THANK YOU!

Thanks guys for the gift! I love it. I shall put it into good use on Sundays for worship. haha.
Sorry we couldn't get a group photo tonight. I was quite swamped. But let's definitely do one next week! I won't be here this Sunday due to family obligation, so let's do it next Sunday or at SYNC!

Appreciate all that you guys have done during these last 4-5 months. It's been amazing and an honor to be a part of it. Thank you for letting me serve you guys.

Much Love,
James

Week 12 | Devotional | Alex

1 John 3:11-24

This passage was really talking about love, and how when we are not loving we are abiding in death. I think that line really struck me because it made me realize how essential love is. It is the most important thing, and I think its so easy to forget that. I think just the way these verses are set up as a domino is really cool, the process is almost like God loves us through Jesus, and through that we learn about what love is and he enables us to love other, and then as we love others we become bold and can see how much God really loves us and how he is empowering us every single day, and that in turn enables us to love even more.

Week 12 | Devotional | Chris

The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing

Zephaniah 3:17

God has been so great to bless me with such wonderful things!  He truly is in my life and I aim to please him everyday of my life.  Over the past months on DT, I feel like I've gotten to know him a lot more.  I'm excited to graduate school and graduate into the next season of spiritual reaping!

Super optimistic, i know!!

Week 12 | Newspaper | Chris

Ekko's stress on loving each other and knowing how to love properly and receive love properly is quite apparent.  My favorite part of the newspaper is the section where it highlights the church as a space for training.  Not only is it a center for inspiration, but the church, like PB has mentioned many times is where we can all practice our faith and grow in our seasons.  But what really struck me as a surprise is how accurately Ekko follows it's values.  Its really inspiring and consoling how all of the values and beliefs that Ekko has are actually documented.  This really sets the foundation of a great church and makes a healthy path for a very influential one too.

Week 12 | Newspaper | Dan

            To understand church, we must first understand God. God is love, and God relates. This really brought me back to our foundation and reminded me why we do everything that we do. I also love the analogy of Healing and Training as assistant coaches to the head coach, which is Love. I think it’s great that we recognize the need to first be healed, transformed, and equipped before we try to go out and change the world. It’s okay to grow and get fixed.

            Naturally, I paid close attention to the “Orthopraxis” section. There was a line that really resonated with me – “We want to experience God via obedience.” That’s what we’ve been hearing throughout this entire journey. Acquiring knowledge is not the final outcome that we desire. We want to obey and live it out because that’s where transformation happens. I’m so thankful that we were given the chance to practice what we learned. And I’m sure we’ll continue to be given plenty of space and time to practice loving God and one another at Ekko. 

Week 12 | tithe | Alex

I felt like this weeks reading was really good in reinforcing why we tithe with scriptural backing. I thought it was really enlightening doing the reading and I really agreed with it. I felt like it reinforced a lot of the teachings I have learned at Ekko. I thought the daily scriptures was really interesting too, and a way to really bring God in to help and support us.

Week 12 | Devotional | Dan

I read 1 Corinthians 12:12-31 for my devotional. This is the section on unity and diversity in the body. It’s always good to revisit lessons that we’ve learned throughout discipleship so it stays fresh in my mind. I’ve been discovering a lot about my personal strengths and getting a clearer picture of what my role in the church should be. I’ve come to embrace my unique identity. My heart for service and cultivating relationships are just a few of the things that I want to continue to explore. At the same time, I feel that I need to open my heart more to people who are different from me. I tend to look for and hang around people who are similar to me, but I’ve been missing out on opportunities to enrich my church life. So the challenge for me is to try to understand and accept people with different gifts and see how God uses them.