We live in a world filled with noise. Between music and media, traffic, lawn care, construction, people (and more!) we experience barely a moment of silence in our regular routines. It entertains, it distracts, it fills our days, and it prevents us from hearing what we would hear if we could experience some moments of silence: the sounds of creation, the thoughts in our heads, and the voice of God in our souls. What if, instead of drowning in noise, we learned to celebrate the silence? What if, ...
May 10, 2020•23 min•Ep. 316
Martin Luther once wrote that we ought to "Work as though everything depends on us, because it does. But pray as though everything depends on God, because it does." Because of our wealth and privilege, for most of our lives we have had no trouble living by the first half of Luther's encouragement: working as though everything depends on us. But that's where it has stopped. We have been functional atheists: professing a belief in God, but living in a way that proclaims that we don't really need G...
May 03, 2020•28 min•Ep. 315
How many of us find ourselves constantly bombarded with news and social media posts that feel disproportionately tilted towards bad news? Pay too much attention and you can be overwhelmed by sad reports, scary predictions, and depressing statistics which shapes how we understand the world and our lives. We need a different pair of lenses to look through to process reality. What if, instead, we could learn to see our world through God-shaped lenses? What if our understanding of reality could be s...
Apr 26, 2020•21 min•Ep. 314
Conventional wisdom says that "You can't teach old dogs new tricks," that once we've developed the ruts of our lives, those ruts pretty well dictate who we are and what we become. But what if we could break out of those ruts? At a moment where we are rethinking even our most basic routines—when to buy groceries and how to engage in recreation—what if we chose to rethink our spiritual routines as well? In a moment of rebooting our lives to survive the coming months, what would it look like for us...
Apr 19, 2020•26 min•Ep. 313
An early Sunday morning that changed the course of human history; that is what we celebrate at Easter. There's no weekend more significant in the life of the church, so we invite you to join us for a celebration of the resurrection of Christ and our new life in Him. We'll sing songs of hope, hear stories of faith and transformation, celebrate new decisions through baptism, and be challenged to consider how this one event can change everything for us. We invite you to join us this Easter Sunday a...
Apr 12, 2020•20 min•Ep. 312
Good Friday is an opportunity to reflect, contemplate, and embrace the significance of Jesus's death on the cross. It's a chance to appreciate his loving sacrifice through song, scripture and the Lord's Supper. It is an invitation to come and belong, a reminder that Christ is no stranger to suffering and a celebration of gift of new life that flows from His death. We invite you to join us on Good Friday at 10:00am at ALL Southridge locations as we encounter the welcome, comfort, and freedom that...
Apr 10, 2020•12 min•Ep. 311
The Novel Coronavirus is literally sweeping through every area of life. It is spreading all across the globe, and touching every area of life. It is affecting us physically, socially, emotionally, and relationally. And, for many if not all, it is affecting us financially. Whether it is the extra expenses incurred to manage our daily lives, the loss of work because of social distancing or self-isolation, or the plunging of the stock markets, jeopardizing people’s savings and retirement, most of u...
Apr 05, 2020•22 min•Ep. 310
Many people don’t like surprises. Most people struggle with change. Even those who enjoy change, only enjoy it when they are fully in control of every aspect of it, when it is something they’ve chosen for themselves. NOBODY likes the kinds of changes that have been thrust on us over the last couple weeks: broad, sweeping, terrifying changes on an unknown timeline, disrupting our lives in unpredictable ways, confronting us with an uncertain future. How do we live in the light of this kind of unce...
Mar 29, 2020•20 min•Ep. 309
The world is a different place than it was even a week ago, with rules and protocols changing sometimes by the hour.. The Coronavirus (or COVID-19) has transformed the social and psychological landscape of our culture, changing our patterns of behaviour, reorganizing our priorities, and introducing new phrases into our collective vocabulary: social distancing, flattening the curve, and community spread. But how do we live in a state of emergency without giving into a state of fear? How do we not...
Mar 22, 2020•21 min•Ep. 308
What comes to mind when you think of a typical Sunday morning church service? Perhaps you think of it like a classroom where you learn about God, or a concert where you sing along with your favourite songs, or maybe even a pep rally where you get inspired to change the world. But what if the weekly church gathering was meant to be more like a gymnasium - a place to work out your faith, exercise your beliefs and practice what is preached? How would our lives be different if that's how we chose to...
Mar 15, 2020•34 min•Ep. 307
From time to time, every family needs to come together for a family meeting to clear the air, address conflict , and re-establish family rules and values. As Paul concludes this section of his letter to the Galatian church, he calls a time out and gets personal with them. And taking our lead from him, we are going to do the same. Join us this Sunday for a family meeting as we hear God's heart for our church family.
Mar 08, 2020•33 min•Ep. 306
It's said that you can pick your friends, but you can't pick your family. But that's not entirely true, at least, not when it comes to adoption. In adoption, people who may not otherwise get to experience family are given the gift of being chosen. And it comes with the promise of being a "forever family" together. What does it mean to be adopted into our spiritual family? What difference does it make to know that we were "chosen"? Discover why all of us matter in God's family!
Mar 01, 2020•37 min•Ep. 305
Some family members are "born into" more privilege than others. Parents shouldn't, but often act as though they have favourites. Firstborns are often entrusted with the most leadership. The babies are often showered with the most privilege. (The middles always get forgotten. Always.) Yet, somehow they are all supposed to be family, especially within the family of faith. So how do we do that? How do we live together given that we are all so diverse, given that some of us are more privileged than ...
Feb 23, 2020•33 min•Ep. 304
Every good family has a set of rules, written or unwritten, that structure family life and embody the family values. As the kids grow into adults, they may leave the specific rules behind but their goal is to still model the family values in their own way. Does that happen in our spiritual family as well? Is there a difference between following the "family rules" in the Bible and following Jesus? What is the role of the Bible in the life of faith?
Feb 16, 2020•34 min•Ep. 303
If you know the parents, it can often be pretty easy to see the family resemblance in the lives of the children. As the saying goes, "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree." But we all know people who don't fit the family mold, who don't look like the others or follow the family rules. Sometimes its hard to imagine that they really are from the same family. When it comes to our spiritual family, what is it that makes us family ? What is the one family trait that guarantees that we all belong?...
Feb 09, 2020•37 min•Ep. 302
Hopefully all of us, regardless of our experiences with our biological families, had people who were "family" to us. Think about your best times with the people you called "family," those "laugh until you cry" moments, the best family times, the memories you wouldn't trade for anything. How did those moments happen? What made them so special? Those same kinds of moments happen with our spiritual family, and our heavenly Father too. How do those memories happen? And how do we make more of them?...
Feb 02, 2020•32 min•Ep. 301
Getting by on your own seems fine when you're getting by, but when life throws a curve ball we all need someone who has our back. What if we related in such a way that there would be people who are there for us when we need it most, and that would call us when they needed it as well? What would it look like to love together -- toward one another, with one another, and beyond one another -- for a world that desperately needs it?
Jan 26, 2020•28 min•Ep. 300
Weather, sports, and gossip: they're the conversations that consume us. We may long for friendships and confidants to process the deeper things, but most of us find ourselves skimming across the surface. But what if we could invest in relationships where no question is off limits? What if we could explore life and faith in community, learning to put it into practice? What if we had people who cared so much we even learned to pray together?
Jan 19, 2020•33 min•Ep. 299
Fast food: it's the epitome of a culture with no time to eat. And whether you hit the drive thru or not, most of us live at a pace with no room for "slow cooking." But relationships need time and space -- like a home-cooked meal -- to mix, mingle, and be savoured. So how can we overcome busyness that blocks relationship? What can we do differently to make space for friendship? How might learning to eat together feed more than our stomachs?
Jan 12, 2020•37 min•Ep. 296
Fast food: it's the epitome of a culture with no time to eat. And whether you hit the drive thru or not, most of us live at a pace with no room for "slow cooking." But relationships need time and space -- like a home-cooked meal -- to mix, mingle, and be savoured. So how can we overcome busyness that blocks relationship? What can we do differently to make space for friendship? How might learning to eat together feed more than our stomachs?
Jan 12, 2020•27 min•Ep. 298
Fast food: it's the epitome of a culture with no time to eat. And whether you hit the drive thru or not, most of us live at a pace with no room for "slow cooking." But relationships need time and space -- like a home-cooked meal -- to mix, mingle, and be savoured. So how can we overcome busyness that blocks relationship? What can we do differently to make space for friendship? How might learning to eat together feed more than our stomachs?
Jan 12, 2020•31 min•Ep. 297
Some might say we live in the age of connection, with advancements in technology and vast social opportunities making it easier than ever to connect. But whether we're scrolling through Instagram or standing in a crowd, the data tells us that individualism and isolation are at an all-time high. Is this how things are meant to be? Are we destined to just fend for ourselves? What would it look like to be better together?
Jan 05, 2020•35 min•Ep. 295
As 2019 draws to a close, what can we learn from the year that was? How has God grown us, challenged us, and inspired us to experience more of the life we were created for? Are we in the same place we were a year ago, or have we been shaped into a greater, more loving and grace-based reflection of Jesus? And what will it take to step into 2020 with a clearer vision for God's heart?
Dec 29, 2019•18 min•Ep. 294
Christmas is a magical time, and everything we see adds to the excitement: Christmas lights up and down the streets, trees and decorations filling people's homes, parties filled with the loving faces of family and friends. For kids, from the colourful paper wrapping the gift to the stocking hiding Christmas treats, from the little doors of an Advent calendar to seeing Santa at the mall, there is no end to the wonder of the sights and sounds of Christmas. But what if it is not in the visible wond...
Dec 24, 2019•15 min•Ep. 293
We are called to be ambassadors of hope: to right wrongs, heal hearts, bring peace to chaos, love to the excluded and mercy to the broken. But what does it really take to make the most of our one and only lives? How far can we really take this journey of living on the redemptive side of history? As a community that has become convinced that the best of life is only experienced when we live beyond ourselves, where will God take us if we continue to ask "What's the BEST that could happen?"
Dec 08, 2019•33 min•Ep. 289
It's easy to feel paralyzed by the problems of our world, helpless to make any real difference or affect any lasting change. It's one thing to become aware of devastating oppression and injustice all around us. But once your heart has been gripped by reality of pain and the urgent need for change, is there anything we can actually do about it? How can big problems like these get solved by individual people like us?
Dec 01, 2019•24 min•Ep. 290
It's a classic story. "I never really gave it much thought, until it happened to someone I love." We can so easily walk through life, surrounded by some of the greatest tragedies and injustices, and somehow remain blissfully unaware. Cancer, poverty, sexual violence, bullying... these are all just hypothetical concepts until they come knocking on our door. But how can we be people who don't wait for it to happen to us or someone we love, before we start to care?
Nov 24, 2019•36 min•Ep. 291
You don’t have to look too hard to see how that our world is in crisis. Endless wars, sexual violence, modern day slavery, addiction, depression, debt, disease, from chronic homelessness to hollow materialism, political infighting and environmental emergencies are all bubbling over. But what if the pain, struggle and hopelessness all around us is actually the prime opportunity for God to do His best work in us?
Nov 17, 2019•35 min•Ep. 292
From the world of fashion, music and art to food, technology and design, there’s a common axiom that drives excellence: less is more. Words like simplicity and minimalism have come to define beauty, success and quality. But when it comes the gospel, could it be true that the quality of our faith experience is directly related to the quantity of things we make it about. Spiritually speaking, what if less is actually more? And what subtractions do we need to make in order to experience the additio...
Nov 10, 2019•32 min•Ep. 288
From how we celebrate Christmas and birthdays to who sits where at the dinner table, human beings are hard-wired to embrace traditions. Traditions are our link to the past, they remind us who we are and that we're connected to each other through shared memories and experiences. But are all traditions worth preserving? How do you know when tradition and the truth are at odds? What do we do when “what we’ve always believed and done” actually gets in the way understanding the gospel of grace?...
Oct 27, 2019•32 min•Ep. 287
