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!

Sprinkled, dabbed, dunked

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The experience of baptism is meant to emulate a death, a burial, a resurrection – or resuscitation after drowning. What are we drowning in? drowning from? drowning to? This series hews closely to the RCL readings for this season and introduces Jesus’s ministry. We’ll look at each text through the lens of baptism, the saying “yes” to God’s way and God’s future.

Jesus Says “Yes” in Baptism. God is up to something in Jesus, but requires Jesus’s consent before moving ahead with it. Baptism is the signal that Jesus is ready to get in there; and God confirms the decision with a declaration from the heavens. Mark 1:1-15; Psalm 29.

We Are Invited to Know and Be Known. “Come and see,” Jesus says to those first disciples, meaning, “Come check me out. Come witness who I am and what I’m doing.” And he has already checked out Nathaniel from afar, and knows deeply who he is. Are we willing to be so trusting? And so trusted? John 1:35-51; Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18.

The Call of God is Totalizing. When we decide to be with Jesus, we are deciding to let go every other commitment that would interfere with it. We drown in our discipleship; all else is subsumed. John goes to prison; the Galileean fishers leave family and livelihood. This radical commitment: is it still the call today? We are much more “choose from a broad menu” kind of people…Mark 1:14-20; Psalm 62:5-12.

The Renunciation of Evil. Old baptismal liturgies required the renunciation of evil – see https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/the-baptismal-covenant-iv. Why don’t we do that anymore? Jesus sent demons back to hell; what form does that ministry of exorcism take in our world? Mark 1:21-39; Psalm 147:1-11, 20c.

It’s Meant to be Shared. Baptism (saying yes to God) is not a private experience; it’s intended to be shared. (Even when Jesus says not to.) Because when it’s working, it’s the best thing you’ve ever given anyone, ever. Mark 1:40–2:12; Psalm 30.

Transfiguration. Jesus and the Legacy of Elijah. Baptism serves as our own entry into a continuity of God’s outreach to humanity – much less about “personal salvation” and much more about “all of us together,” through generations, a legacy of faith and reaching. What is your legacy? What legacy are you leaving? Mark 9:2-29; 2 Kings 2:1-12.