Galileo Church

We seek and shelter spiritual refugees, rally health for all who come, and fortify every tender soul with the strength to follow Jesus into a life of world-changing service.

5860 I-20 service road Fort Worth, TX 76119 USA

(682) 760-1274

OUR MISSIONAL PRIORITIES:

1. We do justice for LGBTQ+ humans, and support the people who love them.

2. We do kindness for people with mental illness and in emotional distress, and celebrate neurodiversity.

3. We do beauty for our God-Who-Is-Beautiful.

4. We do real relationship, no bullshit, ever.

5. We do whatever it takes to share this good news with the world God still loves.

Trying to find us IRL?
Mail here: P.O. Box 668, Kennedale, TX 76060
Worship here: 5 pm CT Sundays; 5860 I-20 service road, Fort Worth 76119

Trying to find our Sunday worship livestream?
click here!

Formation: scriptures that made us who we are

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Eastertide leads into Pentecost, when we’ll celebrate our 7th birthday as a church. Each year we spend this season considering again Galileo’s identity as a church. Who are we, all together? What does it mean to be a co-conspirator with this community of belonging in Jesus’ name?

There are certain parts of the Bible that have been, and continue to be, formative for us – our “canon within the canon,” as it were. We’ll take them as our theme, one per week, through Pentecost Sunday.

Won’t you be my neighbor? Katie can only ever preach the parable of the Good Samaritan from the perspective of the lawyer whose expectations about who’s in and who’s out, who’s ahead and who’s behind, are upended in Jesus’s worldmaking story. What happens when a contemporary Samaritan hears, and preaches, the same story? Luke 10:25-37; Psalm 82.

Bruised reeds, dimly burning wicks, and the gentle gospel of “maybe all is not lost.” From the start, we imagined that spiritual refugees would not survive a loud, authoritative (authoritarian?) evangelistic approach. What if we inverted the preaching paradigm and approached this world in humility? It’s a sea change the church must make for its future, and the future of the world God still loves. Isaiah 42:1-13; Psalm 36:5-11.

Dirt Under Our Fingernails. Here is Jesus-In-a-Hamster-Ball, making all these reign-of-God things happen – and some people are thrilled, and some people are enraged. How does he do that? But mainly – who are these “friends” who claw away the roof to get their guy near enough to Jesus for Jesus to do his Jesus-thang? And how much dirtier can our own fingernails get, for Christ’s sake? Mark 2:1-12; Psalm 41.

Let Us Then Go to Him, Outside the Camp. We used to think “welcome” was the main thing. But getting “them” in here with “us” isn’t our highest aspiration, is it? What does it mean for a church’s identity, to be constantly seeking the margins, the ones who are still not here yet? Hebrews 13:10-13a; Psalm 34:4-18; Leviticus 16:11-28.

Ministry Intern Josh Bridges preaches on The Magnificat, and he has some powerful words for us today. Here’s a little taste: “History is an act of persuasion.” You’re not going to want to miss this one. Luke 1:39-56; Psalm 113.

When God Gets Everything God Wants: Ain’t Gonna Study War No More. The prophets of old could see it: the arc of the moral universe, bending toward justice. Here is a strong vision of economic justice powered not by violence or the threat of violence; but God’s own creative Word, speaking fairness into reality. Rev. Dr. Irie Session preaches! Micah 4:1-4; Rev. 21:1-4, 22:1-5.

“On All Flesh”: the inclusive, empowering vision of church, then and now. Church leaders are prone to condescend to church members, to the point that members are infantilized and unable to imagine themselves empowered for life-with-God. At Galileo we maintain: we are each and all grown-ass adults imbued with the Holy Spirit of the living Christ. We should treat each other that way, and the ecclesial infrastructure should support that. Without that empowerment, the amazing vision of Acts 2:43-47 is impossible. Also: happy 7th birthday to us! Acts 2:1-47; Numbers 11:24-30.