Redeemer Central

John Herron picks up the story of Esther in chapters 3 & 4, where we find a rising threat against the Jewish people as Haman plots their destruction. Mordecai urges Esther to use her position as queen to intervene, and she faces a life-threatening decision with Mordecai’s words echoing in her mind “Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this.”

David Armstrong begins our exploration of the Book of Esther, a captivating narrative from the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. We journey into the Persian Empire under King Xerxes and delve into themes of fear, identity, and resilience looking at how the hidden parts of ourselves can provide strength in times of limitation and hardship. We also reflect on God’s unseen presence in Esther’s story, r...

What Makes Us: 02 Living the Story In this second part of the What Makes Us series, we explore what it means to live out the Jesus Story in our daily lives. David Armstrong reflects on the incarnation—God becoming flesh in Christ and dwelling among us—and how it serves as a model for us to embody God’s active presence. As followers of Jesus, we are called to be His hands, feet, and eyes, continuin...

What Makes Us: 01 Embracing the Story We explore the power of stories and how they shape our lives, from the narrative of everyday life to the deeper stories that give us meaning, we’re wired for storytelling. David Armstrong challenges us to reflect on the story we’re living in—is it one of grace and purpose, or have we unknowingly embraced a fiction that holds us back? When we look closely at th...

Stephanie Wilson speaks on ‘the antidote of enough’ that counters our cultures message that we should ‘be more, want more and have more’. In the Lords Prayer recorded in Matthew 6 — a prayer that Jesus taught his disciples — we find an invitation to a deep and daily trust in God’s provision and abundance.

The Trinity is one of the great mysteries of the Christian faith. Jesus ultimate agenda was coming to humanity to reveal what God is actually like. We have come to understand God as three distinct persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—yet one God. We use metaphors and language to describe God, but our theology can never fully contain God. Various metaphors have been used to explain God as ‘Trinity’...

Solitude 05 - Q&A David, Armstrong, John Herron & Scott Witherick discuss the series on solitude and share some of their learning along the way. This took place on Pentecost Sunday and includes Prayers & Liturgies to celebrate and mark this day and the end of the season of Eastertide. Part of the Practicing the Way Series. For info and resources on this series go to redeemercentral.com...

Solitude 04 - Encounter with Our God Solitude is the place of encounter and ultimately, we go into the quiet to encounter God. We go because we ache for God in the deepest place in our being. We go because there is nothing like God’s presence. We go to listen for his voice, to hear him speak over us our identity and calling. In this fourth and final teaching we learn that this back and forth of sp...

Solitude 03 - Encounter with Our Self Solitude can be deeply refreshing, but just as often, it can feel like painful emotional surgery. We can get away from people, but we can’t get away from our self . And often what we carry into solitude is our pain. In the third teaching Stephanie Wilson encourages us to follow the example of Jesus by finding a quiet place and going to the place of pain becaus...

Solitude 02 - Encounter with Our Enemy In the second teaching John Herron looks at the goal of being alone with God in the silence: ultimately to hear God’s voice over all the other voices in our head, Jesus and his early followers fought battles in solitude. As we face resistance from three enemies of our soul — the world, the flesh, and the devil — in solitude, we learn to fight lies by listenin...

Solitude 01 - The Quiet Place Distraction is one of the greatest threats to spiritual health in the modern world. We all feel it — we’re bombarded by noise like never before. Jesus has an invitation for us: Step away from it all to be alone with him, for the sake of our souls and the sake of others.  In this first teaching David Armstrong looks at how Solitude is not a place but a practice, o...

The resurrection is not a happy ending. It doesn't depend on you or need your permission. The resurrection sees Christ standing in the garden alive on that Easter Sunday morning — having walked through the brutality & death of Good Friday and the forsakenness & silence of Holy Saturday — and he stands present and alive speaking your name, and a word of possibility laced with grace, love an...

David Armstrong teaches from Matthew 21 on the events of Palm Sunday. The arrival of Jesus and his disciples into Jerusalem for the Passover Festival is the moment that Jesus project goes public. Jesus entering the city on the donkey — the fulfilment of a 500 year old prophecy — is a form of guerrilla theatre that makes a mockery of the dominant forms of power displayed by the Roman Empire. In one...

Fasting 05 - Q&A David, Armstrong, John Herron & Stephanie Wilson discuss the series on fasting and share some of their learning along the way. Part of the Practicing the Way Series. For info and resources on this series go to redeemercentral.com/ptw

Fasting 04 - To Stand with the Poor “Give to the hungry what you deny your own appetite.” —St. Gregory of Nyssa In the West, many of us struggle with the problem of food abundance — having too much food to eat. Our cupboards overflow with snacks; we have so much food in our fridges it goes bad before we have a chance to eat it; apps on our phones can put any food we want just a few swipes away. Di...

Fasting 03 - To Amplify Our Prayers Fasting and prayer go together. Like two wings of a bird, together they take flight. You can pray without fasting, and you can fast without praying, but when you combine the two, there’s a noticeable amplification of our prayer before God. This comes as no surprise, since fasting is a kind of praying with our body. When the request of our heart is coupled with t...

Fasting 02 - Grow in Holiness Fasting is one of the most essential and powerful of all the practices of Jesus and, arguably, the single most neglected one in the modern, Western church. The Fasting Practice will train you in this ancient discipline, integrating your whole body into life with God. In Part 2 David Armstrong shares how fasting has many physical benefits for our bodies that mirror how...

Fasting 01 - Offering Ourselves to Jesus As powerful as the mind is, because we are holistic beings, we can’t simply think our way into spiritual maturity. Our discipleship to Jesus must take seriously our body, as it is “the temple of the Holy Spirit” — a home where we make room for God to dwell. Most of us are used to approaching our spiritual formation and life with God through the door of our...

Prayer 05 - Q&A Prayer is simply the medium through which we communicate and commune with God . The practice of prayer is learning to set aside dedicated time to intentionally be with God, in order to become like him and partner with him in the world. In Prayer part 4 David Armstrong explores the fourth stage of prayer: being with God. There comes a point in our spiritual journey when prayer g...

Prayer 04 - Being With God Prayer is simply the medium through which we communicate and commune with God . The practice of prayer is learning to set aside dedicated time to intentionally be with God, in order to become like him and partner with him in the world. In Prayer part 4 David Armstrong explores the fourth stage of prayer: being with God. There comes a point in our spiritual journey when p...

Prayer 03 - Listening to God Prayer is simply the medium through which we communicate and commune with God. The practice of prayer is learning to set aside dedicated time to intentionally be with God, in order to become like him and partner with him in the world. In Prayer part 3 John Herron helps us understand that prayer is not just when we talk but when we listen to hear his voice. As Jesus sai...

Prayer 02 - Talking with God Prayer is simply the medium through which we communicate and commune with God. The practice of prayer is learning to set aside dedicated time to intentionally be with God, in order to become like him and partner with him in the world. In Prayer part 2 Stephanie Wilson helps us begin to learn how to talk with God . Praying pre-made prayers is a beautiful way to pray. It...

Prayer 01 - Talking to God Prayer is simply the medium through which we communicate and commune with God. The practice of prayer is learning to set aside dedicated time to intentionally be with God, in order to become like him and partner with him in the world. In Prayer part 1 David Armstrong explores the first stage of prayer: talking to God. When the disciples asked Jesus, “Teach us to pray,” i...

David Armstrong finishes our Advent series looking at this season as a divine invitation and divine interruption. Note: This recording begins with a prayer led by Ian Ryans for Israel-Palestine, amid all the conflict and violence taking place there.

Scott Witherick brings a reflection on the season for our Advent series