Crossover Tactics will be our theme this week as we continue our worship series, This Christian Life. Our worship series is inspired by the story telling curated by Ira Glass on National Public Radio’s This American Life. Each week we’ll look at a theme related to the Christian life through the lens of several stories. The stories will vary each week. Some will be rooted in our own community’s story and some will come from people far away. Some will be humorous and some will be challenging. Many of our stories will come from the Book of Acts. Here is a list of our themes for the series:
▪April 12: Weighing What Matters (Acts 4.32-35)
▪April 19: Inside Job (Book of Esther)
▪April 26: Crossover Tactics (Acts 4.5-12)
▪ May 3: Unexpected Guides
▪May 10: All Means All
▪May 17: Waiting Sucks OR Forcing It
▪May 24: Birth Stories
We often get stuck using the same responses to situations even though we know the responses will not create the outcomes we desire. Crossover Tactics help us to approach problems differently. Instead of responding with the “tried and true,” we might consider stepping back to see the entire situation from a different perspective. Or, we might try on new approaches to the problem.
Think of a time when “the old ways you’ve known just weren’t working any more” (Carrie Newcomer) and you tried new tactics. What was the context? What new approach did you try and how did it go?
Our biblical story this week will be Acts 4.5-12. Take time to read it to yourself. This passage closes, “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
When you read this closing line, what feelings and questions initially come up for you? If you were to step back and approach this text differently, where might you begin?