What if the people who frustrate us, challenge us, and require our patience are not interruptions to our spiritual formation, but part of the way Jesus is forming us?

In Matthew 18, Jesus turns his attention to the life of his disciples together. He speaks about humility, conflict, reconciliation, and forgiveness, revealing that becoming his people necessarily involves learning how to love particular people—not simply loving our neighbors in the abstract.

In this episode, we explore Christian community as a “school of the Lord’s service” through the wisdom of the Rule of St. Benedict and the reflections of Thomas Merton. Benedict reminds us that holiness is learned in the ordinary circumstances of shared life, while Merton helps us recognize the people and situations we might prefer to escape as some of the very places where God is at work in us.

Together, Matthew, Benedict, and Merton invite us to ask a different question about Christian community: not simply “What am I getting from these people?” but “What kind of person is Christ making me through them?”

We explore the practices of humility, bearing with one another, forgiveness, reconciliation, and stability—and consider how a community being formed in the love of Christ becomes itself a witness to the Kingdom.

Jesus forms us through the people he has given us.

The Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost. Sermon from Dustin+ Messer. 

Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost. Sermon from +Phillip Jones. 

What does it mean to follow Jesus—not simply by believing the right things, but by becoming a certain kind of person?

In this episode, we continue our journey through the Gospel according to Matthew, exploring how Jesus forms his disciples into people who see others differently and learn to embody the life of the kingdom. Discipleship is not merely about receiving information from Jesus; it is about learning his way of life.

We also hear from Elisabeth Jordan, founder of Human Impact in Dallas, whose work with people experiencing homelessness begins with something remarkably simple: friendship. Her story offers a glimpse of what it can look like to see another person not as a problem to solve, but as a neighbor to know.

As we listen to Matthew’s Gospel, we begin to ask not only, “What does Jesus teach?” but “What kind of people is Jesus making us?”

Before Matthew lets us hear Jesus speak, he wants us to know who Jesus is.

The Gospel begins with a genealogy—not exactly the opening most of us would choose for a story. But Matthew is making a bold claim: Jesus is the fulfillment of Israel’s story, the promised Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

And then, as Jesus begins to teach in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew gives us another glimpse of who he is: the one who fulfills the Law and the Prophets and announces the kingdom of God.

In this opening episode, we talk with a Alan Carrillo, member at All Saints Dallas and local attorney about how Matthew introduces Jesus through both genealogy and teaching. Before we listen to Jesus’ words, Matthew wants us to see the person speaking—and to understand why his words carry such authority.

Who is Jesus? Matthew wants us to know before we hear him.

Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost. Sermon from Dustin+ Messer.

The Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost. Sermon from +Phillip Jones and Meredith Drogin. 

The Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost. Sermon from Dustin+ Messer.

The Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost. Sermon from +Phillip Jones.

Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost. Conversation with Dustin+ Messer and Kendrick Banks.