Church on The Rock Homer

It’s almost Christmas! And I am so thankful to be included in the family of God. For the next three weeks we will celebrating the God who decided to expand his family and add sons and daughters through the sacrifice of His first born son Jesus. This week I am going to tell a little more of our own adoption story and celebrate adoption of the saints into the heavenly family. Pastor Aaron Weisser

Two halves of the same coin. Light and dark. Day and night. The husband and the wife. Scripture contains the idea of two parts being unified when they come together, two parts equating to one. The same is true when we consider our being. Mankind is less than a whole when separated from God. Genesis 1 says that God’s creation exists as the heavens and the earth, two parts in one. In this message, w...

As a young boy growing up in artsy little Homer, Alaska I too caught the bug and wondered about my ability to make it as an artist. At the ripe old age of nine I drew a pencil sketch of the Space Shuttle Discovery in the upright position and attached to its external tanks. My sketch was approximately 30 inches tall and was of such high caliber, it was temporarily displayed in the Pratt Museum… alo...

When Maranatha and I got married we decided to narrow the scope of what was important on our wedding day. We were going to have a beautiful wedding, but we were determined not to blow the bank account. In the process of making those decisions, I had the bright idea to make our wedding cake. My future wife and my immediate family gave me THE LOOK. You know THE LOOK. It's a look full of skeptici...

Physicist Stephen Hawking once said, “If we discover the theory of everything, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason, for then we would know the mind of God.” Yet Hawking himself rejected the idea of a Creator. In this message we take on that question head on: Is it reasonable to believe in God? We look directly at Hawking’s arguments and explore what faith and reason reveal about truth...

A few years back, while working in our backyard at ABI, I built a swing for Maranatha under our porch and started clearing out weeds and debris. We laid down fabric, hauled mulch, and turned the space into something new. As I carried the bags down the hill, one of my kids looked at me and said, “Dad, I’m stronger than you.” For a moment I thought about proving otherwise—but I just smiled and said,...

How many times have you attempted to capture the expansive view of the Kenai Mountains, opposite Homer across Kachemak Bay, only to be disappointed by the result? Photos just don't seem to convey the grandeur, especially when condensed down to a six inch phone screen. "This picture doesn't really do it justice, but TRUST me, the mountains and the ocean and the sky are amazing to behold!" This Sund...

On Saturday, October 18, we launch into one of my favorite weekends of the year, our annual Global Missions Conference. This is your opportunity to connect in new ways to God's story both near home and across the globe. This weekend God wants to speak to you--to ignite something new. Whether you've been involved in missions for decades or you've just said yes to Jesus, God has somethin...

17 years! For almost two decades we have experienced God's faithfulness as a church. As we say yes to Him, He keeps leading us into greater and greater grace and truth. Every year, on Covenant Sunday, we settle in and consider our yes. This coming Sunday is our chance as a church to collectively say yes and pursue God's promises and will as a family. God is doing amazing things in our chur...

To the Men of Church on the Rock, I want to speak to you this Sunday. This is a message I have not shared. I would ask that you would come prayerfully, humbly, and prepared to take action. Do not be like the one who looks in the mirror and then walks away unchanged.  I am praying for our time together, Pastor Dr. Aaron Weisser

Over the past several years I have been on a personal mission. Maranatha and I got married in our early thirties which meant that we were combining the lives of two self-sufficient adults. Our wedding registry didn’t include the typical newlywed items. Many of those items we already had, like pots and pans. Last year I noticed that our sauce pan was two different colors and shortly after my mother...

I remember it like it was yesterday! For months my parents had been talking about a vacation. They’d heard about Destin, FL and were making plans for our family to go. We'd looked over the brochures, picked the best place to go, and booked the trip. My dad came home the evening before our 7½-hour drive with a rented minivan. I thought we were living in style! We crammed it full of our stuff an...

As we walk further into the chapters of Revelation, it can be easy to get trapped in the weeds of imagery and imagination. Dragons, beasts, harlots, and everything else tend to distract us from the true purpose of the book, though it was never intended to. From the beginning of the book, the Holy Spirit is revealing to God’s servants (us) the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (Rev. 1:1). If we forget G...

When I was single and living in Columbia I had a buddy named Jimmy. Jimmy was a punk teenage kid that showed up to our church. He had been kicked out of his home and at first when you heard his story you’d be very angry at his prior caregivers. He appeared to be a very sweet and innocent kid who also had intellectual disabilities. His demeanor was always happy go lucky when you first met him, but...

Have you ever walked into a place and felt the heeby jeebies?  You couldn’t put your finger on it exactly but something about the space kinda creeped you out or filled you with a sense of dread?  Confession; abandoned underground tunnels kinda do that for me.  Especially when they include giant balls of clustered daddy longlegs overhead.  Eek.  I’m getting creeped out just thinking about it.  Get...

At our church in SC I lead a men’s house church. It was full of young men who had recently decided to follow Jesus. Every week we sat around a table and discussed life and what Jesus was doing. In that group was a young man named Dustin. He was from sticks and even to my trained southern ear, he spoke “uniquely”. He was rough around the edges, no frills, his military experience taught him to call...

I want my kids to do well. I want them to see how growth now leads to a reward later. Some bad habits die only painfully. But there is a promise of something good, something better, something more permanent. And I realize this is always a hard sell for kids, but “I PROMISE that you will be glad you pressed through the pain and pursued the good.” In Matthew 7, Jesus says essentially “Given that you...

Earlier this summer we held our annual planning meeting for the coming year. In that meeting we lay out our teaching schedule and discuss what we’ll study as a church. We also have a pattern at COTRH to teach through the Bible sequentially, and laid out our return to Genesis. At the thought of skipping over the last text in Scripture, I insisted that we take the time to dive into one of my favorit...

You’ve heard me talk about God dealing with my hard heart toward my younger sister. The hypocrisy and unforgiveness that I held onto in my relationship with her was a burden. He refused to leave unaddressed. I remember the relentless onslaught of people in my life, sermons and teachings I listened to, and the Scriptures He brought to my attention. One of the main texts God used to address my heart...

I don’t know what is happening to me but it is getting more and more difficult to hold it together during weddings. My son Damon got married last week and I was doing pretty good until I saw my son see his bride in white for the first time. All of the joyous celebration of love touches something deep in my heart and triggers of wave of gratitude for the beauty of love and the God who sources it al...

Eight kids in and I still have never succeeded convincing a young child of mine of their future love of naps.  A good nap seems to be the bane of childhood existence.  Even once they resolve that it is definitely happening and there will be no negotiation, they want to express their displeasure in some form.  Then I tell each one the truth; some day you are going to love a good nap.  Also, without...

I have heard on many occasions that at some point I will miss the phase of childrearing that I am currently lamenting. I can say that I have not missed changing diapers, nor do I anticipate missing it. In a couple days my oldest hits double digits. It’s hard to believe and I do have the sense that how I interact with my older kids is changing. They no longer need me to assist them in the ways I di...

This week our family took a little trip down the Diamond Creek trail. When I arrived home from work, the car was loaded and ready to go. Once on the beach, we gathered up some wood to start a fire. Jenny handed me a lighter, a bottle of lighter fluid and a bunch of old newspapers to make my job easier. She then spread out some blankets to make our seating more comfortable. Once the fire was crackl...

The concept of love changes over the course of life. At an early age, love is represented by various entities. Disney portrays one sense where love leads us to a place of “happily ever after.” Our parents' marriages, whether for good or bad, teach us the ins and outs of what a loving relationship is or is not supposed to be. As we age, our experiences in the world teach us about love through our c...

It is our routine every Tuesday to gather as a leadership team and eat pizza with chicken salad, celebrate what God is doing, and talk about what is ahead. Although this is primarily a staff meeting, our elders and board members are always welcome to attend. A while back, my uncle Kerry, one of our elders, dropped in to attend our little powwow. He also had the mannerisms of a robot. Because of th...