Grantham Church Podcast

“Come, follow me.” With three simple words, Jesus invites us to walk with him, to learn from him, and to experience the fullness of life in him. But what does that mean? How do we do this? Focusing on Jesus’ words in John 15:1-17, Bishop Heather Beaty leads us in exploring instructions Jesus provides that enable us to experience the flourishing and thriving for which he has created and called us.

Self-control prompts thoughts of restrictions, discipline, and perhaps guilt over our lack thereof. We desire more willpower to resist temptation and pursue good, but we struggle to adjust our behavior and control our thoughts and emotions. In the ninth and final message of our series, Pastor Melissa will help us see that self-control in the Christian life is not about generating willpower, but ab...

The fruit of the Spirit called gentleness is seldom valued in our society, which prefers toughness, especially in leadership. Yet Jesus said that he was gentle, so gentleness is not the same as weakness. In the eighth message of our series, Rich Stuebing helps us to see that this fruit is important to exhibit in our relationships with both fellow Christians and unbelievers and is an essential elem...

As we strive to produce the fruit of the Spirit in our daily lives, we are encouraged through the work of the Holy Spirit to cultivate the fruit of faithfulness in every aspect of our lives.  In the seventh message of our series, MJ Fair explores how we can effectively bear faithfulness in our personal relationships with God;  how we can serve one another and build up the body of Christ through fa...

The Scriptures repeatedly encourage us to “give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.” God displays his goodness by blessing us and working for our welfare, and we are able to emulate God’s goodness through being filled and fueled by the power of the Holy Spirit. In the sixth message of our series, Brantley Gasaway shares that indeed, though we are saved by God’s grace, we are called to selflessly e...

Kindness is a simple, easy-to-overlook quality that has the capacity to transform a life. In the act of considering and doing what’s best for another more than for ourselves, we demonstrate the heart of God. In the fifth message of our series, Pastor Melissa helps us reflect on the state of kindness in our society and how the kindness of God changes us and compels us to spread kindness throughout...

How do we grow patience in our lives?  By planting our minds and spirits deep in the fertile ground of the Holy Spirit, leaning toward and opening up ourselves to the Spirit's guidance in trying times.  Done with the Spirit's leading, patience moves us from "self" to "other" in ways that uncover and reveal Jesus and his never-ending desire to have a personal, loving, and growing relationship with...

The message of peace dominates the Bible. The Brethren in Christ has always been a "peace church."  Today, one of our Compelling Convictions is “Pursuing Peace: We value all human life and promote forgiveness, understanding, reconciliation, and non-violent resolution of conflict.” In the third message of our series, John Yeatts reminds us that God calls us to pursue peace in personal, social, and...

The second fruit of the Spirit is joy, and—like the other eight fruits—is not something to seek for itself. Joy comes from seeking God, especially in times of stress, and finding that joy can be experienced despite outward circumstances that might otherwise lead to depression or anger. In the second message of our series, Rich Stuebing will help us examine joy in Scripture and also share testimoni...

Love is the defining quality of a Christian and the first evidence that God is at work in our lives. In Christ, we are freed from the demands of the law, but we are freed for the love of our neighbor. Love is not about what’s best for me, but how I can serve others. In the first message of this series, Pastor Melissa helps us see that the context of all the fruit of the Spirit is love. We will dis...

We can all probably identify something about ourselves that we wish we could change. And sometimes, we work really hard at making those changes in our lives: being more disciplined, getting more education, doing more good, etc. But the Scriptures tell us that real change takes place through the work of the Spirit. In this final message of our series, Pastor Melissa will help us discover how God’s...

Jesus alone perfectly reflects God's glory. Through his life, teaching, and miracles, Jesus displayed his Father's character and power. Jesus was most glorified in his death and resurrection. In the third message of our series, Grantham Church member Jonathan Owen will help us see how Jesus discretely revealed God's compassion and his power over the natural world at a wedding in Cana, and will enc...

God’s desire is to be present with his people. And God’s presence is the very thing that makes us unique and able to reflect his glory to the world. But, like the nation of Israel in the Old Testament, we reject God and turn instead to worship the works of our own hands. Do we recognize our need for God? In the second message of our series, Pastor Melissa reminds us of the gravity of our sin, but...

As humans, we can spend a lot of time trying to understand and convey our significance. We communicate it through the clothes we wear, the messages we display, the music we listen to, and the stories we tell. From the first pages of Scripture, our life purpose is defined for us. And Jesus ultimately shows us what it really looks like to be human. In the first message of our series, Pastor Melissa...

Jesus said that his yoke is easy to bear, and that his burden is light. He says that he will give us rest if we will come to him. He will show us what it means to follow him, trust him, and live freely in the grace he provides. But what exactly does Jesus mean in Matthew 11:28-30? How do we enter the sabbath rest he offers, and experience his “yoke” of discipleship as life-giving? In his final mes...

Jesus birthed his Church out of his own life, death, and resurrection. After the Holy Spirit is given to the disciples in Acts 2, communities of disciples begin to challenge society and the prevailing social structures. They believed that the gospel demanded the reordering of people’s lives around Jesus Christ. The planting of churches brought about a radical new understanding of “family” that inc...

One of the last things that Jesus prayed for on the night of his arrest and impending death was that his church would be united in this dark and divided world. He prayed that his disciples would share in the oneness of God and display that unity as a witness to the world of the Father’s love and the power of the gospel. In this timely message, Pastor David invites us to see our unity in Christ as...

An armed conflict between Israel and Hamas-led Palestinian militants has been raging for months now. How should Christ-followers respond to what is happening in Israel and Palestine? The weight of biblical teaching is that God loves the whole world, that all humans are created in God’s image, and that God does not have favorites. Listen as guest speaker Daryl Byler shares some practical steps that...

On each day of Holy Week, Jesus showed his disciples what it looks like to wage peace in keeping with the true character and ways of his Father. This led to his brutal death by crucifixion. But while the cross appeared to be the end of Jesus, it was the way by which he became victorious over sin and death and revealed to the world the power of his peaceable Kingdom. In the final message of our ser...

It’s Friday of Holy Week. Jesus was arrested and a trial was held in the middle of the night. Jesus goes before the Sanhedrin, King Herod, and Pilate, where he is sentenced to die by crucifixion. We need to remember how we got here and take a deeper look at Jesus’ final hours if we’re going to understand the meaning of the cross. In the sixth message of our series, Pastor David invites us to see h...

On Thursday of Holy Week, after a day of relative calm, the forces of darkness begin to descend upon Jesus and his disciples. Everything is now moving quickly. He will wash his disciples’ feet, change the meaning of the Passover meal, give a new commandment, be betrayed with a kiss, rebuke Peter for using a sword against their enemies, and be arrested. In the fifth message of our series, Pastor Da...

On Wednesday, in the middle of Holy Week, we encounter the quietness of three private scenes. And each of these scenes reveal different ways of responding to Jesus and his approach to pursuing peace. We’ll find that two roads emerge: a path toward Jesus and a path away from him. In the fourth message of our series, Pastor Melissa encourages us to consider what is underlying our responses to Jesus...

After Jesus cleared the temple on Monday, he returned there the next day to teach and challenge the hypocrisy of the religious leaders. They try to trap Jesus with their baited questions, hoping that the crowds would turn against him. But they fail. Instead, Jesus tricks them into entrapping themselves. In the third message of our series, Pastor David invites us not to overlook the words of Jesus...

Perhaps the most misunderstood action of Jesus in Holy Week is when he went into the temple with a homemade whip, turned over tables, and drove out animals and money changers. This event on Holy Monday has been used by some misguided Christians to justify a self-indulgent anger toward oppressors and violence against evildoers by others. In the second message of our series, Pastor David helps us to...

The first day of Holy Week is known as Palm Sunday. It’s the day when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey while being lauded as Messiah. But while many people celebrated, Jesus wept. The crowds didn’t understand who Jesus was, and they rejected his way of peacemaking. In the first message of our series, Pastor David challenges us to see the triumphal entry as the key to understanding Holy Week,...