Westside Church Podcast

From the series, "Forgive and Forget?" Part 1 with Dave Stimers. Is it healthy to forgive and forget? Why should we forgive at all? Forgiveness is not easy and the process is often misunderstood. What are we actually attempting to do when we forgive? Forget? Or is it something more powerful than that?

Special message on building a culture of prayer at Westside with John Latta. Praying is simply us talking and God listening; God talking and us listening. Yet for many of us, prayer is a hard practice to understand. With the insights of Christie Latta and Steve Cox, we are going to look at a variety of aspects of prayer. They will help and encourage us as to how we can develop individually and bec...

From the series, "Centring Jesus." Part 5 with Dave Stimers. Why do we centre Jesus in our faith? Because when Jesus is at the centre, everything else comes into focus. In this message, we talk about how Jesus reveals to us who God is and how He gives us access to His Spirit.

From the series, "Centring Jesus." Part 4 with Dave Stimers. Jesus taught his followers not to respond to violence with violence. He taught a non-violent approach to dealing with conflict of all kinds. That doesn’t always seem practical, especially when we’re confronted with real evil in the world. What do we do with this kind of teaching when it seems so impractical?

From the series, "Centring Jesus." Part 3 with Dave Stimers. Politics and religion are among some of the most cringe-worthy topics for so many people. When the church has engaged in politics the results have often been tragic. That’s why placing Jesus at the centre is so important. Jesus was and is very political, just not in the way many of us might think.

From the series, "Centring Jesus." Part 2 with Dave Stimers. The Bible can be a dangerous book. Depending on how it has been interpreted it has been used to welcome, forgive, and encourage but also to hurt, condemn, and oppress. What if the key to understanding how to read the Bible starts with placing Jesus at the centre of it all?

From the series, "Centring Jesus." Part 1 with Dave Stimers. What does Jesus mean when he tells his followers to take up their cross and follow him? What kind of religion is that? Why would anyone be willing to do that? The answer might be more powerful and compelling than you expect!

Special New Year's message from Pastor Dave Stimers. Have you made new year's resolutions? The truth is that most of us who set goals in the new year, end up giving up pretty quickly. That can be discouraging, but there are actually some reliable steps that you can take to see a big difference in your life this year. Also, toward the end of the message, we share an exciting update on the results o...

Join Christie and John Latta for a short message to begin 2023. Help us prayerfully consider what is next for our church this year. We are all invited to spend time with God by ASKING, LISTENING then SHARING what God is revealing to each of us, so we corporately discern our next steps as a church family. After you listen, visit westsidehamilton.com/2023 to share with us!

Christmas Eve message from Pastor Dave Stimers. IMMANUEL means God with us. God with us means that God is FOR us. "The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world" (John 1:9). We hope you enjoy our Christmas Eve message - as the waiting of Advent ends and the celebration of Christmas really begins!

From our Advent series, "Worth Waiting For" with Dave Stimers. Advent is the season leading up to Christmas. It is a time in which we wait and anticipate, a time of longing while we look for God to show up. It reminds us that even when things aren’t perfect Jesus brings us hope, love, joy, and peace. The fourth week of Advent focuses on peace. Peace is a popular theme that we celebrate at Christma...

From our Advent series, "Worth Waiting For" with Guest Speaker, Steve Cox. Advent is the season leading up to Christmas. It is a time in which we wait and anticipate, a time of longing while we look for God to show up. It reminds us that even when things aren’t perfect Jesus brings us hope, love, joy, and peace. The third week of Advent focuses on joy. Why is the Christmas message so full of joy?...

From our Advent series, "Worth Waiting For" with Dave Stimers. Advent is the season leading up to Christmas. It is a time in which we wait and anticipate, a time of longing while we look for God to show up. It reminds us that even when things aren’t perfect Jesus brings us hope, love, joy, and peace. The second week of Advent focuses on love. Christmas is a joyful time, but it’s also a tough seaso...

From our Advent series, "Worth Waiting For" with Dave Stimers. Advent is the season leading up to Christmas. It is a time in which we wait and anticipate, a time of longing while we look for God to show up. It reminds us that even when things aren’t perfect Jesus brings us hope, love, joy, and peace. The first week of Advent focuses on hope. Today we’re hearing from Arlene and Cliff Martz, fo...

From the series, "God Has a Name." Part 5 with Dave Stimers. In the last week of this series, we are going to focus on the name of Jesus and discover what that tells us about God, His purposes, and even about who we are.

From the series, "God Has a Name." Part 4 with Dave Stimers. It is often said that our culture is becoming less religious. In a sense that’s true and yet everyone worships something. Even if we claim not to be religious or to believe in ‘God’, ultimately we all place our trust in someone or something. The question isn’t whether we worship, but who or what do we worship?

From the series, "God Has a Name." Part 3 with Dave Stimers. In a world full of needs, it makes all the difference to know that God is our Provider. He sees our needs and He will see to our needs. In week three of this series, we'll explore God as Yireh: God provides, gives us everything we need, and walks with us.

From the series, "God Has a Name." Part 2 with Dave Stimers. “God” is a very generic term, but the scriptures actually give us a very personal name that reveals a lot about who God is and what He’s like. In week two of this series, we'll explore God as Yahweh: God IS, the ground of being, our very life.

From the series, "God Has a Name." Part 1 with Dave Stimers. “God” seems like a very generic term that means many things to many people. In the opening pages of the Bible, we discover one of the foundational characteristics of who God is. In week one of this series, we'll explore God as Elohim: creator, sustainer, and being made in His image.

A special Thanksgiving message with guest speaker, Dr. Isaac Odame. Thanksgiving is a great time of the year. An opportunity to express gratitude to God and/or people for all the good things we have received individually and as a family. But what about the bad things we have experienced? And after Thanksgiving is over, how can we continually show gratitude in our attitudes and behaviours?

From the series, "This Year’s Going To Be Different." Part 4 with Dave Stimers. Sometimes the rhythms of our lives can seem mundane. The minutes and hours that make up our days can seem so ordinary, and yet, all of us have special moments in our lives - moments that are packed with meaning and significance. One of the great invitations in our spiritual lives is to open our eyes to see those divine...

From the series, "This Year’s Going To Be Different." Part 3 with Dave Stimers. One of the most important areas of our lives is often also one of the most neglected: our friendships. Why do so many of us feel disconnected and what can we do about it? If you want a rich life, you need to invest in relationships.

From the series, "This Year’s Going To Be Different." Part 2 with Dave Stimers. How would you define a great life? Jesus gives us a counterintuitive definition. We take a look at what that is and discover a filter that can help us order our lives around true greatness!

From the series, "This Year’s Going To Be Different." Part 1 with Dave Stimers. As parents, we spend a lot of time trying to teach our kids to be more like us - to grow up! There are some obvious ways that are important but in other ways, perhaps that’s not such a good thing. If we’re honest, we probably don’t want our children to adopt our stress levels or propensity to worry. Maybe instead of tr...

From the series, "Order. Disorder. Reorder." Part 3 with Dave Stimers. Religion that stays superficial is dangerous. It is far too easily converted into a joyless, judgmental, and hypocritical disposition. There’s a much healthier way to live out our faith but we have to start at the foundation. God builds big things through small acts empowered by His Spirit.