CitySalt Audio Archive

“All authority on heaven and earth has been given to me.” Jesus begins the great commission before ascending to the heavens. What does this authority look like? What does that mean for us today as Jesus's followers? As we continue our Centering on Jesus Series, join Pastor Mike as we unpack 9 intentionally woven stories of Jesus's authority.

The gospels tell us about Him. The epistles are written because of Him. The old testament law, prophets, and writings point to His coming. Jesus is at the center of scripture. Join Pastor John as he illuminates numerous scriptures pointing to the coming, calling, and character of Jesus.

Before Jesus did so many of His miracles and shared many of His famous parables His ministry was set off with His baptism, testing in the wilderness, and then declaring in His hometown synagogue the mission of His ministry from Isaiah 61. As we continue our Centering on Jesus Series, join Pastor Mike as we unpack the onset of Jesus's ministry and explore ways this impacts the call on our lives today.

If Jesus didn't come to destroy the law, but fulfill it, then why did he keep getting in trouble for ‘breaking the law'. As we continue our new Centering on Jesus Series, Pastor John invites us to consider the heart of the law versus the letter of the law and the invitation of God for us to worship Him.

This month's Big Table Sunday we are listening to the voices of our very own CitySalt Salt Blog team. Britni facilitates and interviews Ursula, Sarah, and Terry, as they read excerpts from their blog posts, and share their personal lessons through transitions. Read the latest on our Salt Blog.

Pastor Mike kicks off a new series entitled Centering on Jesus. Despite the many voices today calling for our attention, let us together look to Jesus for grounding. Our unity, as followers of Jesus, is crucial to both our connection with God's best for our lives and our witness of God's love for the world.

Join Pastor Mike as we return to the Genesis Mirrors Series with the life of Joseph. We look at the first half of Joseph's life as his dreams are not realized, and he finds himself on a roller coaster of highs and lows. While Joseph goes from the pit, to running Potipher's household, and back to prison, God is at work in it all.

Listen along with this special service honoring and thanking the ministry of Pastor Dusty and Julia for their 12 years of service to CitySalt church and 27 years of ministry. Multiple voices from different seasons of the Johnsons' ministry share about the impact of their lives and work.

Pastor Mike shares a message about baptism before we get to baptize Dustin and Ben. If you have questions about baptism or are interested in being baptized please email the CitySalt leadership at info@citysalt.org

Revisiting a favorite message that has embedded itself in the life of our congregation, Pastor Dusty reminds us of both God's generous love for us and our ability to share that love with those around us. He unpacks assumptions that may undermine our relationships to help us move forward with generosity.

Listen along with Pastor Dusty as he breaks from our sermon series to share a special and timely message on his heart about navigating change and transition. While we certainly are facing a major change as a congregation, we also have many changes in our lives outside of CitySalt as well. How can we posture ourselves to grow and transition with these changes around us?

In Genesis 32 Jacob wrestles with God. He is then is given a new name, a blessing and a limp, but doesn't seem to go by this new name until chapter 35 when he is renamed by God a second time. Join us as Pastor Mike dives into the character of Jacob as we continue our Mirrors Series exploring the Genesis stories and what they reflect about humanity, God, and ourselves.

Continuing our Mirrors Series in the book of Genesis, Pastor John explores the character development of Jacob as he is tricked by his father-in-law Laban, the messiness of his growing family with multiple wives, and the experience he has wrestling with God.

As we continue our series from the book of Genesis exploring the main characters and stories as mirrors for our lives, join Pastor Dusty as he wrestles with the complicated character of Jacob. Despite his swindling and complicated relationship with his brother, Esau, God is continually faithful and full of grace allowing the free will of His people.

On Independence Day, 2021, many of us might have looked back on the turmoil we Americans experienced in 2020 on many fronts and questioned what it means to love America. Pastor John took note of the extremes: either idolizing everything about America (nothing needs to change, we are the best) or criticizing everything about it (everything about our history and our social structure is wrong and needs to change.) But extremes usually indicate a blindness to the other side. With God as our Center and our Lord, we have a better chance of putting things in a perspective that allows us to both love things about our country and criticize the wrongs at the same time. It's not an “either/or” situation but a “both/and” one.

Listen along as Pastor Mike begins a new series called “Experiencing Jesus” as we look at various gospel encounters Jesus had with people. This particular message draws our attention to how Jesus sees and engages those who seem to be outsiders and often overlooked by those gathered. May we be encouraged to have the eyes and heart of Jesus for those on the margins or seem to be outsiders.

Listen along as Pastor Dusty shares this message addressing the challenge we often face when we get our roles mixed up with our identity. He challenges us to see roles as expressions of who we are, but not let them define who we are.

Listen along as Pastor Dusty and Julia have a conversation with Eric and Suzanne Green that addressed how people of color often experience something different than those with white skin. Their stories help us grow in our awareness and compassion for those who are regularly impacted simply by the color of their skin. Eric and Suzanne are pastors at The Father’s House in Eugene and personal friends of Dusty and Julia. They have been married for 39 years, and they are proud parents of four adult kids and grandparents of three. They have been in vocational ministry for more than 25 years in many capacities, as church planters, worship leaders, missionaries, and pastors. By God’s grace, they continue to serve, and they are looking forward to many years of fruitful ministry in the future.

Listen along as Pastor Mike brings this message addressing the unique relationship between unity and diversity as it relates to God’s Kingdom vision for the Church. This message is anchored in 1 Corinthians 12:12-14, 15-20; Galatians 2:11-14.

Listen along to Pastor John as he brings this message that challenges us to grow in our awareness and maturity as we consider the gospel of Christ through the lens of Black History in the United States. He tells two stories and shares a portion of a sermon by Martin Luther King Jr. that is anchored in Matthew 5:43-48.As part of this message, Pastor John shares this youtube clip from Martin Luther King Jr. titled, “Love Your Enemies”

Listen along as Pastor Dusty shares this message touching on God’s vision for every nation, tribe, people and tongue from Revelation 7:9. He discusses his recent journey and discovery of racial tension and the polarizing impact of our American Christian culture that can feel in opposition to the life of faith for many Christ-followers. In this message Dusty references two resources during his talk… A video clip from Intervarsity Press that highlights the book, White Awake by Daniel Hill Reads from an essay by Michael Frost called Colin Kaepernick vs. Tim Tebow: Christianity on its knees that was published in The Washington Post.

Listen along as Pastor John and Margaret Fairchild teach and facilitate a group contemplative reading (aka - Lectio Divina) from Matthew 18:11-14. This message is part of a 2020 Gospel Reading focus and this is meant to be considered part of our “Tools of Engagement” to help people better interact with God through the scriptures.

Listen along as Pastor Dusty shares and gives the group a chance to experience a couple of tools that can promote personal engagement with scriptures. The goal is that these tools can help raise our spiritual awareness and maturity as we listen and respond to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

Listen along to Pastor Mike and he starts off the new year challenging us to get to know Jesus by learning about him through our 2020 Gospel reading plan from now until Easter.

Listen along as Alisha Camden finishes out this Advent Series anchored in James 5:13-16 with this message on Love.

Listen along to Pastor John as he uses this season of Advent to address the enemies of joy highlighted from James 3:13-16 and the goodness Jesus brings to our lives.

Listen along as Pastor Dusty begins a December series that looks at Advent through the lens of James. This message highlights the HOPE we have in Jesus while considering the exhortation of James 2:1-13 regarding the topic of favoritism.

Dusty Johnson interviews Aaron Porter, who is a mental health professional and part of CitySalt. We discussed discussing issues of "Seasonal Awareness," and how we can be better equipped to care for friends, neighbors and loved ones during the holidays.

Listen along as Pastor Dusty shares this message from James 1:19 that challenges us to “be quick to listen and slow to speak.” This is part of an ongoing series titled, WISDOM | Lessons from the book of James, and keys in on ways we pay attention to God, others and ourselves when pressed by challenging circumstances.

Listen along as Pastor Mike shares this message from James 3 that challenges us to consider the power and influence of our words. This message is part of the WISDOM series from the NT book of James.

Listen along as Pastor John shares this message relating to the topic of Faith and Works from James 2:14-19. He challenges us with letting our works be an expression of faith that grows and matures through process and time.

Listen along as Randi Nelson shares insights and challenges from message #3 in our current series titled, WISDOM | Lessons from the Book of James. In this message she presents video segments from Comedian Michael Jr. and "Generosity" by The Bible Project.

Listen along as Pastor Dusty shares this message from James 1:12-18 with a perspective on trials and temptations. This is part two of a recent teaching series titled WISDOM | Lessons from the Book of James.

Listen along as Pastor Dusty begins a new teaching series titled WISDOM | Lessons from the Book of James. This message focuses on the text Jame 1:1-12 and seeks to explore and better understand the difference between Godly Wisdom and Worldly Wisdom.

Listen along to interviews with Emily Wilday, Walter Chaffee and Steven Asbury.

Listen along as Pastor Mike shares this message about what it means to follow Jesus.

Listen along as Pastor John follows up last week’s message with this further exploration of how we can be salt and light (Matthew 5) through influence and relationships. John explains the importance of emotional intelligence (EQ) as it relates to being a learning, growing, maturing Christ-follower and shares a TEDx video clip by Poet Ali that is sure to inspire and challenge all as it relates to communication.

Listen along as Dusty and Julie Johnson talk about The Ministry of Presence and how our Kingdom calling is more about “being” than “doing.” They also take time to share about the impetus behind the name CitySalt and what it means to “Celebrate Goodness.”

Listen along to this husband and wife tag-team message that invites us to explore the topic of compassion. As part the ongoing series entitled Adventures in the Spirit-Filled Life, Mike and Britni invite and challenge us to raise our awareness to the heart of Jesus that is not a flowery compassion, but a gritty compassion that draw our attention to the darker corners of the earth.“Compassion asks us to go where it hurts, to enter into the places of pain, to share in brokenness, fear, confusion, and anguish. Compassion challenges us to cry out with those in misery, to mourn with those who are lonely, to weep with those in tears. Compassion requires us to be weak with the weak, vulnerable with the vulnerable, and powerless with the powerless. Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human.” - Henri NouwenMatthew 9:35-38 New International Version (NIV) The Workers Are Few35 Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

Listen along as Alisha challenges and encourage us around the gift of prophecy.

Listen along to Randi as she brings this message as part of the "Adventures in the Spirit-Filled Life Series." She uses her sword training experience to parallel and illustrate the necessary challenges to overcome when pushing ourselves to be a growing and maturing Christ-follower.

Listen along as Pastor John shares this message emphasizing the unique ways the Holy Spirit speaks to us. This is part of an ongoing teaching series titled, “Adventures in the Spirit-Filled Life.”

Listen along to the following interviews as part of our June Big Table Sunday line up: Mark Reinertson (interviewed by John Rice) Jessy D’Eliso (interviewed by Margaret Fairchild) Joe and Kaitlyn Tepe (interviewed by Dusty Johnson)

Listen along as Pastor John encourages, challenges and inspires us with this message about heaven. He talks about afterlife, eternity and the Kingdom of Heaven from a biblical perspective, yet respects a sense of mystery for all that is unknown.

Listen along to interviews with Maddie Young, Bill Fairchild and Mollie McAmis

Listen along as Pastor Dusty shares a message that seeks to highlight the work of God through a variety of seasons and stages in the journey of faith. The six stages discussed are from the book, The Critical Journey by Hagberg and Guelich. Not often talked about in many evangelical traditions, this message provides a vision for navigating important stages of development as we grow and mature in our discipleship journey.

Listen along as Pastor Mike shares this message about the working out of our salvation as we follow and are tethered to Christ. As he draws upon the analogy of water skiing, Mike encourages and challenges how we view our life of discipleship as we grow and mature in our relationship with God, others and ourselves.

Listen along as Pastor John explores a deeper meaning and application of salvation that can be viewed as 1) Moments/Decisions, 2) The Work/Ongoing Process and 3) The Finish Line/Eternity. May this message bring greater clarity and invitation to trust the abiding work of the Holy Spirit through all phases and aspects of our desire to journey with God.

Listen along as Pastor Dusty shares this last message from a recent teaching series on Easter Sunday. The series was called JESUS | Love Breaks Through was a focus on several stories surrounding the Passion Week that emphasized the way God’s love was expressed through life and ministry Jesus. This message is anchored in Mark 16:1-8 and includes a reflective listening segment from a song called Mah’s Joint by artist, singer and songwriter, Jon Bellion.

Listen along as Pastor Dusty shares this message surrounding the failure and restoration of one of Jesus’ closest disciples. In Mark 14:26-72 we see Jesus predict a weak moment for Peter. As Jesus is arrested and undergoing a trial, Peter ultimately does the “one thing he said he would never do” by denying that he ever knew Jesus. After his resurrection in John 21, Jesus pursues Peter by serving him a fireside breakfast conversation on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Jesus clearly communicates love, acceptance and forgiveness in the face of Peter’s worst moment of failure and shame.

Listen along as our congregation celebrated March Big Table Sunday a bit different than usual. Rather than interviews and sharing, we took the whole service to linger in the presence of the Lord and worshipped God through scriptural devotional readings, congregational prayers, singing and taking communion together. The three devotional thoughts read as part of the service were written by Walter Wangerin Jr. from his book Reliving the Passion: Meditations on the Suffering, Death, and the Resurrection of Jesus as Recorded in Mark.