We live in a world of competing stories — and competing meanings attached to those stories. The logo at the end of a story shapes everything: what we believe it’s about, who we become because of it, and what we do as a result. So what happens when the story of Jesus gets the wrong logo attached to it?

In this Palm Sunday message, Pastor T. C. walks through Luke 19 and the clashing perspectives present at Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem: the crowds who wanted a warlord, the Pharisees who feared the explosion of a social powder keg, and Jesus himself, weeping over a city that didn’t recognize the things that make for peace. Against the backdrop of voices today that are actively reshaping the meaning of Jesus’s story, this sermon invites us to pay careful attention to the story we’re actually inhabiting.

Holy Week, it turns out, is the meaning. Follow Jesus through Palm Sunday’s prophetic procession, the temple protest, the upper room, the garden, the cross, and the empty tomb—and you’ll find a story that forms us into people of peace, protest, presence, prayer, passion, and promise. Not a story of domination. A story of self-giving love.

In With You in the Valleys, we explored the spiritual myth that God is found only in strength, success, and certainty. So much of modern faith culture subtly teaches us to chase the mountaintop—to pray harder, perform better, and present a polished testimony. But what if God is especially present in the valleys?

Through story, scripture, and honest reflection, this sermon reframed the valley not as failure, but as formation. The valleys are where illusions fall away. Where we confront our limits. Where we discover that healing, recovery, and quiet faithfulness often matter more than platform or applause. Rather than offering quick fixes or spiritual shortcuts, Jesus meets us in the low places—with companionship, not condemnation.

If you’ve ever felt behind, overlooked, exhausted, or spiritually disoriented, this message is an invitation to reimagine the valley as sacred ground. The God we follow is not distant from our struggle—but with us in it.

In this message from our Non-Anxious Misfit series, “Salt, Light, and Shalom,” we reflect on Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:13–16: “You are the salt of the earth… You are the light of the world.” Notice—Jesus doesn’t say try to be salt or work hard to become light. He says you are.

This sermon invites us to consider the profound truth that our actions flow from identity. We don’t strive for worthiness in order to shine; we shine because we already belong to the Light. We don’t manufacture flavor in a bland world; we embody the preserving, healing presence of Christ because that’s who we are becoming together.

Drawing from Dr. Chanequa Walker-Barnes’ work in Sacred Self-Care, we explore how burnout is not the cost of caring—it’s often the cost of neglecting ourselves. If we are salt and light, then tending to our nervous systems, our bodies, and our souls is not selfish—it’s faithful. A non-anxious misfit community cannot radiate shalom if it is chronically exhausted.

Ultimately, this message reframes discipleship as grounded presence rather than frantic performance. In a culture driven by outrage, fear, and urgency, Jesus calls us to a different way: rooted identity, embodied love, and steady illumination. Salt. Light. Shalom. Not anxious striving—but a peaceful, courageous way of being in the world.

In the final message of the Revelation: Unveiling Reality teaching series, Pastors T. C. & Osheta combined for a homily that invites dialogue. Drawing upon the vision of chapter 21, of a new heaven and new earth, Pastors T. C. & Osheta point to God’s dream for a world characterized by shalom: a positive peace, restorative justice, and wholeness.

This sermon explores the theme of judgment in Revelation through the image of a controlled prairie burn—fire that looks destructive but actually restores life. Revelation’s vivid judgments (i.e. the seals, trumpets, and bowls, etc.) unmask the “beastly” systems of domination, violence, and exploitation that harm God’s creation and God’s people. Rather than depicting divine rage, these visions reveal God’s liberating love burning away everything that cannot belong in the new creation. Judgment becomes truth-telling, purification, and the clearing that makes renewal possible. In a world that often feels like it’s on fire, we are invited to trust God’s refining work and join in tending the green shoots of new creation.

In this sermon, we explore how John’s visions of beasts, dragons, and Babylon aren’t predictions of the world’s end, but prophetic unveilings of empire’s true nature—then and now. Revelation exposes the seductive power of political and religious systems that disguise domination as righteousness and violence as peace. Drawing insight from voices like Michael J. Gorman, Walter Wink, and Willie James Jennings, we see how empire still whispers through nationalism, greed, and false religion. Yet at the center of John’s vision stands the Lamb—Jesus—whose love unmasks the powers and reveals a better way. We’re invited to follow the Lamb by unmasking deception, resisting injustice, and reweaving communities of belonging that reflect God’s kingdom of peace.

In this message, Pastor Osheta shares personally and vulnerably about her own grief and skillfully weaves together the thrown room scene from Revelation chapter 5 with a positive vision for living with ambiguous grief and loss. It’s a message of encouragement and hope amidst dark times.

In a world shaken by headlines of political violence, our fall teaching series turns to the book of Revelation—not as a codebook for predicting the end of the world, but as a vision of Jesus Christ, the Faithful Witness. Revelation was written to embattled churches under Roman rule, calling them to see beyond fear and empire into the deeper reality of God’s kingdom. Today, it offers the same hope and courage for us.

This sermon lays the foundation: Revelation is not about a violent new Jesus, but the same Jesus we meet in the Gospels—the healer, teacher, forgiver, and lover of the marginalized. The exalted Lamb conquers not through domination, but through self-giving love. That truth speaks powerfully in our own context, where authoritarianism and Christian Nationalism distort faith into a weapon. Revelation unmasks those lies and calls us to bear faithful witness.

Together, we’ll explore what it means to follow Jesus in a time of fear and division: to resist violence with peace, exclusion with embrace, and despair with hope. This is not an escape from reality, but a Spirit-enabled vision to see beneath and beyond it. Join us as we discover how the Lamb who was slain is worthy of our allegiance and our lives.

In this message, Pastor T. C. explores the way Jesus enters Jerusalem on the first “Palm Sunday.” Rather than being a “triumphal entry,” as it is sometimes known, it was instead a carefully-planned protest, a parody of imperial power, and an embodiment of peace.

In this powerful and deeply personal sermon, we explore the true meaning of discipleship through the lens of one man’s journey from gang life to following Jesus. Using Mark’s Gospel and insights from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s The Cost of Discipleship, this message challenges us to leave behind false securities, embrace intimacy with Christ, and take up our cross in a world bent on power and division. As we navigate a time of increasing polarization—even within the Church—this sermon calls us to resist the forces of Sin and Death by living out the radical, self-giving love of Jesus.