The Journey Church Podcast

Have you ever been so focused on what's missing in your life that you've overlooked what's already right in front of you? We can become so accustomed to God's goodness that we stop recognizing it. Things we once prayed for become ordinary, answered prayers become everyday routines, and blessings we once celebrated become things we take for granted. In this opening message of our ne...

What if some of the things we've believed about God look nothing like Jesus? For seven weeks, we've explored what it means to live an uncommon life. But what if the secret to uncommon living isn't trying harder, but seeing God more clearly? In this powerful conclusion to our UNCOMMON series, Pastor Chris reveals the extraordinary character of a God who became human, chose a towel over...

We live in a world that constantly tells us to pick a side. Us versus them. Right versus left. People who think like us versus people who don't. But what happens when our loyalty to a side becomes greater than our willingness to love like Jesus? In Week 7 of UNCOMMON, Pastor Kim unpacks the story of Jonah and challenges us to confront something that's become all too common: tribalism. Jona...

What happens when what you want conflicts with who God is calling you to become? In Week 6 of UNCOMMON, Pastor Chris walks through the story of Joseph and Potiphar's wife in Genesis 39 to explore what sexual integrity really looks like. Sexual integrity is about more than a list of things we shouldn't do. It's about identity, the convictions that guide our decisions, the boundaries we...

Does doing the right thing still matter when nobody notices? In Week 5 of UNCOMMON, Pastor Rob explores the often-overlooked story of Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus, and the extraordinary impact of ordinary faithfulness. Joseph wasn't a king, a religious leader, or a man of great influence. He was a craftsman who chose obedience over reputation, courage over comfort, and faithfulness even...

When you think about power, you probably think about presidents, CEOs, billionaires, or people with titles and authority. But what if you have more power than you realize? In Week 4 of  UNCOMMON , Pastor Chris walks through the story of Ruth and Boaz to challenge the way we think about power. Boaz wasn't a king and didn't command an army. He simply had a field. But within that field, he ha...

What if being right isn’t enough? In Week 3 of  UNCOMMON , Pastor Kim walks through the story of Abigail, David, and Nabal in 1 Samuel 25 and explores what it looks like to speak truth without using truth as a weapon. When David is insulted by Nabal, his anger nearly leads him to make a decision that could have followed him into his future. But Abigail steps into the conflict with courage, wisdom,...

What do you do when the people who hurt you are the people who were supposed to love you? In Week 2 of  UNCOMMON , Tara Schwartz walks through the story of Joseph and the betrayal, injustice, and pain that shaped his journey. Joseph had every reason to become bitter, and eventually, he had the power to get even. Instead, he chose something uncommon: forgiveness. This message explores what forgiven...

How do you live faithfully in a world that is constantly trying to form you? Daniel never chose Babylon. Babylon happened to him. He was taken from everything familiar and forced to build a life inside a culture that didn’t share his faith. Yet Daniel shows us another way to live. He didn’t isolate himself from Babylon, and he didn’t allow Babylon to determine who he became. In Week 1 of UNCOMMON...

Sometimes we don’t walk away from Jesus. We simply begin following Him from a distance. In this message, Pastor Kim Hoyt walks through Peter’s journey from the charcoal fire where he denied Jesus to the charcoal fire where the risen Jesus prepared him breakfast. Peter came carrying failure, regret, and shame, but Jesus didn’t make him earn his way back. The meal was already prepared. Through Hebre...

What if the invitation has already been sent, the table is already set, and the only question left is whether we’ll actually come? In the final week of our True Fiction series, Tara Schwartz unpacks one of Jesus’ more challenging parables: The Wedding Banquet in Matthew 22:1–14. What begins as a story about a king throwing a celebration quickly becomes a picture of God’s invitation into His Kingdo...

What if one of Jesus’ most famous stories about hell… isn’t really about hell? In Week 9 of True Fiction: The Parables of Jesus , Pastor Chris Hoyt unpacks the story of The Rich Man and Lazarus from Luke 16:19–31, a parable filled with wealth, poverty, judgment, a great chasm, and even flames. But when we look at the conversation surrounding the story, Jesus may be confronting something much close...

What if grace feels unfair because we’re still trying to calculate who deserves it? In Week 8 of True Fiction: The Parables of Jesus , Pastor Kim Hoyt unpacks Jesus’ Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard from Matthew 20:1–16, where some workers labor all day while others show up with only an hour left. But when payday comes, the generosity of the landowner challenges everyone’s definition of what...

What happens when our confidence in being “right” becomes the very thing keeping us from recognizing our need for grace? In Week 7 of our True Fiction series, Pastor Rob unpacks Jesus’ parable of The Pharisee and the Tax Collector found in Luke 18:9-14. Two men enter the Temple to pray. One stands confidently before God, convinced of his own righteousness and comparing himself to everyone around h...

What if Luke 15 isn't really about a lost sheep or a lost coin? What if it's about a God who refuses to stop searching? In this message, Pastor Kim unpacks two of Jesus' most beloved parables to reveal something bigger than we've often seen. Before there was a lost sheep, there were lost hearts. Jesus told these stories to answer one question from the religious leaders: Why would G...

Who is my neighbor? It's one of the most famous questions ever asked Jesus. But instead of giving a definition, Jesus told a story that has challenged hearts for over 2,000 years. In Week 5 of our True Fiction series, Pastor Chris Hoyt unpacks the parable of The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) and reveals that this story isn't just about helping strangers. It's about learning to see people the way...

What is the Kingdom of God really worth? In Week 4 of our True Fiction series, Pastor Chris Hoyt explores two of Jesus' shortest parables, The Hidden Treasure and The Pearl of Great Price (Matthew 13:44-46). Through a humorous story about an unexpected discovery while repairing a broken sewer line, Pastor Chris reminds us that some of life's greatest discoveries happen while we're simply trying to...

What if the Kingdom of God doesn't grow the way we expect? In Week 3 of our True Fiction series, Pastor Rob & Tara Schwartz unpack Jesus' parables of The Mustard Seed and The Yeast (Matthew 13:31-33), revealing a Kingdom that often begins in the smallest, most ordinary ways. A tiny seed becomes a place of shelter. A little yeast quietly transforms an entire batch of dough. These parables remin...

Why do some people hear God's Word and experience lasting transformation while others seem unchanged? In Week 2 of our True Fiction series, Pastor Kim Hoyt explores Jesus' Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:1-23) and reveals that the difference isn't the seed. It's the soil. Through powerful biblical teaching and a deeply personal story of healing, Pastor Kim reminds us that every heart goes through...

True Fiction | Week 1: New Kingdom What if the stories Jesus told weren't just clever illustrations... but invitations that exposed the condition of our hearts? In Week 1 of our new summer series, True Fiction , Pastor Rob unpacks two of Jesus' shortest parables: the new wine and old wineskins and the new patch on an old garment . These fictional stories carried eternal truth, challenging...

Most of us know Luke 15 as the story of the Prodigal Son. But what if we've been looking at the wrong person all along? In this Father's Day message , Pastor Chris Hoyt explores one of Jesus' most beloved parables through a different lens. This isn't simply the story of a rebellious son. It's the story of a faithful Father. As Jesus responds to religious leaders who questioned...

What do you do when God doesn't meet your expectations? Most people don't wake up one day and decide to struggle with their faith. More often, disappointment slowly creates questions. Prayers go unanswered. Circumstances don't change. Expectations shatter. And somewhere in the middle of it all, we find ourselves wrestling with what we thought God would do and what we've actually ex...

In Week 3 of our Jesus Chats series, Pastor Chris explores one of the most surprising conversations Jesus ever had, His encounter with the Rich Young Ruler in Mark 10:17-22. Unlike the broken and hurting people we've looked at in previous weeks, this man appeared to have everything together. He was successful, respected, moral, and spiritually sincere. Yet Jesus saw something beneath the surface t...

In Week 2 of our Jesus Chats series, Pastor Kim walks us through one of the most powerful and emotional encounters in the Gospels, the woman caught in adultery in John 8. This message is for anyone who has ever carried shame, regret, failure, or the fear of being exposed. While the crowd wanted condemnation, Jesus responded with compassion, truth, and grace. He didn’t ignore sin, but He refused to...

In this powerful and deeply personal message, Pastor Chris shares a stand-alone teaching following the unexpected passing of a beloved church member. In moments of grief, pain, unanswered prayers, and loss, one question often rises to the surface: “Is God still good?” Through the stories of Job, Paul, Jeremiah, and the life and testimony of Ryan Hancock, this message reminds us that faith is not p...