The Gospel According To Encanto - First-Centenary United Methodist

Watch The Miracle Burn

June 5, 2022 • Rev. Dr. Will Lauderback • Acts 2:1–20

How might the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit inspire you to burn for all the world to see? Impact your relationships? Families? Community? World? I wonder how the church might come alive in the movement of the Spirit when we have worked through our trauma, work to heal our relationships, and get past our need for perfection?

Lay Down Your Load

May 29, 2022 • Rev. Dr. Will Lauderback • 1 Corinthians 12

We don’t have to do it alone. We weren’t meant to do it alone. How might the gift of Christian community empower us to live a spirit filled life of love? It is difficult to live in community but when we open our hearts, minds, and lives to it amazing things can happen.

What Really Matters

May 22, 2022 • Rev. Dr. Will Lauderback • Luke 15:11–32, 1 Corinthians 13:13—14:1

The grandmother in the movie was too focused on the community’s image of her family and what they could do that she forgot the source of their “power” was love. We have a tendency to focus on certain aspects of the Christian life/church life: Attendance, church size, money, prestige, political/theological ideologies, etc. and when we become hyper focused on worldly things our ability to sense the movement of the Holy Spirit diminishes and we lose focus on what really matters.

More Than You Could Ask Or Imagine

May 15, 2022 • Rev. Dr. Will Lauderback • Ephesians 3:14–21, Hebrews 10:35–36

Isabella is the main characters older sister who is seemingly “perfect”. She has a gift that makes everyone happy, is seemingly the favorite of the grandmother, and is about to be engaged and carry on the family legacy. Through this song we learn that she is carrying a great weight in trying to fulfill the expectations that have been placed upon her. In that process she experiences freedom in acting outside of the “expected.” What might it look like if we shed the expectations and boundaries of this world and opened ourselves to the unexpected and extravagant movement of God in the world?

Waiting on A Miracle

April 24, 2022 • Rev. Dr. Will Lauderback • Luke 24:13–30

This is the Sunday after Easter and we pick up with the resurrection story by joining the disciples on the road to Emmaus. The one that they thought would be the messiah, the one who would redeem Israel, had been violently taken from them. They were afraid, alone, and confused. They probably felt duped because they had left jobs, friends, and family to follow this Rabbi and now they had nothing to show for it. Mirabel has spent her life feeling like she had messed up, missed the mark, and wasn’t good enough. How many of us have felt that way from time to time and found ourselves waiting on a miracle to change things? Lucky for us we believe in a God of Resurrection, second chances, and new creation? What miracle are you waiting on? How might a resurrection life bring about a miracle in your day to day life?

What Gives You Worth?

May 1, 2022 • Rev. Barry Kidwell • Matthew 11:28–30, Luke 12:7

When this movie first launched Disney made more dolls of Isabella than Lousia but they quickly found that they could not keep Louisa dolls on the shelf. Young children were scooping them up but so were adults. The burden to care for everyone else that she felt was/is far too relatable for many of us. When there was a threat that her power might go away she felt as though her worth and value was going to go away as well. How many of us have struggled with that same feeling- thinking that our inherent value is dependent on what we produce or accomplish? “Who I am is more important than what I do.” What does it look like for us to get our strength, value, and identity from who we are in/through Jesus rather than the things of this world?