Garden City Church

This week, Pastor Dennis Allan walks through the parable of the bags of gold (also known as the parable of the talents). Too often, we read this parable and think it's about money, that it Christianizes the American Dream. That, in the kingdom, Jesus distributes resource to those with greater talents and entrusts them with the task of producing more resource. But this isn't want the parable is abo...

A rich man, dressed in purple and fine linen lived in luxury every day. At his gate laid a beggar, longing to eat the food that fell from the rich man’s table. Then, both the beggar and the rich man die. The beggar is carried to Abraham’s side in heaven and the rich man was carried to Hades where he experienced torment. Somehow, every day the rich man walked past the beggar, named Lazarus. Every d...

This week, Dennis Allan walks through the Parable of the Barn Builder (or, the Rich Fool). In the kingdom, Jesus makes clear that the life that is truly life is now found in an abundance of possessions. The life that is truly life—namely, Jesus himself—is found when his people use their excess to care for those who have need. Jesus means it when he says, "Whatever you do for the least of these, yo...

In the Parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector Jesus upends his original audience's understanding of righteousness and justification. The Pharisee, who modern Christians view as being hypocritical and self-righteous, was a person revered by most ancient Jews. He was faithful, meticulous about his obedience to the law, a man "of the people," and a person whose way of living and being was an e...

When Jesus tells the Parable of the Great Banquet he is sitting at a table, at a Sabbath-day banquet, hosted by a prominent Pharisee. It's in that context that he warns the Pharisees, the people who assume because of their religious performance, or because of their wealth and status, that their place in the Kingdom is certain. But in the parable, when the wealthy, influential, and powerful are inv...

A group of workers are hired in the morning and agree to work for a particular wage. Later the same day, a second group of workers are hired and agree to work for the exact same wage. However, the second group only had to work half as long to earn the same amount as the first group of workers. It’s unfair, right? This parable is one of the most offensive to our human, if not American, sensibilitie...

In the Parable of the Lost Sheep, Jesus tells a story about a shepherd who leaves ninety-nine sheep, all of which are exactly where they should be and doing exactly what they should be doing, to look for one sheep that’s lost. Then, in Luke’s Gospel, He immediately follows this story with the Parable of the Lost Coin, a story about a woman who tears her house apart looking for one lost, silver coi...

This week Pastor Shaq Hager explores two parables: the parable of the mustard seed and the parable of the leaven. The Kingdom of God doesn't announce itself in grand or triumphant ways. It starts imperceptibly small and if we're not careful, if we're not attuned, if we're not sensitive and discerning, we can miss it. We can miss seeing the Kingdom in the midst of our regular, every day lives. We c...

This week, Pastor Shaq Hager explores two parables that Jesus tells one right after the other. In the first parable, Jesus describes the Kingdom as a treasure that a person finds in a field. The person buries the treasure and then purchases the field. Then, Jesus describes the Kingdom as the perfect pearl that when it is discovered by a merchant, they sells everything to obtain it. But Jesus doesn...

This week, Pastor Dennis Allan began our new series, "Parables of the Kingdom." In the Parable of the Sower Jesus tells a story about a sower, four types of soil, the three soils that do not receive the Gospel, and the one that does, producing a large harvest. But this parable isn't meant to be read as a diagnostic, where we determine which of the four soils we are and then try to make ourselves i...

This Easter, Pastor Dennis Allan reflects on the way that Jesus, in his resurrected body, appears to Mary Magdalene, two disciples on the road to Emmaus, and Thomas. They had seen Jesus had die. They knew his body had been buried. And then, on the third day, in the midst of the fear, confusion, worry, and doubt Jesus appeared to them, moving towards them in relationship, meeting them right where t...

This week, Pastor Dennis Allan walks through the story of Jesus's final week from the perspective of the crowd who received Jesus with shouts of "Hosanna!" as he entered Jerusalem and, less than a week later, shouted "Crucify Him!" How does one crowd receive Jesus as a king and another crowd condemn Jesus as a criminal? What happened in that one week that moved people from believing Jesus might be...

When Jesus is crucified there is a group of women who position themselves near the Cross and bear witness to Jesus's agonizing death while all the other disciples are in hiding. These women show up at Jesus's tomb, ready to tend to His body, only to become the first witnesses to the resurrection and the first to proclaim the good news to the rest of Jesus's disciples. These faithful women who were...

This week, Pastor Dennis Allan continues our Lent series by talking through a story found in John 18-19. Jesus is brought by the Jewish religious leaders to Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor in Jerusalem, in the hopes that Pilate will condemn Jesus to death. The religious establishment doesn't have the authority to execute Jesus on their own, and they're hoping to coerce Pilate into doing their b...

This week, we trace Peter's story from the moment Jesus first called him while he was fishing in the Sea of Galilee to the moment Jesus restores Peter, after he had denied Jesus three times, over a meal while. In Peter we see a person who is bold and who also makes mistakes. He walks on water, but then sinks. He declares Jesus to be the Son of God, and then rebukes Jesus. And, in his worst moment,...

We know how Judas's story ends before it even begins. The first time Matthew introduces Judas in his gospel, he does it by naming him this way: "Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him." But what if we slowed down long enough to see Judas as something more than his worst moment? In this first sermon of our Lenten series, Pastor Dennis Allan traces the arc of Judas's life alongside Jesus: chosen, trusted,...

In Deuteronomy 5, Moses is reminding the Israelites to follow the Law and, in particular, the Ten Commandments. When Moses speaks the command to observe the Sabbath, the reason he gives for observing it is different than the reason God gave to Moses in Exodus. There, the command was connected to the Creation. In Deuteronomy, it's connected to liberation. Moses says, "Remember that you were slaves...

Why is it so hard for many of us to stop and rest? Sabbath is a good gift that God has given to His people, a gift that Jesus and His disciples embraced, and yet many of us either won't rest or feel like we can't. There's a pervasive thought in American culture: "time is money." It's almost like all of our time needs to be allocated to productive activities, things that earn money or check tasks o...

This week, Dennis Allan explores the way that practicing Sabbath is a form of active resistance against dehumanizing systems and structures. We're immersed in a culture that values productivity, efficiency, and seems to reward exhaustion, almost like it's a badge of honor. We're told time is money, encouraged to have side hustles, and implored to always remain engaged. Even in times marked by grea...

This week, Dennis Allan discusses the way prayer is meant to be done in community and how it's supposed to expand outward. Jesus invites His people to come to God and ask for the things they want, to be vulnerable and honest as they express their wills and desires to Him. But prayer that stays privatized and individualistic misses the expansive and communal nature of prayer, where we bear one anot...

This week, Pastor Dennis talks through Jesus's prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, when He asked God if there was a way to fulfill His mission without dying on the Cross. It's here that we see Jesus practice a radical form of vulnerability and honesty in praying with God. He sweats and begs, telling His Father what He actually wants. Yet, we're trained to perform, even in our conversations with Go...

This week, Pastor Dennis begins our new series, "Being With God" by focusing on the way prayer is not about getting God to align with our agenda, but instead prayer is about building a deep, intimate, trusting relationship with God. We can make prayer into something where we ask God for what we want and expect Him to give it to us, or we can think that prayer is what draws God's attention to us. B...

This Christmas Eve, Julia Allan leads Garden City's kids and families through an interactive and conversational lesson about Jesus's arrival and how, through Jesus's birth, the work of inaugurating the Kingdom begins. Christmas isn't just about the arrival of the long-awaited Messiah, it's also about the arrival of a King who will show His people how they're meant to live. This God, who comes in t...

When the prophets envisioned God's coming redemption, they sang of a world transformed. A world where deserts bloom, the lame leap like deer, and the ransomed return home with everlasting joy. The prophet, Isaiah, paints a picture of creation itself rejoicing at God’s restorative justice, where physical healing and spiritual liberation function as opposite sides of the same coin. Centuries later,...

Micah promises that from Bethlehem, a small, forgotten, overlooked village on the edge of the Roman empire, will come a ruler whose greatness is marked not by power but by peace. When Gabriel appears to Mary, Micah’s prophecy begins to unfold: God chooses the humble, not the mighty, to bring His peace to earth. The peace that Jesus embodies, the Prince of Peace that He is, is a divine peace with a...