Ward Church Podcast

In this first message in the New Year, Dr. Scott McKee invites us to reflect on our complicated relationship with “stuff” and to ask a deceptively simple question: who really owns it? Drawing from 1 Chronicles and the story of King David, Pastor Scott explores how possessions can quietly shape our fears, identities, and sense of security—and how Scripture offers a freeing alternative. David, once...

In this Christmas message, Rev. Sean Carroll invites us to pause and ask a simple but vital question: do we truly know who we are celebrating? Drawing from John 1 and the creation story in Genesis, Pastor Sean helps us rediscover Jesus not only as the baby in the manger, but as the eternal Word—our Creator and the true Light of the world. Through relatable stories and vivid imagery, we’re reminded...

In this Christmas message, Dr. Scott McKee invites us to reflect on the deep human longing for home—and how that longing points us to the heart of the gospel. Through the familiar childhood game of hide-and-seek, Pastor Scott explores how “home” represents more than a place; it embodies belonging, security, and hope. Yet life has a way of unsettling those foundations through grief, broken relation...

As the year draws to a close, Dr. Scott McKee invites us to reflect on why peace feels so hard to find and what kind of peace Jesus truly brings. Grounded in the prophetic promises of Isaiah and Micah and fulfilled in the birth of Christ, Pastor Scott explores three essential truths about God’s peace. First, Jesus brings peace not after chaos ends, but right in the middle of it—revealing a presenc...

In this Christmas message, Rev. Nicole Unice invites us into a deeper reflection on what it truly means to honor God’s Son when life feels heavy, expectations go unmet, or the season doesn’t match the sparkle around us. Drawing from Matthew 2 and the story of the wise men and King Herod, she explores how the arrival of Jesus reveals two very different responses to power: one rooted in control, fea...

On All Play Sunday, Mark Ordus invites the whole church family to consider what God wants for Christmas—and it’s more than quick fixes. Drawing from Matthew 1:21 (“…he will save his people from their sins”) and the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:22–24), Mark contrasts our “make it work” prayers with God’s deeper desire to restore us to relationship. A lighthearted Nintendo Wii mishap sets the stage: we oft...

As Advent begins, Dr. Scott McKee invites us to look beyond our Christmas wish lists and consider what God might want this season. Drawing from Isaiah 9:2—“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light”—Pastor Scott traces the story of light through Scripture, from creation to Christ, revealing that God’s answer to a dark world is His own radiant presence. Jesus not only declared, “I am t...

Over forty days we’ve asked what it means to love like Jesus. In this closing message, Dr. Scott McKee turns to 1 Corinthians 13:7—“Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres”—and shows how enduring love is forged in real life, not theory. Through a tender moment from a recent wedding and the hard-won perspective of his own ongoing health journey, Pastor Scott names the c...

In our final session, Dr. Scott McKee gathers the threads of 1 Corinthians 13 and shows how love lasts for the long haul: “It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” When our own energy runs thin or our affection feels ordinary, Pastor Scott offers three simple, sustaining practices: remember your mission (you were created to love God and people—trophies and reputations f...

This week, Rev. Terence Gray invites us into the hard, holy work of forgiveness as we linger over Paul’s line: “Love keeps no record of wrongs.” With disarming honesty and vivid stories, Pastor Terence shows why forgiveness always feels controversial and complicated—especially when the wound is close to home—and why Jesus’ call to forgive “seventy times seven” isn’t a formula but a doorway into gr...

In this lesson, Rev. Terence Gray tackles the quiet poison of bitterness and shows why gospel-shaped forgiveness is the only path to lasting relationships. With Esau and Jacob’s reunion as a vivid picture and Ephesians 4:32 as our anchor, Pastor Terence invites us to drop the cup of resentment so our hands are free to receive and give love. Forgiveness isn’t denial or weakness—it names the wrong t...

This week, Rev. Nicole Unice helps us look honestly at where we really are on the journey of love as she unpacks one short but searching line from 1 Corinthians 13: “Love is patient… it is not easily angered.” Nicole shows that this passage isn’t just wedding poetry—it’s a picture of deep spiritual transformation. Together, we explore a simple framework for locating our own hearts (asleep, resista...

In this week’s lesson, Small Groups Director Sarah de Jong invites us to practice the long-fused, mercy-soaked patience of 1 Corinthians 13. Drawing on Moses’ story in Exodus and Jesus with the woman caught in adultery (John 8), Sarah shows that God’s patience isn’t passivity—it’s holy restraint: “merciful and gracious, slow to anger,” yet committed to justice in His time. Patience, she explains,...

In this week’s message, Dr. Scott McKee continues our journey through 1 Corinthians 13 with a stirring reflection on the simple yet searching phrase, “Love does not envy.” With wisdom both pastoral and deeply personal, Pastor Scott invites us to confront how comparison steals joy, gratitude, and connection—and how love, rightly rooted, restores them. Through Jesus’ parable of the vineyard workers...

In this lesson, Dr. Scott McKee explores why genuine love refuses pride and keeps no running tally of rights or wrongs (1 Corinthians 13). Drawing on Philippians 2 and James 4, Pastor Scott shows how Jesus’ self-emptying humility becomes our pattern for everyday relationships. We’ll learn four practical practices: prefer others (even when the “faster line” opens or when someone else gets first cha...

Rev. Terence Gray and Ashley Gray team up to teach “loving with your words,” showing how our tongues can be a wildfire or a warming hearth. Drawing from James 3, Pastor Terence warns that a single spark—gossip, sarcasm, a cutting email—can burn down trust, while cold silence can freeze a relationship just as surely; the goal isn’t “no fire,” but Spirit-guided, contained fire. Ashley then anchors t...

In this second lesson of Loving Like Jesus: A 40-Day Journey, Rev. Terence Gray helps us see that our words have extraordinary power—the power to heal or to wound, to build up or to tear down. Through vivid illustrations and practical wisdom, Pastor Terence reminds us that loving like Jesus means speaking truthfully, carefully, and encouragingly. Drawing from Proverbs 18:21 and Ephesians 4, he off...

Dr. Scott McKee continues our 40-day “Loving Like Jesus” journey by walking through 1 Corinthians 13 with five surprising “shock treatments” for the church: love outranks ecstatic gifts, surpasses biblical knowledge (and home-run sermons), is preferable even to mountain-moving power, and outshines dramatic vows of poverty or martyrdom. Pastor Scott shows how Corinth had elevated secondary things—a...

What if love isn’t just something you feel, but something you learn? In Lesson 1 of Living Like Jesus: A 40-Day Journey, Dr. Scott McKee invites us to see love as a skill we can grow through practice and intention. Drawing from 1 Corinthians 13 and the life of Jesus—the ultimate relationship master—we’ll discover why love is the highest calling, the best use of our lives, and the only thing that t...

Dr. Scott McKee opens our new church-wide journey, “Loving Like Jesus,” by asking a piercing question: What is your dominant life principle? Scripture’s answer is clear—“Follow the way of love” (1 Cor. 14:1). Pastor Scott lays the foundation for forty days of growth with three big truths: we love because God first loved us (1 John 4:19); love is an action, not just an emotion (“Let us not love wit...

Dr. Scott McKee concludes our “Living the Five” series with a tender and challenging word on Audacious Generosity—rooted in the God who loves and holds us. Beginning with the wonder of meeting his newborn grandson, Pastor Scott explores how unearned love naturally opens the hand: “I am loved, I am held.” From there he takes us to 2 Corinthians 8, where Macedonia’s “overflowing joy + extreme povert...

Rev. Terence Gray continues our “Living the Five” series with Global Reach—the conviction that God loves people of every nation and neighborhood, and that the church crosses barriers because Christ first crossed them for us. Opening with a true “find my iPhone” rescue, Pastor Terence asks: if we’ll go to great lengths for a phone, how far will God go for a person? Rooted in Genesis 12’s promise th...

In this week’s Living the Five series, Mark Ordus, Director of WardStudents, unpacks the call to Extra-Mile Hospitality through the lens of Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan. With humor and cultural touchpoints—from Saved by the Bell to Chick-fil-A—Mark helps us see how natural it is to form tribes and circles of belonging, yet how radical Jesus’ teaching was to a people accustomed to drawing l...

In week two of our Living the Five series, Dr. Scott McKee turns to the value of Thoughtful Theology, exploring what it means to love God with all our mind. Drawing from Jesus’ words in Mark 12 and Deuteronomy’s Shema, Pastor Scott shows why Jesus’ addition of “mind” is a radical and essential call for disciples today. Through Scripture, theology, and everyday illustrations, we learn five key insi...

On Kickoff Sunday, Dr. Scott McKee begins our Living the Five series with a focus on Healthy Families, showing how God designed the family as His primary place for nurture and discipleship. Pastor Scott walks us through the story of Isaac and Rebekah (Genesis 24–27), revealing both the beauty of covenant love and the pain of favoritism, comparison, and dysfunction. From this story, we learn what e...