. Realize you were created for another world

For this one off sermon, our Young Adult Director Dylan Nielander, leads us through 2 Peter 1:1-11. "Becoming the kind of person who routinely and easily does what Jesus told us to do has generally been considered out of reach and therefore not really necessary for what we, as christians, are about" - Dallas Willard"Grace is not opposed to effort, it is opposed to earning. Earning is an attitude. Effort is an action. Grace, you know, does not just have to do with forgiveness of sins alone" - Dallas Willard

Maybe you think God really needs you, so you can't ever be insufficient in Kingdom work. Or maybe you think you have to be sufficiently holy to even be in relationship with God. Join Pastor Ben Kaempfer as He teaches us how we can hold the truth that God does NOT need us, with the excitement that He calls and invites us to play a part in our insufficiency!

We often say we love Jesus, but still say "but if I can just get married, if I can just have a kid, if I could just work at that place"...and forget over and over again that nothing of this world will satisfy us. Join Pastor Ben Kaempfer as he teaches us how to practically identify what we are running to and how to truly find satisfaction in Jesus.  

This week in our series, we had Pastor Adrian Crawford come in to teach us about our calling. If we treat Jesus as codependent, we will start to serve Him for the life we hope He gives us. Join us as we learn how our calling has everything and nothing to do with us.

A primary example of  codependency is when we ask God to provide for us financially, but then we tense up and feel sick when He calls us to give our money somewhere. Join Pastor Ben Kaempfer as he teaches through Luke 12:13-34 and why we struggle to give Jesus all of our money. 

If we view God as codependent, we see Him as the Giver who should be concerned with providing everything for us and us as the Taker. When God asks us to surrender something or obey Him it becomes difficult because the flow of benefit all of a sudden isn't towards us. We often ask the question "Is what He's calling me to do really for what's best for me and putting my needs first?"

Have you ever asked "God, where are you?" when you don't see Him providing the way you wanted? Or only talk about the blessings He is giving you? This is because most of us have a codependent relationship with Him, thinking He is the "Giver" and we are the "Taker". Join Pastor Ben Kaempfer as he opens this idea of codependency.

Make Disciples: Belief to MaturityWe may be trying to read the Bible more, trying to pray more, trying to make it to community group, but how do we truly grow spiritually? Join Ben Kaempfer as he unpacks the key component for spiritual growth that most of us miss. 

Make Disciples: Unbelief to Belief  We see a beautiful depiction of unbelief to belief in The Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11–32). Join Pastor Ben Kaempfer as he offers a fresh perspective on both of the sons in the parable. Every single person can identify with this story and be convicted in different ways. Pray specifically about where you are in the parable, and what God is teaching you through this powerful message!

Be Great Neighbors! In Luke 10:27 Jesus says "Love your neighbor as yourself." Who is my neighbor? How am I supposed to radically love them with my busy life? Join us as Pastor Ben Kaempfer walks us through Jesus' answer to this question. 

Be honest, do you view God as being 100% unconditional love, or as a parent who is constantly disappointed? It is extremely important that we first get this fundamental truth right, before anything else, because the way we view God will affect how we love Him in return. Join Pastor Ben Kaempfer as he walks us through the deep concept of God's love and how to love God.

We all have daily battles in this world, but are we aware that they are spiritual forces against us? If we don't remember the Devil is our enemy, then we will keep calling our neighbors our enemies. Dylan Nielander finishes our Ephesians series teaching us about the Devil, the unseen Spiritual battle, and how to fight in it! GOOD NEWS: we have the strength of the Lord on our side!