Mendham Hills

Our whole "Groundwork" series has been based on the Bible's command to "be transformed by the renewing of your mind." The scripture is clear that in the battle for joy and purpose, the battle is won or lost in our minds. Science and the bible agree; as a man thinketh in his heart, so shall he be. It turns out that your thoughts matter more to your life thank you circumstances. Yet, we spend most of our lives trying to change our circumstances and not our minds. This Sunday, a practical look at how to change - how to renew your mind!

Contemporary studies agree with biblical accounts; there are few things we think about, worry about, and dream about more than money. It is both the leading cause of divorce in our country and the principal focus of most of the teachings of Jesus. Money itself is neither good nor evil, but it has boundless potential for both. There is no way we can work through a series on transforming our lives without looking at our finances. We need a new way to look at our money, and new strategies for preventing it from dominating our lives and impacting our souls. This Sunday at Mendham Hills - a fresh take on financial health!

This week in Groundwork, we try and bring some transformation to an area many of us overlook. "It is not good for man to be alone," is one of the best known lines in scripture, but the truth is that it is also one of the most important. Our culture has sent us two messages: Celebrate the self-made man, and never allow yourself to rely on anyone. Thus, we have moved from being a people deeply entwined in community to a people surrounded by fences, and at deep levels, alone. And that is not good. This week, we look at a key component to the happiness you are pursuing - relationships!

"I just lost it!" or, "I couldn't take it anymore!" Ever begin a story like that? They usually end with, "So I told her to go…" or, "I let him have it!" Now, in hindsight we often wish our "cooler head" had prevailed, but man, when our emotions kick in, there is just no telling where they might lead. As the classic question goes - do you control your emotions or do your emotions control you? This week, we look at how to make advances, how to bring transformation to our emotional lives. Emotions are not the problem, it is losing control over them which has wrecked life after life. This Sunday, how to regain control of the monster of our emotions!

This Sunday we begin our much-anticipated series, "Groundwork." You don't want to miss even one of the next eight weeks if you can help it, as we commit together to making 2015 different in seven vital areas of our lives. This week we hand out the notebooks (yes, notebooks!) and class is in session as we start to put the key structures for change in place. It's January and everyone hopes the new year will bring growth and transformation, but there is one secret that unlocks the key. Paul put it this way - "I run, not being in any doubt as to my goal. I am a boxer who does not inflict blows on the air." Tired of swinging and missing? Time for us to set some goals.

Hopefully after last week, you are convinced of the spiritual necessity of goals. If we are going to start setting them, though, there is no better or more important place to start than with our spiritual health. The Bible instructs us not to take our spiritual lives for granted, but implores us to "test yourselves and see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves!" So, this week we do just that. There is no neutral in the Christian life; we are either moving towards God or away from Him. This week, we walk the path of a son back to the Father, and focus on key habits for spiritual health. The year 2015 still holds the promise of change. Come and get started with your spiritual life, this Sunday at Mendham Hills.

This Sunday we begin our much-anticipated series, "Groundwork." You don't want to miss even one of the next eight weeks if you can help it, as we commit together to making 2015 different in seven vital areas of our lives. This week we hand out the notebooks (yes, notebooks!) and class is in session as we start to put the key structures for change in place. It's January and everyone hopes the new year will bring growth and transformation, but there is one secret that unlocks the key. Paul put it this way - "I run, not being in any doubt as to my goal. I am a boxer who does not inflict blows on the air." Tired of swinging and missing? Time for us to set some goals.

Are You Haunted By What is to Come? Well, it's the final Sunday before Christmas Eve and as we all begin to look forward to that most special of nights, it is also time to turn our attention to the fourth ghost of Christmas - The Ghost of Christmases Yet to Come. Scrooge asks that ghost a particularly poignant question: "Are these the shadows of the things that will be, or are they the shadows of things that may be, only? Men's courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, they must lead. But if the courses be departed from, can the ends change?" And there you have it - the reason for Christmas, the point of the incarnation! All men are on a certain course. Our lives have a trajectory - can it be changed? Christmas reminds us that the answer is still YES!

The message of Christmas, embodied in the helpless Christ child born in a manger, was subversive and unnerving to the powers of the day. So much so that King Herod, fearing for his own kingdom, considered infanticide a right response. Charles Dickens, in A Christmas Carol, retells the same subversive message - Christmas still has the power to upend the kingdoms of man. This Sunday, we look at our present, this Christmas, and we ask the question, "Has anything really changed?" Jesus is still threatening kingdoms two thousand years later - sometimes even our own. Opening our eyes to the Ghost of Christmas Present, this Sunday at Mendham Hills.

Ebeneezer wasn't always a scrooge. Sure, that was his last name, but it wasn't always his personality. He wasn't born greedy, selfish, and miserable. Yet, the circumstances he was born into and the choices he made in is life, the ghosts of his past, haunted him. The truth is that all of us have this in common with Scrooge; we all wrestle with the ghosts of our past. Regrets - we've all had a few, none of which we want to mention. The story of Christmas is not only about the birth of the One who would change our future, it is the truth of the One who can heal our past. Regrets turned to Redemption - this Sunday at Mendham Hills.

Jacob Marley had it all: wealth, fame, renown, and respect. All the things that make for a life well-lived, and then he died. He was gone and so was everything he had lived for. As we kick off our new Christmas series, "The Four Ghosts of Christmas," based on Charles Dickens' famous "A Christmas Carol," we look at business warnings from Marley's ghost. He told Scrooge, "Business! Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance and benevolence were all my business." This Christmas, the question is, what's yours?

This Sunday, we finish up our "The Reason for God" series with maybe the most difficult question of all: "How could a loving God send people to an eternal Hell?" Even within Christian circles, this topic has been much debated over the last few years. If this is a tough question for those of us who are committed to Jesus, imagine how hard it is for folks outside of the church to fathom. Yet, the question is important, and even more so is getting the answer right. So this week, we take a look at the question, the answer, and what it means for us as a church.

Ready for the next tough question about Christianity? "What gives you the right to tell me how to live my life?" It's a great question. After all, shouldn't each of us get to decide for ourselves how to live, and what is right and wrong? You have heard it said, "Just because it is right for you, doesn't mean it is right for me." In a culture founded on individual freedoms, how can Christianity and all of its rules make any sense? This Sunday, a new understanding of the basics as we try to comprehend - "What's with all the rules, anyway?"

As we kick-off a new church year at Mendham Hills, we will study Paul's letter to the church in Philippi. This brand new study together is called "Thrive" - you were not meant to merely exist, you were meant to Thrive!

"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?" -Epicrus Have you ever struggled with this question? Why does an all-powerful, good God allow evil, pain, and suffering to exist? You're not the only one. Join us this week as we continue our series, The Reason for God.

We've almost all done it. At some time or another, we've all sat down and put together a resume'. You know the drill…highlight your successes, accentuate your strengths, and disguise your weaknesses. In the corporate world of our day, much of our lives are given over to building up our resumes. Yet, the Scriptures seem to indicate that it is just this kind of resume building that leads us away from lives of meaning and passion, and into false confidences and fear. To THRIVE in a world gone mad, one needs to be building the right resume. Come find out what your should look like this Sunday at Mendham Hills.

Perhaps nothing keeps us from living the kind of abundant life Jesus desires for us more than fear. Anxiety and worry are like cancers to our soul, they literally paralyze us and often lead us down very wrong paths. Jesus was aware of this - that is why the one statement He made more than any other was "do not be afraid". So how about you, what are you afraid of and just importantly what is it holding you back from? This week in our series Thrive together we look at how to overcome one of our greatest adversaries and live a life without fear.

In week 3 of our series, THRIVE, we continue to reflect on how to find joy in a world gone mad. Our country is founded on three principles: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We often hear parents say, "I just want him/her to be happy." Yet, happiness always seems to elude us. Every time we get what we think will bring us happiness, somehow it always escapes us. What if the pursuit of happiness is really the problem after all? What if there was something more meaningful than happiness, and in its pursuit, you actually wound up with joy? This Sunday, the beauty of a life poured out - a meaningful life!

Does your experience in following Jesus not match up with what you felt like was promised and preached? The church over the last years has turned the promises of the Bible into something akin to a Christmas wish list. What happens when your experiences don't seem to match the promises? Sure, you were probably told you would share in the victory of Jesus in this life, but did anyone bring up sharing in his pain? The Bible not only talks about suffering; the truth is, it promises suffering. Have you felt it? This Sunday, in Week 2 of our "Thrive" series, we look at thriving through suffering.

As we kick-off a new church year at Mendham Hills, we will study Paul's letter to the church in Philippi. This brand new study together is called "Thrive" - you were not meant to merely exist, you were meant to Thrive!