Blue Ridge Community Church (audio)

As we’ve been talking about serving, have you felt a bit of irritation? For you, serving has not been a great experience. There’s some resentment and maybe even hurt associated with it. You’re not alone. So how then do we get to a point that serving feels good again? Can we really be GLAD we served?

If you have a to do list, you probably want to check off every box. It feels good to get things done. Sometimes, it’s helpful to enlist others' help. But let’s be honest, sometimes those other people just slow us down. They get in the way. They create messy situations. So how do we serve then?

We look for happiness in so many places. A vacation. A family. A job. A new car. A slimmer body. Friends. An important title. But could it be that the true place of fulfillment we’re seeking is the last place the world would tell us to look?

As Americans, we care deeply about our rights. But can our rights get in the way of our sowing and reaping? How do we sow toward a righteous harvest? What does that even look like?

Whether it’s in money or time, we all want the biggest bang for our buck. Often, we’ll do the bare minimum, but still hope for a big payoff. How does that work in our spiritual lives? Is there a secret to maximizing our return on investment?

Our pictures of harvest tend toward celebration. We rejoice in the end of our hard work. We feast, we party, we revel. Right? What if the sowing looks different than we expected? What if the harvest comes at a cost, would we be willing to pay it?

If you’ve ever bought a packet of seed, you’ve probably noticed the map on the back showing when to plant it according to where you live. The environment has to be just right for that seed to grow. When we look at our spiritual lives, we also need to be in healthy environments. So what is the right environment? What conditions need to be met?

Fast food. Movies on demand. 1-click shopping. It seems today, we can have what we want instantly. But not everything works that way. If you planted a seed you wouldn’t expect delicious, vine-ripened tomatoes the next day. But sometimes we expect our faith to work that way. When nothing seems to happen the way we expected, does it make us want to give up — or press on?

The book of John tells us that a fruitful harvest begins with a grain of wheat falling to the ground…and dying. It must end so something else can begin. If you’re ready to grow something new in your life, is there something else that must die first?

Not all soil is good for growing. If it’s hard or overgrown, it’s nearly impossible to plant something that will thrive. Our hearts can be like this. So how can we be sure our hearts are primed for the sowing and reaping process? Where do we begin?

Things don’t always turn out the way we planned. In fact, things can go downhill fast. How do we turn that around? Is there a quick and easy solution? Join us for the first part of our new message series, Sowing and Reaping.

We are a people who want proof. Saying something is true is not the same as knowing it's true. So what does this look like when we talk about faith? How do we know whether we really belong to God or not?

Join us for this unique celebration of all that God has done in the 25 years since Blue Ridge began. Hear from some of those God has used on this journey, and get excited for our next chapter!

What would it be like to find out you’ve got an inheritance you knew nothing about? Something that would be beyond your imagination? Would you live differently? This week, we’ll look at our identity as beneficiaries and how knowing this changes us.

Most of us can at least hum a few bars of “Amazing Grace.” But how many of us understand what grace looks like lived out? How many of us really take hold of grace — for ourselves and for others? In part 5 of our I Am series, we’ll take a look at what it means to embrace a graced identity.

Some of the best movies center on stories of redemption.  Those where the hero make a wrong right and triumphs in the end.  It’s so cut and dry, so deserving for the bad guy to get what’s coming to him that we celebrate his demise.  But what happens when we’re the bad guy?  How can we be the ones that find redemption?

If you've never been to a Baptism at Blue Ridge — or if you've been to three dozen — you don't want to miss this weekend! Come hear how God is changing lives. This is a day of celebration!

Standing on the sidelines as one kid after another is picked for the kickball team is embarrassing. Waiting for the call about whether you will be hired for that new job is excruciating. We all want to be picked. We want to be chosen. This week we look at what it means to be chosen by God and how that changes who we are.

Remember what you wanted to be when you were a kid? An astronaut. A garbage truck driver. The President. Is who you became the person you thought you’d be? Did you lose sight of the hopes and dreams you once held dear? Is there a way to become all you were created to be? Is it too late? Find out your true identity in our new series, I Am.

In the last few weeks, we’ve learned how God has equipped us. From the sword of truth to the shield of faith, God has given us all we need to go forth into battle. Yet, we aren’t fully prepared to stand, until we do this one thing. Simple, powerful — prayer.