The ECC Podcast

Jesus invites all who follow him to be people that are "salty". To add flavor to life. To preserve life. He invites us to be like a light that shines and impacts everyone around that light. To be like a city on the top of a hill, where everyone can see it (kind of like Burnaby).  But maybe we’ve never considered that by giving away our faith could also be part of our own spiritual formation?
In this message pastor Ken will share scripture and stories that illustrate what it can look like to give away our faith and also how God uses this to grow our faith and shape us to be more like Him.

How does Christian service help shape us to be more like Christ? Through Matthew's Parable of the Sheep and Goats we will learn what it means that service done to "the least of these" is service rendered to Jesus. Just as Jesus gave His life as a ransom for others so the church is called to be shaped by Jesus in giving ourselves for the sake of others. By engaging in service, the church reaffirms that wholeness is found when mercy and justice overflow. 

Who are you, and what does it mean to listen well? 
During this hands-on, interactive time together, Andrea Fruhling leads us through using LEGO to build metaphors, to explore who we are and discover the importance of empathy and awareness as we create space for Jesus to work through us in community. After his resurrection, from meetings with Mary at the tomb to his followers later, Jesus showed us how to listen and respond to each other with empathy. Together, we will learn how genuine support combined with self-reflection can deepen relationships and our faith journey as a community. 

Focus passage: John 20: 11-16, John 20: 19-21

Luke 24:1-12
Have you ever gone into a situation with an expectation of how things or someone should be…just to discover it’s nothing like what you expected? That's kind of what Easter Sunday was like for the earliest followers of Jesus. Usually the dead remain dead, so the resurrection was not expected. But why? Why didn't they expect him to rise from the dead? After all, he had previously told them he would. And today, we too have expectations of Jesus that aren't always on target. In this "Resurrection Sunday" message, Ken challenges us to check our expectations.

As children of God, spiritual formation is our destiny. Though it is the Holy Spirit who forms us in the image of Christ, we are not just passive lumps of clay; we have an active role to play as we respond to his work. Gray leads us in exploring how we can cooperate with the Spirit as he works in our lives (Gal. 5:25; Phil. 2:12-13). 

Gray continues our series "Shaped by Jesus."  Understanding and welcoming the Holy Spirit’s role in spiritual formation is foundational to our relationship with God. When we accept Jesus as our Saviour, we become a child of God and our destiny is “to be conformed to the likeness of his Son” (Rom. 8:29). This is only possible because Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts and lives. We cannot transform ourselves but the Holy Spirit can. 

Ken kicks off our new series: “Shaped By Jesus" speaking from John 3:16 & John 10:10-11. Some of us have been going to church a long time and yet our lives don’t look much different today than they did 10 years ago.  Is being a Jesus follower about following the rules, being a good person, going to church and not being an axe murderer?  Or is there something more?  Something that brings about real change in our life?  Ken shares some personal stories and we also see what Jesus has to say about “..Flying Upside Down.”

Today Judi & David Owens zoom in from Africa to share how God's heart for people is evident in their ministry work at Arusha Vineyard church in Tanzania.

Andreas shares about his work with the Navigators through the lens of Luke 15, focusing on how students across Canada are discovering the Heart of the Father.

Ken kicks off our traditional “Missions Month” by showing us the joy in God’s heart when someone comes to know him.  He looks at Luke 15 and we see Jesus trying to communicate to the religious leaders of his day what matters most to God.  They aren’t sure why Jesus is hanging out with the riff-raff of their day; surely he knows what kind of people they are.  Yet Jesus sees it differently.  So, he tells them stories to help them see what matters most to God.  Maybe the question for us is how do we experience the heart of Father God? And do the things that matter to God, matter to us as well?

Is the joy of the Lord evident in our lives this Advent season? It’s easy to see joy as the sense of excitement one gets when they receive something they do not have.  Then it becomes about getting things. As we look back at the first Christmas, we see in Mary a simple but profound joy.  She had every reason to complain, yet she found joy.  Ken will show us from John 15 that when we connect with Jesus, we connect with true joy.

In this second Sunday of Advent, we look at the themes of Darkness and Light.  What hope does Christmas offer for the darkness of our world and in our own lives?  Dwight Dee reflects on John 1:1-14 and how the light of Christ can overcome.

Who is your best friend? This morning we are going to consider how the Spirit of wisdom and understanding leads us into friendship with Christ and with others. And I am not just talking about friendship with nice, holy, respectable people but with those to whom God leads us into friendship that might not fit the definition of “saint”. We are told that Jesus was the friend of sinners. What does that mean for us? How many non-Christian friends do we have? Are we persistent in asking, seeking and knocking to receive and listen to the Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding so that we might truly understand what it means to be a friend of God and of our neighbour and to act accordingly? Let’s talk.  

Alastair Rees-Thomas continue our Wisdom series. 

Ken takes us on a quick look back over the summer series in Acts, highlighting the key points from each week. Some of our ECC family will share some nuggets they learned over the summer as well. Finally, we will close the book of Acts with a look at Paul's challenge in Acts 28, asking if we can have our eyes, ears and hearts attuned to God.

Aug 20: Alastair Rees-Thomas continues our Summer Journey taking a look at Acts 20, when Paul leaves Ephesus and journeys to Jerusalem.  Along the way he is constantly confronted with foes wanting to kill him or at the very least do him serious harm. On this journey, as on other trips, Paul was always encouraging the believers in their faith. And he warned them that after he was gone they needed to be on the alert of those who opposed the gospel and distorted it for their own ends and gain. So how do we react when our plans are upset? Do we trust God who has promised to go before us, come behind us and lay his hand of blessing on us? And if this journey of faith is a life worth dying for then let's live it to the full!

Aug 13: Dwight Dee continues our Summer Journey looking at Acts 19. This week we will visit the city of Ephesus, where Paul stayed for almost 3 years. What impact did Paul have as a result of his extended stay in the city? Dwight will share how Paul's radical message brought about radical transformation.

Aug 6: Ken Pierce continues our Summer Journey. In Acts 18 a couple arrives on the scene: Priscilla and Aquila. What we see in them is a model of intentional hospitality that ultimately shaped the future church. We learn from them that the hard work of being behind the scenes, just might shape the future of God’s kingdom.

Jul 30: Karen Russell continues our Summer Journey speaking from Acts 17: 16 -34. Paul finds himself in the city of Athens. From the synagogue to the marketplace to the Areopagus, Paul reasons with the Jews, Greeks and philosophers about Jesus and His resurrection. In his speech to the council of the city and other influential people, Paul speaks about the Unknown god being made Known to all. One of the followers is a woman named Damaris. Who is she? Find out and hear what she has to say about Paul’s visit to Athens.

July 23: Gray Poehnell continues our Summer Journey. The Berean Jews are a much-needed role model for our world today. Some have described our era as a “post-truth” era with the increasing flood of fake news, misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracy theories. How can we as God’s people respond? How do we learn to see God’s truth in our world today? While the Jews in most of the cities Paul visited reacted to the Gospel, the Bereans took the time and effort to search the Scriptures to see if what Paul preached was true. The Bereans show us how it is possible to buck the trend and see God’s work flourish as a result.

Peter had visions. The lame kid by the side of the road did too. So too, do we. Sometimes life makes it so that all we see are the waves, and somewhere along the way, we get stuck. That's where the community comes in. Wherever you're at, we hope you can hear God's first and foremost vision for you as his Beloved.

Why are there so many rules around church and following Jesus? It seems like God really wants to restrict my life and take away all the fun. Did you know there are over 1400 laws and commands in the Bible? So, it’s no wonder it seems like following Jesus is about following a ton of rules. Can that actually bring us any kind of freedom or fun in life?  Ken Pierce speaks on what it means to live Real Life.

Elaine begins our 3 part series Hope for the Hypocrite in Matthew 23:1-12, where Jesus speaks some of the harshest words of condemnation for the scribes and the Pharisees. His main charge against them is that they are hypocrites who do not practice what they preach and are instead preoccupied with outward appearances and craving the adoration of the people. Jesus' disciples, in contrast, are called to choose to humble themselves and in so doing be exalted by the One who calls those who follow him, to love and service. In what ways are we also hypocrites? How can we be more of the disciples Jesus seeks?

God has built change into His creation. Look around, change is everywhere. Easter celebrates the power of God to change the dead into the living. Everyday declares the power of God to bring life from death. When Jesus performed his first miracle at the wedding in Cana he accelerated the process that occurs every year in vineyards around the world. It is no less a miracle that grape-vines take water, soil and sun and turn them into grapes (C.S. Lewis). 

lastair speaks on change: how the mission of Jesus was to impart life in all its fullness and His mission is fulfilled in each of us first through the new birth and then by constantly leading us into change, a process scripture calls sanctification. In the end everything will be changed so we might as well start now!

We began our series in 2 Timothy asking the question: What would you say in a letter, if you knew it would be the last thing you ever wrote?  In our concluding message, we come back to that same question.  As we review the entire book and pull out some gold nuggets, we also will hear from some of you.  What are the things you are learning…have learned…hope to apply?

We can learn much from Paul about how to face the silent pandemic of loneliness in our modern world which has only worsened during the pandemic. Much has been written over the last 6-7 years about economic and health impacts of loneliness, not only in the world generally but also in the church. Over the last weeks, we have been looking at 2 Timothy in which Paul not only gives guidance to Timothy but also shares his own life experience as he sits in prison awaiting his execution. Gray speaks from 2 Timothy 4:9-18, where Paul shares his personal struggles with feeling loneliness, and we can see how he moves from feelings of abandonment to praising God that he is not alone. 

*We apologize - this message begins several minutes after the sermon has already started.

In a world in which many things clamour for our attention, an interesting question to ask is What Do We Love?  There are many things that can distract us from Loving God well, and take on too much importance in our lives.  Do we love our comforts of the Western World too much?  Do we even love ourselves too much?  Dan Russell continues our series on 2 Timothy as we consider Paul’s warnings in 2 Tim 3 about putting our priorities and love where they truly belong.

Elaine Dee continues our series in 2 Timothy. After telling Timothy to share in suffering for Jesus, Paul now tells Timothy to endure everything for the sake of the elect. It is only when we endure will we reign with Jesus in eternity. We need to be aware of the real possibility of denying Christ yet take hope that even during moments when we become faithless, God is always ever faithful to His promises and to those He has called because that is His very nature. And that is good news indeed.