Upon This Rock: Who Are You?

Before we can define our mission, we must be defined by our Maker. This series is a deep dive into the identity that precedes all action. It is a "Day One" audit of the soul, stripping away the labels the world tries to stick on us and the "Who do people say I am?" noise of the culture. We are leaning into the radical Christian reality of the Extra Nos—the truth that our value and identity are located entirely outside of ourselves, in the person and work of Jesus. By exploring the Solas and the Sacraments, we aren't just learning facts; we are being reminded that we too are renamed and remade daily and progressively into the image of Christ. We start with who we are because of Him, acknowledging that our ability to confess "You are the Christ" is a gift of revelation, not a feat of intellect. This is a time of foundational comfort, where the congregation is invited to see themselves not as a group in transition, but as a people firmly rooted in an eternal lineage of grace.

This series will serve two but possibly THREE purposes.

• The PRIMARY purpose is: a reminder of (at the core level) who we are in Christ. The question Jesus asks is ‘who do YOU say I am.’ But we start rather with ‘Who are WE because of HIM’ because our confession of who Jesus is comes as Holy Spirit revelation to US. Then we respond and proclaim ‘Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.’

• Secondly, this series has opportunity for the congregation to recall/remember/reinforce herself of her particular personality. Here we have some creative opportunity to ‘Tell Luke the stories’ of St. Matthew.

• Third - least important and what ought to be just naturally occurring is that the congregation will start to get to know Luke.