REZ CHURCH Podcast

There's someone you've watched handle a situation you know would have flattened you. Stayed steady when people were saying things about them that weren't true. Held their ground in a room where you'd have gone quiet. And you walked away thinking there's something in them that isn't in you. That's the wrong read, and it's costing you more than you think. The man in t...

Most people keep their distance from church for a reason that has nothing to do with God. It's the sense that everyone inside has it figured out and you'd be walking in several steps behind, with things about your life you'd rather not explain. That's a fair read of a lot of churches. It isn't the one you'd find here. This is a church saying out loud, on the record, that it...

There's something you've brought up more than once. Something at work that's broken, somebody getting skipped, a thing everyone walks past like it's fine. You've said it to a friend, nothing changed, and by now you figure that's just how it is. Here's what almost nobody considers: the reason it won't leave you alone may be that it's pointed at you. Not as a comp...

Somebody you care about gets a phone call from a doctor. A friend loses a job. A coworker comes apart in front of you at work. And you stand there running sentences in your head and throwing out every one of them, because none of them are any good and you know it. So you say something clumsy, or you say nothing, and then you keep your distance for a while because that's easier than getting it...

At some point you did the math and came up with one name. Your own. You handle your problems, you make your calls, you carry your own weight, and the only person tracking whether any of it is going well is you. Most people don't say that out loud. Daniel talks about the day he got handed responsibility he didn't ask for and didn't understand, what he found when he went looking for what...

Somebody you know gets the thing you wanted. The promotion, the marriage that's working, the grades. And you say the right words back to them while something turns over in your stomach. You know it isn't really about them. You've known that for a while. Richard tells the story of the day someone else got handed what he'd been asking for, and what he found out about himself when a m...

You show up. You do your part. And somewhere underneath it you're not sure anything would look different if you weren't there. Somebody else would cover it. Somebody else already is. So you keep whatever you've got to yourself, figuring it's too small to be worth offering. Most people never find out they were wrong about that. This message is about a group of people two thousand ye...

There is a person you have decided is not getting your forgiveness, and you have good reasons. What they did was real. Nobody would blame you for holding onto it. This message makes an uncomfortable case that the holding is doing more damage to you than to them, and that letting go was never going to start with feeling ready. It also asks the harder second question. Once you forgive them, can you...

Church has a reputation for telling people what to do. Rules, expectations, a list you are already failing. That reputation is why plenty of people never walk in. This message argues the opposite, and it does it by pulling back the curtain on how this church talks to people on purpose. Nobody is going to make you believe anything. That turns out to be the entire point. --- (0:48) They burned it in...

You know the tank is empty. What you have never worked out is what actually fills it. So you try the usual things. More sleep, a weekend off, pushing through until the season lightens up. None of it puts anything back. What fills it was never something you produce on your own, and it isn't a matter of trying harder. It comes from knowing the one who actually fills it, and from getting close en...

Most weeks you get a message. This one is different. The whole room prays together instead, out loud, through one passage of Acts, in five movements. Praise. Thanksgiving. Surrender. Boldness. Expectancy. Communion in the middle of it. If you have ever wondered what a church sounds like when it stops performing and just talks to God, this is that.---(0:00) Call To Worship(1:12) It Really Is Amazin...

Somebody asks how you're doing and you say fine before you've even thought about it. Not a lie exactly. You just left the part out. There's a version of you other people are carrying around that's a little better than the real one, you've stopped correcting it, and now you're the one keeping it alive. Nobody made you do that. --- (0:00) Is America a Christian nation (1:38)...

There's something in your house you'd never offer a guest, and you've never once said that out loud. Maybe it's smaller than that. An hour you won't give up. A grudge you're still holding. You'd swear you were a generous person, and mostly you are, right up until something asks you to prove it. So what have you quietly decided is yours? (0:00) Ordering pizza during lock...

There's a thing you keep meaning to say, and every time the moment comes, you talk yourself right out of it. You tell yourself you'll be braver next time. The kind of person who just says the hard thing out loud. That person keeps not showing up. What if you were right that you're not brave, and that was never the problem?---(0:00) Too scared to ask her number(1:41) What if. What if. W...

You've gotten good at keeping the peace, staying quiet, not making it weird, and it mostly works. You pick the comfortable option almost every time. The easy conversation. The version of you nobody looks at too closely. And it feels like safety, right up until you notice how little you actually feel anymore.(0:00) The pastor's kid who ran(1:04) Why the shadows feel so safe(2:00) The cling...

There's a moment you still replay, the one where you knew the right thing to do and stayed quiet instead. You promised yourself next time you'd be braver. Stronger. The person who isn't afraid. What if brave was never about not being afraid at all? --- (0:00) The customer who closed my door (1:17) The bribe I didn't see coming (2:43) Choose courage. He chose you. (5:40) The sermon...

You finally get the recognition you've been working for, and it feels good for about a second. Then it fades. So you go looking for the next win, the next number, the next bit of proof that you're enough. It's a treadmill, and somewhere in you already know the finish line keeps moving. What if you've been chasing the wrong thing the entire time? (0:00) The compliment that felt too...

You stopped asking because it didn't work. Or it took too long. Or you got tired of hearing your own voice say the same thing into what felt like silence. That's not a faith problem. That's what happens when hope runs out of places to stand. And if you're still carrying the weight of whatever that thing is, this is for you. (0:00) When you stop asking because the silence got too lo...

You've put in the effort. More of it, actually. More hours, more patience, more willpower, more trying to hold it all together. And somehow something always ends up falling short anyway. Not because you're not working hard enough. There's a ceiling to what effort alone can produce, and most of us hit it before we figure out why it's there. (0:00) Trying to be a good husband, dad, a...

You've had the conversation with yourself. Made the commitment. Maybe more than once. And somewhere between deciding to change and actually changing, something keeps slipping. It's not a motivation problem. It's not a discipline problem. There's something running underneath all of it that no amount of trying harder has been able to touch. And until you see what it actually is, the...

You've chased the thing. Maybe you got it. And somewhere on the other side of getting it, there was still that same quiet emptiness waiting for you. Not a crisis. Just this low-grade feeling that something is still missing no matter what you add to your life. The problem was never what you had. It was what was driving the want. (0:00) The man who had everything and ended up on skid row(1:30) A...

You've tried to stop. You've made the promise, reset the streak, had the conversation with yourself a hundred times. And then the same thing shows up again and you're right back where you started. It's not because you're weak. It's because you don't know where the cycle actually starts. This message maps out exactly how the trap works, where it begins, where it goes, an...

You've turned it over a hundred times. You've weighed the options, talked to people, done the research, and you're still in the same place. Not because you're not smart enough. Not because you haven't tried hard enough. There's a kind of clarity that doesn't come from more thinking. It comes from somewhere else entirely. And it's more available than you think. #Wisdom #DecisionMaking #Overthinking...

You're in the middle of something hard. Maybe it's been going on long enough that you've stopped looking for a reason and started just trying to survive it. The exhaustion is real. The weight of it is real. And somewhere underneath all of it is a quiet question you haven't been able to shake, is any of this actually worth it. It is. And not in a vague, things happen for a reason ki...

You already know there's a version of you that's more grounded, more at peace, less reactive, less exhausted. You've caught glimpses of that person. But somewhere between the noise, the screen time, the pressure, and the pace of everything, that version keeps slipping out of reach. The gap between who you are and who you're capable of being isn't a willpower problem. It's a...