Elevation Waterloo Sermons

Join us for the next three Sundays as we turn our attention to some 'crossing over' stories found in Numbers, Deuteronomy, and Joshua.  Change management experts speak of 'boundary events' as those that mark our journey and help us move from one reality into a new one. As a church, we find ourselves on the cusp of a significant boundary event with the addition of a transition team to our lead...

We are entering the season of Epiphany this week. It’s a season of revelation, illumination, and light breaking in. It’s a season that invites us to consider the myriad ways God reveals the Divine to us, through us, and in us. This week we’ll focus in on the story of Jesus’ baptism found in Matthew 3.

Happy New Year Elevation!  As we find ourselves in the season of Christmas, we are reminded that this is a season of light breaking in. It's the arrival of the Light of the world. Today we consider the light breaking in as beauty. We are invited to wake up and arise, to pay attention to the light, to orient our lives around beauty, and then join God in the co-creation of the beautiful in our...

This Sunday we are looking at one of the ways that Jesus describes the Kingdom of God in Luke 13. What could it mean to say that the the Kingdom of Heaven is like leven? How has the kingdom shown up in our lives as a slow kind of fermenting transformation?

It seems the wilderness might be our new fixed address for the church in Canada. For some this might be a cause for lament, for others, it's a chance to reimagine. If there are no tips, tricks, or techniques that can relieve us of this wilderness experience, how shall we live? What can we do as communities of faith who want to follow Jesus? What does humane faith look like...

Everywhere you look there are signs the religious landscape in Canada has changed. The most recent Statistics Canada numbers on religion Canada gives us quantifiable proof, it seems we might be headed for a wilderness experience as the church in Canada. What does that mean for those of us committed to following Jesus? Could this moment, "our for such a time as this" in the wilderness be...

For the month of October, we’re moving our focus into the neighbourhood. In this last of three weeks, we will consider the pace of Jesus, the idea of proximity, and how we can make small shifts toward greater presence in the life of our community.

For the month of October, we’re moving our focus into the neighbourhood. In this second of three weeks, we will consider the spiritual practice of hospitality, building upon this possible way forward through Neighbours groups.

To start our "Into the Neighbourhood" series, we'd like to take a look back at the formation of our Neighbours groups, what our hopes for these groups were at the time they were launched and where we find ourselves today. In this first of three weeks, we will consider the story of the Good Samaritan, engage the question ‘who is my neighbour’, and lay out a possible way forward through Neighbours g...

The cry of the people in the story of 1 Samuel 8 is for a king. “We want a king.” We’ll be spending two weeks looking at this story, reflecting on the church’s impulse to want a leader at the top to rule, to lead, and to make decisions for us. On September 18 we will consider the story and it’s implications for the church. Then on September 25 we will have a fishbowl conversation reflecting on thi...

At the outset of our Summer in Psalms series, Christin led us into Psalm 82 and a consideration of how God is like the picture we see in the Circle of Security: bigger, stronger, kinder, and wiser. This week we turn to two Psalms, Psalm 130 and Psalm 131, considering once again the Circle of Security attachment theory framework as a model for faith and community. The first Psalm paints a picture o...

In our Summer in Psalms series we now turn to a psalm of disorientation in Psalm 137. Containing one of the ugliest verses in scripture, this psalm offers us a raw emotional response, as well as a lingering question that resonates with us today: how shall we sing the Lord’s song in this strange place?

This week, Melodie will invite us to turn our attention to the well-known Psalm 23. As we explore what it means for us that God is our shepherd, we pray that you’ll experience an invitation to be grounded in who God is and to sit with the knowledge that God’s goodness and unfailing love pursue us always.

We're looking at Psalm 85 in our Summer in Psalms series. This Psalm is a Psalm of new orientation, moving us toward a picture of goodness and shalom.

In the continuation of our Summer in Psalms, Steve opens up Psalm 46 for us.   These three stanzas are jam-packed with goodness for us, and they offer us a timely reminder: stop fighting and trust; be still in the awareness that God shows up in times of trouble.

We're spending the summer in the Psalms..  Join Christin in a dive into Psalm 82, considering the heavenly dominion of God, the Circle of Security theory, and how our God is bigger, stronger, kinder, and wiser. Our prayer is that it's a good word for your soul, no matter what season of life you're in.   Note: due to the internet and cellular outage this week, we were unable to pre-r...

We continue in our series on the Disruptive Spirit in Acts 2, this time turning our focus to the ways the Holy Spirit disrupts a culture of exclusion. If God is a wall-breaker, breaking down the barriers that get in the way of our relationship with God and with one another, are we joining Him in breaking down walls or are we building them up?

In our second week looking at the Disruptive Spirit, we turn to Acts 2 and Ezekiel 37. The Holy Spirit confronts and disrupts a culture of death.

It's Pentecost Sunday. For the month of June we'll be looking at the holy disruption of a Holy Spirit. The Spirit comes as wind and violent storm in Acts 2, and we see a pattern of wind and storm all throughout the book of Acts. Perhaps we're guilty of putting the Spirit in a box, or believing the Spirit is only ever like a gentle breeze. God shows up like a disrupting wind in our culture, in our...

We've been locating ourselves in the wilderness for the month of May, looking at the stories in Exodus 15-17 as we embark on a journey of transition and change together. In this last Sunday of the series, Christin invites us see the ways in which God is present with us.

In our second week of locating ourselves in this season of change, join Steve as we turn to the story in Exodus 16 of longing for Egypt. We'll be exploring the purgative way, recognizing that this season is both gift and grief, and asking reflective questions of what it is God is calling us to bring with us, and what it is we are being asked to let go of.

This month, we start a new series themed 'Locating Ourselves in a Season of Change'.  This week's sermon is titled, 'Crossing Over' with the scripture coming from Exodus 15.

He is risen! He is risen, indeed!  On this Easter Sunday, Christin speaks to us through her sermon titled, 'A Tale of Two Gardens'.

This week, we look forward to hearing from the newest member of our Pastoral Team, Steve Coupland. The key verses are Psalm 1:1-3 and Matthew 13: 1-9.

Through this journey of Lent, we've been sitting with the passages from the Revised Common Lectionary.  We encourage you to read along, and we look forward to digging deeper into Psalm 126 as we hear from Christin Taylor this week.