Summit Drive Church

This week, we look at a mysterious and ancient name for God: El Shaddai. We look at how this name's mysterious ancient roots help to connect us to a God who binds us to a rich, ancient history and who gathers up the outsider.

As we explore 'The Name,' how God defines Himself, we will learn the meaning of His primary title, "Elohim" or "God", and the only name He gives Himself, "Yahweh."

The concluding section of Paul’s letter to the Philippians –4:10-23– has been called the most difficult to understand in the letter, and has certainly been misused, even abused, with regularity. But the message, when understood, holds the keys to true contentment. Paul does a careful dance around the cultural conventions of “giving and receiving” in the Greco-Roman world to preserve the purity and...

This week, on "Youth Sunday," we explore the significance of the "team" aspect of gospel ministry and explore how we know we're "winning" as we seek to stand firm in the Lord together.

In this passage, we look at how role models play a critical role in our spiritual growth and how to find good role models in our church community.

Sometimes an event can shake our world to the core and cause us to reevaluate everything; our value system, the way we see the world. Paul has a serious warning against false teaching in our text where he uses his own story to counteract any suggestion that you need Jesus plus anything else. Paul is relearning how to ‘count’ and how to ‘read.’ And we learn to as well.

Philippians reminds us that the spread of God's good news is a group project, and our unity is central to the success of our mission. Group projects fall apart when we complain and bicker, in the same way our witness fails when we complain and bicker.

We live in this “gap” between who we are and who God, in Christ, is making us to be. In Philippians 2, Paul narrates the life of Jesus as the one who gives “shape” and “definition” to the kind of shared life we were created and redeemed to enjoy. In our study, we’ll see how the gospel that saves us also transforms us deeply.

Paul’s words in Philippians 1:27-30 call our assumptions of the "good life” into serious question. We, who have been drinking steadily and deeply from a cultural norm that assumes that the good life is cozy, easy, comfortable, might be quite shocked that Paul sees participation in Jesus’ work, which includes tension, pressure, even suffering, as part of the gift of following him. Our text is...

When someone writes to you from prison, you expect them to tell you how they are. Paul uses his prison letter to show us how to bear up under difficult circumstances—trusting in providence, reconnecting with our purpose, and being for and with other people.

The book of Philippians is known for its tone of joy and call to keep ‘rejoicing’ in God’s good work. As we begin our series, we’ll see how Paul’s joy is not based on his circumstances but on the good work God is doing in the Philippian church and in the rich relationships that are formed by the gospel. We’ll see how we are drawn into this same joy as we embrace the kind of affection Paul speaks o...

This week, we look at Psalm 65, a text which paints a picture of God as the God of Abundance. We're invited to respond to him by becoming people who give thanks to him as we engage in the practice of gratitude.

The resurrection of Jesus changes everything. As we’ll see, God the Father “vindicates” Jesus, the innocent One, who humbles himself all the way to death, even death on a cross. And that, as we trust and follow Jesus, even our biggest struggles will not end in defeat but God’s victory through it.

Jesus passes the three tests he faces in the wilderness, but that isn’t the end of the Enemy's work. The ‘final exam’ comes as Jesus is faced with the full force of what the cross means in the Garden of Gethsemane. In the end, we find that Good Friday is so good because Jesus passes the test in all the ways that we don’t.

The third test that Jesus faces in the wilderness is a test about power. Jesus rejects the devil's offer of gaining power the easy way, and he shows us that the way through this temptation is allegiance to God and submission to him.

Jesus' second test is to turn faith in God into a magic trick. By refusing to force God's hand, Jesus shows us how being God's child is trusting our Father to do what is best.

Jesus' temptation is not just an important detail in His life, it is a paradigm for our own temptations. In the first temptation, Jesus is tempted to take what He wants rather than to give what is needed—to put His comfort over God's calling. The way through this wilderness, and this test, is dependence on God for our daily bread.

This week, we conclude our series by looking at some guiding principles for how we engage in the political arena. We look at what it looks like to pray for our governments, and see political involvement as one way to love our neighbours.

Jesus himself lived with deep integrity – the “integration” and consistency of every part of life. We are called, and empowered by Jesus, to do the same. In this message, we’ll look at how integrity means love for God, with listening to God, and with love for neighbour. We’ll see how the way of love described in 1 Corinthians 13 is not just for “private” faith, but to be totally integrated into al...

Christian public witness honours Caesar, but worships Jesus. We respect the political as a function of God's common grace, but our ultimate allegiance is to Jesus. Right priorities lead us from a fear-driven self-preservative engagement in public life to a love-driven serving posture.

We, as humans, were made to join in God’s rulership of the world with wisdom and justice. Jesus has come to redeem and restore us to this vocation; to be his multi-ethnic, diverse people, not building merely for the ‘kingdoms’ but for God’s Kingdom.

Our new series, “Jesus, Caesar, and the Kingdom of God: Christian Engagement in Public Life” will focus on this question asked of Jesus: “Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?” (Mark 12: 14). We’ll see how Jesus’ answer avoids a number of pitfalls: Jesus 1) avoids the political trap; 2) avoids political simplicity/polarity; and 3) establishes the appropriate “ordering” of the polit...

Spiritual formation is not just habits and practices, it is a posture. Psalm 63 invites us into the posture of being a people who seek the Living God as the source of our lives.

God the Holy Spirit is the One who transforms us to become more like Jesus. But what part do we play in this process of transformation? Today, we look at what it looks like to "keep in step with the Spirit," and particularly, the role that the spiritual disciplines – the rhythms of Jesus – play in our journey of growing to become more like him.

God does not save us apart from others, but into his people, the community of God, the Church. And the Christian community is the context for change. The Christian community, a local church, this is the place where that change, and growth occur; particularly in the call to learn to love those who are very different than us.