Westwinds

When you think about the future, what do you picture? For many of us, the Christian hope has been reduced to one idea: someday we’ll go to heaven. But what if that’s only part of the story? In the final message of The Baby or the Bathwater, we explore the closing words of the Apostles’ Creed: “the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.” Together, they paint a bigger picture—not of esca...

Most of us know what forgiveness means. At least in theory. But many of us still carry the weight of shame, self-condemnation, regret, and the quiet feeling that we haven’t quite done enough to deserve God’s love. This week, we explored one of the simplest lines in the Apostles’ Creed: “the forgiveness of sins.” Along the way, we wrestled with a deeper question: What if forgiveness isn’t something...

For all the ways Christians disagree, there has always been a deeper question underneath it all: What actually holds us together? Across centuries, cultures, denominations, and traditions, the church has wrestled with power, belonging, identity, and who gets to decide who’s in and who’s out. Yet the Apostles’ Creed makes a surprising claim: there is one holy Catholic Church and a communion of sain...

For a lot of people, the Holy Spirit feels like the most confusing part of Christian faith. God the Creator makes sense. The story of Jesus feels tangible. But conversations about the Spirit can leave us somewhere between skeptical, uncertain, and quietly confused. This week, we explored what happens when we stop treating the Holy Spirit as a strange theological idea and start seeing the Spirit as...

Power is complicated. Most of us have seen what happens when power is abused. We’ve experienced it in institutions, workplaces, families, churches, and sometimes even in ourselves. We know how easily power can become control, self-protection, image management, or the ability to get our own way. So what happens when Jesus tells his followers, “You will receive power”? This week, we explored the sur...

For a lot of us, judgment feels more threatening than hopeful. Even if we believe God is loving, the idea of standing before Jesus still stirs up fear, anxiety, shame, or the instinct to hide. Somewhere along the way, many of us learned to imagine judgment as getting caught instead of getting healed. This week, we explored one of the most uncomfortable lines in the Apostles’ Creed: “He will come a...

Where is Jesus right now? Not the Sunday school answer. Not the theological answer. The real answer. Because a lot of us live as though Jesus mattered once, will matter again someday, but feels strangely absent in the middle of ordinary life. This week, we explored one of the most overlooked lines in the Apostles’ Creed: “He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.” What...

What do you do with a belief that doesn’t sit right anymore? For a lot of people, hell is one of those ideas. It raises questions, discomfort, even distance from faith. Not because people don’t care—but because what we’ve been handed doesn’t always make sense. This week, we stepped into one of the most debated lines of the Apostles’ Creed: “He descended into hell.” Instead of trying to define it o...

What does it actually mean to believe? Not just what you believe—but how you believe. In this message, we explore a part of the Apostles’ Creed that many people struggle with, including the idea of the virgin birth. But instead of trying to explain it away or prove it logically, we take a different approach. How did the first followers of Jesus come to believe something they couldn’t fully underst...

What do you do when your view of God no longer works? Many of us find ourselves in a place where parts of our faith feel unclear. Some things we’ve let go of. Some things we’re still holding onto. And somewhere in the middle, we’re trying to figure out what to do with what’s left. In this message, we explore a simple but challenging idea: what if we’ve shaped God to fit our preferences, our experi...

What do you think of when you think of the word "church"? A charismatic preacher on a stage? A dimly lit room with big crowd of people singing songs you've heard on the radio? A potluck with too many versions of potato salad? What if the "church" we think of is just a newer, ever-changing iteration of "The Church" that has existed through thousands of years of history and culture? In fact, the ori...

What if the way we’ve imagined God… is off? In this message, we step into Palm Sunday—a moment where two very different pictures of power enter the same city. One built on force, control, and fear. The other quiet, unexpected, and easy to miss. Jesus doesn’t just challenge political power. He challenges how we imagine God. If God looks like Jesus, then power, authority, and even peace may not be w...

What do you do when God doesn’t show up the way you expected? In this message, we step into the story of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus—a story filled with urgency, disappointment, and unanswered questions. Jesus is close enough to help, but he doesn’t come. And the silence leaves people asking the question many of us have asked: Where were you? This moment sits right on the edge of something bigger. B...

Why didn’t the disciples understand what Jesus was doing? Even after hearing his teaching, watching his miracles, and sitting with him at the Last Supper, they were still arguing about who would be the greatest. In this message, we step into the world of the Roman Empire to understand why. The entire system of Rome was built on hierarchy—power, status, and honor flowing from the top down. It shape...

Why didn’t the disciples understand what Jesus was doing? Even after hearing his teaching, watching his miracles, and sitting with him at the Last Supper, they were still arguing about who would be the greatest. In this message, we step into the world of the Roman Empire to understand why. The entire system of Rome was built on hierarchy—power, status, and honor flowing from the top down. It shape...

Every culture has a story about power. The victors write history. The strong rise. The important take the seat at the table. But in this second week of Lent, we’re invited to remember a different kind of story. At a Passover table, Jesus does something no one expected. In a room full of arguments about who is greatest, he kneels. Then he takes a cup and reframes everything they thought they unders...

What happens when everything starts to fall apart? We begin Lent 2026 with a story about a public mistake, a quiet interruption, and a surprising sign. This message explores what Jesus is like in moments of exposure — and what that might mean for us as we enter this season. If you’re carrying something heavy… Or if you think you’ve got things figured out… This might be the right place to start.

This message concludes our seven-week series exploring the questions that quietly shape our lives. In Part 7, we wrestle with the final question: Do I have a purpose? For many of us, purpose feels tied to achievement, calling, or dramatic moments. But this teaching reframes the conversation. Purpose isn’t something we discover by escaping our ordinary lives. It’s something we live out in them. Tra...

This message continues a seven-week series exploring the questions that shape how we see ourselves and God. In Part 6, we face one of the most painful questions many of us carry beneath failure, comparison, and performance: Am I good enough? This teaching names shame for what it is—not guilt over what we’ve done, but a belief that something is wrong with who we are. Through personal story, Scriptu...

This message continues a seven-week series built around the questions that quietly shape our lives. In Part 5, we explore a question many of us carry beneath our drive and ambition: Am I successful? Through personal story, cultural reflection, and Scripture, this teaching examines how success becomes tangled with worth—and how failure can feel like a threat to belonging itself. Drawing from Jesus’...

This message continues a seven-week series centered on the questions that shape how we see ourselves, God, and one another. In Part 4, we wrestle with a deeply human question: Am I wanted? Not just tolerated. Not useful. But genuinely wanted—for who we are, not what we contribute. Tracing this question through the Old Testament, the life of Jesus, and the early church, this teaching challenges the...

This message continues a seven-week series exploring the questions that quietly shape how we live. In Part 3, we turn to one of the most personal questions we carry: Am I loved? Not as an abstract idea, but as a lived reality—felt in moments when we wonder if anyone really sees us, hears us, or knows us. This teaching explores how the desire to be loved is often expressed through our need to feel...

This message continues a seven-week series built around the questions that quietly shape our lives. In Part 2, we wrestle with the second question many of us carry beneath our anxiety: Am I secure? Using Jesus’ teaching from the Sermon on the Mount, this message reframes worry—not as a lack of faith, but as a sign of how deeply we long for safety and stability. Jesus isn’t dismissing real needs or...

This message opens a seven-week series built around the questions we ask when life feels uncertain. The first question is simple, but it sits beneath so much of our fear and anxiety: Am I safe? Using the story of Jesus calming the storm, this teaching explores why the disciples weren’t just afraid of the waves—they were afraid of what it meant to be in the presence of a God they couldn’t control....