Foothills Alliance Church | Video

Easter Sunday: If you spend  any time  in  a  corporate  world,  you'll  be familiar  with  the concept  of annual evaluations where we are often graded with “fails to meet expectations"  or "meets expectations" or “exceeds expectations.” As a student, I remember being evaluated with letter grades,  and,  as  I remember  it,  the  only  A's" I  got  on  my report cards read something like, " A muc...

Disrupted - John 12:12-19: Our world is full of stories of super heroes who face overwhelming odds, diabolical enemies and come out victorious. I remember the classic Batman movies with tacky captions like WHAM and KAPOW inserted over Batman, as he overpowers one more bad guy. Our lives don’t look much like those stories, but we all want to be saved from an enemy or two. We all need to be saved. B...

Disrupted - Phil 4:14: Dallas Willard writes in his newest book, “Life Without Lack,” that the phrase “the Lord is my Shepherd” is a sentiment that is “sadly carved on tombstones more than it is a reality written in daily lives.” Can we really say, “I shall not want” any more in life? A life free of insatiable desire, a life marked by inner peace, a life where we want for nothing or lack nothing,...

Disrupted - Phil 4:13: One year ago today we postponed our in-person services. It’s been a year like no other.  Pandemic. Online church. Zoom meetings and our new most common phrase:  “You’re on mute!” For some, it’s been incredibly challenging to experience any form of happiness. But what would it look like if we stopped focusing on what’s happening around us, and instead lived a life of contentm...

Disrupted - Phil. 4:8-9: Hey Foothills family, You’re on my mind.  I’ve been wondering how you’re doing.  It won’t be long before I’ll see some of your faces again as we reengage with in-person worship services next week Sunday.  I think of you often.  We miss you all. You know, our ability to feel and reason, to dream and create, to analyze and decide is a fascinating and holy part of our humanit...

Disrupted - Phil 4:6,7: If there was a condition that describes us all during this global pandemic, it would be one of anxiousness. Sociologists claim that a breakdown in social connectedness and the presence of external environmental threats only intensifies our feelings - go figure!   But in such a time as this, God’s word speaks volumes into our lives in such a dynamic and practical manner. Our...

Disrupted - Phil. 3:15-21: Thirty years ago City Slickers arrived on our big screen. The movie follows a group of guys from New York who were disillusioned with life, career, kids and marriage. Mitch, a guy who has never left the city, has this profound moment with Curly – the poster child for a cool, rugged, rough cowboy. As Mitch tries to make sense of his disappointing life, Curly asks him “Do...

Disrupted - Phil 3:11: John Maxwell defines success as “when those who know you best love you most” and while that’s a good start, is success only about being loved by others? Isn’t there a higher standard to strive for? A greater legacy to leave? A higher purpose to give our lives to? Many of us use the image or metaphor of climbing the ladder of success … but I wonder if some of our ladders are...

Disrupted - Phil. 2:19-30: Have you ever considered how many different people there are in the world? Morning and night people, those who believe camping includes tents and people who believe it involves five-star hotels. There are dog people and cat people, people who love coffee and those who trust Jesus for motivation. There’s even people who love sweater vests, and people with poor fashion sen...

Disrupted - Phil. 2:13: How many of you have a love/hate relationship with exercise? We know it’s good for us, but it’ so hard to be motivated and disciplined to stay the course! Well, in our text in Phil. 2:12-18, Paul uses an athletic metaphor when he challenges us to “work out our salvation with fear and trembling.” What does that mean? Are we to work for our salvation? Obviously no, we’re save...

Disrupted - Phil. 2:1-11: Disruptions impact us deeply in almost every area of our lives. But few match the emotional complexity of a disruption at home. It seems we can navigate bumps in life with courage and grace, but when they happen at home, they leave a much deeper mark.  This week's message from Phil. 2:1-11 teaches us how to treat the people God brings across our paths. It also addresses o...

Disrupted - Phil 1:27: Decision Making 101. There ought to be a course taught at every post-secondary institution on how to make great decisions that result in great legacies. I don’t know too much about Maya Angelou (other than the fact that she wrote seven autobiographies, which seems slightly narcissistic to me!) but I love her thought that, “We may not control all the events that happen to us,...

Disrupted - Phil. 1:12-26: How are you doing with these restrictions? If the word “restrictions” triggered an emotional reaction in you, I want you to recognize it. Why does it make you feel that way? What’s at play in your soul? Why do these restrictions have the effect they do? My best guess is because they have disrupted the way we live. Our comfortable lives that we’ve grown to love and depend...

Disrupted - Philippians 1:1-11: With 2020 behind us, we look forward with great expectation to a New Year. Not only is it a new year, it brings hope to an end of the devastating impact the COVID-19 virus has had on our world. There is no better place in God’s Word to commence our New Year, than in the first chapter of Paul’s letter to the church in Philippi… and a new series of messages entitled ‘...

For Unto Us - 2 Peter 1:1-11: We'll also gather online for Church on Sunday. I'll get to teach one of the greatest passages of the Bible, which I’ve sadly never taught here before: 2 Peter 1:1-11. Here, we will discover that God is more than enough for whatever we face in life! Be blessed. Be safe. Be grateful. Be amazed! Pastor Ian

For Unto Hope - Isaiah 53: I love celebrating communion at Christmas! It builds such a remarkable bridge between the wonder of Christmas and the sacred hope of Easter. Hope is a bit of an endangered species for us all these days. We're all struggling with Christmas plans, how to care for loved ones, what we can do and what we cannot do. I've fallen in love with the line from "O Holy Night" that be...

For Unto Shepherds - Overview: There are few things I enjoy more than a Foothills Worship Arts Production at Christmas! Despite all the chaos and restrictions of our current pandemic, our staff and volunteers have once again, magically and creatively, put together an original presentation. This production offers us a view on Christmas from the perspective of four shepherds. It is creatively called...

For Unto Us - Isaiah 9:6-7: Today the sun will set at 4:30pm, and by 5:30pm it will look like it's midnight outside. These dark days reinforce the practices of the Advent season. Reflecting on the darkness around and within us, allow what we discover stir our longing for God to break in with his light. The people of Israel understood that deep longing. In their season of darkness, Isaiah spoke wor...

The Garden Path - Eph. 5:8-20: Every day, we face a divided reality. We live with Paul's confession in Romans 7:15, "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate, I do." It's our personal "civil war" - the "every person challenge." Have you ever struggled with this? I know I have. Elie Wiesel brilliantly wrote, "Ultimately, the only power to which man should as...

The Garden Path - Matthew 11: This weekend, our Garden Path leads us to the eighth of nine fruits of the Spirit - gentleness. This is something all of us need in these challenging times. Whenever you think or need gentleness, think Jesus. If you feel broken or bruised, God will not step on you or toss you aside. Rather, he is always there, arms outstretched, saying, "Come to me, all who are weary...

The Garden Joy - Romans 12:9-21: Have you ever allowed doubt and cynicism to dominate your mindset? You may have found yourself saying or thinking, "I'll believe it when I see it." Our world is complicated - our COVID world even more. For many, the government's decision on Thursday was welcome news. For others, it was devastating. It's so easy to lose our sense of trust. It's so easy to wonder or...

The Garden Joy - Matthew 6:10: There's been no shortage of definitions or descriptions about the concept of "the good life." We've written books on it, made movies about it, we even named an entire fitness franchise after it. But what does it truly mean to live well? We're in the sixth week of our Garden Path series, and this weekend we'll be looking at Matthew 6:10. It is my prayer that we would...

The Garden Joy - Luke 10:25-37: This weekend on "The Garden Path," we will encounter the fifth fruit of the Spirit-led life - the fruit of kindness. We will be introduced to an old friend we all know of, the Good Samaritan, and an Old Testament hero none of us know about, "Ebed-Melek, the Cushite." We will learn about the power of a kind life from both of them. There are myriads of studies that pr...

The Garden Joy - The Book of Genesis: Lord, give me patience, and give it to me NOW!" It's a prayer that we've probably thought of, and maybe have said. Patience is a commodity that we desperately need, but at times find it so difficult to discover. This weekend, we will dive into the fourth fruit of the spirit, the Spirit of Patience - sometimes called Forbearance. Our journey will be anchored in...

The Garden Joy - John 14:25-27: Peace in chaos. How have the last six to seven months been for you? One thing after another? Is disruption creating chaos in your home, your workplace, your neighbourhood? Let me ask you a question: if you could, what would you rather have? External peace or internal peace? It's a loaded question - because neither creates the other. But, internal peace can withstand...