Wilderness Church

This summer has been fast and furious for most of us here at Wilderness. As we close the chapter on the summer of 2023, we wanted to take a moment to look at what all God has done the last couple of months and look forward to what God is about to do in and through the lives of His people.

If you've ever tried to grow a garden, or tend to a garden then you know that the first couple of years requires a lot of work on the soil itself. In this talk Nick Swinford, a guest and good friend, walks us through the Parable of the Soils where Jesus describes 4 types of soil.

Most of us can thin of a person or a couple of people in our life that made a huge impact on our life. Maybe that person taught you a valuable life lesson, or maybe they just took the time to tell you a story from their life, but whatever it was that they did made a lasting impact. In this talk we will look into the life of Asaph, a man in scripture that you may not have ever heard about, but a ma...

If you've ever been outside during a storm than I'm sure you have seen lightning and heard, sometimes felt, thunder. Even though they seem to be separate things, lighting and thunder go hand in hand. In this episode you get to hear from Chase Pope about the Light of the world and the thunder that follows. Chase is a part of the camp ministry we send our kids and youth to as well as Pastoring his o...

CAMP CAMP CAMP!!!! It's no secret here at Wilderness that we love shared experiences. Every summer our students ranging from Kindergarten to Seniors in High school get an opportunity to participate in some sort of camp. This week Travis gets to talk about his first hand experience going with our middle school and high school students to "Cow Camp."

I AM WHO I AM. In Exodus 3 God reveals Himself to Moses by saying "I AM WHO I AM" so that Moses can prove that the one true God sent him. In this statement by God we may have more questions than answers. In reality, when God says this to Moses He is trying to show that He is Sovereign. He is above all, in control of all, and able to work through all. In this talk Travis shares his thoughts on how...

There are many different ideas on how to give, what to give, and when to give when it comes to the church. Sometimes we, as the Church, can get caught up in specifics and numbers when it comes to giving. Luckily scripture offers stories and instances where Jesus is pleased with the generosity of His people. In this talk Travis dives into the areas of scripture that talk about tithing, giving, and...

We've all had those moments in seemingly simple tasks where after everything falls apart we look back and see where we started off wrong. Surprisingly this isn't a new issue, often times we don't take the necessary steps, or we "try it our own way" and we end up not where we intended to be. In this talk we are looking at Matthew 7 verses 24-29 where Jesus tells a story of two different people buil...

As we continue the series of talks around the Parables that Jesus taught we often see real world examples used to enlighten us, and the first person listeners, on how our Heavenly Father wants us. In this talk we will look at the story of the Prodigal son and determine how the actions of the brothers can play into our life.

We've all heard a phrase that starts out with "When life gives you lemons...." and we've all heard various answers that follow the hypothetical lemon situation. In this talk on Mother's Day our guest speaker Ken Brumley digs into Mark 6 and discusses the biblical answer for the "when life gives you lemons" question.

For the last two weeks we have been studying the Parables that Jesus taught during His ministry. In this weeks episode we are looking into the Parable of the Soils. Although Jesus used Parables and imagery that was sometimes geared toward the culture of the time, we still find that the stories and imagery that Jesus uses applies to us today. Often times when we look at the stories that Jesus told...

It's no secret that most of us tend to learn better when a lesson is taught using visuals. Our teachers knew it, our parents knew it and Jesus certainly knew it. In this series we are looking at the Parables that Jesus taught during his ministry. In this episode we will go through Luke 10: 25-37 which is the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Even though this seems like a parable that has one central...

Jesus taught in many different way to many different people. One of the most well known teaching methods Jesus used was teaching in parables. In this talk we will dive into the illustration explained by Jesus in John 15:1-8. In this particular parable Jesus uses the imagery of a Gardener, a Vine, and branches to teach His disciples and all of us how to be in a fruitful relationship with our Heaven...

It's no secret that a struggle for modern day churches is getting men engaged and harboring growth. Here at Wilderness we are unapologetically a Men Minded ministry. It's statistically proven, and historically demonstrated that when a church is able to reach the men, that women and children are likely to follow. In this message Travis purposefully explains why our ministry is man minded and how we...

Resurrection Sunday is a day full of festivities, easter egg hunts, and family lunches. Although we love to celebrate with family and friends, through all the fun we can begin to be distracted from the real reason we get to celebrate. In this talk Travis discusses how the context surrounding the Resurrection story adds power and explanation for the necessity of a Savior. When we take a look at the...

We all have a little bit of Judas in us. In this talk Travis discusses the role Judas played in Jesus' ministry and how easy it can be to lose sight of the mission. As we get closer to the holiday of Easter we can take a look at the story of Judas and see that it can be enticing to trade our intangible riches for worldly wealth.

Joseph Caiaphas not only had power in the Religious system, but he also had his hand in the local political ring. In this talk Travis gives a profile of the High Priest Caiaphas who had an intricate role in the story of Jesus. As we listen to the story of Caiaphas it's hard to believe that someone could be so arrogant to stand in opposition of Jesus, but it's easy to say that on this side of the s...

When we think of Baptism we sometimes think of celebration, joy, water, and maybe even tears. All of those things are great, but what if we told you that baptism is more than just those things? In this talk Travis gives the historical and biblical context behind baptism and he closes in on the truth of what baptism symbolizes from what John the Baptist taught to what Jesus replicated.

Theres a big difference between "I don't believe" and "I don't want to believe." One can be caused from a lack of knowledge or information, but the other may stem from unnecessary stubbornness. In this talk travis addresses the issues caught between not believing and not wanting to believe and the things that caused some to walk away from faith may have been completely unnecessary.

Most of us have either questioned the existence of God because of pain and hurt in the world, or we know someone who has. In this talk Travis suggests that if you walked away from your faith because you struggle believing in a God with all the bad in the world you may have walked away from faith unnecessarily. Travis specifically highlights the characteristics of God and how God is not only good,...

In this continuation of the 6 week series titled "I Can't Believe in God" Travis discusses the defendability of the movement of Jesus. Throughout scripture God uses man to portray the story of creation, obedience, and ultimately love, but they weren't just topics of discussion in scripture, they were all pointing to the Son of God. Travis also asks all of us to look into it for ourselves, to study...

"Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so." Most of us have heard this song, and most of us don't have a hard time believing that Jesus loves us, but is it only because the Bible says so? In this talk Travis discussed how the defendable truths of our Christianity don't exist only because a book says so. Jesus' love for you isn't hinged on a book saying so, however the Bible does provi...

Answering grown up questions is hard, but it becomes unbelievable when an adult question is answered with a child-like response. In this talk Travis continues his series titled "I Can't believe in God" which is meant to target the doubts and frustrations that we have all contemplated about who God is. However, Travis not only discusses who God is, but he challenges the god's that many of us have b...

Doubt is expected, and skepticism isn't always a bad thing. When horrific events happen in our life sometimes we question the existence, or the goodness of our God. In this series Travis will address many of the questions that wander through our minds about God and who God is.

Often in life, we get stuck wandering round looking for an answer in the wrong spot. In this talk Jarrod Hill, Wilderness Youth Pastor, points out two events in scripture where the Disciples and even Abram dealt with looking in the wrong direction.