Faith at Work

Pastor Harry Jarrett opens this week with a confession. Sixty-two years into following Jesus, he still does not fully understand his own actions and thoughts. He tells us that on purpose, because this sermon is not about somebody else. It is about all of us. A recent Barna Group study asked 1,500 teenagers a piercing question: what do you feel pressure to figure out? The answers were not about lun...

Hagar lays her dying son under a bush in the desert, walks away so she will not have to watch, and weeps. The water is gone. The father is miles away. And then the story turns on a single line: God heard the voice of the boy. In this message from Genesis 21, we sit with the limits of even the fiercest parental love and discover the God who hears every child right where they are. Preached on a morn...

What if your most fruitful years are still ahead of you? In this message from Pleasant Valley Church of the Brethren in Weyers Cave, Virginia, Pastor Harry Jarrett explores what it means to be called by God in the second season of life. Drawing on two ancient stories, a tired rabbi walking among shepherdless crowds and a woman named Sarah who laughed at a promise she thought was impossible, this s...

What happens when the Holy Spirit refuses to follow the rules? In this Pentecost Sunday message, Pastor Harry Jarrett takes us on a journey through three passages that belong together — Numbers 11, Acts 2, and 1 Corinthians 12 — to explore one of the most surprising and liberating truths in all of Scripture: the Spirit of God has never been content to stay inside the lines we draw for Her. We begi...

What are we really trying to do when we raise up a child in faith? In this week’s sermon, Pastor Harry Jarrett offers a beautiful and challenging answer to that question — one that speaks not just to graduates and their families, but to every person who has ever been part of a faith community: we are trying to send people forth whole. Not perfect. Not finished. But whole. Drawing from three rich b...

In this episode of Faith at Work, Pastor Harry Jarrett reflects on Paul’s visit to Athens in Acts 17 and the altar dedicated “to an unknown God.” Rather than beginning with condemnation, Paul begins with attention. He walks, observes, listens, and notices that the people of Athens are already reaching toward something holy, even if they cannot yet name it. Pastor Harry connects that story to our o...

In this week’s Faith at Work sermon, Pastor Harry Jarrett reflects on John 14 and Acts 7 to ask one of the questions many of us carry quietly into worship: Am I going to be okay? Jesus does not answer that question by promising that nothing painful will happen. Stephen’s story makes that clear. As the stones are coming toward him, Stephen is not temporally safe. Yet he sees heaven opened, sees Jes...

In this week’s Faith at Work sermon from Pleasant Valley Church of the Brethren, Pastor Harry Jarrett reflects on John 10:1–10 and Jesus’ surprising words, “I am the gate.” Rather than treating the image of the gate mainly as a boundary marker for who is in and who is out, this sermon returns to the physical world behind Jesus’ metaphor: a sheepfold with stone walls, thorn-covered edges, and no hi...

In this episode of Faith at Work, Pastor Harry Jarrett of Pleasant Valley Church of the Brethren in Weyers Cave, Virginia reflects on John 20 and the powerful truth that the life of Jesus cannot be contained by words alone. While the recorded words of Jesus in the Gospels can be read in just a few hours, the works of Jesus overflow the pages of scripture and continue into the life of the church to...

On this Easter episode of Faith at Work, Pastor Harry Jarrett of Pleasant Valley Church of the Brethren in Weyers Cave, Virginia, invites listeners to reconsider one of life’s biggest questions. So much of modern life trains us to ask what should I do, what is my purpose, what path should I take? But Easter tells a deeper story. The most important question is not what. It is who. Drawing from the...

On this Palm Sunday episode of Faith at Work, Pastor Harry Jarrett of Pleasant Valley Church of the Brethren in Weyers Cave, Virginia reflects on Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem and the question at the center of Holy Week. The crowd wanted to know what Jesus would do, but the deeper question was who Jesus truly is. As the city trembled with expectation, Jesus rode in not on a war horse but on a borrow...

In this week’s Faith at Work message, Pastor Harry Jarrett of Pleasant Valley Church of the Brethren in Weyers Cave, Virginia reflects on Ezekiel 37 and John 11, bringing together the valley of dry bones and the raising of Lazarus in a sermon about hope, resurrection, and the calling of the church. In both texts, the picture is clear. What lies before God’s people seems beyond saving, beyond resto...

In this week’s message from Pleasant Valley Church of the Brethren in Weyers Cave, Virginia, Pastor Harry Jarrett reflects on John 9, and the troubling question Jesus’ disciples ask when they encounter a man born blind: “Who sinned?” Rather than accepting a theology that blames suffering on personal failure or family guilt, Jesus refuses the framework entirely and turns toward the hurting person w...

In this episode of Faith at Work, Pastor Harry Jarrett of Pleasant Valley Church of the Brethren in Weyers Cave, Virginia, reflects on Jesus’ powerful encounter with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well in John 4. Set in the heat of midday, this familiar story opens into a deeper invitation to see the humanity, dignity, and spiritual insight of the woman at the well in a fresh way. Pastor Harry exp...

What is the re-formation movement we are living through right now, and how should we participate as the Church of the Brethren? In this sermon, Pastor Harry Jarrett wraps up the Story of Movements series and offers a grounded picture of the church in our time: not a ruined barn, but a barn that needs sorting so the tools of mission are not buried under yesterday’s clutter. Turning to 1 Peter, we h...

In this episode of Faith at Work, Pastor Harry Jarrett of Pleasant Valley Church of the Brethren in Weyers Cave, Virginia, takes us back 500 years to the Great Reformation and asks what it means for our discipleship right now. Beginning with Martin Luther’s 95 Theses, Harry explores how a church in crisis became the birthplace of multiple reform movements, including the Anabaptists, who insisted o...

In this episode of Faith at Work, we explore one of Christianity’s most pivotal moments—the Great Schism of 1054, when Eastern and Western Christianity formally separated after centuries of growing tension. Journey back 500 years before the split to understand how different circumstances shaped two distinct Christian traditions. Discover how the collapse of the Western Roman Empire led to centrali...

What happens when everything falls apart? In this powerful episode, we explore how the sixth-century church found hope amid the collapse of Rome through the ancient wisdom of the Book of Job. Discover how Pope Gregory the Great turned to Job's story during one of history's most catastrophic periods—teaching Christians that suffering isn't divine punishment, honest lament is faithful prayer, and re...

Faith at Work: The New Kin-dom - Early Church Practices and Witness Episode Description Discover how the early Christian church lived out their faith in the first and second centuries through this compelling exploration of ancient Christian apologetics and historical accounts. Drawing from the remarkable Epistle to Diognetus (discovered in 1436 as fish market wrapping paper in Constantinople), alo...

In a world dominated by empire and oppression, Jesus emerged with a radical message that challenged every assumption about power, religion, and society. His ministry wasn’t just about personal salvation—it was a complete reimagining of how God’s kingdom operates in direct opposition to the empires of this world. What Historical Context Led to Jesus’ Ministry? To understand Jesus’ revolutionary mes...

When Faith Becomes Routine: Lessons from the Prophet Malachi In the final book of the Old Testament, the prophet Malachi addresses a community that had grown spiritually numb despite outward religious success. Unlike other prophets who ministered during times of crisis, Malachi spoke to people living in a period of political stability and religious prosperity—yet something was fundamentally wrong...

Becoming a Discerning Church: Finding God’s Movement in Our Time In a world where many church leaders struggle to identify where God is moving, instead, I believe there’s always a divine movement happening - we just need to learn how to recognize it and join it. This message introduces a year-long journey toward becoming a more discerning church community. What Does It Mean to Be a Discerning Chur...

Finding Peace Through Awe: The Joseph Story and God’s Presence The Christmas story offers us more than just a beautiful narrative—it provides profound insights into how encountering God can transform our deepest anxieties into lasting peace. Through Joseph’s experience, we discover how awe in God’s presence can shift us from isolation to connection, from stress to serenity. What Does Science Tell...

In this episode, The Dawn Draws Near, we sit with John the Baptizer’s haunting question from Matthew 11:2 to 11: Are you the One, or should we expect someone else? From a prison cell, the forerunner who once pointed so clearly at Jesus now wrestles with what it means to follow when the story is not unfolding the way he expected. Rather than offering a simple proof, Jesus points to what is happenin...

Restoration rarely arrives with fireworks. It usually begins quietly, in ordinary places, long before we notice what God is doing. In this Advent message, Pastor Harry Jarrett explores what he calls “courageous restoration” - the movement from scarcity to abundance that requires vulnerability, honesty, and a willingness to start small. Drawing on the story of Jacob and Esau in Genesis 33 and Peter...