Reality Church Vancouver Teachings Podcast

This week we come to what might be the best known story in Genesis 4-11: the flood narrative. We welcomed Dr. Matt Lynch from Regent College who helps us understand this flood in context of the overarching narrative of Genesis and to see it as the action of God to renew and reform a world ruined by violence. Recorded November 3, 2024.

As we continue exploring life outside the garden in the Genesis narrative, we come to one of the most well-known stories and objects: Noah's Ark. In this week's teaching, we uncover how ancient people would have understood the instructions for Noah's Ark and apply it as an invitation for deliverance today. Recorded October 27, 2024.

This week we come to a bright spot in our examination of life outside the garden in the person of Noah. We look at how Noah is described in context, we look at why it’s so difficult to be like Noah in our cultural moment, and hear an invitation to become like Noah. Recorded October 20, 2024.

As we continue in our series exploring life outside of the garden, we come to a difficult passage where God takes drastic action to deal with the problem of increasing darkness. In this teaching, we articulate several of the key problems we have with this passage and also understand how it invites us to know God and live as renewed humans. Re-recorded October 18, 2024.

As we continue in our series exploring life outside the garden, we come to a strange and tricky passage for us as modern Western readers. By exploring the ancient and Biblical context, we are invited to recognize spiritual evil, and challenged to call on the name of God rather than become "men of the name". Recorded October 6, 2024.

On Truth and Reconciliation weekend, we were honoured to be taught by Dr. Ray Aldred, who spoke on the history of the church, Canada and Indigenous people, the Indigenous church’s prophetic role, and a hopeful path forward through Jesus’ ethic of reconciliation and peacemaking. Recorded September 29, 2024.

This week, we come to an ancient genealogy, an odd part in our study of life outside the garden in Genesis. In this teaching, we’ll explore this strange passage within two contexts, other ancient lists of people with really long ages and the genealogy of Cain already given in Genesis 4, to understand what it may have meant for the original hearers and how it encourages us to live today as witnesse...

This week, we continue on in our study of Genesis 4-11 by looking at Lamech, the worst character we’ve met so far. Through his story, we observe how sin spreads darkness by breaking down relationships between men and women, specifically marriages, and turns our culture making efforts into tools of oppression and violence. Finally, we look at how the darkness around us might be an invitation to cal...

This fall, we’re taking our third look at the first few chapters of Genesis. The story of Cain and Abel is a painful one, introducing us to what life looks like Outside the Garden. Recorded September 8, 2024.

We continue our summer Rule of Life series by looking at Jesus' invitation to be with and minister to children. Jesus' instructions were shocking to their original audience, but also invite us to welcome children, learn from them and help them grow as a church family. Recorded August 18, 2024.

We were honoured to have Joe Gebhardt, a ministry partner from Projekt Kirche in Berlin, teach from Psalm 27 can provide a template and encouragement to incorporate prayer into our spiritual rhythms. Recorded August 11, 2024 - we apologize for the audio issues in the middle of the recording.

As we continue in our Summer Rule of Life series, guest teacher Talasi Guerra, shares about Biblical joy from various Biblical passages and her personal story. Further resources on joy, including Talasi’s new book can be found at talasiguerra.com. Recorded on August 3, 2024.

As we continue on in our summer Rule of Life, guest speaker, Rev. Shel Boese, shares about the practice of giving, challenging us to take on the mindset of our generous God and revisit how we approach our financial stewardship. Recorded July 21, 2024.

This week we dig into the habit of spiritual friendship as we continue on in our summer Rule of Life series. We’re invited to learn about the definition of friendship during the time of Jesus, how Jesus transformed this vision of friendship and how we might practice spiritual friendship today. Recorded July 14, 2024.

This week, we focus on fasting through an exploration of the history of fasting among God's people, why fasting has become so neglected, how Jesus and his disciples practiced fasting, and some practical how to's of fasting. Recorded July 7, 2024.

If the vision of being human is to become like Jesus, how do we actually do it? This week, we look at how Paul answers that question in several ways in Philippians 2: centering on the story of Jesus, listening to God's voice, community and the events of life. Finally, we take a look at the role of spiritual disciplines and creating a Rule of Life as we enter into our summer series. Recorded June 2...

We begin our summer series by looking at the Jesus poem in Philippians 2 where we hear the invitation to become like Jesus and put His story in the center of our lives and community. Recorded June 16, 2024.

In the final week of our Housing in the City series, we share some of the big themes and possible steps forward individually and corporately. Although the series is complete, we invite our community to continue the conversation in prayer and discernment throughout the summer. Note: John showed the Korean American artist, Do Ho Suh's work around the theme of home. You can see some of his artwork he...

This week, we looked at some guidelines for discernment as we consider what God would have us do as individuals and a community. Using the Sermon on the Mount as a guide, we see the importance of having our stories challenged, seeing ourselves as a counter-society within Vancouver, and discerning out of grace as a community. Note: we had several power issues towards the end of the sermon which aff...

This week, we continue in our exploration of Housing in the City by looking at the theme of money or economics in the Bible. We learn about God’s economic vision for His people, how their unfaithfulness to this vision led to exile, how Jesus invites us back into this story and how we might be invited to live as a city within a city during this housing crisis. This audio has been reuploaded as the...

As we continue in our Housing in the City series, we turn to the topic of home. As we explore the spaces God has called "home" in the story of the Bible, we are invited to consider the implications for the spaces we call home, the households we are a part of and how we might host. Recorded May 19, 2024.

We continue in our Housing in the City series by looking at the theme of community in the Bible. While the city offers hope to solve our problem of community, it almost always, in the Bible and in the modern world, lets us down and contributes to the breakdown of community rather than building a community of shalom. As followers of Jesus living in the city, we are invited to lament and learn how t...

This week, we turn to the theme of the city in our Housing in the City series. Reading from Jeremiah 29, we see God’s call to the city, the identity we’re invited to in the city and finally the hope of the city. Recorded May 5, 2024.

We continue our series exploring the topic of housing in the city by looking at the Biblical theme of land. By tracing the theme through the Bible in 7 acts, we learn how Jesus fulfills the story of the land and invites us to new identities and orientation towards land. Recorded April 28, 2024.

This week we began a new series exploring how we live in the city as followers of Jesus during the current housing crisis. In this introduction, we explore some of the personal contours of the housing story in Canada, and receive the invitations to listen to and tell our stories, center on the story of Jesus and discern where the Spirit is leading us. Recorded April 21, 2024.