Resurrection Church | A Home of the Prodigal

The Age of Attention There is a strange paradox about our moment in history. We have more information about God than any generation. Millions of sermons online. Bible apps in our pockets. Podcasts. Books. YouTube channels. Social media theologians. Never has knowledge been more accessible. And yet—Never has awe, wonder, inspiration felt more absent. The fallout of postmoderism is not merely that p...

Matthew 6:9: “Pray then like this: ‘Our Father in heaven…’”  This is stunning. Because Jesus is teaching ordinary people how to relate to God. And He intentionally begins with intimacy. In first-century Judaism, God was holy, revered, majestic, and transcendent. And He is. But Jesus introduces something astonishing: closeness. The word Jesus uses carries familial intimacy. This is relational nearn...

There is a kind of exhaustion that sleep cannot fix. You know what I mean. You can take the vacation. Turn your phone off. Sleep for eight full hours. Go to therapy. Get healthier. Get organized. And still feel hollow somewhere beneath the surface. Because not all exhaustion is physical, some exhaustion is spiritual.  Some exhaustion comes from living disconnected from the presence of God while tr...

We come into the world through our five senses. We learn by touch, sight, sound, taste, and smell. Then, as we grow older, we are formed into another layer of reality: logic, theory, philosophy, systems, information, and mental frameworks. We are taught to explain things. Categorize things. Control things. We learn to trust what can be measured, studied, and articulated. Then we form spiritual thi...

There is a difference between knowing about someone and actually knowing them. You can study a person for years. Memorize their habits. Learn their history. Analyze their words. Predict their behavior. And still never truly know them. Imagine a man who says, “I know everything about my wife.” He can tell you: her favorite food, where she grew up, what makes her laugh, her Enneagram number, her chil...

There’s a quiet ache most of us carry. Not loud. Not dramatic. But persistent. It shows up in small moments…When someone doesn’t text back. When a conversation feels slightly off. When you walk away wondering, “Are we good?” It’s subtle—but it’s powerful. It’s the ache of wanting to be loved and the fear that the love we have could disappear. The reason is—most of the love we experience in this wo...

In Romans 12, “surrender” isn’t just about giving something up—it’s about offering your whole life to God in a deliberate, ongoing way. Paul writes about presenting your body as a “living sacrifice.” That phrase helps explain what surrender means. Unlike sacrifices in the Old Testament that were killed, this is continuous. You’re choosing daily to dedicate your actions, choices, and priorities to...

We live in what sociologists call a  therapeutic age . Everything is about healing now: healing your trauma and healing your inner child, and healing your anxiety and healing your story.  And listen—some of that is good. There’s been a long season where people ignored pain, suppressed emotion, and called it “strength.” But now the pendulum has swung. We are more self-aware than ever before…and yet...

There’s something strange about Jesus. Not just who He was…But what has happened  since . Because most movements fade. Most leaders—no matter how influential— eventually become footnotes in history books. But not Jesus.  Two thousand years later…He is still talked about. Still debated. Still loved. Still rejected. Still followed. His name shows up everywhere. In conversations about justice. In deb...

There’s something strange about Jesus. Not just who He was…but what has happened  since . Because most movements fade. Most leaders—no matter how influential— eventually become footnotes in history books. But not Jesus.  Two thousand years later…He is still talked about. Still debated. Still loved. Still rejected. Still followed. His name shows up everywhere. In conversations about justice. In deb...

Luke 19:28–40 They welcomed Him as King… but only the kind of King they were comfortable with. And when He refused to become who they wanted, they turned on Him. Most of us—if we’re honest—have a quiet assumption about how God should show up. We don’t always say it out loud. But it’s there. We assume that if God is real…if Jesus is King… then He should come powerfully, even unmistakably. He should...

One of the strange realities of being human is that we carry things inside of us that no one else can see. We carry memories. We carry wounds. We carry words that were spoken over us years ago that still echo in the quiet places of our souls. Someone betrayed us. Someone lied. Someone abandoned us. Someone hurt someone we love. At first, it feels justified. Of course, I'm angry. Of course, I&#...

In the Christian tradition, remembering death ( memento mori ) was never about morbidity. It was about clarity . St. Benedict told his monks to “keep death daily before your eyes” not to darken their days, but to brighten them —to strip away illusion, procrastination, trivial pursuits. A daily reminder: Don’t waste your life. When you remember that your days are numbered, certain things lose their...

Elizabeth Kübler-Ross said: “The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss—and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people don’t just happen.” Beautiful people don’...

We don’t choose—at least most of us—to wait. Think about it: if you had the option to choose when you could be healed—now or a year from now—no one would choose later, thinking, God could work something beautiful in me through the waiting. We are a people who want quick results. Fast progress. Same-day shipping. Immediate feedback. Instant notifications. We measure success by how quickly things gr...

In ancient road-building, when a king was coming to a city, workers would literally level the path—remove rocks, straighten curves, fill valleys, clear obstacles—so the king could arrive without hindrance. " Make straight in the desert a highway for our God," John says the same thing needs to happen in the human heart. He is saying repentance removes the rocks, straightens the curves, fi...

“Hope is the power of being cheerful in circumstances that we know to be desperate.”— G. K. Chesterton  Hope is formed in the darkness. We like our hope clean and well-lit. The kind that comes with a contract, or a guarantee from a reputable source, we want hope with a tracking number, or a scheduled delivery date. But real hope—the kind Scripture speaks of, the kind that held Mary in her bewilder...

Psychologists will tell you that human beings are formed not primarily by ideas, but by experiences that shape our inner world . A child becomes confident because they experience delight and acceptance from a parent. A person becomes anxious because they experience instability. A person becomes bitter after experiencing betrayal. Information is helpful. But experience is formative. Listen as Pasto...

Welcome to Resurrection Church. Whatever your age or life story, you are welcome here. Resurrection seeks to be a home for the prodigal, an authentic people — humble, generous, and unified. 

Welcome to Resurrection Church. Whatever your age or life story, you are welcome here. Resurrection seeks to be a home for the prodigal, an authentic people — humble, generous, and unified. 

Welcome to Resurrection Church. Whatever your age or life story, you are welcome here. Resurrection seeks to be a home for the prodigal, an authentic people — humble, generous, and unified. 

Welcome to Resurrection Church. Whatever your age or life story, you are welcome here. Resurrection seeks to be a home for the prodigal, an authentic people — humble, generous, and unified. 

Welcome to Resurrection Church. Whatever your age or life story, you are welcome here. Resurrection seeks to be a home for the prodigal, an authentic people — humble, generous, and unified.

Pastor Ryan Van Horn - Resurrection Chattanooga - 12/15/2024 Advent 2024 At Resurrection, we are cultivating a community of people who, through grace and practice, are learning from Jesus how to live. We desire to be a home for the prodigal, an authentic people — humble, generous, and unified.

Pastor Ryan Van Horn - Resurrection Chattanooga - 12/8/2024 Advent 2024 At Resurrection, we are cultivating a community of people who, through grace and practice, are learning from Jesus how to live. We desire to be a home for the prodigal, an authentic people — humble, generous, and unified.