Our current series, the Empowering Presence, is focused on the Holy Spirit. One of our primary goals was to clear up misconceptions about the Holy Spirit. It seems like most Christian traditions bring some unclear pictures and ideas about the Holy Spirit. We would like to invite you to listen to Pastor Darren, as he takes an intentional approach to revert some lies that we might believe about the Holy Spirit.
Oct 21, 2018•45 min•Ep. 469
"Here as in Heaven." For more information visit : garden.church
Oct 14, 2018•38 min•Ep. 468
There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Yet, we all tend to have narratives that we believe and perceive about ourselves and others that say otherwise. These narratives model what Paul writes in Romans about the polarizing life that we live as Christians. We have to live either by the Spirit or by the flesh. We have to choose life or death. The only way to live this free life in Christ is by being filled with the Spirit and living the life that God designed for us to live in ...
Oct 07, 2018•32 min•Ep. 467
The Holy Spirit doesn't come to just be a marker of salvation. He comes in order to reorient our identities to the truth that we are in Christ. Through the Spirit, our whole lives are reconstructed, started with our identities. It is out of our identities that we live out of. When we live out of our proper identities in Christ, we then truly live out of the abundant inheritance that the kingdom of God offers. Listen as Pastor Darren leads us further into our series, the Empowering Presence.
Sep 30, 2018•35 min•Ep. 466
Francis Chan referred to the Holy Spirit as the "forgotten God." As we continue through our series, the Empowering Presence, we wanted to do a survey of the Holy Spirit in order to introduce ourselves to the fullness of this person of God. Pastor Bill took us through the Old and New Testament to get an overarching idea of what role the Holy Spirit plays. This summary allows us to take our first steps into a healthy understanding of the wonder and majesty of the third person of the Trinity.
Sep 23, 2018•40 min•Ep. 465
Who is the Holy Spirit? What does he do? Why do we need him? There is a lot of mystery around God, but even more so when it comes to the Holy Spirit. We started a new series that is all about the Holy Spirit. Listen as Pastor Darren lays out the vision of what it would look like for us to be a churched fully filled, driven, and influenced by the Holy Spirit.
Sep 17, 2018•40 min•Ep. 464
Jesus shows us how to love. As we wrap up our series on Emotional Healthy Spirituality, Pastor Bill urges us to lean into Jesus model in love. Christians are called to look like little Christ's and part of that is shaping the way that we interact with ourselves and each other. Jesus shows us the risk and the weight of truly loving one another. Jesus' words were, "by this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another" (John 13:35). Listen as we try to understand what this ...
Sep 09, 2018•39 min•Ep. 463
Gief and loss are normal in a broken world. We cannot expect to travel through our lives without experiencing hurt. Jesus acknowledges that, and even teaches us how to handle the emotions when dealing with grief and loss. Listen as Bill Dogterom helps us address our emotions, and how to give them to Jesus in order to live fully transformed lives.
Sep 02, 2018•42 min•Ep. 462
"Here as in Heaven." For more information visit : garden.church
Aug 29, 2018•29 min•Ep. 461
There is a heaviness in the air at Garden Church, and it has been felt in our relationships, workplaces, and our homes. Pastor Darren took a break from our Emotionally Healthy Church series to address the spiritual warfare that our church has been feeling. There is a lot of uncertainty when it comes to the spiritual battles that we are constantly facing, and we are thankful for our Pastor equipping us to move on and fight!
Aug 27, 2018•43 min•Ep. 460
What happens when we believe that we can transform lives, renew cities, preach the gospel, bring forth the kingdom, reign in heaven on earth on our own? Disaster. When left to our own devices humanity can and will run itself into the ground. It is because on our own we aren't enough. You are not enough, but Jesus is. How can we learn to root our identities in Christ, so that we may bring life? Listen as our friend, Megan Fate Marshman, walks us through the miracle of the feeding of the five thou...
Aug 19, 2018•45 min•Ep. 459
"Here as in Heaven." For more information visit : garden.church
Aug 12, 2018•45 min•Ep. 458
No one is perfect. While most people believe that, we still put on a perfect version of ourselves out into the world so that people can't see our flaws. However, just because we avoid our brokenness doesn't mean it stops existing. It is our brokenness that will corrupt us from the inside out unless it's brought to light so that it may be exposed. Pastor Bill continues our Emotionally Healthy Spirituality series by teaching us the necessity of "living in brokenness and vulnerability," in order to...
Aug 06, 2018•42 min•Ep. 457
Pastor Bill continues our series "Emotionally Healthy Spirituality" by talking about "generational sins." It doesn't matter if we come from a healthy or a dysfunctional family, but we adopt sins from our families. Jesus gives a model on how to be emotionally healthy apart from our family of origin, but it doesn't come from ignoring our upbringing, but allowing God to redeem it.
Jul 29, 2018•39 min•Ep. 456
We are not just a body, nor are we just a spirit. We are souls, a product of both spirit and body. Each soul is made of five parts: spiritual, social, intellectual, physical, and emotional. This is a core understanding as Pastor Bill begins our newest series, Practicing the Way of Jesus: Emotionally Healthy Spirituality, which focuses on the emotional aspect of being truly human. As he pulls from Pete Scazerro's book Emotionally Healthy Spirituality, Bill teaches us the necessity of truly dealin...
Jul 22, 2018•37 min•Ep. 455
How does it look like for disciples of Jesus to live in the 21st century? We can easily burn out trying to keep up with the Joneses and lose our identities as children of God in the midst of it. Guest Speaker, Dave Lomas, teaches us how we can match our hearts and minds to Jesus by just leaning back. This is a key journey for us to take so that we can take the essential steps to be with Jesus, to become like Jesus, and do what Jesus did.
Jul 16, 2018•43 min•Ep. 454
t is getting more and more difficult to be a follower of Jesus in our current culture. The system that we are currently living in is designed for disciples to fail. If left unchecked, we can easily get overwhelmed and discouraged to even continue down the path to holiness, spiritual maturity, and purity. Listen as Pastor Darren gives us a call to respond to this time by praying and fasting.
Jul 07, 2018•40 min•Ep. 453
Out of all of Jesus' ministry, the disciples asked Jesus to teach them one thing, "teach us to pray." The church has identified this teaching as the Lord's Prayer. Pastor Darren began an analysis of the Lord's Prayer last week and was joined by Michael Petrila this week as they co-taught the rest of the Lord's Prayer. We learned why it is so important to adopt the template that Jesus lays out, and how it not only forms our prayer life but it forms our spiritual journey with God.
Jul 02, 2018•51 min•Ep. 452
Pastor Darren continues our series Practicing the Way of Jesus: Prayer by dissecting the Lord’s Prayer. The more we understand the template of the Lord’s Prayer, the more vibrant our prayer lives will be. Join us as we dive into prayer, in order to get to know the heart of the Father.
Jun 24, 2018•41 min•Ep. 451
For Father's Day we had our friend Pastor Chris Weinand speak on the role of a father in a child's life. Children experience the truth of the Lord's Prayer and the picture of the Father in heaven by the reality experienced by a father's parenting. This is also a call for us to reshape and acknowledge the false realities we may have experience from the parenting that we have received. As we pray the Lord's Prayer, let us reshape our view of the Father, and reshape our parenting as mothers and fat...
Jun 17, 2018•43 min•Ep. 450
We are entering back into our Practicing the Way of Jesus series, and we are starting with the discipline of prayer. However, before we start dissecting the why and how we pray, Pastor Bill answered one of the primary questions about prayer, "what about unanswered prayer?" We may get constantly discouraged about prayer because of prayers that do not get answered, but the truth is that our prayers do get answered just not how we usually expect them to.
Jun 10, 2018•31 min•Ep. 449
"Here as in Heaven." For more information visit : garden.church
Jun 03, 2018•29 min•Ep. 448
This Sunday we had a guest speaker, Todd Proctor, who led us through Acts. Todd observed three stories of how God works through the church in unexpected people, in unexpected ways, in unexpected places. This is crucial because the stories in Acts are precursors to the stories that we are now invited to participate in, presently.
May 27, 2018•37 min•Ep. 447
"Here as in Heaven." For more information visit : garden.church
May 20, 2018•39 min•Ep. 446
Though there are many Mary’s mentioned and named throughout the New Testament, the story of Mary Magdalene is a powerful one. While there is mystery and rumors surrounding this character, we can glean truth from the scriptures about Mary’s character. Pastor Bill introduces us to the woman who led the female disciples that funded Jesus’ ministry, the woman who stayed at Jesus’ feet as he was being crucified, and the woman who encounters Jesus’ outside the empty tomb. Listen to find out what happe...
May 13, 2018•29 min•Ep. 445
This week, Pastor Darren teaches out of Luke 4:14-21. This text deals with Jesus proclaiming the Year of Jubilee, and what was God's socio-economic and political vision for his people. Through Jesus, a new reality breaks through for the poor, oppressed, and outcast here and now. We are invited to join Jesus in bringing this upside-down kingdom through our lives. We see this reality through the story of the rich young ruler and the blind beggar contrasted with the most controversial story of Zacc...
May 06, 2018•44 min•Ep. 444
As Peter was walking by the gate called Beautiful, he encountered a lame man who was asking for money. Peter offered to heal the man, and he began to walk. Acts then continues to cover stories of Peter and the rest of the Apostles doing what Jesus did. However, Peter didn't begin with these highlights of success. Pastor Darren walks us through Peter's rough and bumpy discipleship with Jesus and offers us a model of what we can expect in our own walks with God.
Apr 29, 2018•44 min•Ep. 443
What happens when a ceremonial unclean leper that has been ostracized and rejected his whole life encounters Jesus? The law and the system are turned upon their head by the Way of Jesus. God breaks systems that oppress and reject, all in pursuit of love. That is God's heart, and in Jesus' interaction with the Leper we see God's love put on display.
Apr 22, 2018•35 min•Ep. 442
Encounter is a series about what happens when ordinary people experience and extraordinary God. This week Pastor Darren shared his story about how his 9-week healing process of two torn ligaments was cut short by a miraculous healing. This story was a precursor to the Encounter story that the paralytic man and his friends had with Jesus. Listen this week as we hold on to the truth that God wants to give us faith that is renewed every day as we continually encounter God through our everyday ordin...
Apr 15, 2018•50 min•Ep. 441
In our year-long series, Practicing the Way of Jesus, we are taking a break post-Easter to focus on the person of Jesus and what it means to encounter him. Pastor Bill helped start off this mini-series properly entitled Encounter: When Ordinary People Experience an Extraordinary God. We began by walking with the disciple known as Doubting Thomas. Bill helped us understand what it means to walk with Jesus in the midst of doubt, skepticism, and confusion while being moved in faithfulness.
Apr 10, 2018•32 min•Ep. 440
