Southside@Main | Sunday Morning Services

May 24 2020 Speaker: Ian Campbell 1 Peter 5.1-10 Shepherd the Flock Peter concludes his letter to Believers who are in difficult times by reminding their elders of their responsibility to shepherd the flock as he, a fellow elder, identifies with them. The role of elders is primary in the organized church and has been since the beginning. In his instruction to them all the quality of humility is of...

May 17 2020 Speaker: Ian Campbell 1 Peter 4.1-11 Has our personality changed because of the pandemic? Were we carefree and careless in some ways that have had a day of reckoning? Peter tells us that careless living has a "time's up" notice served. What he says must continue is fervent love for one another.

May 10, 2020 Speaker: Ian Campbell 1 Peter 3.1-9 Well - here we are on Mothers' Day weekend and as we work our way through 1 Peter we come to a passage to and about women. Maybe it's good that I am speaking to an empty room so that I won't need to duck the rotten tomatoes hurled at me! But seriously, does this passage speak with a relevant message for today? What is it?

May 3, 2020 Speaker: Ian Campbell 1 Peter 2.1-2 Do difficult times bring our the best or worst in us? Perhaps both? The Apostle Peter seems to worry that in very trying times his readers may need encouragement not to allow the worst of them to surface. Instead he has a strategy that will head them in the right direction - the sincere milk of the Word of God. If more time is possibly on our hands d...

April 26, 2020 Speaker: Ian Campbell 1 Peter 1.17-25 Have you ever heard someone ask "Who are you and what have you done with ..?" It's usually occasioned by a striking change in something that pertains to the person in question. Maybe it's a physical appearance thing or a behaviour. In the middle of troubling time Peter discusses such a question about Christians. We will let him guide us into the...

April 19 2020 Speaker: Ian Campbell 1 Peter 1.3-9 During the Easter church calendar (until Pentecost Sunday May 31st) we will follow the Lectionary Epistle readings from the Book of Common Prayer. As we wait through the pandemic season this is one way we can join with the Church worldwide in the unity of Scripture. This may also direct your thoughts and prayers as you will find lots of resources o...

April 12, 2020 Speaker: Ian Campbell 1 Corinthians 15.1-7 When everything around us seems to be changing or has changed the best thing to do is to find what has not changed and is not changing, nor will change. Let’s gather around the Gospel message that is that very thing in our lives and which we celebrate this weekend! The Lord is risen, He is risen indeed!

April 5, 2020 Speaker: Ian Campbell 1 Thessalonians 5:11 We should carry on encouraging one another and building up one another, says the Apostle, “just as you are doing.” These are to be our commitments in the midst of difficulties and trials. We must ask how we are doing these and how we can carry on doing these so that the same commendation would be made of us.

March 27, 2020 Speaker: Ian Campbell Proverbs 14.31 Isn't it interesting that God has such strong feelings for the poor? We might moderate our concern for the poor but God identifies with them and is always "in their corner." They along with other groups in society, such as widows and orphans, have God's attention in a particular way. What can we do in these difficult times to pay attention to the...

March 20, 2020 Speaker: Ian Campbell Proverbs 17.17 Can you think of someone you could phone at any time day or night? Someone who is there whenever needed, no questions asked? Someone who is loyal to the end? That is a good friend. In life with its ups and downs how wonderful good friends are. An important question is "are you that good friend?" We'll have a glimpse into the friendship between Da...

Sunday March 8 2020 Speaker: Mike Burns The video mentioned can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzmYV8GNAIM Proverbs urges us to resist the lure of worldly wisdom and resolutely seek out true wisdom. The biblical definition of wisdom is living in a way that honours and glorifies God. It is entirely unrelated to IQ, formal education or age, and it is given to anyone who seeks it: ‘If an...

Sunday March 1, 2020 Speaker: Bryan O'Gorman As we put 40 Acts of generosity into operation through the Lenten Season we will take 7 deep dives into the book of Proverbs and along with many other churches in the 40 Acts movement will talk about Humility, Wisdom, Friendship, Charity, Words, Money and Reconciliation and check our “readiness” gauge. Undoubtedly we will get some opportunity to put the...

February 23, 2020 Speaker: Ian Campbell 1 Corinthians 15.50-57 As we wind up our series on the Pilgrim's Progress we see Christian off into the "Celestial City." Many of us have seen loved ones off and none of us has been able to go across the chasm of death along with them. The Apostle Paul gives us insight as he is inspired by the Spirit so that we can begin to imagine how we are changed and tra...

February 16, 2020 Speaker: Ian Campbell 1 John 2.15-17 Pilgrim encounters a town which is full of fun and excitement, rather like a carnival! But it has a strange undercurrent that troubles him. We will think about the ambivalence we should feel about our own "vanity fair" as we hear the Apostle John's warning about loving the world.

February 11, 2020 Speaker: Ian Campbell John 4.1-32 A few weeks ago we considered the experience of conviction and the various ways we are drawn through its versions towards Jesus. In the meeting between Jesus and the Samaritan woman we have a real life story of the struggles of religion and shame and meaning that prepared a woman to meet and trust in Jesus. This is one act of the drama of persona...

Speaker: Ian Campbell John 17 The Great Dance we have been speaking about these few weeks is the living hope of Christians. We long to see the Kingdom come and heaven and earth be joined as one. In the meantime, however, as we wait and work we are invited into our part of the dance, that between the church and itself. In John 17 Jesus anticipates the way we will be one with the Trinity but prays f...

January 26, 2020 Speaker: Ian Campbell Romans 8.15 Early in Christian's journey he meets a character named "worldly wiseman" and the village of morality. He seems to give good and sensible advice. Possibly the greatest error we still make as followers of Christ is to try to meet the requirements of morality by climbing Mt Sinai. It doesn't work! It's not the way to a relationship with God nor is a...

Sunday, January 19 2020 Speaker: Ian Campbell John 16.8-10 John Bunyan introduces the graphic term "slough of despond" as one of the first places and experiences of Pilgrim. What is your life's version of this place of need or desperation on your spiritual journey? Did you have a sense of guilt, need or conviction? What do our friends go through that intensifies their spiritual need and may be use...

January 12, 2020 Speaker: Ian Campbell Genesis 12.1-3 The Pilgrim's Progress is very reminiscent of the story of Abraham and also prompts us to think of the Christian life as a kind of a journey. It involves leaving and travelling and finally arriving. This is a better way to think of ourselves than being and staying somewhere in a static sense. Did you start? Where are you on the journey? What is...

Sunday, January 5, 2020 Speaker: Ian Campbell Philippians 3.13-14 Ringing the Changes is a lovely but perhaps passing expression that describes the pattern of chiming church bells. Then comes the encouragement to "ring out the old" and "ring in the new" at the change of year and, indeed, decade. This rhymes well with St. Paul's exhortation to forget what is behind and to straining forward to what...

Sunday December 29, 2019 Speaker: Ian Campbell Luke 2.8-20 Shepherds have been brought into the limelight in nativity pageants worldwide. But notoriety would have been very surprising to the group referred to in Luke’s nativity account – the ones who were living out in the fields. Why were they the first to hear this news? Who were they anyway? What’s important about them for us?

Sunday December 22, 2019 Speaker: Ian Campbell Psalm 41 As we walk through the journey of sorrow in our lives we face intense loneliness as a result of our losses and disappointment. Comfort is the severe mercy that we grasp perhaps tentatively. God is called the God of all comfort. We are comforted so that we can comfort others. As we emerge from the intensity of our sorrow we can look up and aro...

December 15, 2019 Speaker - Ian Campbell Psalm 40 The pink candle in the midst of the purple/blue advent wreath is called “Gaudete,” a Latin word that means “rejoice” and specifically refers to a 16th Century carol with the exact exhortation in song. It is placed well into the season that has a growing sense of desperation amidst our sorrow as we long for Advent.

December 8, 2019 Speaker: Ian Campbell Psalm 22 Lament is an uncommon term for today. It implies a mixture of sadness, complaint and helplessness. It speaks out of the depth of our sorrow with only the faintest hint of hope that we glimpse and need the power of Advent to manage.

December 1, 2019 Speaker: Ian Campbell Psalm 39 Hope’s presence in the midst of sorrow has a subtle persistence to it. It has the character of resilience which allows us to take a “deep dive” into our sorrow. It is empowered by the strength of Advent’s promise.