Wingfoot Church

Life is hard, and when life is hard we carry sorrow, a deep emotional weight within us. But the world and often the church can tell us we need to keep going, keep growing, keep having faith which leaves us feeling stuck in our sorrow unable to talk about it, maybe even considering walking away all together. That was Jesus' concern for his disciples. They had a Palm Sunday view of God - that God is...

Most religions have in their origin story someone having a connection to God - Abraham on a mountain, Buddha achieving enlightenment, Joseph Smith seeing a vision. The problem with every religion, however, is that that connection to God is private and temporary, leaving later followers to have to build a religion around the founder to get back to that connection. When Jesus is talking with his dis...

We have a hard time with obedience. In our culture right now the idea of obeying someone other than yourself is even considered oppressive. But when Jesus says "if you love me, you will obey me," he's not as concerned about what we do as much as he's concerned about why we do it. The root of obeying Jesus is trusting in the love of Jesus. And his love is the most trusthworthy love you'll ever find...

In John 14:27, Jesus tells his followers he is giving them a peace different than what they can find in the world around them. The peace around us is often based on a lack of trouble around us. But what Jesus offers us is a peace greater than our circumstances - a peace that comes from knowing that God overcame everything for you. This changes how we face trouble, both now and forever.

What is eternal life? Everyone has some opinion. Religion will provide some answers, but Jesus defined it for us. Eternal life is knowing God through him. If that's what eternal life is then it's accessible to us right here, right now, not just when we die.  In John 14:15-26, Jesus says he won't leave his followers orphans but will adopt us into his family. We can experience in Jesus a family...

We tend to only share parts of ourselves with others - our work self with co-workers, our family self at home, our friend self when we're out with friends. But this leaves us unknown and with parts of our lives that no one sees. It's in these places that hypocrisy can grow - where we present as one person but in reality we're someone else. The Letter to Philemon challenges us to put all of our liv...

Who has power and how are they using it? This is a big question people outside the church are asking. It's also a question the Bible and the Letter to Philemon have good answers to. In Philemon, Paul names the power that he has over Philemon, yet he chooses to use that power, not to force Philemon to do something, but to challenge Philemon to give up his power over Onesimus who has no power. The w...

What good is Christianity for how divided our world is? Rather than creating division, the way of Jesus challenges the definitions of worth and value that are assigned to people and offers us a true way to be united in the midst of our differences - by following in the footsteps of Jesus who bridged the greatest gap possible.

What good is Christianity? In a world facing increasing division, economic disparity, and racial tension, it seems like Christianity is more of a problem than a solution to our problems. But in the letter to Philemon, we find that at the heart of the mission of Jesus is a community that is committed to truth-telling, reconciliation and unity. In order to experience this kind of community, we have...

We're often too distracted to appreciate that we have a greater need in life. We are disconnected with what we're really feeling and what we really need. But when we do finally wake up to our need, we realize that nothing can really satisfy that need so we're left wanting. Is there any way we can truly be satisfied in life? Psalm 34:8 invites us to "taste and see that the Lord is good" - to experi...

It's possible to serve others but really be serving ourselves. We do it for the likes, the resume, to look good. But Jesus doesn't serve others in that way. In Mark 7, Jesus gets close to a man who is hurting, healing him privately so he doesn't become a spectacle. As Jesus gets proximate to those who are hurting and serves them personally, they become open to who he really is. In the same way as...

 In Mark 2, Jesus calls Levi, a political traitor and morally questionable character to become his disciple and immediately takes him to a party at his own house surrounded by his equally questionable friends. Jesus says this is his whole mission: to invite sinners to dinner with him. And the way he accomplishes this mission is by taking characters like Levi - and us - outcasts, morally quest...

The idea of talking to someone about what you believe can be pretty intimidating. But what if sharing Jesus wasn't about a sale pitch or a set of canned questions but about sharing your life with others? What would it look like if we lived out the way of Jesus right where we live? In the next three weeks we're looking at how Jesus shared his life with others and what it looks like for us to do the...

Sometimes it feels like God is social-distancing from us. That feeling you get when you end a video call with a friend or family member can be what it feels like when you leave church or find yourself in a hard spot in life. God is out there, but at a distance. In fact that was the picture people got of God in the Old Testament. He was there, but you could only see and experience God through layer...

The legend of Santa Claus - this guy who lives up north with lots of helpers watching over everyone, keeping a list of who's good and who's bad - sounds kind of like what some people think of when they think of God. And it kind of works. He's not too overbearing or over-involved in our lives, just there when we have a list of things we need.  But how do you know if you're on the nice list or...

In a normal year this time of year might give us a chance to reconnect with family around the table. This year is different, but we still long for a place like family where we know we'll belong and where our seat at the table is secure no matter what. John tells us that he's writing his account of the life of Jesus so that we might see that is "the Son of God." He uses this picture of family to te...

You probably have some idea of what Christmas is all about - whether it's from Linus telling you in the Charlie Brown Christmas Movie or from driving past nativity scenes in the neighborhood with shepherds and angels and sheep. It's kind of cute. In John's story of the life of Jesus, he skips all of that and gets right to the heart of the most important question: who really is this kid in the mang...

Chances are you've tried to change something about yourself before. Maybe you succeeded somewhat, maybe you failed, but either way it was probably difficult. That's the point Jesus is making in John 15 when he says "apart from me you can do nothing." Using a picture of vines and branches, Jesus says that it's only by being connected to him that we can do anything good. So what does it take to be c...

Christianity has a reputation for being an exclusive religion - only a few people get to go to heaven. That's what Jesus seems to be saying in John 14. But what if Christianity isn't as exclusive as you might think? Whether you are religious or non-religious, you have some idea of what heaven is all about and chances are, it involves some people being in and some people being out. Jesus, on the ot...

As much as we try to ignore it, we can't avoid suffering and death. And in the middle of suffering we're left wondering why it seems like God has abandoned us. But in John 11, we see Jesus offering us a different hope - his presence in the midst of our pain. He weeps with us, knowing our pain and heartache. But we also see his power over the grave - that we live because he takes our grave for us....

There are a lot of voices fighting for our attention, especially in the middle of an election. How do we know which voices we can trust? In John 10, Jesus uses the example of a shepherd and sheep to caution us about putting too much trust in two voices - the thief and the hired hand. The thief will hurt us and the hired hand will abandon us. But only a good shepherd sticks with his sheep. And that...

In scary movies darkness is always dangerous and light is always the hope. In John 8, Jesus calls himself "the light of the world" and in his teaching exposes our true need: not just to become better people, but to be set free. And when we are set free by his light, we are free to tell the truth and love the truth that he came to show us.

When life feels overwhelming we need hope to hang on to. In John 6, Jesus is surrounded by a crowd with needs. He meets their immediate needs but also invites them to experience the solution to their deepest need - to experience life through him. Through Jesus, we no longer have to fear death which frees us to face the challenges of life in the confidence of knowing that God is for us.

The Rolling Stones said it best: can't get no satisfaction. We're all looking to be truly satisfied in life. We keep going back to wells - places or people we think will bring us find happiness, contentment, or fulfillment. But they leave us wanting more. In John 4, Jesus meets a woman in just this place in life. And what he offers her is not another well, but a way to be truly satisfied by knowin...

If you spend time with religious people, they might use some weird phrases you don't understand. "Born again" is one of those phrases. But it's an important one because it comes directly from Jesus in John 3:1-21. In fact, Jesus says "you must be born again." But what does it mean to be born again? How does it happen and how do you know it's happened to you?