We continue our series in dating by looking at the second chapter of song of songs. As the relationship in this poem progresses, we will see themes of initiation, response, waiting, and desire. It's a powerful picture of a healthy relationship that we can learn a lot from.

Moving forward in our series on relationships, we come to romantic relationships. This week we look at the beginning of romance by reading the love poem in the first chapter of song of songs. We'll explore themes of invitation, risk, intimacy, and character.

As we continue our series on relationships, we move outward to those people that fall outside our normal groups. These are people we don't know very well: we can call them neighbors. Jesus tells a powerful story about how to relate to neighbors that surprises and challenges us.

After looking at relationships with parents, we move on to the next major category of relationships: friends. We take a look at a powerful passage from Jesus showing how our relationship with God is interwoven in our relationships with each other. We can learn some very practical wisdom about friendships from Jesus' words.

As we continue our series on relationships, we focus on parents. We address some practical issues of what it means as an adult child to relate to your parent. We also explore some deeper ideas of how our parents and families of origins affect how we relate to God and God's people.

As we begin our series on relationships, we look at relationships throughout the Bible. Starting in Genesis, we look at how God's work in the world has always been about creating a community of people. In fact, relationships may be much more central to the gospel itself than we normally realize.

If we are supposed to do the works of God in this world, we need to know how God works. How can we become aware of God at work behind the scenes of everything, everywhere, all the time?

Before God does anything in the world through the community of Acts, he creates them to be a certain kind of community. In these passages we learn what their values were and what values, as a church and as YAF, are supposed to characterize us. This is a foundational message for understanding what we want to be about together.

In the second letter to the churches of Revelation, we look at Smyrna. This was a church that Christ commended for its faithful suffering, without any criticism. From it, we can learn what it means to suffer faithfully as a follower of Christ.

This week we'll be looking at where the whole story has been going: the end of the story in Revelation. We'll see what the church has to do with the end times; we'll try to understand why Revelation is such a violent book; and we'll try to figure out what things will be like after Jesus' second coming.

Last week we looked at the founding of the church in the book of Acts and saw what the purpose of the church was. This week, we're continuing to see how the New Testament talks about what the church should be doing. Last week we answered the question, "why go to church?" This week we'll answer the question, "what should I do once I get to church?" Both last week and this week have a lot to do with what we want our YAF community to be characterized by. This description of how the redeemed community should relate to each other is a guideline for what it means to be a part of YAF and a part of PBC.

This week we're just starting to catch up to where we come into the whole story. Last week we saw how Jesus' arrival made the way for God's people to experience His presence in a powerful way. This week, we'll see how the church was formed as the community of people who live in the presence of God. Our message this week will focus on the "Gathering of the Church" in Acts. As we look at that, we'll ask the question why we should go to church and what role church plays in our lives as Christians.

Having completed the story of God told in the Old Testament, we'll see how God made Himself present with His people through the incarnation of Jesus Christ. He made it possible for us to be present with God through the work of Christ. How do we experience the presence of God? What difference does it make?

This is the last Old Testament episode from the Experiencing the Epic of Scripture series, The Dreams of the Prophets. We'll talk about this awkward period in Israel's history when God's people were released from exile, but still not quite where they wanted to be. The prophets gave the people dreams to see where life is headed and we need to dream alongside the prophets as well.

We continue in our Experiencing the Epic of Scripture series by looking at the episode entitled, "The Loneliness of the Exile." We'll talk about why God's people went into exile, what it was like there and what hope they had in the midst of it. As we learn more of their story, we'll notice a lot of parallels with our own lives: our experience of loneliness, what to do about it, and what hope we have in the midst of it.

Right on the heels of the great success of David's reign as King of Israel comes a tragic moment: God's people are split into two factions. As we learn about the failure of the divided kingdom, we consider the broken relationships in our own lives and recognize God's work of redemption in their midst.

The time of King David was a time of great success for God's people. They experienced peace and prosperity, and God was with them. How does this era of success prepare us for what God is doing in the world? How do our own seasons of success both help us to see God and sometimes cause us to forget Him?

The period of the judges was a time of chaos for God's people. They lived in a world of uncertainty and danger. In the midst of this season, God raised up individuals to lead and guide God's people. As we reflect on this season, we consider how we can enter into the chaos of our own lives and the lives of the people around us.

God is a God who delivers His people. The story of God leading His people out of Egypt by the hand of Moses is one of the foundational stories of God's people. As we see how God delivered His people then, we consider how we have been delivered and how God has promised to continue to deliver us.

As we continue our series looking through the whole of Scripture, we see how God called Abraham to be the founder of His people. This helps us to understand our own calling to be people of God.

We begin our series, Experiencing the Epic of Scripture, by looking at the Creation. We find out why it matters so much who created the world and why we are tempted to create ourselves instead of resting in God's creation of us.

We begin our new series walking through an overview of the biblical story. This introduction gives a brief outline to each of the twelve episodes that we will be discussing, helping us to see the story as a whole and finding ourselves in the story as we hear it.

Joel shares with us from the parable of the minas, a powerful, but sometimes difficult story.

Eric shares with us about the story of Jesus washing His disciples feet as a way to learn about who Jesus is and who we should be.

Jane Littau teaches us about generosity, fairness, and envy from the surprising parable of the workers.

One of our YAF ministry team members, Joel Budreau, teaches us from the parable of the Good Samaritan

We look at the Parable of the Dinner to find out what Jesus has to say about His kingdom. Who is in His kingdom? Who his out? Who decides?

We begin a new series of looking at who Jesus is and what His kingdom is like by reading His stories. Through the summer, we will be reading His parables to find out who Jesus is. But we won't be just trying to understand the stories and move on, but remain in the stories and let them change us as powerful metaphors tend to do.

In this conclusion to the Purpose of Life Series, we look at evangelism and outreach as a form of romance: of participating in God's romancing the world.

In this biblical overview of marriage we begin with God's design for marriage from Genesis. Then we look at Paul's instructions for husbands and wives in Ephesians 5, discussing the concepts of headship, submission, love, and sacrifice.

Jonathan Gowins, an intern graduate from our church, shares personally his insights on knowing who to marry. Saying that "you just know" isn't enough, he offers practical advice for finding a good spouse.

As an introduction to the topic of romance, we look at Genesis to find out that we were created to need romance. But we see different ways that we can experience romance in the deepest sense.

In Psalm 69, we see King David dealing with conflict in his own life and watch how his relationship with God allows him to work through the pain that the conflict involves.

To introduce our section on Community, we look at passages in Genesis, Romans, and John to find out how God views the role of relationships in the lives of people.

We look into Genesis 1 and 2 to discover whether work is a distraction from what God really wants us to do or whether it is more significant to our identities as people created by God with a purpose.

The introduction to the series: The Purpose of Life: Work, Community, and Romance. We look into Genesis 1 to see a simple truth with profound implications about who God is, who we are, and what we're doing here.