Church of the Advent is a vibrant Anglican church in Denver, Colorado. Our mission is to be a people who receive and reorient everything around life in Christ. Pay us a quick visit us at https://www.adventdenver.com, and know that you are welcome to join us on a Sunday morning at 9 or 10:45.
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What happens when God really shows up at church? In 1 Corinthians 14, Paul invites us to expect more than ideas about God: the living God is among his people. We’ll explore the strange and often misunderstood gift of prophecy and how God speaks through ordinary Christians to strengthen, encourage, comfort, and bring light.
How do we live out Christianity without missing the point? The Corinthian church boasted about spiritual gifts and ecstatic experiences but missed what mattered. Paul tells them their spirituality means nothing without love. We too can make the same mistake by focusing on good things that aren’t the most important. Pastor Jordan Kologe explores 1 Corinthians 13, explaining what love is not, what it is, and why it lasts.
Sometimes we can lose sight of the fact that spiritual gifts are truly are gifts, graciously bestowed on us by a loving Father through the Spirit to build up the body of Christ. Spiritual gifts are “grace-gifts,” given to us by the God who delights in his people. Exploring 1 Corinthians 12, Chandler McCosh explains how gifts are given by grace, diverse by design, and build up the body.
Paul wrote to the Corinthian church to correct how they were treating the Lord’s Supper. The rich were eating well while the poor went hungry, causing division instead of unity. From their mistakes and Paul’s teaching we learn that honoring Christ’s table means remembering his sacrifice, sharing in his body, and looking forward to his kingdom. Pastor Jordan Kologe preaches from 1 Corinthians 11.
Paul's greatest concern was not to hinder the gospel of Christ. In 1 Corinthians 9:22 he wrote, "I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some." The question for us is how we win some for Christ, and by what means? Deacon Cindy Hamilton teaches that we begin by praying for a heart for the lost and for opportunities to share our faith. "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have."
We tend to think freedom means more choices, more independence, fewer people we have to answer to. Paul turns that instinct inside out. True freedom, he argues, is often found in constraint, in dependence, and in surrendering our rights for the good of the vulnerable ones beside us. Luke Elmers preaches from 1 Corinthians 8-10, tracing three paradoxes of Christian freedom back to the cross, where the strongest person who ever lived gave himself up entirely for the weak.
Can a person have a full life without sex? Paul's answer unsettles our worldly perspective that finding "the one" is the summit of self-fulfillment. Instead he preaches a better gospel: one that frees us to enjoy good things without making them ultimate, ready to hold them up to God rather than clutch them as the source of our lives. Likewise marriage and singleness are equally holy gifts. Whatever your relationship situation, it is precisely where Christ will meet you and draw you to himself. Pastor Lisa Elmers preaches from 1 Corinthians 7 on marriage, singleness, and the union every good gi
In 1 Corinthians 6, Paul moves beyond simple moral instruction to offer a theology of the body. From it we see that body and spirit are both integral to who we are, neither inherently superior. Pastor Jordan Kologe explores this balance, shaping a vision that honors the embodied life and shapes a Christian sexual ethic.
How does Jesus' cross shape who we are? Do you tend to think too highly or too lowly of yourself? Teaching from 1 Corinthians 4, Pastor Jordan Kologe explains that our identity doesn't come from our own judgment or others’ opinions. It comes from who we are in Christ, and that identity brings true freedom.
Who are the wise? Who are the spiritual? Exploring 1 Corinthians 2:6-3:23, curate Chandler McCosh explores how a cross-shaped life is reliant upon the Holy Spirit, is rooted in Christ alone, and rests in the abundance of Christ. This cross-shaped life can only be lived from a Spirit-indwelled mind.
Everyone is searching for power and wisdom: enough strength to feel safe, enough understanding to make sense of life, enough hope to keep going. But Paul says God gives us something the world calls foolish: Christ crucified. Preaching from 1 Corinthians 1:18-2:5, Pastor Jordan Kologe shows how the cross overturns our categories of strength and weakness, wisdom and folly, and becomes for us righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
The Corinthian church was dividing into camps around status, preference, and favorite leaders. Paul’s answer is not a better conflict strategy, but a deeper return to the cross: only Christ was crucified for us, and only into Christ have we been baptized. In this opening sermon of The Cross and the Common Life, we see how the gospel relativizes every lesser loyalty and forms a people whose unity is found not in sameness, but in Christ. Pastor Jordan Kologe teaches from 1 Corinthians 1:1-17.
The heading in our Bibles calls it "the Great Commission," but the word commission can land like a job order: here is the task, now go perform, you are on your own. Jesus' actual last words say something else. "I am with you, always." What if the call is not a commission but a co-mission, a sending we never carry out alone? Pastor Lisa Elmers preaches from Matthew 28:16-20 on discipleship as life shared with the Triune God.
Nearing the end of his life on earth, Jesus addressed the disciples’ concerns that he would be going away. Jesus declares that Another Helper—the Holy Spirit—would be with them forever. Pentecost is the fulfillment of the promises Jesus gave his disciples in John 14. Pastor Jordan Kologe shares the promise of Pentecost: you don’t have to do life all alone.
In this sermon-meeting hybrid, Pastor Jordan Kologe, Pastor Lisa Elmers, and K. C. Schwarz present the vision of the “His Table, Our Home” campaign and provide updates on where we’ve been and where we are going. Using the Luke 24 text of the road to Emmaus, Pastor Jordan outlines the theological conviction behind the project, one where all God’s children are welcomed into the church, renewed by the ministry of Word and Sacrament, and then sent out into the world.
We bear fruit not by striving, but by remaining. In John 15, Jesus calls himself the true vine and gives his disciples one repeated instruction: stay connected. But what does that actually look like? Luke Elmers preaches from John 15:1-11, inviting us to shed lesser sources of life and trust the slow, ordinary work of spiritual formation in community.
John 14 records Jesus preparing his disciples for the struggles ahead and tending their hearts: “Let not your hearts be troubled.” In the face of fear and confusion it’s natural to ask what the real, concrete alternative to being troubled looks like. Pastor Jordan Kologe points us to the steadying comfort Jesus offers: a way of life oriented on the Father.
Have you ever faced a part of life that fell short of your hopes? The two confused disciples walking to Emmaus in Luke 24 say, “We had hoped…” The risen Jesus—the one they had trusted but could not see—walks with them in their disappointment and turns it into faith. Deacon Steven Sifers teaches that this Emmaus pattern—revelation, recognition, and response—is available to us on our own faith journeys.
When the disciples encounter the resurrected Jesus, mourning is turned to joy, fear into boldness, and doubt into vivacious faith. In this sermon, Chandler McCosh explores the surprising kindness of Jesus in John 20:19-31 towards his fearful disciples, towards Thomas in his doubt, and towards an unlikely group of people in the story – us!
What does the story of Jesus’ resurrection in John 20 stir in you? Pastor Jordan Kologe illumines the story in three movements: a story strange enough to be true, personal enough to change a life, and beautiful enough to wipe away every tear. Ultimately, the Easter story, promising the end of evil and death, can be ours too.
Jesus loved his disciples "to the end," both to the finish and completely. On the night of the last supper, he gave them a prophetic parable with his own body, kneeling to wash their feet as a preview of the cross to come. Pastor Lisa Elmers preaches from John 13, drawing us into the upper room to receive a love that is extravagant, unfair, and freely given.
On Palm Sunday, Pastor Jordan Kologe challenges us to companion Christ through his sufferings. Using the eyes of our imagination, we shift focus from ourselves and enter into the Passion story. Notice, sense, feel, and converse with Jesus. More than words on a page, may the Scripture be a means of meeting with Christ this Holy Week.
Jesus could have healed Lazarus. He chose not to. Instead he waited, wept, and raised him — offering Martha, and us, not merely the thing we asked for but something far greater: himself. Preaching from John 11 and Psalm 88, Pastor Lisa Elmers explores how Martha's courageous trust in the face of loss shapes her soul for deeper faith, and how Christ's surrender — in tears, in prayer, in death — is the pattern by which God transforms our own moments of powerlessness into resurrection life.
Pastor Jordan Kologe explores Psalm 23 as a guide for navigating the spiritual cycles of consolation and desolation. While green pastures represent periods of ease and spiritual refreshment, the darkest valley signifies times when God feels absent and prayer feels empty. Rather than viewing these difficult seasons as a sign of failure, the text suggests they are opportunities for God to retrain our loves and foster a deeper, more resilient trust. Ultimately, the Good Shepherd remains present in every environment, offering a table of nourishment even in the midst of wilderness and suffering. Th
What can thirst teach us about the love of Christ? When Jesus encounters the woman at Jacob’s Well, he sees a person who is thirsty, yes, and yearning for so much more. As we imagine ourselves interacting with Jesus in the place of this woman, Jesus shows us we are worthy of love and offers us his life-giving love that will satisfy our deepest longings. Pastor Jordan Kologe teaches from John 4.
