South Arm United Church's Podcast

Send us Fan Mail Enjoy this full edition of a very special service honouring the stories and living history of our church. South Arm began in 1906. That's a lot of great history, ministers and families who have worshipped and served here! Many of our current members have been here over 40+ years. They carry important stories and memories of the church across the ages that we don't want t...

Send us Fan Mail Jesus calls the 12 together and empowers them with his authority to go out and do the ministry he himself had done: proclaim good news, heal the sick, cast out demons, make lepers well and raise the dead. They are to go from place to place where God directs. Some households will welcome them and extend hospitality, some will run them out of town. In all, God is with them and they...

Send us Fan Mail In their old age, well past the natural child-bearing years, word comes to Abraham that his wife Sarah will give birth to their first child. In the natural this is preposterous for a senior well beyond menopause and child-bearing years to imagine (which is why she laughed), but for God... anything is possible! And what God says will happen, comes to pass. Not always in our time or...

Send us Fan Mail This year South Arm United Church is engaged in a Visioning process to seek God's guidance on whom we are called to be and how we might better open our doors to serve our neighbours (and the world). As part of that visioning we want to honour the past, taking the best of who we are into the future. Acknowledging the deep roots and living history of the church that formed who...

Send us Fan Mail This Sunday we celebrate Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit to the followers of Jesus. Pentecost (meaning "50" is 50 days from Passover). And Pentecost happens under very specific circumstances. People pilgrimaged to Jerusalem from all across the Roman Empire for the Festival of Weeks (commemorating the wheat harvest and the giving of the Law to Moses on Mt. Sin...

Send us Fan Mail Today we get to hear Jesus offer a prayer to the One he called Father. This prayer from the heart asks that we may be one in unity with God and God's call on our lives, as the Trinity is in their own, 3-in-1 relationship.   

Send us Fan Mail Last week we looked at the passage immediately before this one. Jesus had shared with his followers 2 central teachings: (1) that to see Jesus is to see the One he called Father and (2) that the way to where he is going is to follow him. He is the Way. We may want the coordinates but Jesus instead offers an invitation - follow me.  Today we pick up in the next verses of John where...

Send us Fan Mail I am glad to live in a time when we have Google Maps. That technology which helps us get places, able to speak directions to us and knowing up-to-date delays and the best route is quite incredible. But when The Way is with you, you do not need a map. In the lectionary Gospel passage for today Thomas asks Jesus, "We do not know where you are going so how can we know the way?&q...

Send us Fan Mail The church is a different kind of community from many in the world. Where else but around Jesus do we find people of all different languages, nations, identities, ages, socioeconomic statuses etc gathering in one place with someone so major in common? Society often divides us up into neat and not so neat identities and categories. The church breaks down all that. The church is a w...

Send us Fan Mail This recording is from the Sunday after Easter and Reverend Lauren was away. A wonderful retired United Church Minister, Rev. Brian Thorpe filled in. Enjoy this message! 

Send us Fan Mail We see with more than just our eyes. Our heart, our ears, our sense of smell and touch all play a part in how we come to really see people and know they truly are. On the road to Emmaus, 2 disciples are walking when suddenly Jesus joins them post-resurrection. But the fail to recognize just Who is walking with them. He unpacks scripture pointing to himself, reminding these discipl...

Send us Fan Mail Good Friday. Today we follow Jesus and his journey to the Cross and look at how our inclinations as people and as a society lean towards violence, while Jesus Way is the Way of Peace and Forgiveness - even to his accusers! 

Send us Fan Mail It's Easter Sunday and He is Risen! Celebrate Easter Sunday and Communion/Eucharist with us as we mark that Jesus arose in the world and conquered the powers of sin and the grave/death. And, Jesus Way is still alive in the world today - through us.  In the art of Improvisation acting, performers are invited to jump into an unfolding story someone else began by agreeing with w...

Send us Fan Mail Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey's colt which marks Palm Sunday and the entrance to Holy Week appears in all 4 Gospels. Each Gospel writer tells the story a little differently. This year we focus on Mark's account. But what does that mean? How does Mark frame the story next to the other Gospel accounts? Well, you're in luck because this week Reverend Lauren p...

Send us Fan Mail Continuing in our Good News series we examine the story of the woman accused of adultery who is brought into the temple for judgement. Faith leaders confront Jesus and ask what should be done with her. The scene reads like a set up. But Jesus flips the script by writing some things in the sand which cause these righteous leaders to drop their stones and walk away. None is left to...

Send us Fan Mail We continue in our "Good News" Lenten series this week acknowledging the systemic injustices that exist in our world, how Jesus meets people on the margins with compassion and love and calls us to love to do likewise. We acknowledge the rhythms and pressures of empire vs. the rhythms of God. We acknowledge that God forming us for this world, for this time means we are a...

Send us Fan Mail Continuing in our Lenten "Good News" series, we look today at Mark's account of "The Feeding of the 5,000". Jesus sent out the disciples (here called Apostles for the first time which means, 'sent ones') to do as he has done - teach, encourage people to repent, pray, anoint, heal the sick and follow Jesus' example. Having gone out in pairs t...

Send us Fan Mail There are times when God's word is so good I who love to preach (Rev. Lauren) just want to sit down, be quiet and let God speak. This Sunday was one of those times. Someone asked if I could put the big point of the message up front and in this sermon I did just that. After giving the big point in the first 1-2 minutes I was very tempted to sit down and let the words sit with...

Send us Fan Mail First Sunday of Lent. We are following a series created by 'A Sanctified Art' entitled, "Tell Me Something Good". Each week the sermon title begins with the words, "The Good News is...". Today we find Jesus at a wedding party where he will perform his first miracle (sign/wonder work) that points beyond the act itself to revealing something of his iden...

Send us Fan Mail The banners in the church turn to white for this service as we celebrate Transfiguration Sunday. This is from the last Sunday of Epiphany/Ordinary Time before the Lent season begins next week. In Matthew 16 the religious elite ask Jesus for a sign (which he does not provide anymore than he has already), Jesus and the disciples cross a lake and head to Caesarea Philippi where Jesus...

Send us Fan Mail God gives a word to the prophet Isaiah to deliver to God's people, you fast and act holy in vain when you don't live as my people the rest of the week. Is it good to fast? Yes, absolutely. Is it good to worship? Yes, absolutely. Is it good to bow down in prayer? Yes, of course. But what good is any of that if we return to our normal lives and live like everyone else, as...

Send us Fan Mail United Church Growth Animator, Rev. Scott Reynolds was with us all weekend.  On Saturday he lead our Seeking God's Vision team on a Retreat to begin imagining where God is calling us to serve and grow as a community.  Sunday morning Rev. Scott co-lead service and was our Guest Preacher. His message reminded us: (1) How the way of Christ looks very different to the ways of the...

Send us Fan Mail This Sunday we had a special Guest Preacher, Jeannie Van Zandt. Jeannie is a student at Vancouver School of Theology (VST) where she is completing a Master's of Public and Pastoral Leadership towards being a Hospital Chaplain. Today she lead our in-service Children's Time with a beautiful illustration from The Chronicles of Narnia and then spoke on Why Jesus Came. And af...

Send us Fan Mail Having spent a good amount of time in Corinth, Paul has established relationships and has encouraged the home churches there. He gets reports that things have gone sideways a bit and sits down with a fellow leader, Sosthenes, to pen this letter to the Corinthian churches. They have divisions and disagreements to do with following different leaders, worship styles and right beliefs...

Send us Fan Mail In Matthew 3 we find John the Baptist in the wilderness cleansing people of their sins (ways that do not align with God's best for our lives and turning towards God with humbled hearts). This is a call John takes seriously and lives out beautifully, set apart for a purpose, including a different wardrobe and even diet. One day Jesus Himself comes to be baptized and John is re...