McGregor Podcast

After a slow summer, how do you step back into the full rhythm of church life without feeling behind?

In this episode of Around McGregor, hosts Mark, Tamar, and Christian catch the church family up on everything starting back this August. They cover Newcomer Coffee this Sunday, the renovation progress on the worship center, the return of Wednesday nights on August 12, the school year kickoff, and the fall electives and Divorce Care semester. Along the way they preview Wednesday's Hot Topic on the hard sayings of Jesus, taught by Pastor Russell, including a live Q&A.

If you have been away for a season, or you are new and looking for a way in, this is your simple guide to what is happening and where you fit. Gathering is starting again, and there is a place for you in it.

Presented by McGregor Podcast 2026

How to Handle Life's Interruptions

"When God Delays What We Desperately Need"

What do you do when God takes too long with the thing you cannot wait for?

In this closing Journey Together teaching, Pastor David Miller works through Luke 8 and three kinds of interruption: the shocking one, when a father's daughter is suddenly dying; the daily one, when a woman has bled for twelve years and every treatment has failed; and the permanent one, when the news arrives that the girl is already dead. Along the way he defines what a miracle actually is, shows why Jesus asked a question He already knew the answer to, and draws the line between presumption and bold faith.

The study rests on one claim: the interruptions are not random and they are not pointless. God has not delayed what we most desperately need, because what we needed was never a what. It was a who. If you are praying for something that has not come, or grieving something that will not come back, this teaching is for you.

Presented by McGregor Podcast 2026

Does living faithfully for Jesus mean avoiding offense at all costs, or is some offense simply unavoidable?

Pastor Cary Robinson goes beyond his notes from this past Sunday's sermon, digging into Matthew 17:24-27, where tax collectors confront Peter about the temple tax and Jesus responds by paying it anyway, despite being under no obligation to. Pastor Cary unpacks what that decision reveals about priorities, and works through the harder question underneath it: since the gospel itself is offensive, claiming that all people are sinful and cannot save themselves, how do we hold that truth without being needlessly harsh in how we say it?

Listeners walk away with a clear distinction: the offense should come from the message, not the messenger. This episode is for anyone who has felt torn between keeping the peace and telling the truth, and wants a biblical framework for both.

Presented by McGregor Podcast 2026

Matthew: The King Has Come

"Death And Taxes"

Jesus tells his disciples plainly that he is about to die and be raised. Then he turns and pays a temple tax he owes nothing on. Pastor Cary Robinson walks through both moments in Matthew 17:22-27 and shows they carry one message: Jesus willingly laid down his life for us, and he calls us to lay down our own rights and freedoms for the sake of the gospel. Listeners walk away with a clearer picture of Jesus' purpose and a practical challenge to let the advancement of the gospel outweigh personal comfort.

Sermon Notes

Presented by McGregor Podcast 2026

How to Handle Life's Interruptions

"When Fear Drowns Your Faith"

Fear rarely announces itself. It shows up after a mountaintop moment, in the middle of obeying God, right when life feels most out of our hands. In this Midweek Bible Study, Pastor Peter Finch teaches from Matthew 14, where the disciples meet a storm and Peter steps out onto the water toward Jesus. Peter walks as long as his eyes stay on Christ, and begins to sink the moment he fixes them on the wind. Finch shows how fear undermines faith, leads to disobedience, isolation, and lost peace, and then points to how Scripture calls us to answer it: fix your eyes on Christ's presence, hold to His promises, cultivate a life of prayer and thanksgiving, and choose faith over fear. You walk away with the anchor of the whole study, that Jesus is stronger than the fiercest storm, and that His promise "I am with you" is reason enough not to be afraid.

July 22, 2026

Presented by McGregor Podcast 2026

What do you do when your faith feels too small to change anything?

When the disciples could not heal a suffering boy, they pulled Jesus aside and asked why. Pastor Mark Bricker takes us Beyond the Notes from Sunday's message in Matthew 17:14-20 to focus on the answer Jesus gave, the part there was no time for on Sunday. He walks through what Jesus meant by faith like a grain of mustard seed: that the power is in the object of our faith, not its size; that real faith is a living thing meant to grow and bear fruit; and that "nothing will be impossible" is a promise that operates inside the will of God, not a blank check for our own desires.

You walk away with two clear marks of genuine faith to test your own: faith that is steadily growing, and faith that is centered on God rather than on what you can do. This one is for anyone who has prayed "Lord, increase our faith" and wondered what that actually looks like.

Presented by McGregor Podcast 2026

Matthew, The King Has Come

"What Genuine Faith Looks Like"

When a desperate father brings his son to Jesus after the disciples could not heal him, Pastor Mark Bricker walks through what genuine faith actually looks like. It is not more effort or more belief. It is complete dependence on Christ. This teaching moves through the father's desperate need, the power of Christ to meet it, and the enduring truth that even small faith, held onto the right Savior, is never wasted. Listeners walk away with a clearer picture of where real faith rests, not in the size of our trust, but in the One we trust.

Sermon Notes

Presented by McGregor Podcast 2026

Is your own experience with God more reliable than His Word?

Pastor Russell Howard takes us Beyond the Notes from this week's sermon on the Transfiguration, unpacking Peter's account in 2 Peter 1 of standing on the mountain and witnessing Christ's glory firsthand. He walks through why Peter, despite that extraordinary experience, still pointed to Scripture as the more certain guide for what we believe and how we live.

You'll walk away with a clear, biblical way to think about your own spiritual experiences: real, meaningful, but never the final authority. This episode is for anyone who has ever wondered how to weigh what they've felt or seen against what God has said.

Presented by McGregor Podcast 2026

Matthew - The King Has Come

"The Glory Of Jesus"

Six days after Jesus first told His disciples that He would suffer, die, and rise again, He led Peter, James, and John up a high mountain, and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, His clothes became white as light, and Moses and Elijah appeared beside Him. A voice from a bright cloud declared, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him." Pastor Russell Howard walks through this account of Christ's unveiled glory, the disciples' fear, and Jesus's own tender response to that fear, and closes with a clear answer to the question the disciples raised about Elijah. Listeners walk away with a fuller picture of who Jesus is: entirely human, and entirely the living God.

Sermon Notes

Presented by McGregor Podcast 2026

What happens when your own sin is the reason your future got interrupted?

In this episode of our Midweek Bible Study series, "How to Handle Life's Interruptions," Pastor Russell Howard turns to the story of Moses in Exodus 2. Moses was prepared and positioned for a great calling, yet one moment of sin nearly derailed everything. Pastor Russell traces how God preserved Moses' mission even after his failure, and what that means for anyone whose own mistakes have complicated their story.

This teaching does not minimize sin, but it does not leave you there either. It points toward honest repentance, real trust in God, and the confidence to keep moving forward in faith, even after a self-inflicted setback.

Presented by McGregor Podcast 2026