Tonight, June 22nd at 7:30 pm at Third and Walnut Bar & Grille (corner of Third and Walnut near the Lansdale Train Station).

Doubt::night is a laid-back yet intentional opportunity for anyone (age 18 and over) interested in discussing questions about life, faith, God, Jesus, and the church. Regardless of your religious background, we hope you will join us.

Pictures from the first public gathering on April 19th!
Photography courtesy of Doug Burns

Check out the full album here!

By J.R. Briggs

We’re far from perfect here at Renew. We’re not a perfect faith community. We don’t have it all together. Being involved at Renew can be messy and chaotic, even difficult at times. But it’s also a hopeful adventure.

Last week I asked Tracy Commons, Pastor of our Renew house churches, how he was doing.

He thought for a moment and then, with a smile on his face, said: “I’m frustrated. I just can’t keep up with all the stories that are popping up at Renew of people who are wanting to live out their faith.”

That conversation got me thinking. I sat down and wrote down all the stories that we were hearing at Renew over the past 2-3 weeks – at least the ones that I was aware of.

Here is a sampling:

-In the past nine months, six students in the Souderton-Harleysville area have died of an overdose of prescription and over-the-counter drug abuse. One of our Souderton house churches has created and is organizing an event called ‘One Life One Chance Awareness Walk’ in September to bring awareness, education, resources and hope in the midst of the pain.

-Another house church is rallying around someone in their house church who is experiencing debilitating back pain. They’ve set up a schedule to stop by, visit and serve this family several times a week.

-Renew received the 2009 Florence Nightingale Service Award from Manna on Main Street, the soup kitchen in Lansdale.

-A stay-at-home mom serves dinner to the poor every Monday afternoon.

-Two young ladies are serving at an orphanage for girls in Northern Thailand for three weeks this summer. They needed to raise their funds within 3 weeks. They raised more than they needed – and in just five days. One of them, a college professor, is considering leaving her position to move to Thailand and serve as the orphanage house parent for 1-2 years.

-A house church is serving each month with Habitat for Humanity to provide housing for low-income families.

-A young woman just returned from serving with a team in Thailand and Cambodia for four months where she brought hope by helping pull women out of the sex trafficking industry and providing job training.

-People with mental illnesses and mental handicaps are participating in our house churches – and are loving it. So are the other members of their house church.

-The mayor and another member of borough council joined us for Lansdale Cleanup Day as we cleaned up the Main Street area of Lansdale as a way to serve the borough.

-A young couple passionate about global missions is spearheading a team to discern which region of the world Renew will actively be involved in through ongoing service, giving, and prayer.

-A young family is hosting a young Chinese exchange student in their home for the summer. The student recently came to faith in Jesus.

-A young entrepreneur who is passionate about running is starting a 5K Run through Valley Forge National Park this fall to benefit Hope International, an organization that provides low interest loans to people in developing countries as a way to provide opportunities and jobs in the name of Jesus.

-A young woman passionate about prayer is planning and leading another prayerwalk this Saturday morning with other churches in the area as a way to link arms and pray for our community.

-A young man took a job last week with an organization that works directly with men who used to be in the correctional system and are trying to get back on their feet in life outside of prison.

-A couple is throwing a party with their neighbors in order to welcome two new families that moved into the neighborhood.

May we be continually frustrated that we can’t keep up with the amount of stories we hear…

Looking to attend a public gathering?  We hope you will join us on Sunday, June 28.

June Public Gathering :: Sunday June 28th at 10 am at Marjeane’s Catering (320 S Broad Street in Lansdale) on the corner of Broad and Hancock near Saxbys Coffee.  If you have questions, please contact us at info@renewcommunity.org

At Renew we believe that the teachings and life of Jesus are to be taken seriously. 
Jesus demands a wholehearted, single-minded focus on his ways. 

Ponder this stretching and formidable quote from Emmet Fox:

“Either Jesus is to be taken seriously, or he is not to be taken seriously, in which case his teaching should be dropped altogether and people should cease to call themselves Christians. To pay lip service to his name, to say that Christianity is the divinely inspired Truth, to boast of being Christians, and then quietly to evade in practice all the definite implications of his teaching, is hypocrisy and weakness of the most utterly fatal kind. Either Jesus is a reliable guide, or he is not. If he is to be relied upon, then let us pay him the compliment of assuming that he meant what he said, and that he knew best about the art of living.”  

-The Sermon on the Mount: The Key to Success in Life by Emmet Fox (1886-1951)