Preaching at The Passion Center
I was thrilled to be invited to preach at The Passion Center this past Sunday via zoom. I preached from Romans 12:1-8 and Matthew 16: 13-20 and my sermon was titled: “Upon This Rock I Will Build My Church.”
I am proud to be the Passion Center’s inaugural Theologian-in-Residence. A Theologian-in-Residence is a trained theologian who works to bridge the gap between the academy and the church. They bring attentiveness to the intersections of academic, activist, and ecclesial engagement. And bridge the forefront of religious scholarship and a passion for re-imagining our ordinary, common, messy life as the site of Divine encounter and revelation.
We believe the church isn’t a building—it’s people. And when each of those people knows who they are and what they believe, they can achieve incredible things together. In this series, We Are the Church, let’s learn how we can change the world even without a building. How does our justice imagination help us as Jesus followers be the change we want to see?
Dr. Liz will open up the series of talks followed by our team:
Theologian-in-Residence Dr. Grace Ji-Sun Kim
Scholar-in-Residence Lisa Sharon Harper
Teaching Pastor Eli Valentin
The Passion Center:
God uses all kinds of faith communities. The Passion Center seeks to be a safe place for spiritual growth and service for those who believe that the people of faith should not just proclaim the gospel but actually demonstrate it with love, compassion, and service to a needy world.
We believe that justice was all over the canon of Scripture and as such justice and Jesus is the overarching mantra for The Passion Center. It permeates all aspects of the center’s work. It is the lens through which decisions are made and ministries are developed and optimized. Our work includes activism, advocacy, services and support, education, and worship. We lend our presence and our voices to the struggles of those who are oppressed and pushed to the margins.
We are justice-oriented, Holy Spirit-filled, women-affirming at all levels, and centered on Christ. At this time, we do not have face-to-face gatherings weekly but monthly. However, we have various opportunities on various topics led by our team during the week. Among our current explorations and major interests is a growing an online contemplative spirituality group filled with people from everywhere who meet monthly in hubs in different cities for face-to-face interaction and the building of the body through educational offerings.
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Passion Center is the faith community and Passion2Plant is its church planting education arm. Passion2Plant holds various classes and events so please check out their website for more information about their upcoming events or to donate.
Special Events:
1. I look forward to speaking at Asbury Theological Seminary, Sept. 13 on my co-written book, Healing Our Broken Humanity.
2.I will be at Homebrewed Christianity’s Theology Beer Camp. Please join me and use discount code “madanggodpod” to get 25.00 off registration.
3.Join GreenFaith & partners for multifaith participation in the March to End Fossil Fuels on Sunday, September 17, in New York City. To learn more, visit endfossilfuels.us or email aly@greenfaith.org.