What Is The Gathering Colorado Springs Becoming?

At The Gathering Colorado Springs, we aren’t building a ministry model. We’re becoming a people. That distinction matters.

This past Sunday, Pastor Chris Berglund shared a powerful teaching rooted in both the Old and New Testaments, unpacking what it means that God calls Israel His son and what that means for us today. The Church isn’t just an organization or weekly gathering. It’s the resurrected body of Christ—a living, breathing extension of Jesus Himself on the earth.

“The Church is only the Church if Christ is the source of its life.” — Chris Berglund

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Israel, My Son – What It Means for the Church in Colorado Springs

In Exodus 4:22, God tells Moses,

“Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord, Israel is my son, my firstborn.’”

From that declaration, we see a prophetic thread woven throughout Scripture. Israel wasn’t just a nation—it was a shadow, a type pointing forward to a corporate son formed in Christ.

In the Old Testament, the name “Israel” shows up in three powerful places—each giving us a window into what God is building now in the Church.

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1. Jacob Becomes Israel – The Story of the Wrestler

In Genesis 32, Jacob wrestles with God and man. He leaves Bethel (the House of God) and enters a hostile land in search of a bride. It’s there that his identity is tested and transformed.

This points forward to Jesus:

• Leaving the Father’s house
• Entering a hostile world
• Wrestling with sin and death
• Emerging with a bride (the Church), sons, and a flock

Genesis 32:28 – “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.”

Reflection Questions:

• Where in your life are you “wrestling” with God?
• Could that struggle be leading to a deeper revelation of who you really are?

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2. Joseph – A Type of Christ in the Pit and the Palace

Joseph is sold by his brothers, thrown into a pit, and eventually raised to power in Egypt—becoming the savior of a nation.

He becomes a picture of Jesus:

• Rejected by His own
• Lowered to the depths of death
• Exalted to the right hand of authority
• Sustainer of life through bread and wine (Genesis 40, dreams of the baker and cupbearer)

Genesis 50:20 – “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive.”

Even in death, Joseph is prophetic. He tells his descendants not to leave his bones in Egypt—a picture of Christ’s desire for His people to carry His life into the Promised Land.

Exodus 13:19 – “Moses took the bones of Joseph with him.”

Reflection Questions:

• Are there places of pain or rejection in your life that God is transforming into resurrection?
• What would it mean to carry the “bones” of Christ’s testimony into your promised land?

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3. The Exodus – Passing Through the Blood

In Exodus 12–13, we see a third mention of Israel in the context of deliverance. The people put the blood of the lamb on their doorposts, and they pass through it—saved, covered, marked.

Exodus 12:13 – “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.”

They didn’t each die a separate death. They participated in one lamb’s death, pointing to the one death of Christ for all.

Jesus says in John 12:24:

“Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”

This is how Christ gets glory: through increase. Through us.

Reflection Questions:

• What parts of your old identity need to be left in Egypt?
• Are you willing to walk through the blood—into union, into life?

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The Church as the Resurrected Body

Chris reminded us that the Church is not a service. It’s not outreach. It’s not even activity done “for” Jesus. It is only what is animated by Jesus.

“If Christ’s life isn’t in it, it’s not the Church.”

This means we don’t get to define the Church by how it looks—we define it by the presence of resurrection life. Just as Jesus came out of the grave with a different form, so must we.

2 Corinthians 5:17 – “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

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The Life of the Son Is the Only Metric

The Father desires one thing: an increase of His Son’s life in the earth. Every law, every story, every shadow in the Old Testament is pointing toward this—toward Christ.

This is why we’re gathering in Colorado Springs.
This is why Company 318 is forming across the nation.
This is why we write and share on Substack.

Not to build a platform—but to host His life.

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Listen and Go Deeper

🎧 Listen to Chris’s full message (audio only):
👉 YouTube Link

🌐 Join us locally at The Gathering Colorado Springs:
👉 https://the-gathering.us

🧵 Join our national conversation on union and covenant:
👉 https://Company318.com
👉 Subscribe on Substack

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Closing Devotional Thought

What would happen if every church, every gathering, every moment of worship, teaching, or service was led only by the life of Christ flowing within?

That’s what we’re after.

At The Gathering Colorado Springs, we’re learning to abide in the Vine—to become the kind of people who don’t just talk about Jesus, but who actually live from Him.

John 15:5 – “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit…”