Catalyst Rowlett Podcast

As Epiphany begins, we ask the question, “What does it look like for God to live with us?” Paul’s encounter with the Ephesians in the book of Acts demonstrates that it’s possible to be a Christian but missing out on the life God has called us to. Baptism reminds us that God has not only saved us from our sin, but also saved us for his work of restoration in the world. What does it look like for you to be all-in?

Christmas is such an intimate celebration – a time to gather with friends and family – that we often forget the global sweep of the story. But two often-overlooked encounters with the infant Jesus remind us of God’s faithfulness – not only to us, but to the whole world! As we look toward a new year, how can we be filled with hope at what God will do?

Traditions are a beloved part of our Christmas celebrations – from lights and trees to Santa and gift-giving. Changes to holiday traditions can be hard, but change is the one constant of the Christmas story. How can we find Christ present in the center of our traditions, no matter what they look like this year?

Who doesn't love Christmas lights? Light is one of the central images of the Christmas season, but sometimes we forget what the light points to: that the darkness of sin is coming to an end. That God is up to something new. That WE are called to be that light in the world! As we prepare for Christmas, what does it look like for us to shine the light of God's hope into the world?

How does our preparation for the Christmas season cause us to miss Christ? Often, our lives become cluttered with busyness and sin that keep us from seeing the God who comes to us at Christmas. Both Isaiah and John the Baptist invite us to prepare a path for God in our lives. They insist a call to repent is a comfort for us! How is repentance a sign of God’s comfort during a busy holiday season?

How often in our preparations for Christmas do we forget to prepare ourselves for the coming of Christ? While the prophet Isaiah prays that God will tear open the heavens and come to us, Jesus instead comes humbly, in ways we least expect. How can we be alert and attentive this Advent season so we don't miss when Jesus comes among us?

In times of trauma and grief, it feels like all the structures that keep our lives stable have been stripped away. But as we enter into the process of Lament, those structures begin to reemerge. It’s not daylight yet, but we can begin to sense that the long night of our grief is ending. Hope draws us together and invites those voices who have long been silenced to be front and center.

When do we stop praying for healing? What does solidarity look like with those who are hurting? Artist and theologian Katie Fisher shares from Lamentations 3. Putting dust in our mouths is at once an act of solidarity and a declaration of hope.

Grief is uncomfortable. In the face of tragedy, no words are sufficient to salve our pain. Yet in the face of others’ pain, we find ourselves offering platitudes and speaking for God so we can avoid their pain. But Lamentations 1 is a funeral dirge. We hear the woman’s honest, unflinching cries of pain and see the prophet join her, offering nothing but his presence. How can we learn to be honest about pain so we can begin the process of reorientation?

We avoid pain and grief as much as possible. When faced with someone else's grief, we avoid or offer platitudes. But the book of Lamentations invites us to sit with grief, to enter into the prophetic process of Lament. In this series, we'll explore how to grieve and how to be a friend to the grieving. Ultimately, we'll see how the process of lament invites us to be agents of healing in the larger world.

We tend to end up in echo chambers, surrounded by people who look and think a lot like us. The danger of this is that we don’t learn how to be challenged. The spiritual consequence is that we end up missing God – imagining God in our own image rather than learning to let God challenge us. Judas illustrates the reason we need to learn to be vulnerable, to open ourselves to strange friendships.

How do you resolve conflict? Chances are, however you approach a fight, you learned it from your family. Our families shape us for good and for ill. Herodias, the Evil Queen of Jesus’ day, illustrates for us the cost of generational sin. How can we overcome the sins we inherit from our families? And how can we leave a legacy of life for those who come after us?

If we know the end of the story, we know how to live in the middle. We conclude our series on the Apostle's Creed by exploring how each of the statements in the Creed shape us. How do they help us live now as a people who will live with God forever? How can we begin now reverse engineering our lives to flourish as God intended?

In this week's sermon, we talk about change. How we change. But more importantly, how we help others change. Because the reality is, you and I can't change anyone (even ourselves). We are changed when the Holy Spirit changes us—when God transforms us from the inside out.

n this week's sermon, we're suggesting that God's return is somewhat like the king coming back in the story (illustrated in the intro). We want our good and wise God to come back, to put an end to injustice and evil. And we don't have to be surprised when our king return because God told us exactly what we should be doing as we wait.

In this week's sermon, we discuss that to be human is to be vulnerable. We see that vulnerability is part of how we image God in the world, and that we cannot have the authority God created us to have unless we choose to be vulnerable. Today is not about avoiding risk, but embracing risk and trusting that God is faithful to bring life when we are faithful to follow his calling on us.

Today we explore what it means to be human, and we'll see that while to be human is to be limited, it is not to fail. We'll see that to be human is a sacred calling and that God wants us to live tall and proud to be human.

Today we spend some time in Genesis 1 as a basis for understanding that human beings, made in the image of God, matter. In the wake of artist Chris Cornell's suicide, it has become more and more difficult for our culture to believe that life has a purpose. Which is why we need to confess God as Creator. To say, "I believe in God the creator" is to announce that we believe life has meaning, that we have a purpose, and that every single one of us matters. Our confession pushes back the darkness in our lives and in our world.

In this week's sermon, we are saying that Belief Matters. But beliefs that don't transform us, change us to be more like Jesus (or better reflect God’s image) aren't good for us - the Bible actually calls them worthless. We'll see that beliefs only matter when they shape our behaviors. Belief only matters when it makes a difference in how we live. Belief only matters when you can see it.

Today we focus on our understanding of the Spirit's role in our lives. There are many metaphors for the Spirit throughout the Scriptures such as wind, water, smoke, etc. All things less tangible and more fully mysterious. The word means "Breath" from Pneuma, which is where we get Pneumatology (the study of the Holy Spirit) from. The Spirit is our life's breath and without it, we cannot function wholly.

In this week's sermon, we focus on our human tendency to escape life's painful conversations. As the Church, we are not called to beam out, but to lean in. To stay. Because that's what God does for us. God doesn't beam up and leave us on our own. God is with us, working to bring life and flourishing. And by following God's path, we can learn to do the same.