Pilgrim Church

🔥 SUMMER SERIES: Storytelling, Hadassah & Mordecai Esther 7:1-6, 9-10; 9:20-22 When do you want to just blend in—maybe in your days of youth or in your career? What if something happens to make you question the compromises you're making with yourself? All human relations call for compromise. The book of Esther contains an amazing story of assimilation, resistance, vengeance, violence, and une...

🔥 SUMMER SERIES: Storytelling, Christian Love, Luke 10:25-37 ​The Good Samaritan—one of the best known parables of Jesus. Andrés left us with another one—the Woman at the Well, and gave us some alternative readings. What might be the alternative readings for this beloved story? Let’s explore the text and ask what it means for me, for you, for us, and for the churches?

🍍 The Comparison Trap with Felix Chan Many of us have experienced the truth of the saying “comparison is the thief of joy”. No matter our stage in life, it’s something we all struggle with to different degrees. Ultimately, continually comparing ourselves to others often leads us to jealousy, pride and shame. Yet the Gospel reminds us that we are fully known and loved by God. How do we ground ours...

The story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman in John 4 is quite rich and unique. In the words of Karen Gonzalez, “When Jesus encounters the Samaritan woman, he transforms her life, her view of herself, and perhaps even her calling. But she remains both a Samaritan and a woman —remade by the gospel, who finds her identity and purpose in her encounter with Christ and embarks on a journey to be like hi...

🏃 The Seeking Father with Andrés Pérez Luke 15:11–32 There are different tools (eg. The Four Spiritual Laws, The Road to Romans, Steps to Peace with God, etc.) which are sometimes useful to summarize the Gospel, but they all fall short in propagating our separation from God. Instead, in Luke 15, Jesus portrays the Father who seeks us.

🌿 Telos - A Series on Becoming Centred 05 - Discipleship in a Centred Way How we speak and structure our church can keep people from the life changing power of Jesus. Or we can participate in sharing life together and walk this journey holding space for the Holy Spirit to work. One seems like a faster, more “organized” way, but its actual fruit is failure, deconversion, and hypocrisy. The centred...

🔥 Pentecost Sunday Pentecostal Power: Power Games or Empowering Games? Following Jesus on your own will be a failure. Full Stop. Jesus calls us to give allegiance to him, but we are called to operate with a NEW kind of power. How do we learn about that power? Where does it come from? How can it be different and destructive like the misuse of power we see all around us? Discover how to move from p...

💬 Q&A with Shel Boese, Andrés Pérez, and Felix Chan Are you wrestling with an issue going on in the world or in your life that you want to ask and hear some discussion or a response to? No question is off-limits! This is Q&A Sunday at Pilgrim Church.

🌲 Telos - A Series on Becoming Centred 04 - Constructive Truth ​​To understand the commands, ethics... the “rules” of the New Testament, requires knowing that Love comes first. The facts on the ground have been changed by Jesus, and he attacks religion head-on. The Centred-Set Community learns to speak the language of gift, of grace, of curiosity before speaking about new ways of living. Our visi...

💫 Telos - A Series on Becoming Centred - 03 Walls or Wells ​​We continue our Telos Series on being focused on the centre or the ends. Groups of people connect and relate in three basic ways: Bounded, Fuzzy, and Centred. In the New Testament, the churches are called again and again to reject all but one way of being together. As we build on the first two messages in this series, we will look at th...

💥 Telos - A Series on Becoming Centred - Join us as we welcome guest John Hau continuing in our Telos Series. John Hau is the pastor of Reality Vancouver Church, father of 3, husband of Sarah, business consultant, and a below amateur athlete. When he's not doing any of those things, he likes to read - with his favourite book of the year so far being Build Your House Around My Body by Violet Kuper...

💭 Telos - A Series on Becoming Centred - 01 - Boundary Problems Being more concerned with lines and boundaries, rather than a set direction, causes unnecessary confusion. We begin laying a foundation in this series about finding our centre and how that brings true clarity about our direction. Rev. 22:13; Gal 2:11-15, 5:15-16, Acts 10:10-44

When the Spirit comes on us, what do we become?  According to Acts 1:8 we receive power and become witnesses.  The fruits and gifts of the Spirit can still today bestow power and make us witnesses.

SUNDAY, APRIL 17, 2022 Resurrection Sunday Celebration LENT 2022 - THE JOURNEY OF JESUS, Resurrection Sunday History's Hinge: Easter Acts 10:34-43 We believe in the resurrection because we believe in the God who is revealed as pure love. Love is the grid for understanding holiness, for understanding justice, for understanding forgiveness. Love never fails, nor does it coerce or force a right relat...

LENT 2022 - THE JOURNEY OF JESUS In the 40 days before Resurrection Sunday/Easter/Pascha known as Lent, we are following the journey of Jesus from Baptism, to Wilderness, to Public Ministry in Luke.   Palm Sunday, PUBLIC MINISTRY RAISE YOUR VOICE! Luke 19:28-40 There are silences that can destroy hope and feed oppression yet, at times, silence can be life-giving. Humans have used their voice...

📜 Lent 5, Public Ministry, ​SHOCK AND JUBILEE For the final two Sundays in our Journey of Jesus Series leading to Easter, we turn to Jesus’ public ministry. Jesus reintroduces himself to his hometown crowd at a worship gathering and sheds new light on what the business of God and the church is to be about. He kicks off his public ministry with a “shock therapy” campaign aimed at the religious wit...

🌵 Lent 4, Wilderness with Andrés Pérez ​THE TEMPTATION TO BE SPECTACULAR The third temptation to which Jesus was exposed was the temptation to do something spectacular. In the words of Henri Nouwen, “Jesus refused to be a stunt man. He did not come to prove himself. Don’t put the Lord your God to the test, he said (ITNOJ, 41). We explore how the example of Jesus should challenge the way we respon...

LENT 2022 - THE JOURNEY OF JESUS In the 40 days before Resurrection Sunday/Easter/Pascha known as Lent, we are following the journey of Jesus from Baptism, to Wilderness, to Public Ministry in Luke 3-4:13. LENT 3, WILDERNESS Every Square Inch of Creation is Claimed by Christ with Mark Glanville Luke 4:1–13 Costly allegiance to our king requires faithfulness in every aspect of our lives. As C....

🌲 Lent 2022, The Journey of Jesus, Wilderness: Temptation and Relevance - There is often more than one way to accomplish anything, but it doesn't mean every path takes us in the direction we want to go. People who follow Jesus learn to go about life wrestling with the right use of the power we’ve been given in the choices we make. Join us as we explore temptation. LENT 2022 - THE JOURNEY OF JESUS...

SUNDAY, MARCH 6, 2022 10:30 AM (in-person + communion & prayer) LENT 2022 - THE JOURNEY OF JESUS In the 40 days before Resurrection Sunday/Easter/Pascha known as Lent, we are following the journey of Jesus from Baptism, to Wilderness, to Public Ministry in Luke 3-4:13 LENT 1, BAPTISM, Luke 3:21-22 This Sunday, we explore Baptism. The baptism of Jesus marked a start, a hinge point between the O...

We're exploring the difference between living in the old (pre-Jesus way) and the new (Jesus-way). How do we pick which parts of the Old Testament are still relevant today? Why is God (apparently) so harsh in the Old Testament  and so loving in the New Testament? We wrestle with these questions to understand the transition between old and new and what it means to live out the upside down kingd...

⏳ "NOW!" in our Second Corinthians Series Time does not stand still. We can't go backwards, only onward. As life goes along, we can be reactive and closed, or choose an open posture to the "now". Paul could have let his reaction to pain decide many things for him, but he chose the opposite—his pain informs but does not control him. He doesn't stay angry but understands a greater power is at work...

2 Corinthians 5:11-21 “Gaze” is a visual word used to speak about power, repression, and distorted human relationships. How we “gaze” on others, reveals our biases and assumptions, often our personal and social blindspots and sins of our cultures and families. Fascinatingly, in this text, the Gospel confronts the "Gaze" nearly 1900 years before 5:16 "we no longer see...” The church has often been...

2 Corinthians 4:16-18, 5:1-10 We all long for an end to hardship and suffering. We all long to experience the peace and renewal of our eternal home in heaven. But how do we live in the here and now? Where do we find the courage to face each day’s challenges? Let’s look at how the future resurrection helps us persevere faithfully in every circumstance.

Always enlightening, entertaining, and sometimes life-changing—four times a year we use our teaching/proclaiming time for live questions. This week, Pastor Shel and Andrés enter a conversation with the questions from the larger group.