Elevation Waterloo Sermons

Series: Reconstructing Faith Nehemiah 1:1-4, 11; 2:1-3 What happens when your faith starts to come apart at the seams—when old ways of thinking, believing, and living suddenly don’t seem to work anymore? The experience can be daunting, but if we allow it, this ‘crumbling’ can actually lead to the re-building of a healthy life of faith. When we first meet Nehemiah, we find someone whose city is lit...

We're doing something a little bit different this week and we are excited to share this conversation with you!  We sat down (on Zoom) with Drew Brown, a social justice and mental health advocate as well as a musical artist and producer from Milton, ON, to talk about what it might look like to embody the kind of justice that God is calling us to.  We ended the service by sharing Drew's la...

Breaking Bread 1 Corinthians 11:17-26 When Jesus gathered his closest followers together one last time before his death, he used the symbolism of breaking apart a loaf of bread to illustrate that his body would be broken for them. But it wasn’t supposed to become a religious exercise so much as an everyday way for us to remember Christ, and to remember him together. At a time when sharing a meal i...

Six Months Later In the middle of March 2020, everything changed. Decades from now, people will learn about the events of this year much like we learn about events from previous generations. But for now, we’re still living it! As our Elevation community enters a fall like no other, let’s pause to reflect on where we’ve been over the last six months and what we should make of it all. Romans 8:18-25

Series: Nine Stories of Fear and Desire Nine: A Desire to have Peace of Mind The Enneagram is a model of nine distinct personality types that describes how understanding our basic fears and desires can aid our personal growth. In this series, we will use this model as a jumping-off point as we explore nine corresponding stories in the Bible that can help us understand how we move in the world and...

Series: Nine Stories of Fear and Desire Eight: A Desire to Protect Yourself The Enneagram is a model of nine distinct personality types that describes how understanding our basic fears and desires can aid our personal growth. In this series, we will use this model as a jumping-off point as we explore nine corresponding stories in the Bible that can help us understand how we move in the world and w...

Series: Nine Stories of Fear and Desire Seven: A Desire to Be Satisfied The Enneagram is a model of nine distinct personality types that describes how understanding our basic fears and desires can aid our personal growth. In this series, we will use this model as a jumping-off point as we explore nine corresponding stories in the Bible that can help us understand how we move in the world and what...

Series: Nine Stories of Fear and Desire   Six: A Desire to Be Supported The Enneagram is a model of nine distinct personality types that describes how understanding our basic fears and desires can aid our personal growth. In this series, we will use this model as a jumping-off point as we explore nine corresponding stories in the Bible that can help us understand how we move in the world and...

Series: Nine Stories of Fear and Desire Five: A Desire to Be Competent The Enneagram is a model of nine distinct personality types that describes how understanding our basic fears and desires can aid our personal growth. In this series, we will use this model as a jumping-off point as we explore nine corresponding stories in the Bible that can help us understand how we move in the world and what G...

Series: Nine Stories of Fear and Desire Four: A Desire to Be Yourself The Enneagram is a model of nine distinct personality types that describes how understanding our basic fears and desires can aid our personal growth. In this series, we will use this model as a jumping-off point as we explore nine corresponding stories in the Bible that can help us understand how we move in the world and what Go...

Series: Nine Stories of Fear and Desire   Three: A Desire to Feel Valuable The Enneagram is a model of nine distinct personality types that describes how understanding our basic fears and desires can aid our personal growth. In this series, we will use this model as a jumping-off point as we explore nine corresponding stories in the Bible that can help us understand how we move in the world a...

Series: Nine Stories of Fear and Desire   Two: A Desire to Feel Loved The Enneagram is a model of nine distinct personality types that describes how understanding our basic fears and desires can aid our personal growth. In this series, we will use this model as a jumping-off point as we explore nine corresponding stories in the Bible that can help us understand how we move in the world and wh...

Series: Nine Stories of Fear and Desire   One: A Desire to be Good The Enneagram is a model of nine distinct personality types that describes how understanding our basic fears and desires can aid our personal growth. In this series, we will use this model as a jumping-off point as we explore nine corresponding stories in the Bible that can help us understand how we move in the world and what...

Series: Christ and our Crises The Crisis of Disillusionment We all walk through life with a set of expectations about how the world ought to work. This can leave us sorely disappointed when the world fails to live up to its billing, as it’s bound to do. But the same can be said for ourselves—such high hopes! so much promise!—and then we find ourselves spinning when not even we can manage to keep t...

Series: Christ and our Crises The Crisis of Doubt What can we learn about doubt from the life of the apostle Thomas? When do our doubts become paralyzing rather than productive? John 20:24-29

Series: Christ and Our Crises The Crisis of Loss One of the common experiences we’re all having these days is an accumulation of loss. Whether it’s hugging loved ones, leaving home to go to work, or even watching sports on TV, all of the ‘little losses’ in our lives are building up. And that’s to say nothing of the more significant losses we face in life—but there, too, we can expect to encounter...

Series: Christ and our Crises The Crisis of Death What we believe about death tends to inform how we experience the death of people in our lives, how we face our own death, and how we live in the meantime. As we observe the way that Jesus responded in the face of his own approaching death, we’re reminded that Christ comes to us in all of our crises—even death. John 20:11-18

Series: At the Feet of Our Spiritual Mothers Mother Teresa While Christian faith certainly involves believing, at the end of the day it needs to be lived out. This month, we’ll consider how three women from different eras and different parts of the world applied the way of Jesus in the circumstances of their lives, raising important questions about how we will do the same in our own. 2 Corinthians...

Series: At the Feet of Our Spiritual Mothers   Harriet Tubman While Christian faith certainly involves believing, at the end of the day it needs to be lived out. This month, we’ll consider how three women from different eras and different parts of the world applied the way of Jesus in the circumstances of their lives, raising important questions about how we will do the same in our own. Phile...

Series: At the Feet of Our Spiritual Mothers Julian of Norwich While Christian faith certainly involves believing , at the end of the day it needs to be lived out . This month, we’ll consider how three women from different eras and different parts of the world applied the way of Jesus in the circumstances of their lives, raising important questions about how we will do the same in our own. Psalm 1...

Series: A Christian Vision for Healthy Relationships and Sexuality Expressing our Sexuality Our sexuality is an important part of who we are. It’s also something most of us prefer to avoid talking about, especially in church! But as we take the risk of exploring this spicy topic, we uncover a positive vision of sex that will help us honour our bodies and those of the people around us. [Note: This...

Forming Healthy Relationships We can experience true community in a variety of places, including families, friendships, and in committed relationships such as Christian marriage. It is in our life-giving relationships with one another that we most clearly reflect the image of God. Genesis 2:4-7, 15-22

Now What?  On the other side of Jesus’ resurrection, the disciples went from cowering behind locked doors to proclaiming good news in the streets! Something about their encounter with Jesus transformed their fear and catapulted them out into the world around them, and there’s a hint in Peter’s words that we should expect the same... John 20:19-22; Acts 2:14a, 22-24, 36-39

Easter Sunday - April 12, 2020 Jesus chose the local nobody, Mary, as the first witness to the resurrection, and followed that up by sending out his band of unbelieving disciples with the task of spreading the good news. Even if we can’t exactly “go out” ourselves these days, we can celebrate Jesus’ resurrection with joy and let that joy seep out through the cracks into a world in desperate need o...

Take a few minutes on this Holy Saturday, the day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, to reflect on what it means to sit in the "in between". Christin Taylor will share a piece that she has written, as well as walk us through a Lectio Divina practice, and we will end with a song that invites us to reflect on what it means to hold on to hope, even when it feels like all hope has been buried in t...