Big House Church Podcast

On Father's Day, Pastor Matt Ruckel invites his dad, Steve Ruckel, to speak with him about their family history and how Steve's choices created domino effects in Matt's life. Significant and spiritual decisions that Steve made as a father and follower of Jesus led to moments of encounter that changed the course of Matt's life. May fathers be encouraged to know that you can also start making decisi...

As we gather for Pentecost Sunday, Pastor Matt Ruckel teaches on the person of Holy Spirit, the coming of the one whom we are celebrating. Holy Spirit is not some mystical force of God - He is the third person of the Trinity. This teaching will help you understand practically and more deeply who Holy Spirit is and how we can partner with Him for the Kingdom. May your desire for a fresh infilling o...

This Sunday was a pivot moment for our community. Our Prayer Room Coordinator Hope Wright received a powerful prophetic word from the Lord..." Super Bloom" which is a natural phenomenon where desert mountainous fields will have dormant wildflower seeds underground for years, and after an unusually rainy season, the flowers bloom all at once creating a wondrous landscape that can even sometimes be...

Pastor Ian Thornton share a tender word about the blessing of being needy and dependent on the Lord. Our society has an individualistic mindset where people are prone to find solutions to every problem they encounter on their own, and for Christians this can lead to the danger of thinking we can live without God. Yet we see in the Gospels that Jesus was moved by those who were desperate for a touc...

Service is more than just a simple act - it is a means for the Body of Christ to be further transformed into His image and wage war against the enemy's tactics of selfish ambition and conceit. On this Mother's Day, Pastor Ian Thornton wraps up the two-part series on service by examining how service impacts the kingdom of God far beyond our eyes can see. May our hearts be stirred in humility as we...

As we celebrate those in our community who have decided to publicly declare Jesus as Lord by following Him in baptism, Pastor Matt Ruckel teaches on the value and significance of the sacrament of baptism. If you have decided to ask Jesus to be the savior of your life but have not been baptized yet, this teaching will help you understand why it is important for us to be baptized. Big House Church i...

When we look at Jesus, we see that His call in coming to earth was not to be served, but to serve. In the posture of washing feet, we see the invitation of Christ to do the same as His disciples. Pastor Matt teaches the first part of "Here to Serve" series to share the why behind our service. It's not for our benefit, our gain, or our glory, but rather to obey and become like Christ, so that His k...

Jesus is ALIVE! Pastor Matt invited several couples and individuals to share powerful testimonies of God's resurrection power and transformation. Each one brought an exhortation for various seasons of life - suffering with Christ, running from the Father, waiting on Holy Spirit, and finding ourselves in the death and resurrection because of Jesus' sacrifice. Our prayer is that you will be not only...

As we celebrate Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week, Pastor Ian Thornton dives into the cultural context and significance of Jesus' Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. Jesus' actions declared that He was indeed the coming Messiah, their true King, and that He was bringing a kingdom of peace. Yet the kingdom of peace that he was brought was not what the people of Israel were expecting or had hoped...

Ladies from our community gathered on Friday, April 11 for our Spring 2025 Harbor gathering to fellowship, praise, and uplift one another. The theme of this event was "Planted" from the verse Psalm 92:13. Rhonda Ruckel, a master gardener, first gave us a crash course on what plants need in order to actually succeed in growth. Then Harbor Director Kristi Ruckel helped us see the spiritual elements...

Dr. Frans Pienaar brings a word of wisdom about the expectations of our lives and how they can be against what God will allow. Speaking from recent experience, he shares how the Lord allows His people to get to a breaking point of what we thought our course of life would be, in order to bring forth His will for us. As you listen to this encouragement, may the Lord stir your heart into a deeper lev...

Pastor Matt brings our sermon series on Generosity to a close with an exhortation of the practice of celebrating God's provision, promises, and presence in our lives! We especially celebrated the generosity of the Lord through our church family who raised over half of our Time to Build: Finish Well building campaign goal! Praise God! Big House Church is cultivating a community of passionate worshi...

Pastor Matt Ruckel concludes our sermon series on generosity by teaching on a generous reward. God gives us promises through his Word about what happens when we choose to live out his nature of generosity. Not only do we get to bless others and bring the Kingdom to heaven through our giving, there is freedom and joy and breakthrough for us when we walk as a generous people! May we walk in extravag...

On Commitment Sunday, March 16th, 2025, we processed, dreamed, and celebrated the fact of where we are now and how God has massively blessed us through the gift of this property from Open Door and how God is allowing us to partner in building something that lasts for generations to come! At the end of service, many of us brought our commitments and gifts before the Lord (which we will celebrate on...

A pastor of pastors in the Hampton Roads region, Pastor Steve Morgan shares on the importance of a church that is willing to be generous through their means and beyond. Reading from 2 Corinthians 8, he shows how the Macedonian churches of Paul's day were given the grace to be generous because they were stirred up by the needs of their brothers and sisters in Jerusalem. May we be transformed as a c...

Following a generous God means that we are called to be a generous people. Pulling from Scripture and personal testimonies, Pastor Matt Ruckel shows us how being generous brings life, light, and joy into our lives. How is the Lord asking you to be generous this week? Big House Church is cultivating a community of passionate worshippers who partner with Jesus to create a kingdom culture on earth as...

Do you believe God is generous? Pastor Ian Thornton kicks off a new sermon series on generosity by teaching on the generous character of God. Reading out of Matthew 6, Pastor Ian shows us that when we began to behold the Father's generous nature, we begin to see and experience a life full of light. Big House Church is cultivating a community of passionate worshippers who partner with Jesus to crea...

Pastor Matt unpacks part of 2 Corinthians 3 with us as he encourages us to behold the Lamb of God - Christ with unveiled faces. Big House Church is cultivating a community of passionate worshippers who partner with Jesus to create a kingdom culture on earth as it is in heaven. We regularly meet on Sundays @ 9 & 11 AM at the Zeider Theater in Town Center Virginia Beach. Learn more at www.bighousec...

Our dear friend Andrew Ehrenzeller blessed us with worship and a word from the heart to us this Sunday. With Romans 5:17 at the center of his message, Andrew inspires and encourages us to mature in Christ as His body by growing more in love with God. Andrew and his wife Mary Kat helped us launch our Virginia Beach location back in 2020 and now live in Florida with their beautiful family and serve...

As we launch a new season of small groups, one of our elders, Steve Elliott, shares not on why or how we need community, but on the desire for community! Reflecting on the Apostle Paul and the book of Philippians, Steve notices how deeply tied Paul's heart was to this specific group of people. May your heart be encouraged to build deeper connections with your own community today! Big House Church...

As we end our fast and sermon series, our youth pastor, Pastor Adam Johnson, teaches out of Nehemiah 1, and how Nehemiah's prayer reflects inward, upward, and outward prayer. With it Pastor Adam notices how Nehemiah's prayer ends with action and correlates that with the Father's desire for us act upon the love He's given us to reach the lost. Outward prayer is not only about praying for other peop...

Have you noticed your spiritual hunger increase as you have set aside your physical hunger? On the second Sunday of our fast, Pastor Matt Ruckel teaches on different types of prayer that help cultivate intimacy with the Father. These various forms of prayer are meant to help us tap into a deeper level of connection and relationship with God, and maybe the Lord has a specific connection point for y...

Have you ever started praying, then suddenly stopped because you became distracted or you thought your prayers weren't good enough? On this first day of our 2025 fast, Pastor Ian Thornton teaches from Luke 18 about the things that will kill your prayer life, and the things that help it thrive. May we learn to shut out the things that are prayer killers, and press into the ways of Jesus that will c...

As we approach our annual January fast, Pastor Ian Thornton begins a new sermon series on the vision and theme for this fast, "Teach Us How To Pray." The heart of fasting, among other spiritual disciplines, is to step into an expression of love and worship towards God that is different than what is considered normal. As you prepare your heart for 21 days of fasting, begin to ask God how He wants y...