Westside Church Podcast

From the series, "Westside Stories" with John Latta. Stories are essential because they connect, inspire, and shape our understanding of the world and ourselves. From time to time, we will take the opportunity to pause and hear personal stories from within our church community. Interview – The Path to Healing. Leaving a fear-based, high-controlling religious community is not easy. For ma...

From the series, "Life After Death" with Dave Stimers. Part 2: Hell... Would God Really___? Many of us have questions about hell and about what we think God should or shouldn’t do when it comes to ultimately dealing with evil. Using what we read in the Bible, our own perspective and experiences, it leaves many of us asking, would God really___?

From the series, "Life After Death" with Dave Stimers. The idea of an afterlife brings up so many important questions. Are heaven and hell real? Would a loving God really send people to hell? When we die, how do we know where we will end up? In this series, we’re going to dive in and see what the Bible does and doesn’t say about some of these challenging topics! Part 1: Heaven... How Do...

From the series, "The Easter Epic: How His Story Can Become Our Story" with Dave Stimers. Part 3: What You Do Matters. The resurrection of Jesus is the inauguration of new creation, the new world of justice and love. That means that our lives are full of opportunities to participate in God’s great renewal project. Easter is an invitation for everyone to get to work, doing what matters!

From the series, "The Easter Epic: How His Story Can Become Our Story" with Dave Stimers. Part 2: Father Forgive Them. On Good Friday we remember the cross of Jesus Christ and reflect on the power of God's incredible forgiveness. Hurt people, hurt people, and we’ve all experienced that. It’s the natural way of life, but forgiveness is supernatural and today we can experience that mir...

From the series, "The Easter Epic: How His Story Can Become Our Story" with Dave Stimers. Easter is the amazing story of God offering the most scandalous grace to the world. It is the story of Jesus and how his story can become our story. Part 1: Turning The Tables. God’s forgiveness is scandalous and even risky. Holy Week invites us to ponder what it means to follow Jesus as we approach...

From the series, "Jesus Philosophy" with guest speaker Dr. Cyril Guerette. Part 2: The Beauty of Truth. What is Truth in a world of "my truth"? And How does beauty relate to God? This series on Jesus Philosophy deals with some of the perennial questions that face Christ followers, and all of humanity for that matter. Delving into Scripture we discover some interesting observati...

From the series, "Jesus Philosophy" with guest speaker Dr. Cyril Guerette. Part 1: Why Is There Suffering? Why do innocent people have to endure suffering in this seemingly absurd life? This series on Jesus Philosophy deals with some of the perennial questions that face Christ followers, and all of humanity for that matter. Delving into Scripture we discover some interesting observations...

From the series, "Nobody's Perfect" with Dave Stimers. Part 4: Powerless. One of the fundamental indicators of Christian maturity is one that continues to be a major struggle for most of us. If we’re going to follow Jesus, it is imperative to wrestle with our relationship to power.

From the series, "Nobody's Perfect" with Dave Stimers. Part 3: Why Is My Life Not Changing? Maybe we can agree that no one is perfect, but what if we are continually dealing with the same challenges? How can we overcome the temptations and character flaws that seem to always follow us around?

A special stand-alone message from Burlington Pastor, Mark Wall. Do you ever wonder if you’re living up to your potential? Life can sometimes be discouraging because we feel we have more to give in life than we are. We have been given life, but how do we know what to do with it? How do we know we are using our abilities and our lives in the way that God intended?

From the series, "Nobody's Perfect" with Dave Stimers. Part 2: Do’s and Don’ts. Do you ever feel stuck, like you aren’t able to grow in your spiritual life? If you want to move forward, these 3 do’s and don’ts will help!

From the series, "Nobody's Perfect" with Dave Stimers. Perfectionism can lead to all kinds of unhealthy ways of living and many of us struggle with it. Sometimes we put so much pressure on ourselves to reach unrealistic standards. Other times we might make excuses for our bad behaviour or decisions because, well, nobody’s perfect. Fortunately, Jesus shows us that there is a way out o...

Bonus message from the series, "What Are We Fighting For" with John Latta. Who has the most influence in your life? Research says parents are far and away the most influential part of any child's life. As a church, we love to partner with parents in raising children to know and experience the love of Jesus.

From the series, "What Are We Fighting For" with Dave Stimers. Part 3: Disputable Matters. Even among people who agree on following Jesus, we find that there are so many other things that we disagree about. With that in mind, can we find a way to have unity when we don’t have uniformity?

From the series, "What Are We Fighting For" with Dave Stimers. Part 2: Centered Set. Everyone wants to feel like they belong and it seems simple enough to create a space where everyone can. And yet, when it comes to our beliefs and behaviour, a lot of the time we struggle to figure out who fits in and how. A centered set approach helps us to be inclusive without being compromising.

From the series, "What Are We Fighting For" with Dave Stimers. There’s always something to argue about, and when it comes to contentious issues, religion is usually part of the problem, not the solution. But what if there was a better way to live out and share our faith? Part 1: The Third Way. When it comes to conflict or polarizing issues, one of the biggest fallacies that we tend to be...

Happy New Year Westside Church family! Join Mark and Kerala Wall for a short encouraging message as we begin 2024.

Christmas Eve message with Dave Stimers. From the series, "When God Speaks" Part 3: Jesus. If God spoke to us this Christmas what would He say? What would He say about our past? What would He say about our future? In one Word - Jesus.

From the series, "When God Speaks" with Dave Stimers. Part 2: Good News. Christmas is about good news but in the first century, the news of Jesus’ birth was actually very threatening. In some ways it still is. So what’s this good news all about and how should we celebrate it?

From the series, "When God Speaks" with Dave Stimers. Part 1: Immanuel. If God were to speak to us this Christmas, what do you think He would say? Our prayer is that as we take a deeper dive into the stories of Jesus’ birth, we will hear powerfully from God during this Christmas season. The Gospel of Matthew begins by portraying Jesus as King and offers us a tough challenge and a beautif...

A special message from Matt Collins for the start of Advent. It seems that once we slip into the latter years of high school and into our early 20’s we complicate our faith and inviting someone becomes this huge scary risk. Today we want to look at a small passage where we are challenged to look at the kingdom through the lens of a child. Why? And what will our response be this Christmas season?

From the series, "Resilience" with Dave Stimers. Part 2: Building Strength. Our perspective plays a big part in our ability to work through our challenges and build strength. Join the conversation as we talk about 4 ways to see our circumstances as opportunities for growth! Also, we are joined by special guest, Sue Van Egdom. She shared a HATS update regarding our Winter Care Kits as par...

From the series, "Resilience" with Dave Stimers. Part 1: Resourcing A Rebound. The news cycle is filled with bad news. It’s easy to be discouraged, anxious, and angry as we are bombarded with very real threats that our world is facing. Violence and war abroad. Rising concerns over housing, food insecurity, and inflation here at home. With all the bad news, we need some good news and to f...

This week we kick off our year-end Christmas fundraising campaign! There are many challenges that we are facing in our city and in the Church. The cost of living is causing many people hardship. Church disruption has left a lot of people wondering where to go to find faith. In the midst of all of that, we want to be a community that responds to the needs around us and turns these challenges into o...