WestGate Church Teaching

Joy isn’t just the main character in Pixar’s 2015 animated classic INSIDE OUT. It’s also what we long for, and often, something we feel is deeply missing in our day-to-day life. Can our lives really be infused with joy no matter what our circumstances? How can we get joy? Does it require conditions to be perfect? And why is it so elusive? Jay Kim stops by to talk about Paul’s letter to the Philipp...

Life is not easy. Especially not in the Bay Area. And if we’re honest, the stresses of daily life - especially here in Silicon Valley - can not just overwhelm us, but trap us in the doldrums of malaise. So we increase the amount of entertainment or stimulation in an attempt to feel something - but this can have the reverse effect on us: making us numb to life. So...how can we live with joy? Real,...

In our modern world that elevates individualism, a truth that often goes entirely missing is just how much our lives can impact other people. We affect one another far more than we’d like to admit. And the modern mantra of “privatism” which says “mind your own business and don’t interfere with other people and the way they choose to live their lives” sounds good, but it doesn’t work in real life....

Truly complex problems require us to be people committed to both patient love (grace) but also making sure that we arrive at the correct answer (truth). This is difficult, but the alternative is not good. As author Randy Alcorn once wrote, “Truth without grace breeds self-righteous legalism…grace without truth breeds moral indifference.” But in the Scriptures, we see that Jesus isn’t full of grace...

Naseem Khalili joins David Tieche for a fun and lively discussion about singleness, desire and what to do when life doesn’t work out like you’d dreamed. We talk about how unfulfilled longings can lead to deep disappointment with life - and even with God. We talk about how the Psalms of Lament can help pave the way for healing. And Naseem shares some practical things that married folks can do to pr...

Being single in a world that idolizes romantic love - and often sends messages that life really only begins once you’ve met your soulmate - can often make navigating this season of life challenging. And the fact is, whether you’re single or not - having unmet or unrealizead dreams and desires is painful. And the longer you’re in longing, the more difficult it gets. Naseem Khalili shares about her...

Our guest, Joshua Ryan Butler, joins David Tieche for a frank and pointed discussion about sex and gender featuring questions from our congregation. If the Creation story shows how the pairing of male and female (marriage) reflects the intended whole of Creation, then what do single people reflect? Are they incomplete? A sun without a moon? If everyone is “fearfully and wonderfully” made - then ex...

In recent years, the question of gender and biological sex - not someone’s sexuality or sexual attraction but a person’s internal sense of self and the social expression of that - has become a cultural flashpoint. What does it mean to be “male” or “female”? Is it fixed, or chosen by an individual? Does a person’s biological sex even matter? And what does God think about all this? In this talk, aut...

The Christian sexual ethic has historically been one of the more contentious and contested ideas in our cultural moment. What does the Bible actually say about sex? How is it the same as what our culture says, and how is it different? Is sex really reserved only for straight, married couples? If so, what does this mean for those folks who are teens and young adults, who are a part of the LGBTQ+ co...

There’s no topic more confusing or contested in our culture than the topic of sexuality. This week, Jay Kim joins David Tieche to dive in. Sexuality is obviously a part of what it means to be human, but how big a part of our identity should it be? What are some ways that Christians talk about sex and sexuality that are reductionist, or incomplete or even harmful? Is a church merely having a non-af...

This week starts the beginning of our five-week series called Wonderfully Made, which WestGate Church is doing in coordination with several other Bay Area churches. In this week’s episode of The AfterWord, Jay Kim (lead pastor of WestGate Church), Filipe Santos (lead pastor of Echo Church) and Phil Eubank (lead pastor of Menlo Church) talk about the genesis of the Wonderfully Made Sermon Series, w...

There is a common misunderstanding today, even among Christians, that human beings are primarily souls who happen to have bodies. Or, go to any gym and you’ll see contradictory messages of both idolizing the body AND simultaneous hatred of the body. Sometimes in the same person! But the Biblical story makes clear that from the beginning, to be human is to be a body. And this is a good thing. Being...

The Ancient Greeks and Romans told stories of ambrosia, the mythical food of the gods that granted immortality to all who ate it. And we modern folk are obsessed with bio-hacking our bodies and diets, for the sake of longevity. But while the ancients wanted to defy death, and we Bay Area folks want to delay it, the story of Jesus is how one person defeated death. And the implications of this show...

As Jesus is dying on the Cross, He yells out “My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?” This is one of the more famous sayings of Jesus, if only because of the anguish behind it. Is God forsaking Jesus? How can that be? This is no mere physical death: this death is also a separation from Himself - a tearing apart of Jesus’ eternal identity. But Jesus is not merely saying words of pain - that line...

After Jesus dies, Matthew writes that the curtain in the temple was torn, a detail he finds incredibly significant, but which might seem bizarre to us. What’s up with this curtain? Why is God ripping it up? Is God upset at His interior decoratingand design? What’s going on? Jay Kim stops by to chat about the implications of this moment in Matthew 27, not just theologically, but what it means for u...

Author and researcher Brené Brown defined shame as “the intensely painful feeling of being unworthy of love or belonging.” There are not *some* people who deal with feelings of shame and others who escape this. We *all* deal with this. David Kim stops by to form an-all-David podcast in which we talk about how shame shows up in our lives, how it’s the same and slightly different in men and in woman...

One of the most famous parts of the story of Jesus’ death is that His friends completely fail Him. Most famously, Jesus’ lead disciple, Peter, makes a valiant pledge that he would never deny Jesus, and then, mere hours later, does exactly that three times. There’s much to this story. Matthew is showing us that we all overestimate our own goodness. But Matthew is always showing us the steadfast and...

Matthew’s account of Jesus sweating blood in anxiety in the Garden of Gethsemane is an exceptional detail and a stunning moment. Newly minted Pastor Emeritus Steve Clifford stops by to talk about this exceptional passage, what it reveals about Jesus’s interior life with God, how Jesus’s moment is different than ours, and how it’s the same, and what lessons about life, grief, and pain we can learn...

On the night before He was killed, Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane. There we find Jesus distraught and more anxious than He has ever been. He is experiencing deep, agonizing grief and anxiety. But facing a brutal death isn’t the only thing happening - Jesus is going to pay for and bear the weight of humanity’s sin. And yet, in the midst of anxiety and uncertainty, Jesus embodies faithfulness...

The Last Supper is one of the more important moments in the story of Jesus, memorialized not only in art but also in the life of the church (through the taking of communion). But familiarity sometimes is our enemy of seeing things clearly - and often, we don’t take the time to listen or reflect on not only what Jesus was saying to His disciples at the Last Supper, but how He was forming them. Jesu...

The Gospels tell us that Jesus “came to seek and save the lost” - but then later on also tell us that He came “eating and drinking.” Meals play a big role through the story not only of Jesus, but the whole Bible. So why is that? Is God a foodie? Or is there something more going on. Mark Averill stops by to chat with David about the transformative power of meals, why the Last Supper is more than a...

Nobody likes to hang out with arrogant people. Nobody. And we love stories when “important” people are kind and humble. We even say they’re “down to Earth.” But what does it practically mean to be humble? Jay and David talk through professor Daryl Van Tongeren’s research into the three Universal features of humility (from his book Humble), and talk about how Jesus not only models these, but how li...

In the Book of Matthew, the scene of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem is a pivotal moment. This moment, traditionally celebrated the week before Easter on Palm Sunday, is sometimes called “the triumphal entry.” This moment is leading to the central moment in human history, Jesus’ death and resurrection. But this opening scene is one of victory and kingship…is not really that “triumphal.” In fact, it’s...

Description: David sits down with Keivan Tehrani and Finny Abraham to discuss what it means to be a global Christian with an eye on the worldwide movement of God. How do you not get overwhelmed by the global need? Also, Keivan shares stories from this past year from our missionary partners across the globe. We also talk about some of our missionaries who have the most dangerous assignments in Afgh...

After a terrible, horrible, no-good very bad week, David invited his three friends from the Compassion Team to help shift his perspective and bring back joy. And it works! Keivan, Finny and Lily stop by to share stories about what God is up to in the world for Week 1 of Compassion Immersion 2024. The team also thoughtfully answers some important clarifying questions, like “Why do we stop and pause...