First Presbyterian Church of Santa Rosa

Jesus invites those who would be his disciples to follow him. By abiding in him, we experience Christ himself as the place where the divine breaks into our world.

John the Baptist expected a powerful, judgment-bringing Messiah, but the Gospel of John shows Jesus as a loving Savior who chooses the cross to take away the world’s sin.

The good news of Jesus’ birth is that “to you” — to each of us — God has sent a Savior, bringing joy, freedom, and belonging for everyone.

In Christ, God makes a home among us in order to bring us home. Because Jesus is the logos, the life, and the light breaking into our world, we get to be born as a new kind of people: as sons and daughters of our creator God.

God offers an open invitation to all who thirst for spiritual fulfillment, reminding us that true abundance is found in a relationship with God through Christ.

The God who breathes life into creation has the power to revive us with new life, even when we are past hope.

In this first Sunday of Advent, we celebrate God’s promise to send a Savior, fulfilled in Jesus, who rescues us from sin and restores our relationship with God. Just as Isaiah foretold 700 years before Christ’s birth, we are called to receive this Good News with joy and share it with the world.

Even in times of struggle, God is doing a new thing in and through the community of people whom God loves. To be part of it, we invest in the place we find ourselves, seek God wholeheartedly, and work for the thriving of those around us.

God does not always spare us from the fire, but God is with us in it.

The prophet Amos reveals that true worship of God cannot be separated from seeking the good of others.

We often hope our stories will show constant progress, but faith’s real journey includes highs, lows, and God’s steady presence guiding us forward through a still, small voice -- and nourishment for the road.

God often chooses the overlooked, the ordinary, and the unlikely to accomplish God’s work — culminating in Jesus, the humble shepherd-king whose reign redefines power and brings God’s kingdom into our world. We must learn to see not with human eyes that seek outward strength and success, but with God’s heart that values humility, faithfulness, and love.

Calling isn’t for a select few—it’s for all of us. We can understand where God is inviting us by making space to listen, being available, and discerning in community.

Just as God provided “bread from heaven” to the newly liberated people of Israel, God sustains us with true nourishment in Christ, one day at a time.

When Moses discovers a burning bush, he encounters a God who is both bigger than we could possibly understand, and closer than we could ever imagine. In Jesus, we encounter the one who is ultimate mystery and who chooses to draw near to us in relationship.

On her last day on staff, Colleen shared how God calls us to venture far beyond our comfort zone in serving others -- and how God equips us along the way.

Jacob was on the run—alone, guilty, and far from home—when he stumbled into a place he never expected to meet God. Even in the wake of our failures, God’s promise holds: "I am with you. I will keep you. I will bring you back. I will not leave you."

Even when we don’t understand how God is working, we know who God is – God keeps promises, and God makes a way out of no way.

The same God who spoke light into the darkness at creation has entered our chaos as Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, to bring life, order, and hope—and that Light still shines, undefeated, even now.

Director of Youth Ministries Cory Myers explores how we connect personally and communally to the commandments of God as revealed through Moses and Jesus.

In the new creation, we will find the culmination and consummation of the work we do. Though this reality is not yet fully here, Christ’s resurrection is a promise that those who believe in him will one day experience the perfect fulfillment of all our work.

Work and worship become one in the act of joyful giving, which reflects our identity as God’s people, demonstrates trust in God’s provision, and serves as a gospel witness to the world.

We find the life we’re truly longing for when we join Christ in loving and lifting up those in need as fellow image-bearers of God.

Just as the newly liberated Israelites built a dwelling place for God by offering their work to God, we celebrate our freedom in Christ by offering our own work to God.

We fulfill God’s purpose for us when we bear God’s image and likeness in the world by working for the flourishing of the place God has assigned us to.