Hey Imago Dei friends and family! Justin Bizzard over on The Resurgence (good site!) had a great blog post that gives some compelling reasons for joining a church plant (brand-new church). Being that Imago Dei is a church plant, this is extremely relevant and useful in communicating just some of the ways that we’re different:

Top 10 Reasons to Join a Church Plant:

1. If you want to see Jesus do something new and are sick of the status quo.
2. If you dream of being part of something bigger than yourself.
3. If you want to get into a fight/enter a battle for the kingdom of Christ.
4. If you feel a constant itch to see people who don’t know Jesus come to know Jesus and you believe church planting is the best way for the gospel to advance.
5. If you want to give your time, money, energy, and talents to starting something new and you want to make sacrifices to see a mission to succeed.
6. If you fully support the vision, mission, doctrine, and leadership of a church plant.
7. If you want your faith to grow and you want God to fundamentally meddle with and change your life.
8. If you want to love your city.
9. If you want to watch God move in ways you never imagined and you want an adventure (with all it’s discomfort and risk).
10. If you’re not afraid to bank your life on Matthew 16:18 (“I [Jesus] will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it”).

If you’re interested in joining us (or just curious): take a look at our Beliefs and Purpose pages, come to our weekly Sunday Night Celebration Service, check out one of our mid-week Missional Community groups, or just contact us by email or phone. Together, as a Christian family, we can bring the good news of Jesus to a city so desperately in need of it!

In this teaching series from the book of Titus, I have been sharing stories of Martin Luther and working to humbly begin a new tradition at our church. Each October we want to spend time looking at the life of Reformers. Below are most of the resources I have found helpful. I hope that you will benefit as I have. I look forward to continuing on in our series this Sunday in Titus 1:10-16.  Check out the Celebrations page for info on our next meeting, listen to last Sunday’s message in this series on the Resources page, and check out these books and articles on Martin Luther:

Martin Luther: The Lion-hearted Reformer (Book by John Arch Morrison)

Church History in Plain Language (Book by Bruce Shelley)

Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses (Article from The Resurgence)

Fortress for Truth: Martin Luther (Article from Ligonier Ministries)

Resources from Desiring God on Luther

-Pastor Ryan

October is a historical month for our faith. Many have called it the Reformation Month. In fact, October 31st marks the day where Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk, posted his 95 Theses on a church door in Wittenberg, Germany in 1517.

His action led to what’s been called “The Protestant Reformation.” Luther was much like the early reformer, The Apostle Paul. Paul took risk; he challenged the status quo, and was passionate about the gospel being in the hands of everyday people.

Join us at Imago Dei Community Church, this Sunday at 5pm, for our new teaching series in the book of Titus. In Paul’s letter to Titus we learn that he was calling for a reformation for the glory of God and the good of the city. Paul’s message was Jesus and His grace proclaimed to all people in the city. That’s our message at Imago Dei!

We need reformation! Our cities need reform; our culture, our churches, our homes and our hearts all need true reform through Christ! This month, explore with us what God is already doing in our city and in our church.

Listen to John Piper’s message on Lessons from Luther.

More info on the new series and our new meeting time on the Celebrations page!

Also, we are starting brand-new Missional Communities! Go to the Communities page for all the info!

This past Sunday morning the Imago Dei family gathered to celebrate as one of our new brothers chose to be baptized as a symbol of his adoption into God’s family as a forgiven, rescued, redeemed, child through Christ. Todd’s salvation story speaks of God’s steadfast pursuit of our hearts… the graceful simplicity of the gospel… and the significance of friendship. The mountains provided a stunning backdrop as our community gathered around the Moscioni’s pool to share in Todd’s symbolic expression of his death to sin, birth as a new creation, and hope of complete restoration. We ended our time by joining the angels rejoicing in heaven with a song of praise. Many of us then spent the afternoon enjoying the beautiful autumn weather at a local park chatting over picnic lunches, ultimate frisbee, and building relationships within our own church family. Experiencing God moving within our community in such powerful and tangible ways helps remind of the promise of new life God offers… the enormous cost Christ paid to gain it… and challenges us to live gospel-centered lives that allow Him to use us to further His Kingdom.

This coming Sunday, October 9th, Imago Dei is going to have a Baptism and Picnic outdoors! We will meeting up at the Moscioni’s home for the Baptism of a young man who just recently trusted Christ for the forgiveness of his sins and now is part of our church! Afterward we will go over to a local park to have a picnic and some fun fellowship time. Details below.

When: Sun, October 9, 10:30am – 12:30pm

Where: 26916 N. 52nd Glen Phoenix, AZ 85083 (map)

Description: Join Imago Dei for a Baptism Celebration at the Moscioni’s Home, and a Family Picnic immediately afterward. Bring your own chairs, food, drinks, and athletic wear for games! Email Pastor David for more info.

Other updates from the Imago Dei family:

• A Children’s Play Group has been started and will meet each week! Please check the Calendar for more info.
• Missional Communities will be starting this fall and will meet weekly. More info to come very soon, please check back on the Communities page.
• Imago Dei has secured a new church home! We will be meeting there at a new time, 5pm-7pm, starting October 16th. For more info, and a preview of our new teaching series entitled: A Letter of Reformation, check out the Celebrations page.

Join us with your friends and family this Sunday, as we continue our series on The Story at (click for map):

Meeting @ Crosswinds Presbyterian Church
20125 N. 15th Ave
Phoenix, AZ 85027
3-5 PM

Friends of Phoenix and Imago Dei Family: God is drawing many people to worship with us and it’s exciting times! Our Worship Leader Ian has been a highlight of our times together, I am proud as a Pastor to see God use Ian in our Worship Celebrations!  He is leading the way with music in our church and city in writing and singing songs that bring us together for the exaltation of Christ!

I love what God is doing in our midst and love hearing all the stories about his power and change in peoples lives!

This last Sunday was sweet. It’s funny but, I was really shocked to see so many come to hear a message on “The Fall of Man”. How lame we are, and how lame and broken the world is. Shalom was fractured and sin spread like a virus to all men. But we learned that there is a Redeemer!

This week, I am hopeful to see more people join us this Sunday as we move to the cross in our series. I am  privileged to preach the message I am preparing. It’s a special verse to me, which I will share more about this Sunday. It’s been a key text that shaped my spiritual life and has greatly strengthened my theology and love for Christ.

“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit” – I Peter 3:18

The message of the Cross, this Rescue of sinners is so central to our gospel message and yet so culturally lost within our cities and even churches today. Many churches and cults leave sin out of the salvation message.  This Sunday our goal is to get the source and purpose of Jesus’ death and his rescue of us. We live in a culture where we all want a salvation with out the acknowledgment of sin and where we can become our own savior. This is not the gospel. This is not the true Christian faith.

• The cross is central to the gospel
• We are not our saviors
• We can’t just deal with symptoms and expect true change
• We must get to the source, the source of our problems is sin
• Jesus death on the cross is the solution to our sin
• Forgiveness is found in Christ by His work on the cross
• Peace is not found within ourselves but from His power through the cross

I pray the gospel over our city and  you the church. Oh, that we might find true faith and renewal, hope and restoration in nothing more than the cross! Jesus the hope of glory amen. See you Sunday!

- Pastor Ryan