The Letter to the Romans addresses a multicultural church in the city in hopes of bringing unity to their division. The unity Paul stresses is not based on intellectual conformity, but instead on welcoming one another as Christ has welcomed us.
Jesus often ministers in public. Even gatherings that appear private (like his meal with Zacchaeus in Luke 19) feature onlookers who question Jesus's ministry. In this message Bob talks about how the church needs to have a public presence if we are to minister like Jesus.
The worst thing for community is division. All churches have differences, but those differences do not have to produce division. God's chief vehicle for the division and despair of the world is a united church.
Every church faces the temptation to think bigger is always better. But the earliest Christians knew that the practices that Jesus taught them were the ones that would sustain them, no matter what size their church. In this message we explore the importance of small groups in the life of a church.