The Church We Hope For

November 16, 2025 | Armando David Canchola-Scott | Psalm 23 In celebration of Native American Heritage Month and the sacred act of remembrance, Pastor Armando shared stories about his Chumash ancestors’ resilience through the language of Psalm 23. Armando shares how he sees the spirit of ‘ a’lalqilik ki-yi-swot ‘, which means Caretaker God, in the wisdom and witness of late Chumash grandmother, Sa...

November 9, 2025 | Kat Armas Our friend Kat Armas joins us as the 18th woman to guest preach at our church, followed by a thoughtful conversation with Pastora Inés on the importance of a book like this while living in the midst of empire today. In Liturgies for Resisting Empire, Kat provides a roadmap for Christians seeking a counter-cultural way of living that prioritizes community and humanity o...

November 2, 2025 | Inés Velásquez-McBryde | Psalm 22:4-5, Hebrews 11:31, Matt.1:5 Mother Rahab in Joshua 2 shows us a foreign woman who is clever, resourceful and astute. Her creativity to invite herself into the promises of YHWH wins her a spot in the hall of faith of Hebrews 11. As an ancestor to Jesus, she still throws us a rope of resilience today to invite us to hang on in whatever we are goi...

October 26, 2025 | Dr. Eleanor Baylon | Psalm 57 Dr. Eleanor Baylon explores how joy and play can become acts of holy defiance in times of fear, burnout, or uncertainty. Drawing from Psalm 57 and David’s cave experience, we are invited to discover God’s presence and freedom through the courage to rejoice, even in the dark. Keywords: Christian joy, Biblical resilience, Faith in hard times, Psalms f...

October 19, 2025 | Armando David Scott-Canchola | Psalm 150 Pastor Armando explores the powerful themes of praise and adoration found in Psalm 150, complementing it with the life and legacy of the illustrious jazz musician and composer, John Coltrane, affectionately known as Saint John, the Sound Baptist. In this exploration of humanity's creative expression through sound and melody, facilitat...

October 12, 2025 | Inés Velásquez-McBryde | Psalm 42 In Psalm 42 we see the honest lament of the psalmist who addresses God, cries out for help, longs to be in God’s presence, and hopes to hope again! They essentially say “I was okay, I’m not okay, but I will be okay.” Hope ripens resilience by remembering and by rituals of joy. Keywords: Hope, Lament, Psalms for the Resistance, Resilience About:...

October 5, 2025 | Inés Velásquez-McBryde | Psalm 136 Psalm 136 recounts the many seasons and many ways that God has come through for God's people. Pastora Inés explores how gratitude is a practice in a resilient community. We open up the room for people to add to the psalm: What are we thankful for this week/month/year? We reflect back on what we heard in one word on the word cloud. Keywords:...

September 28, 2025 | Nicola Patton | Psalm 19 and 137 Psalm 19 and 137 are very different from each other. They show us the different emotions that can be had in the psalms, both showing us the human experience. Both are descriptive - but of very different things. Psalm 137 is descriptive of the terrible experience of forced migration and Psalm 19 describes the majesty of creation and its connecti...

September 21, 2025 | Armando David Scott-Canchola | Psalm 8 Pastor Armando explores the intricacies of Psalm 8, highlighting how it reveals the profound mysteries of God's power manifested through a divine partnership with humanity. We observe that God's power is not rooted in arrogant domination over creation but in a childlike dominion alongside it. This is exemplified in the person of J...

September 14, 2025 | Inés Velásquez-McBryde | Psalm 121 Psalm 121 has both story in the biblical memory of the people of Israel as well as Pastora’s personal life. This psalm is a psalm of gathering and pilgrimage that Jesus would have sung with his family on his way to one of 3 annual festivals. Our church practices lectio divina to extract the treasures that stand out in the present as well. Key...

September 7, 2025 | Inés Velásquez-McBryde | Psalms This sermon introduces the manner in which the Psalter is divided in time periods, pre, during and post exilic eras. 150 psalms that include how people prayed in light of living in times of peace or oppression. The psalms span the wide range of the human experience and wheels of emotion and can meet us personally and communally in these times. Ke...

August 17, 2025 | Nicola Patton | Micah 6:8 In the final sermon of our summer series, we looked back to the Old Testament for the arc of justice that continued from the beginning all the way to and through Jesus. The gospel of Micah reminds us to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God in the same way that we seek to follow the life, love, and justice of Jesus. Jesus’ life was charact...

August 10, 2025 | Inés Velásquez-McBryde | John 10:1-11 Pastora Inés and Dr. Amy Drennan explore the story of Jesus as the good shepherd in John 10. The sheep know his voice, he knows their name and leads them to green pastures. The life and calling of Jesus have the rhythms and rituals to sustain it and he invites us to rethink our own. Pastora Inés introduces an ancient monastic tool, the Rule o...

August 3, 2025 | Armando David Scott-Canchola | Matthew 7:24-29 Pastor Armando explores the life, love, and justice of Jesus as expressed in His final remarks during the Sermon on the Mount. In this message, Jesus invites everyone to thoughtfully build their lives upon His teachings and His ways. As He descends the mountain, a captivated crowd observes Him putting His teachings into action, exempl...

July 27, 2025 | Inés Velásquez-McBryde | Exodus 31:1-6 In this story that takes places in the wilderness, the wild Spirit fills the artists by the name of Bezalel and Oholiab, to give them wisdom, insight, and knowledge, as well as skills. The gifts of the Spirit are handcrafted by God and are not limited by spiritual gifts tests. The key is that the Spirit will reside in us to move us towards its...

July 20th, 2025 | Armando David Scott-Canchola | John 3:1-21 In the second week of exploring how we are a people Moved by the Spirit, Pastor Armando explores his own spiritual ancestry alongside Jesus’ conversation with a renowned Jewish religious leader names Nicodemus. In this conversation, Jesus speaks from the shadows and invites Nicodemus to look & wonder at the mystery of how The Wind of...

July 13th, 2025 | Inés Velásquez-McBryde | 1 Corinthians 13:1-8a The Holy Spirit orients us towards love in 1 Corinthians 13 - a chapter traditionally preached at weddings, but situated smack in the middle of spiritual gifts. What does love have to do with the Spirit? How is love central to a life empowered by the Spirit? Keywords: Holy Spirit, Love, Ligament About: The Church We Hope For is a bel...

July 6, 2025 | Nicola Patton | 1 Cor 12:14-27 Throughout the biblical text, from start to finish, the necessity of community is obvious in myriad ways. From the Old Testament laws and through the stories, all the way to the Gospels and letters, God is continually showing us the need for community - with each other and with the triune God. Paul's letter to the Corinthians uses the image of a bo...

June 22, 2025 | Armando David Scott-Canchola | Matthew 7:2-14 Pastor Armando introduces Our Being & Becoming series, by exploring the foundations of Dr. King’s vision of The Beloved Community and how Jesus invites us invites us into this way of being and becoming in His inaugural sermon on the mount. Keywords: Beloved Community, Civil Rights, Cross-shaped Love, Golden Rule, Radical Inclusion,...

June 15, 2025 | Inés Velásquez-McBryde | Acts 2:42-47, Isaiah 61:1-4 The calling of the new community in Acts was fueled by the Spirit for the purposes of the Spirit. The Spirit redraws the boundaries of all who are welcome. In these difficult times in LA as we see an escalation of violence against our immigrant community, now more than ever we need a church activated by a bold and wise Spirit. Ke...

June 8, 2025 | Michael Shetler | Acts 2, John 14:26-27 Acts 2 illustrates three key aspects of the Holy Spirit’s presence: how it arrives, is responded to, and ultimately lived out. A notable emphasis in Acts 2 is on the Holy Spirit’s availability to all people, including those who are often overlooked or marginalized. Additionally, we see an “inside-out” dynamic at work, where the Spirit first tr...

June 1, 2025 | Krystin Bruan | John 20:24-28 We encounter Thomas not as a doubter, but as a grieving disciple who shows us that asking questions is not a sign of weak faith, but of honest, embodied, and persistent belief. His story gives voice to all who have felt left out, questioning whether they still belong. In Thomas’s holy hopelessness, we are invited to see that our wounds posture us to beg...

May 11, 2025 | Inés Velásquez-McBryde | John 21:12-17 About: The Church We Hope For is a beloved community moved by the Spirit to follow the life, love, and justice of Jesus. For more information, visit our website ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.thechurchwehopefor.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ . Follow...

May 4, 2025 | Inés Velásquez-McBryde | Matthew 19:13-14, Mark 10:13-16, Luke 18:15-17 Jesus centers the children and informs everyone within earshot, including us, whether you’re a parent or not, that children belong and blesses them. He invites them, carries them, lifts them up, and welcomes them in his presence. He rebukes anyone who keeps children from coming towards and finding belonging in Je...

April 27, 2025 | Nicola Patton | Luke 24:28-33 On the road to Emmaus, two disciples encounter Jesus without recognizing him. It is not until they sit at a table with him that they understand who has been walking with them. The same is true of us: Not all who wander are lost; Jesus is with us on our journeys. It is at tables where we can find real belonging and recognize the face of Jesus. Keywords...