The ECC Podcast

July 23: Gray Poehnell continues our Summer Journey. The Berean Jews are a much-needed role model for our world today. Some have described our era as a “post-truth” era with the increasing flood of fake news, misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracy theories. How can we as God’s people respond? How do we learn to see God’s truth in our world today? While the Jews in most of the cities Paul visited reacted to the Gospel, the Bereans took the time and effort to search the Scriptures to see if what Paul preached was true. The Bereans show us how it is possible to buck the trend and see God’s work flourish as a result.

Ken continues our Summer Journey series.  We revisit Acts 10 and take a closer look at how God needed to change Peter. How was the early church going to take the good news message to everyone, if the Jewish believers didn't even want to talk or associate with non-Jewish people? So, God changes Peter and the challenge for us is similar. Do we believe that Jesus is for everyone? Are we excluding anyone?

Peter had visions. The lame kid by the side of the road did too. So too, do we. Sometimes life makes it so that all we see are the waves, and somewhere along the way, we get stuck. That's where the community comes in. Wherever you're at, we hope you can hear God's first and foremost vision for you as his Beloved.

This summer we will travel along with Paul and his friends. Your "travel guides" each Sunday will make it fun!  If you're a geography lover, you will love this series and if you enjoy an exciting story with incredible outcomes, this will be right up your alley.  And if you love to look at scripture and learn from those who have gone before us, you won't be disappointed. MORE INFO HERE

Dan Russell is our first travel guide as we begin our amazing journey in the book of Acts.

Ken wraps up our series on Money speaking from Matthew 6:19-24.  In Matthew 6 we see Jesus calling us to stewardship. Calling us to deliberately make deposits of our time and energy and what we own, into God's kingdom.  It is fundamentally an issue of faithfulness.  Are we really willing to give all that we are and all that we have for the kingdom of God?

Elaine continues our series on Money speaking from 1 Chronicles about generosity as a way of being and living as opposed to just what we do.  Being generous people -- generous with money, with time, and with love.

Andreas continues our series on Money by taking a look at what Jesus has to say about greed. We'll dive into Luke 12:13-21 and explore how all of us can fall into the subtle trap of focusing on what's bigger and better. 

Ken Pierce kicks off our Money series  A deep dive into Luke 16 shows us that Jesus is saying He wants us to use our money in such a way so that when we die and step into eternity, there will be people there who will welcome us because of what we did with what we had.  According to Jesus…God sees our money, our possessions...as a tool.  And the question isn’t WHAT will we have to show for it. The question is WHO will we have to show for it?

Why are there so many rules around church and following Jesus? It seems like God really wants to restrict my life and take away all the fun. Did you know there are over 1400 laws and commands in the Bible? So, it’s no wonder it seems like following Jesus is about following a ton of rules. Can that actually bring us any kind of freedom or fun in life?  Ken Pierce speaks on what it means to live Real Life.

We don’t feel we should be sad. We are Christians!  We are full of the Spirit!  We called to consider it all joy when we experience trials!  We are overcomers!  Therefore, we feel we shouldn’t be sad. 
However, that’s not what the Bible teaches.  We learn from the stories and the verses of Scripture that sadness and brokenness is part of our fallen world, and as a result, we have good reason to grieve.  Grief is a sign of deep, deep care and compassion.  And we have to guard our hearts and minds against apathy that will lead us away from godly grief. The best news of all is that our tender, heavenly Father is with us as we grieve. 
Dan concludes our Hope for the Hypocrite series and study of Matthew 23.