Reality Church Vancouver Teachings Podcast

In this teaching, we’re diving into the category of spiritual gifts called the “word gifts": teaching, encouraging / exhorting, evangelism and prophecy. In this season of discerning how to be Open to the Spirit, we invite you to ask yourself: What’s He stirring in me? And am I willing to say yes, even if it feels uncomfortable? Recorded May 25, 2025.

As we continue exploring how to remain open to the Spirit, we turn our focus to one of the major themes of the Holy Spirit’s work in the Bible: spiritual gifts. This week, we’re looking specifically at the gifts that fall under the “love” category, with the hope of learning about them, celebrating them, and encouraging their use within our community. Recorded on May 18, 2025.

This week, we wrap up the introduction to our Open to the Spirit series by exploring a crucial question: How can we tell when the Holy Spirit is at work—in us and in our church? The teaching unpacks four key markers of the Spirit’s activity: love, hope and faith, the building up of community, and a Spirit-led unity. These goals and guidelines help us stay grounded as we learn to live more open to...

This week, we look at the challenge and example of Holy Spirit's presence and power in the early church in Acts and discuss some barriers to the Holy Spirit's ministry in our community. Recorded May 4, 2025.

As we transition into a new season in the church calendar and a new sermon series, we ask why we don't experience Jesus' death and resurrection as good news - and how we can. Recorded April 27, 2025.

As we close our series exploring the question, "Why did Jesus have to die?" in the gospel of Mark, we look at the good news exclaimed to the women at the tomb, "If you're looking for Jesus, He is risen!" We hear how we are invited to receive the good news of the resurrection, practice the resurrection and keep company with the risen Jesus. Recorded April 20, 2025.

As we prepare to wrap our series, we recap the Gospel of Mark's answers to the question "Why Jesus had to die?" and look at some practical tips and vision for being witnesses to the good news of Jesus. Recorded April 13, 2025.

This week, we continue examining Jesus's transformation of the Passover meal in Mark 14. The disciples, and us by extension, face real barriers to following Jesus into a changed life but are invited to share about these barriers and look to Jesus' leadership to receive Jesus' invitation to change. Recorded April 6, 2025.

This week, we explore another answer from Mark's gospel to the question "Why did Jesus have to die?". By aligning his death within the story and practice of Passover, Jesus envisions his death as a new covenant declaration calling God's people to come into the family of God and imitate God for the sake of the world. Recorded March 30, 2025.

This week, Tim Dickau, from St. Andrew’s College and Citygate, reflects on what it means that we live in “A Secular Age”. Building of Charles Taylor’s seminal work and Paul’s letter to the Romans, we gain hope and inspiration for living and sharing the good news in our cultural moment. Recorded March 16, 2025.

This week, we continue in our exploration of Jesus as Isaiah's suffering servant. Jesus sees his suffering, death and resurrection as being our representative in God's larger story as an invitation to come to him with our suffering and go to those who are suffering. Recorded March 9, 2025.

This week, we are led by Regent College faculty, Dr. Rikk Watts, to look at Mark's portrayal of Jesus as the Suffering Servant foretold in Isaiah. In light of these passages (Isaiah 40, 52-54), Jesus' death is not an accident but part of God's radical response to broken covenant and covenant partners. Recorded March 2, 2025.

What does a journey towards Jesus look like? Building off the book "I Once Was Lost" and Jesus' parable in Mark 4, we consider how we might be faithful partners with God and our friends in the process towards Jesus. Recorded February 23, 2025.

Last week, we looked at how Jesus' death makes God's uncontrollable presence available to the world. In this teaching, we continue to explore this theme learning how to experience God's presence and that God's presence goes ahead of us in witness. Recorded February 16, 2025.

This teaching marks the beginning of our second "cycle" through the gospel of Mark asking the question, "Why did Jesus have to die?" In this teaching, we explore the themes of Jesus' baptism and the temple curtain, and how Jesus' death opens up the presence of God for all people. Recorded February 9, 2025.

In this teaching, we go backward to remind ourselves of how Jesus uses language to shape His ministry and how we, as witnesses, are invited to enter and live Jesus’ story and develop language to share about Jesus with those around us. Recorded February 2, 2025.

This week, we look at the first of the gospel of Mark's answers to the question, "Why did Jesus have to die?" In this teaching we explore what Jesus' answer of "as a ransom for many" means and how it shapes how we understand, share and live out the good news in our lives. Recorded January 19, 2025.

This week, we begin our series in the Gospel of Mark exploring the question the identity of Jesus and why he had to die. In this introduction, we look at why the answer to this question is important to expand our understanding of Jesus, our ability to speak of him and our lives as disciples. Recorded January 12, 2024.

This week we explore the birth narrative of Jesus in the first chapter of the gospel of Matthew which asks us to consider our need for a Saviour, the limits of our abilities to save our selves, and how Jesus comes to save the world. Recorded December 22, 2024.

This week we close out not only our series in Genesis 4-11 but our three year study of Genesis 1-11 by recapping God’s work in the story, leading to Abram’s wife Sarai. Recorded December 15, 2024.

As we near the end of our study of Genesis 1-11, we reach the story of the tower of Babel. This passage invites us to contrast unified efforts to build towers to make a name for ourselves with Spirit-guided efforts to build an altar where we learn to wait for God to meet us. Recorded December 8, 2024.

As we near the end of the Noah narrative, we come to a recreation moment in Genesis 9 where we hear God giving instructions to the humans about how they are to live. When we contrast this passage with the original instructions given to humanity in Genesis 1, we find some curious differences which point out the problem of human violence and how God adapts to partner with flawed human partners. Reco...

We're in the third story of life outside of the garden - the flood narrative in the Bible. This week, we compare and contrast God's speeches and Noah's sacrifice with speeches of other gods and heroes from Ancient Near Eastern flood narratives, to see who God is and how he invites us to a role as priests. Recorded November 17, 2024.

We continue with our series in Genesis 4-11, focusing this week on the dove that is sent out during the flood by Noah. We learn how it symbolizes Noah’s ability to wait, and are invited to wait not in passivity, but with memory, anticipation and with Christ. Recorded November 10, 2024.