As we’re invited to consider our mortality on Ash Wednesday, Pastor Kelly encourages us to think of it as a gift.
What do you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

This is an extended podcast that includes not only the sermon, but some very powerful moments during the worship service. The audio that only includes the sermon can be found here.

This past week in St. Louis, The United Methodist Church’s General Conference voted by a narrow margin to strengthen the punitive and harmful language against LGBTQIA persons and those who support them,
Following this heartbreaking and harmful decision Pastor Kelly lifts up the story of Jesus’ trans-figuration on the mountain top as a reminder that all persons bear the light of God inside them, and it is harmful and unChristian for anyone, especially the institution of the church to try to hide or extinguish anyone’s light, including and especially those of our LGBTQIA siblings.

Reflecting on the location of heaven and Jesus’ choice of topography for preaching in Luke 6, Pastor Kelly invites us to hear the beatitudes again.
How we hear them depends a great deal on where we stand.

After a week of snow, ice and freezing temperatures, Pastor Kelly celebrates the work of so many in the church and the community who have come together to provide shelter, food and relationships with several brothers and sisters who were sleeping unsheltered around the church.

Reflecting on Jesus’ call to Simon and his “uneducated and ordinary” fishing partners, Pastor Kelly highlights that following Jesus’ call to love and serve others has never been about professional qualifications. Rather, it is grounded in the confidence that Christ is always with us in this kin’dom work.

Following the sermon, there are several brief testimonies from the beloved community of volunteers and participants in our sheltering program.

If you would like to help us continue this ministry, please contact Pastor Kelly. Online donations can be made here.

With Valentine’s Day coming soon, we are being bombarded with images and ideas about what love is. Pastor Kelly takes up the 13th chapter of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians to invite us to think not about what “love is,” but what love does.”

The first sentence of a sermon is often the most memorable. Reflecting on Jesus’ first sermon and first sentence, Pastor Kelly invites us to reflect on what it means for the church and for each of us.

Reflecting on Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, Pastor Kelly invites us to remember that the giver is always more important than the gift.
He shared a few stories about gifts, including one shared with him when he was invited to celebrate a birthday with his friends who are living unsheltered around the church.

Remembering Jesus’s baptism as the congregation celebrated the baptism of baby Estelle, Pastor Kelly reminded us that the words of the song that God sings at our baptisms, “you are my beloved child”, are words that lead us to bold and often uncomfortable places.

Based on the story of the Magi (or wise men) from Matthew 2, Pastor Kelly invites us to consider the journeys in our lives and how we are changed in our encounters with the holiness of God’s love.