City Collective Podcast

The manner in which we talk about work and treat our work environments and our faith experiences feels very much like a picky eater who doesn’t want their food touch for fear that one will be tainted by the other. Let’s work really hard for majority of our lives so that maybe if we are lucky and save well one day we can not work for a small part of our lives before we die. That isn’t the story of...

What compels our actions, our thoughts and our interactions. Research shows that though there is a clear growing trend towards isolation in terms of the usage of our time, it still functions from a desire for connection and relationship. Pastor Jason explores the cravings we have as humans and the heart that Jesus has for us. The idea of the resurrection can be challenging for us in our finite per...

Have you ever been left disappointed? We all have. It is part of being human and something that we often don’t know what to do with. Do we withdraw from it? Do we engage with it? Do we ignore it? With the arrival of Jesus in Jerusalem we see a crowd welcoming a conquering king. His arrival was an illustration of God’s deep commitment to them but yet Jesus’ week that followed didn’t check all the b...

One of the most shocking findings of Brene Brown’s work is the idea that the most compassionate people she had interviewed were actually the most boundaried. A definition of boundaries is simply what is ok and what is not ok. What we do is not set boundaries. In our talk this week we had talked the necessity and power of boundaries in our process of forgiveness. If revenge is our default what is J...

Revenge is sweet. Have you heard that before? Sure we can believe that about others but are we aware of how true that is for ourselves. Revenge is one of the most negative outcomes of hurt in our lives and whether we are aware of it or not, we are all guilty of it. Perhaps not in the big dramatic ways that we associate with the word but in a cold shoulder to a word spoken against you, a spark of g...

Forgiveness is difficult. C.S. Lewis gets it when he says that “Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive.” There is a difficult reality that we are faced with when it comes to forgiveness. That forgiveness means not getting even, it means it won’t ever be made fair, it means that you won’t get to enact all of those elaborate revenge fantasies that you have b...

For many of us true freedom doesn’t feel familiar and we would rather stay in something that enslaves us that is predictable rather than embrace something that is new, and good and true, and pure. So we will go back to familiar mindsets, we will go back to familiar toxic emotional states because it feels normal to us. And we will choose normal over new. And just because it is normal doesn’t mean t...

We continued with our series “Church Clothes” this weekend, as Pastor Jason continued into Galatians 3. We looked at the impact of our past on our current understanding and experience of grace. And how Paul invites the Galatians to live with no separation between them to not be against one another but know that they are all unified in Christ. Are we living from a place of what we are for? Or from...

We continued with our series “Church Clothes” this weekend, as Pastor Jason continued into Galatians 2. We looked at what graceful confrontation really looks like, and the value propositions we are faced with everyday indicating where our priorities truly lie. Are we pursuing a lifestyle of comfort or God’s calling? —— Next week right after service we are having a Meet, Eat and Greet after church...

This past Sunday was the beginning of our new series Church Clothes as Pastor Jason walks us through the book of Galatians. Are we living a life out of grace or for grace? Have we overcomplicated a simple truth through qualifications in our faith? Why is a simple grace so difficult to understand and grab onto? —— Next week right after service we are having a City Collective Info Session where we t...

We had a fantastic morning with guest speaker Daniel Whitehead from Sanctuary Mental Health Ministries ! He spoke out of Psalm 130 for the last instalment of the Sunshine & Shadows series. He said, "The pursuit of happiness is not the Christian ideal ... joy is a part of our walk in faith, but happiness is not the primary pursuit."  ——— His prayer for the church was this: God save us from list...

We had an incredible Sunday with voices from the health and counselling community speaking into the area of mental health! Food, friends and family made for a morning of honest conversations and new friendships. Thank you to our panelists for speaking so well into the subject!

This Sunday we launched a new series called Sunshine & Shadows: A Conversation about Mental Health. Pastor Jason talked about the power of perception in our understanding of it and the opportunity of the church to be a place of hope in the reality of its weight in our society. Moving from a place of comfortable to vulnerable, from a mindset of curing to healing, and from a posture of inclusivi...

This Sunday we explored the journey of Peter through John 13 and John 21 considering how we see each moment in a culture of instant gratification and how Jesus views the world with a wider context. Instant gratification has become the norm for us but often prevents us from seeing the grander story that God is working in the world around us. Pastor Jason considered how the journey Peter went on pre...

Week 3 from our Series: Advent

This past Sunday we looked at the possibility found in an unexpected interruption. And how sometimes the best answer to an interruption is a simple response of yes.

Week 1 of our Series: Advent

Ps Neil and Sharol Josephson from Family Life Canada share their thoughts on Relationships

A unique take on David and Goliath

Week 6 of our collection of talks studying significant moments Jesus had around the dinner table.

Who am I comparing and measuring myself against? This is a struggle we all encounter. Where we are so worried about the person on our right and our left that we are unable to be content. In Luke 22 Jesus is interrupted in his final discourse by a dispute of comparison and greatness amongst the disciples - and in a moment when they were invited into communion they fell into comparison. Continuing w...