The Local Church Podcast

We are the humans in the story and God is the gracious Savior.

Joining Jesus in the nitty gritty for the sake of others.

Living out your calling with boldness and perseverance.

Caring for the oppressed by standing up to the oppressor.

Living out our calling and persevering with Jesus even in the face of discouragement.

Rebuilding whats broken together with Jesus. Taking action to spread love, truth and freedom one step at a time.

Gospel courage. Arise and build the Kingdom of heaven with King Jesus!!!

A biblical view of loss. How to grieve healthily and join Jesus in redeeming brokenness!

Phillippians 4 and rejoicing in Jesus even in times of trial.

James leaves us with a call to prayer. A servant pray's with a servant's heart. We are not the master but the servant. 

James encourages us to be patient until Jesus returns! 

James instructs us in how we can use money to love people instead of using people to love money. 

Join the resistance! 

As followers of Jesus our ambition is to be more like Jesus. 

Serving Jesus and bringing about the Kingdom of heaven with words of love and encouragement. 

James invites to not just say we believe in Jesus but to live a Jesus lifestyle filled with good works that demonstrates our love and faith in Jesus. 

At the start of chapter 2 James encourages us to love like Jesus loves, a love that shows no partiality. 

Being not just hearers of the word but doers of the word. Moving from Christian consumerism to participating in the lie and way of Jesus. Joining Jesus in bringing light, love, healing and hope to our world. 

We are servants and we serve by listening to God and to others. We get to be a community that loves well by listening well. 

Every good gift is from a good and generous God. 

James warns the church that sin leads to death. We must be proactive in fighting sin and not sitting on our heels! 

Life is fleeting, enjoy the moment and live for eternity. The rest is vanity. 

Followers of Jesus, find wisdom from Jesus. We look to Jesus for wisdom. 

Counting trials as all joy and seeking the crown of life! 

We look at the second part of James 1:1. How can we grow as content servants dispersed throughout a consumeristic world? 

A simple reflection on the first verse of the book of James. Why the brother of Jesus finds his identity in being a servant over even being the biological brother of Jesus. 

We trust in Jesus alone. Church is to be all about Jesus. Not about programs, numbers, buildings or social media followers. It is all about Jesus alone. Simply Jesus. 

Jesus grows his Kingdom not by force, violence, marketing tricks or winning arguments but by loving invitation. He invites us to find life, joy and hope in him and to join him in living an invitational lifestyle. 

We look at the gift of God's presence through the lens of Psalm 84. 

As we learn to abide in the love of Jesus together we are transformed by his perfect love. We get to be a people motivated and led by love in a world that can fall into hate. Jesus loves us. 

His mercies are new every morning. Jesus gives us a fresh start. 

The story of how Jesus is an even better Moses. He leads us out of slavery and into an eternal promise land!!! 

Advent: The story of generous worship. 

We continue our Advent series as we reflect on the beauty of Jesus being both our promised Shepherd and our promised King. He is the Shepherd King!!! 

We reflect on Advent and the beautiful truth that God desires to be with us. 

We end our study on Psalm 119 with a meditation on the truth of God's word. 

We continue in Psalm 119 and reflect on how we must look to Jesus and the word of God for guidance in the midst of confusing times. 

We continue our reflection on Psalm 119 and learn how to look to Jesus in the dark seasons of life. 

Psalm 119 continued as the Psalmist longs to learn the way of heaven and to walk in that way. 

A look at Psalm 119, the longest chapter in the bible and a stunning love poem written by the Psalmist to the scriptures. 

He is making all things new. 

Jesus is the true and just judge. And all who witness his final judgment will praise him. 

Even in the midst of some of the craziest and freakiest passages of scripture we see a God who loves, comforts and shelters his people with his loving presence. 

Jesus is worthy. He defeats sin, satan and death through sacrificial love. All creation, all of God's people, all of the angelic hosts praise Jesus the one who is worthy!!! 

God is on the throne. He is worthy of all glory, honor and power. 

A surprisingly encouraging chapter as Jesus reveals the motivation for his harsh words of correction and warning and extends an invitation to deep community to even the most rebellious of churches. 

We look at the first 4 letters to the 7 churches found in Revelation 7. Encouragement, correction, warning and reward. These letters from Jesus are a gift for us today. They can be confusing at first glance but as we look at the context of the church and city in this time there are some beautiful and helpful insights that can guide us today. 

We start our journey through Revelation and remember that the Big Idea of this book is the comfort, presence, promises and power of Jesus. This apocalyptic, prophetic letter to the church is an encouragement today. We also learn what the word apocalypse means.... and it might not be what you think.   Also, here are some links to further your study of Revelation. Three helpful videos by the Bible Project.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nvVVcYD-0w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpnIrbq2bKo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNDX4tUdj1Y A study by Richard Bauckam https://www.amazon.com/Theology-Book-Revelation-New-Testament/dp/0521356911 A book on the poetic imagery of Revelation by Eugene Peterson https://www.amazon.com/Reversed-Thunder-Revelation-Praying-Imagination/dp/0060665033

What does it mean to be a disciple? A Jesus follower. And how does baptism symbolize and celebrate this? This is the second part of our two-part series on baptism. 

Part 1 of a 2 part series on baptism. Old had gone, the new has come. What does it mean that we are new creation's in Christ? And how does baptism reflect this truth?

God has a purpose and a calling for your life. Your unique ministry gets to be a gift to you and a gift to others as you join Jesus in bringing light, love, healing and hope in the world. 

A vision for a deeply relational church and the cultural realities that hinder this vision. 

A reflection on the sweetness and power of gracious words. A picture of the type of community that can be formed when we speak with love and grace to one another.