Roots Church Sermon Podcast

There’s always some dude on a horse. — Pastor Brian Zahnd

As we continue in our teaching series, “Love in Public,” guest preacher, Paul Hurckman, Executive Director of Venture delivers a sermon on “Global Justice.” Venture is a Christian ministry that seeks justice and makes disciples around the world.

This series on loving people in public brings up a controversial subject: Politics. In this message, Pastor T. C. teaches on the social vision of Jesus: the Kingdom of God, disabuses listeners of negative connotations associated with “politics,” and presents the politics of Jesus from the portrayal of his life in the Gospels.

Building upon Dr. Brenda Salter-McNeil’s classic work, The Heart of Racial Justice, Der Lor preaches a challenging message on Racial Justice in our continuing teaching series: Love in Public.

Pastor Osheta Moore continues our teaching series, “Love in Public,” with a message reminding us to that to carry out our justice ministry in the way of Jesus, we must have a posture of humility. Building upon an important section of her book, Shalom Sistas, Osheta’s message is entitled, “Serve Before You Speak.”

“Purposefully seeking the renewal of our city,” Roots’ third mission priority, requires us to have a unified vision of justice. Justice, as we have learned from Dr. Cornel West, is “what love looks like in public.” So, this week, we are looking at the big picture of justice in the biblical narrative. Like the picture…

The name of the Love in Public series comes from a quote by Dr. Cornel West: “Never forget that justice is what love looks like in public.” In the first message of the series, Pastor T. C. teaches on the “transitive property” of love. When we passionately love God, we develop love for those whom…

Osheta Moore wrapped up the Adore series on the corporate worship of the body of Christ with a message on Luke 7.36-50. In this story, Jesus is invited to the home of a Pharisee named Simon. While there, a woman who is rumored to live a sinful life lavished an expensive gift of perfume on…

The embodied practices in which we participate are forming us, whether we realize it or not. What we do, does something to us. So what does the embodied practice of Communion do to us?

Worship is a space where God’s Spirit empowers people with gifts for the building up of the body of Christ. Among the worshipping body of Christ, there is formed an alternative society of shalom, a glimpse of the future in New Creation, a space of radical equality and unity with diversity. In this message, Pastor…

As the kick-off of the Adore series, we explore Paul’s exhortation to the church in Rome (12.1-2), to present their bodies as a living sacrifice in order to have their minds renewed. For Paul worship is counter-formation. It is the antidote to the ways we’re being malformed by our everyday practices and rhythms. Christian worship…

Epiphany means “to make manifest.” This is a season in which the church celebrates the revelation of Jesus as Messiah and Lord of all people groups. In Matthew 2, this begins with the visitation of the Magi from the East. The journey of the Magi is an archetype of the journey of faith, which is…

Far too often, the Christmas story is haunted by the lingering effects of our Sunday School, two-dimensional, “Flannel Graph” understanding of the story. We have sanitized and domesticated the story, stripping it of its politically-charged, scandalous, and awe-inspiring power. We have removed the cultural and socioeconomic dimensions, to safeguard the status quo. And we have…

We conclude our teaching series, “Advent in Narnia,” with a message by Pastor T. C. on Matthew 3.1-12. The Advent season is a time of preparation for Christmastide, when we celebrate the birth of Messiah Jesus, the King and Liberator. During Advent, we take sober inventory of our hearts and lives. John the Forerunner calls…

This week, Pastor T. C. kicked off the season of Advent and the “Advent in Narnia” teaching series with a message about Advent as a mystery we encounter with humility and wonder, like Lucy stumbling through the wardrobe. At times, we need a spiritual wake-up call, to recapture a sense of child-like faith. Yet, Narnia…

In the concluding message of the Radicle series, we look at Ephesians chapter 6, verses 10 through 18, a passage about “spiritual warfare.”  Spiritual warfare is a phrase that evokes a lot of different responses from people, depending on one’s experiences. Clearly, one message cannot address all the many aspects of this very complex subject.…

In the second half of chapter 2, Paul teaches that the cross of Jesus does more than just reconcile people to God, it also reconciles people groups to one another. Namely, Jesus’s life of self-sacrificial love shows us the way to peace and tears down the divisions between people of different cultures. The Way of…

We bring all of our selves to everything we interpret, including assumptions we have based on the influence of the cultures around us. When we come to this week’s text, Ephesians 2.1-10, many of us have been influenced by Modern, Western culture, which has conditioned us to understand the concept of “faith” as opposed to…

Today, many people are experiencing an identity crisis. Many of the labels and categories that have traditionally supported our identities no longer serve us well. People are searching for something solid, something real, something in which to be rooted. Ephesians chapter one is all about identity “in the Messiah.” Paul uses that phrase eleven times…