Sermon Series “Aspire”

Six week series exploring how we can pursue out spiritual desires. God is all Christians yearn for. Our entire life is an exercise of holy desire. So, what do you and I desire? Not only who we are, but who we yearn to become. For KirkWood, we have a recently spent nearly 6 months coming up with who we are and who we desire to become; these are reflected in our core values. This series will dig into these as our holy desires.

Video MessageResources
Week 1: Prayer and WorshipMonday Memo notes

Worship this Week
Let’s spend a week together aspiring to greater, deeper, more consistent worship – and not of ourselves and all that presses in around us in life, but of God our light and life. 
– Intentionally, we didn’t talk much about corporate worship yesterday. Pastor Chris will write about it a little bit in this week’s Midweek Minute (the weekly Thursday email). So be on the watch for that. 
– The most important thing we can do together this week is pay attention to and be intentional about our personal worship life: how do you worship individually, when do you do it, what practices help you do it, how do you carve out time for it, etc.? 
These resources will give you some good ideas about how to make personal worship a key part of our week in, week out life: 
Spiritual Disciplines – Worship
What Does It Mean to Worship God? – C.S. Lewis Institute
And here are a few more really good resources on worship, what it is, how we see it in scripture, etc.: 
Understanding Worship – Richard J. Foster
To Worship is to Touch Life – Richard J. Foster
Worship: A Practical Guide – Adele Calhoun
Sleep, Play and Worship – United Church of Christ
Week 2: CommunityMonday Memo notes

Explore Community More This Week
– Let’s spend the week together praying through our 2nd core value, asking God to help all of us and each of us to become more like what’s stated. In short, let’s ask God to help us become the community we aspire to be. 
– Here are two key New Testament texts about distinctive Christian community, and the behaviors/attitudes that drive it (the first of which we used as a responsive reading to start yesterday’s service): Romans 12.3-21 and 1 Cor 12
– Do a little reading about Christian community this week:
Real Community – James Bryan Smith
Availability and Vulnerability – Northumbria Community
Getting Along in Community – Thérèse of Lisieux
– Want to read a little Bonhoeffer on Christian community?: Christ in Community
Week 3: Spiritual GrowthMonday Memo notes
Week 4: OpennessMonday Memo notes
Week 5: WelcomeMonday Memo notes
Week 6: Outreach and MissionMonday Memo notes