McGregor Podcast

"Tradition" (Matthew 14:34-15:20) In this sermon from our ongoing study of the Gospel of Matthew, Pastor Russell Howard draws a line between spiritual discipline and spiritual deception. Habits and behaviors can be genuinely helpful to a believer's walk with God. But when external conformity becomes a substitute for biblical obedience, or when rule-keeping becomes the currency we use to earn God's...

What does community look like when the building is still under construction? On this week's Around McGregor, hosts Mark Bricker, Tamar Miller, and Christian Miller cover the week of May 31st. Topics include the return of newcomers coffee on Main Street between services, the prospective member class registration deadline, four life groups relocating to the modular building as Joy Building renovatio...

Holiness in Salvation and Sanctification, from our Midweek Bible Study: "Holiness of God" - 5.27.26 Taught by Omar Edwards.   Elder Omar Edwards opens this teaching with an honest confession: the call to live set apart for God sounds like an impossible standard, especially when someone cuts you off on I-75 right after church. Working from 1 Peter 1:13-19, Omar walks through four men in Scripture (...

What do you do when you know God is faithful but your circumstances are screaming something different? In this Beyond the Notes episode, Ryan Flint, Worship Pastor at McGregor Baptist Church, explores the concept of gospel amnesia: the very human pattern of forgetting what we know to be true about God the moment suffering gets loud. Drawing from Matthew 14, the Psalms, and the Israelites' journey...

The King Has Come "The Storm That Reveals The Savior" (Matthew 14:22-33) Jesus did not send the disciples into the storm by accident. He sent them on purpose, and He knew exactly what they would find there. In this sermon from Matthew 14:22-33, Ryan Flint, Worship Pastor at McGregor Baptist Church, traces the disciples from the shoreline crowd still buzzing after the feeding of the five thousand,...

Life rarely follows the plan we wrote for it. How do followers of Christ respond when it does not? In this week's Around McGregor, Mark Bricker, Tamar Miller, and Christian Miller preview a new summer Bible study called How to Handle Life's Interruptions, starting Wednesday, June 24 at 6:30 in Fellowship Hall. They also walk through the next month at McGregor: the Newcomers Coffee on May 31, the P...

Wednesday Night Teaching "Holy Justice" (Luke 13:1-5) What do you do with the parts of the Bible that feel severe? The passages where God's judgment lands swiftly and people die, where nations are destroyed, where the cost of sin is immediate and real? If we're honest, those passages can produce more questions than comfort. In this Wednesday night teaching, Elder Mike Hess walks through Luke 13:1-...

How can Jesus know the hearts of men and also ask a genuine question? How can he foretell his own death and resurrection and also say he does not know the day or the hour of his return? In this Beyond the Notes teaching, the speaker walks through the biblical evidence for both sides of Christ's nature, drawing from Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Hebrews, and Philippians. The episode covers specific mo...

The King Has Come "Jesus Feeds the 5000" (Matthew 14:13-21) In Matthew 14, Jesus has just received word that his cousin and fellow minister John the Baptist has been killed. He withdraws to grieve. A crowd of more than 10,000 follows. And rather than sending them away, Jesus extends compassion. Then he turns to his disciples and says something that stops them cold: "You give them something to eat....

What is God doing through a young adult ministry that just outgrew its room? Around McGregor hosts Mark, Tamar, and Christian walk through where The Bridge stands today, including the recent fifth Thursday gathering on Stage 1 that drew new faces for hamburgers, worship, and trivia. They also confirm that Mike Hess starts as Family Ministry Minister on June 1, share details about the upcoming newc...

Journey Together "Holiness and Conscience" (Romans 1:16-17) When God's holiness is fully in view, the conscience has no place to hide. Elder Peter Finch uses the life of Martin Luther as a window into what happens when a person measures himself honestly against what God actually requires: not human standards, not a curve, but the standard of loving God with every part of you, every day. Luther's y...

What do the rulers named Herod in your New Testament have to do with each other? The answer is more connected than most people realize. In this Beyond the Notes episode, Pastor Russell Howard traces the Herodian dynasty across four generations, beginning with Herod the Great at the birth of Jesus and ending with Herod Agrippa II in the court of Governor Festus during the apostle Paul's imprisonmen...

The King Has Come "Oh, The Places You'll Go" (Matthew 14:1-12) In Matthew 14:1-12, two men occupy the same passage but inhabit entirely different worlds. Herod Antipas sits on a throne, driven by lust, cowardice, and a fear that bounces him from one bad decision to the next. John the Baptist sits in a dungeon, yet speaks freely because his faith is anchored in Christ. Pastor Russell Howard traces...

Mother's Day arrives on the heels of one of the fullest Sundays of the year at McGregor.   Around McGregor hosts Mark, Tamar, and Christian look back on last Sunday, which included 17 baptisms across two services, senior recognition for graduating high school students, the introduction of incoming Family Ministry Minister Mike Hess, and a 400-person member meeting that welcomed 34 new members into...

What is the right response when you come face to face with the holiness of God? In this Journey Together Bible study, David Miller teaches from Luke 5:1–11, exploring what R.C. Sproul calls the trauma of holiness. The episode covers three effects that God's holiness produces in us: an awareness of sin, a holy fear, and a change in direction. Using the account of Peter's miraculous catch of fish, D...

What do you do when you've prayed and prayed and God has not said yes? In this episode of Beyond the Notes, Pastor Russell Howard picks up where Sunday's sermon left off, working through James 4:2-3 to address what Scripture says about unanswered prayer. He walks through five biblical questions to ask when God hasn't yet said yes: Am I being selfish? Am I using prayer to delay obedience? Has God a...

Matthew "The Power of Unbelief" (Matthew 13:53-58) In Matthew 13:53-58, Jesus returns to his hometown of Nazareth, and the people who knew him best are the ones who reject him most completely. Pastor Russell Howard examines what the hometown crowd's response reveals: that unbelief is not a matter of insufficient evidence, but of a heart unwilling to bow. The passage raises the stakes for everyone...

What does a full Sunday at McGregor actually look like? In this Around McGregor episode, hosts Mark Bricker, Tamara Miller, and Christian Miller walk through one of the busiest Sundays of the year, covering 17 baptisms across two services in Fellowship Hall, graduation recognition for all 22 seniors at all three services, and the in-person introduction of prospective Family Minister Mike Hess. The...

God is often described as loving, gracious, and near. But in Scripture, every person who encountered Him directly fell to the ground in fear. In this McGregor Podcast teaching, Danny traces that pattern from Moses at the burning bush to John in Revelation, asking why holiness produces awe before comfort. He explores what Scripture means when it calls God holy, why the chasm between humanity and Go...

The word "equity" shows up in Psalm 67:4. It also shows up constantly in the social justice conversation. Those two uses do not mean the same thing. In this Beyond the Notes episode, David Miller works through what Psalm 67:4 actually says about how God governs and why the Hebrew word behind "equity" points to impartiality and righteousness, not equal outcomes. He draws on two key passages, Romans...

"Our Missionary God" (Psalm 67) David Miller, Pastor of Membership and Missions at McGregor Baptist Church, preaches through Psalm 67, an ancient harvest song that Israel sang while bringing in crops from the land God had given them. But the psalm is about more than the harvest. It is about the reason God blesses his people at all. The requests in verse one, drawn from the priestly blessing of Num...

Spring is one of the busiest seasons in the life of McGregor, and this week's episode makes that clear. In this Around McGregor, hosts Mark, Tamar, and Christian cover an unusually full stretch of upcoming events: the preschool and children's choir spring concert on April 26, baptism in Fellowship Hall for the first time during the Renew Phase 2 renovation, Graduate Recognition Sunday on May 3 wit...

Journey Together   "An Introduction to the Holiness of God" (Isaiah 6; Job 42)   What does it actually mean that God is holy? Before the answer can land, some ideas have to go. In this opening Journey Together teaching, Pastor Russell Howard begins a new series on the holiness of God by clearing away three distortions that have found their way into Christian thinking: open theology, which pictures...

Sin is attractive precisely because it doesn't show you what it costs. In this Beyond the Notes teaching, Elder Peter Finch opens Hebrews 3:13 to examine what the Bible means by the "deceitfulness of sin." He traces three specific lies sin tells — that it is a logical conclusion, that it is a reward you deserve, and that it leads to freedom — and sets each of them against what Scripture actually s...

The Psalms Series "Worship and Warning" (Psalm 95) In Psalm 95, Elder Peter Finch draws us into the full picture of biblical worship. The psalm opens with a call to exuberant, communal singing before a God who is supreme Creator and sovereign Redeemer. But it does not stay there. The second half carries a serious warning: do not let your worship be disconnected from a surrendered heart. Using the...