Grassroots Church | Thunder Bay, Ontario

Renewed Rhythms Part 9: Journaling

To explore journaling as a spiritual discipline, we hear from two guest speakers this week. First, Carol Freeman shares about her remarkable 40-year practice of keeping a daily journal. Following that, Matt Denis shares some practical tips on how to use journaling to promote spiritual transformation.

This message was originally delivered on March 10, 2024.

Renewed Rhythms Part 8: Soul Friendships

In the 8th installment of our series on spiritual disciplines, Pastor Steve Bill shares about Soul Friendships. He explores how we can model ourselves after Jesus' friendship structure to cultivate relationships that lead to true spiritual transformation.

This message was originally delivered March 3, 2024.

Renewed Rhythms Part 7: Secret Goodness

In this message, Pastor Steve Bill looks at why Jesus asks us in Matthew 6 to do good works in secret, and how we can live that out in our lives today. This message continues our ongoing series on Spiritual Disciplines.

Steve references the activity "Coldest Night of the Year" a few times during this message, including a slideshow video of photos from this year's activity. You can find out more about this Canada-wide event here, and more about Grace Place here. If you're reading this before March 31, 2024, you can still donate to this year's Coldest Night of the Year fundraiser. Of course, you can always donate to Grace Place.

At the end of the sermon, you'll hear a song from our worship team. It doesn't sound as amazing as it did in the room, but I thought enough of the beauty came through on the recording that I would include it.

This sermon was originally given on February 25, 2024.

Renewed Rhythms Part 6: Silence and Solitude

Angela Wiebe shares on the theme of Silence and Solitude. She shares some of the reasons behind the practice and shares some practical tips from her experience. Enjoy this sixth installment of Grassroots' Spiritual Disciplines series!

You can find the John Mark Comer podcast that Angela referenced right here.

Renewed Rhythms Part 5: Service

In the 5th installment of our series on spiritual disciplines, Pastor Steve Bill uses Jesus' story of the Good Samaritan to explore the concept of service. Steve looks at the concept of compassion fatigue, what we need to be ready to sacrifice to make service a habit, and some of the benefits of living a life in service to others.

You can find one of the positive news sources Steve referred to here: https://www.instagram.com/globalpositivenews/.

 

Renewed Rhythms Part 4: Submission

Paul Wolfe shares on the theme of submission as a spiritual discipline and, unlike most sermons on the topic of submission, this one is not "icky." Have a listen!

Renewed Rhythms Part 3: Scripture Reading

In this 3rd installment in the spiritual disciplines series, Pastor Steve discusses the discipline of scripture reading by addressing some of the hang ups many of us have when reading the Bible. Using a sermon from John Mark Comer, Steve shows how neither a liberal nor a conservative ideology properly encapsulates the Bible and that for disciples of Jesus, the primary objective of scripture reading is NOT to read the text but to be read by the text and to align with the heart of Jesus. 

Check out www.practicingtheway.org for more info on the spiritual disciplines that Steve mentioned in the message.

Testimonials of Transformation: Adult & Teen Challenge Thunder Bay

Students share stories of addiction and recovery through the ministry of Adult & Teen Challenge here in Thunder Bay. Listen and be encouraged, challenged and inspired through testimonials of experiencing God's transformative grace. 

Learn more about Adult & Teen Challenge and consider becoming a monthly donor here: https://www.teenchallenge.tc

Pastor Steve provides a brief review and update on the Renewed Rhythms series and will continue this series, focusing on scripture reading, the following Sunday.

 

Message delivered on January 21, 2024. 

Renewed Rhythms Part 2: Prayer

In our second sermon on spiritual disciplines, guest speaker Scott Baker looks at prayer from the perspective of someone who has always struggled with the practice.

Read about the prayer of Examen here.

Find out more about the prayer Labyrinth at St. Paul's Anglican Church in Thunder Bay here.

Find out about Take our Moments and our Days, the Anabaptist Prayer Book, here. (Includes links to download the app version.)

This message was originally delivered January 14, 2024.

Renewed Rhythms Part 1: Sabbath

To kick off the new year, Grassroots Church is beginning a series on Spiritual Disciplines called "Renewed Rhythms". In this first installment, Pastor Steve Bill provides an overview of Spiritual Disciplines and their role in the Christian life. He then looks at the first discipline: Sabbath.

Several times in this sermon Pastor Steve references a little paper journal that was distributed at the service. If you were not able to attend on Sunday, these will be available to pick up in the weeks to follow or can be downloaded here. 

This sermon was originally delivered on January 7, 2024.