Commons Church Podcast

In the first message of the Soapbox Sundays series, Scott makes the case for how an intellectual, reflective life is a spiritual life. Looking at the wisdom literature of Proverbs 4, this teaching explores how engaging our minds across generations, embracing curiosity, and asking hard questions helps us love God and serve our neighbours more deeply.

Key Takeaways & Outline:
Welcome & Fall Outlook: Reflecting on community life and upcoming fall opportunities, including the Marda Loop parish launch.
What Minds Are For: Why living a thoughtful and reflective life is integral to spiritual growth.
All We Inherit: The importance of engaging with history, tradition, and wisdom passed down through generations.
Getting Wisdom: How curiosity, courage, and wrestling with big questions shape a healthy faith.
Learning as Love: Fulfilling the command to love God with all our mind and using knowledge to edify others.
Scripture References:
Proverbs 4:1–9
Proverbs 4:23–26

Psalm 7 is a song for anyone who has ever felt falsely accused, misunderstood, or desperate to be vindicated.

But underneath David’s very reasonable words is something more volatile: anger, frustration, and the desire for God to feel exactly what he feels.

In this sermon, Jeremy Duncan explores the poetry of Psalm 7—from Taylor Swift and ancient Hebrew wordplay to necks, noses, swords, and bows—and asks what happens when our longing for justice begins to slip into a desire for vengeance.

The Psalms remind us that we don’t need to sanitize our emotions before bringing them to God. But they also invite us to let the presence of God reshape those emotions so that we can pursue justice without becoming consumed by violence.

Psalm 7 ultimately asks a difficult question:

Do we want a God modelled after our anger—or will we allow our anger to be transformed by God’s righteousness?

Recorded at Commons Church in Calgary, Alberta.

#Psalm7 #Psalms #Bible #Sermon #CommonsChurch #Justice #Faith

What can ancient prayers teach us about our own experience of chaos, confusion, or distress?

In this week’s installment of our Summer Songs series, Yelena walks us through Psalm 86—a powerful "psalm of disorientation." Whether life feels stable or everything is falling apart, the Psalms provide a sacred space for profound honesty with the Divine.

In this message, we explore:
Asks and Reasons: Why naming our disorientation is a time-tested religious practice.
Communal Memory: How we lean on the stories of faith when our own words fall short.
Undivided Heart: Moving toward wholeness in the midst of fragmentation.
Relinquishment: Tracing the edge of chaos and trusting that we are held.
About Commons Church:

We are a community dedicated to loving God, loving people, and telling the story. Join us as we explore what it means to live out our faith together.

Connect with us:
Learn more about upcoming community events and gatherings at commons.church.
#Psalm86 #SummerSongs #CommonsChurch #Prayer #Disorientation #Faith #Sermon

What do you do when God feels far away? Psalm 13 is a song for those moments. In this message, we explore how naming our pain and shifting our perspective can help us move from lament to praise.

Key topics covered:
• The relationship between lament and praise: Why the "Book of Praises" is full of sorrow and how lament provides a place to stand while we grieve.
• Challenging our categories: Understanding how we use bias to simplify the world and how to move past the "outgroup homogeneity effect" to see our neighbors more clearly.
• Learning from diverse worldviews: Contrasting different cultural perspectives on suffering—moving from asking God to take suffering away to asking for the strength to endure it well.
• Practicing the Examen: A practical 10-minute rhythm to notice God’s presence in both desolation and consolation, helping us become agents of God’s love in the world.
Whether you are in a season of struggle or looking to deepen your trust in God, join us as we learn to bring our honest pain before a faithful God who is always at work.

What do you do when the world feels unfair and you find yourself “fret-burning” with anger? In this message, we explore the wisdom of Psalm 37—not as a transactional set of rules, but as a roadmap for finding composure, delight, and hope in the midst of life's messiness.

While many read the Psalms looking for guarantees, they are actually poetic invitations to engage with the world honestly. When we choose to notice the goodness around us—even in the face of injustice—we can metabolize our anxiety and find a way back to the source of our strength.

In this sermon, we discuss:
• The Difference Between Fret and Delight: How to stop "setting yourself on fire" with anger and practice intentional delight.
• Moving Beyond Transactional Spirituality: Why the Psalms don't offer a simple "if/then" contract with God, but a way to walk through life's highs and lows.
• The Power of First-Person Awe: How sharing our experiences of wonder helps us face threats and find meaning in hard seasons.
• Guarding the Good: Wisdom isn't just about what we know; it’s about how we act on the goodness we see in the world.
Whether you are navigating burnout, doubt, or the search for deeper meaning, these verses offer a way to stay anchored in the truth that God is our ultimate stronghold.

What does it mean to trust God when there are still very real reasons to be afraid?

Psalm 46 doesn’t promise a life without chaos. Instead, it points to the presence of God—our refuge and strength—within our complicated histories, uncertain futures, and present moments.

In this message, Alexandra explores how remembering, hope, creativity, mindfulness, and nonviolence can make us more aware of the God who is as close as our breath.

“The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.” — Psalm 46:11

#Psalm46 #BeStill #ChristianSermon #Faith #GodsPresence

What if the greatest idols in our lives aren't statues—but fear, security, money, and the stories we tell to protect them?

In Acts 19, Paul arrives in Ephesus and unintentionally sparks a city-wide riot. On the surface, it's a conflict over religion. But beneath the shouting lies something far more familiar: economic anxiety, fear of outsiders, and the temptation to use spiritual language to defend our own interests.

As we conclude our series in Acts, we explore how the earliest followers of Jesus weren't called to conquer culture, but to become a different kind of people—people whose security wasn't rooted in wealth, power, or identity, but in the story of Christ.

In this message:
• Why the riot in Ephesus wasn't really about religion
• How fear becomes disguised as faith
• The idols that shape our decisions today
• What Acts teaches us about following Jesus in a polarized world
• Why the Church is called to embody a different story

Scripture: Acts 19:23–41

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#Acts #BookOfActs #ChristianSermon #Faith #Idolatry #Church #Jesus #BibleTeaching

In this episode of our spring series, The Way Forward, we walk through Acts 17:16-34 to explore Paul’s encounter in Athens. As Paul engages with Epicurean and Stoic philosophers at the Areopagus, he provides a model for how we can navigate unfamiliar cultures and carry on thoughtful, faith-filled conversations in our own time.

How do we move forward when our efforts seem to go unnoticed, or when we feel like we are investing in places where there is little immediate "fruit"?

In this talk, we reflect on:
The challenge of exceptionalism: How the gospel invites us to dismantle the walls we build between ourselves and others.
The "Unknown God": Paul’s sermon on the universal intent of God’s care and renewal.
Overcoming discouragement: Why your life’s service, creativity, and love are never just "throw-away lines," even when the results are hidden from view.
Join us as we explore what it means to faithfully pursue the "way forward" in the far-off places of our lives.

Scripture Reference: Acts 17:16-34

In this message, we explore the story of the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15, examining how early believers navigated deep conflict and cultural shifts within the church.1

Key topics include:
The Nature of Conflict: Why "certain people problems" are a normal, albeit challenging, part of community growth.
Navigating Change: Understanding what to keep from the past and what to leave behind as the mission evolves.
The Power of Conversation: How the Jerusalem Council demonstrates that holy, transformative dialogue is central to the life of the church.
Grace and Inclusion: A look at the paradigm shift that expanded the circle of belonging, prioritizing grace over legalism.
Bobbi also shares updates on the upcoming Marda Loop Commons launch and current community life at Commons Church. For more details on upcoming events and team-building opportunities, visit commons.church.

In Acts 13, the spotlight shifts from Jerusalem to Antioch—a diverse, unexpected community where the Holy Spirit is doing something entirely new. From former outsiders and unlikely leaders to the commissioning of Paul and Barnabas, this chapter reveals a church that chooses mission over comfort, creativity over control, and expansion over preservation.

In this message, we explore how God's grace continually pushes the church beyond its assumptions, why the most transformative movements often emerge from the margins, and what it means to trust the Spirit enough to send our best into the unknown.

Whether you're navigating change, wrestling with tradition, or discerning what's next, Acts 13 reminds us that the future of God's kingdom has always belonged to communities willing to follow where the Spirit leads.