Ann Arbor Community Church Sermon Podcast
Ann Arbor Community Church is a multi-ethnic, multi-generational Christian community rooted in a centered-set approach to faith. We blend the vibrant faith of the historic Christian creeds with a thoughtful, engaged response to today’s culture. Whether you are filled with faith, full of questions, or somewhere in between, you belong here. https://a2communitychurch.org
info_outline
Out of Egypt - The Burning Bush
10/12/2026
Out of Egypt - The Burning Bush
Out of Egypt: The Burning Bush - Pastor Hannah Witte - . Watch our livestream Sundays @ 11:00am - Summary: What if the questions “Who am I?” and “Where do I belong?” are ultimately answered not by what we accomplish, what others think of us, or where we come from, but by the God who comes to us and calls us by name? In Exodus 3, Moses encounters the God who sees his people's suffering, speaks into his identity, promises His presence, and invites him to participate in God’s work of liberation and redemption. Like Moses, we may feel disoriented, inadequate, or unsure of what God could possibly do through us—but God keeps pointing us back to his sufficiency rather than our own. As we learn to notice where God is coming to us, receive our identity as God’s dearly loved children, and respond to the calls He places before us, we discover that even the broken places in our stories can become places through which God’s love reaches the world. As she shares her own testimony of God's love bringing her healing, Pastor Hannah boldly challenges us to not look away, remember who(se) we are, and to not delay if God's given us a call.
/episode/index/show/a2vineyard/id/43260678
info_outline
Out of Egypt - Getting Egypt Out of Moses
10/05/2026
Out of Egypt - Getting Egypt Out of Moses
Out of Egypt: Getting Egypt Out of Moses - Pastor Donnell T. Wyche - . Watch our livestream Sundays @ 11:00am - Summary: This Sunday we come to Moses. Not the baby in the basket and not the man at the burning bush, but the man in between, who sees something and does not know what to do with what he has seen. Exodus 2:11-25 is built on one verb, to see. Moses watches his people at their hard labor, sees an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, looks this way and that, and kills the man. Pharaoh spent a generation teaching Egypt not to see the Hebrews as human, and Moses sees through it. The question the passage asks is not whether Moses sees. It is what he does with what he has seen. What he does is answer injustice with the tools of the house he was raised in: violence, done in secret, by someone with power, after checking who was watching. His own people are the first to say so: "Who made you ruler and judge over us?" Nobody sent him, and seeing an injustice is not the same as being sent. Then Moses is afraid, the same word the midwives used, pointed in the opposite direction. He runs to Midian, defends seven daughters at a well without looking over his shoulder, and names his son Gershom, "a foreigner in a foreign land." Moses is the first person in this book to get out of Egypt, and look at what he carries out with him: the fist, the secret, the fear. Getting out of Egypt is one thing. Getting Egypt out of Moses is going to take a long time, and it happens first to the man who will lead everyone else out. The chapter ends with a king dying and nothing changing, because Pharaoh is a system, and then God becomes the subject of four verbs: God heard, God remembered, God saw, God knew. When Stephen retells the story in Acts 7, he says that this same Moses they rejected is the one God sent. God never prosecutes Moses. God calls him. The sermon then turns to us, in a country where nobody can say anymore that they did not see, and names two Egypts: the Moses who meets injustice with the empire's own rage, and the Moses who flees to a well where the groaning cannot reach him. Name your Egypt. Trust the God who heard, remembered, saw, and knew, and who sends the very people who ran. And take another step toward becoming the people God is forming.
/episode/index/show/a2vineyard/id/43185148
info_outline
Out of Egypt: Part 3
09/28/2026
Out of Egypt: Part 3
Out of Egypt: Part 3 - Jonathan Hurshman - . Watch our livestream Sundays @ 11:00am - Summary: Jonathan Hurshman brilliantly walks us through Acts 6:1-7, exploring how the ways of Pharaoh are still showing up thousands of years later in how the church takes care of its most vulnerable. He points out how giving power away to the least powerful brought some of the most powerful, the priests, into the community of Jesus followers. The apostles defy Pharaoh's ways by sharing power, refusing to separate, and charting a course of mutuality. Following Jesus is indeed the good life, but it is not the easy life. Jonathan challenges us to practice discomfort for the sake of loving each other across our differences and prioritizing unity.
/episode/index/show/a2vineyard/id/43060218
info_outline
Out of Egypt: Who Will You Fear?
09/21/2026
Out of Egypt: Who Will You Fear?
Out of Egypt: Who Will You Fear - Pastor Hannah Witte - . Watch our livestream Sundays @ 11:00am - Summary: In Exodus 1:15-2:10, we meet women who refuse to let fear determine who they obey, what they see, or how they live—and through their faithfulness, God protects life and moves his story forward. We, too, are invited to become people whose deepest allegiance is to Christ, so that the fears, powers, and pressures around us no longer get to decide who we become. Freedom is not the absence of fear; it is becoming so close to Jesus and so immersed in his way of seeing the world that fear no longer determines what we do or who we embrace. As we pay attention to God, repent of the ways “Egypt” has found its way into us, and take the next faithful step from our own location and with our own limits, we trust God to weave our faithfulness together into something larger than any one of us could see.
/episode/index/show/a2vineyard/id/42975028
info_outline
Out of Egypt: Introduction
09/14/2026
Out of Egypt: Introduction
Out of Egypt: Introduction - Rev. Donnell T. Wyche - . Watch our livestream Sundays @ 11:00am - Summary: This sermon opens the fall series Out of Egypt, in which we read Exodus alongside Acts. Exodus is the story of God freeing a people from empire and teaching them to trust; Acts is the story of that same God pouring out the Spirit and forming a new family that crosses every border. Why tell the story of a people held in captivity? Because getting out of Egypt is one thing; getting Egypt out of you is the work of a lifetime. Pharaoh, who is never named in the story, represents the powers of empire: fear, greed, violence, material wealth, and scarcity, and everyone in the story is confronted with the same choice, empire or God. Every week this fall we will return to one invitation: Name your Egypt. Trust the God who brings you out. And take another step toward becoming the people God is forming. The heart of the sermon is Exodus 1:1-14, read slowly as a plan that unfolds in four phases. First, Pharaoh attacks the nation’s memory: a new king comes to power “to whom Joseph meant nothing,” refusing to remember that Egypt is standing because of a refugee, which is exactly where Stephen begins his own retelling in Acts 7. Second, he misrepresents the Hebrews to exploit social divisions, teaching his people to “look” at their neighbors as a threat over a betrayal that had not happened. Third, he enforces division through forced labor, building store cities for a king who had all the grain in the world and still believed there was not enough. Fourth, he institutionalizes it as a caste system, bitter labor in brick and mortar with no rest for anyone, not even for Pharaoh. God is not named anywhere in these fourteen verses, and yet “be fruitful and multiply” is still running underneath Pharaoh’s feet: the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied. The sermon closes by looking at the fear behind the plan. Pharaoh’s anxiety is fear of the future, and it asks him to partner with evil today to prevent tomorrow’s evil, what the sermon calls a demonic imagination, against which God invites us to a prophetic imagination of liberation, peace, healing, and jubilee. Then the text turns and looks at us: forget the ones who saved you, teach the people to see their neighbor as a threat, build the warehouses. It is read from the good book, not the newspaper, but the pharaohs are not only out there. There is a pharaoh of fear, of scarcity, and of exclusion in each of us. The invitation stands: name your Egypt, trust the God who brings you out, and take another step. God is not named in these verses, but God is not absent. God is in the “And.” God is in the multiplying. And next Sunday the story reaches the delivery stool, where God is finally named in the hands of two women who decided they were not afraid of Pharaoh.
/episode/index/show/a2vineyard/id/42898730
info_outline
Waking Up: Our Vision
09/07/2026
Waking Up: Our Vision
Waking Up: Our Vision - Pastor Hannah Witte - . Watch our livestream Sundays @ 11:00am - Summary: What happens when we move through life—or even our faith—on autopilot? What does it cost us? Others? In Ephesians, we’re invited to wake up to God’s presence and the beautiful vision God has been unfolding for centuries: a people being transformed by Jesus, learning to belong to one another across differences, and living with freedom, joy, and boundless generosity. Pastor Hannah explores how we can move from simply going through the motions to becoming more awake to what God is already doing in us, among us, and around us. There are several directions we're heading as a church community to press into our vision and move toward God's dreams together this year. We'd love for you to take a step with us toward becoming all God made us to be.
/episode/index/show/a2vineyard/id/42827070
info_outline
Prodigal: The Merciful Father
08/24/2026
Prodigal: The Merciful Father
Prodigal: The Merciful Father - Pastor Donnell T. Wyche - . Watch our livestream Sundays @ 11:00am - Summary: After three weeks with the younger son and the older son, this sermon turns to the one character in the parable who never gets a name: the Father. The sons are the mirrors; the Father is the point. Jesus tells this story, along with the lost sheep and the lost coin, in answer to the Pharisees’ complaint that he welcomes sinners. They say exclude the lost; Jesus reveals a Father whose heart is a picture of pursuit, with a party thrown at the end. And if “prodigal” means recklessly extravagant, it is the Father, in his mercy, who is the truly prodigal one. The first thing the story shows us is a Father whose love does not hold anyone hostage. Asked for the inheritance, he lets his son go because he would rather have a son who is free to leave than a prisoner who stays. The heart of the sermon is Luke 15:20 and its six verbs, every one of which belongs to the Father before the son has said a word. He saw him because he had been watching the road every day. He was filled with compassion, not anger. He ran, something no dignified man in that world would do. He covered his shame, meeting the boy on the road so he would not have to walk the village’s gauntlet of contempt alone. He threw his arms around him: the son deserved punishment and received an embrace instead. And he kissed him while the rehearsed speech was still in the boy’s pocket. The embrace and the kiss are forgiveness offered before repentance is spoken; the Father forgives first, and the confession comes second. When the son does begin his speech, he never finishes it. The Father interrupts his repentance with mercy and calls for the robe, the ring, the sandals, and the feast. The Father then leaves the house a second time, going out to the older son, who refuses to come in. He does not defend himself or argue about fairness; he pleads. He is entitled to justice from both sons and collects it from neither because, as Paul says, it is God’s kindness that leads us to repentance. The sermon closes by asking about our picture of God, which A. W. Tozer called the most important thing about us. If God is a master to be served, we will live like the older son—in the house but never at the party. If God is a creditor waiting to collect, we will stay in the far country. But if you have been the younger son, the Father is already running. If you have been the older son, the Father is standing in the yard with you. You can stop behaving like a servant because you were always a son. The prayer is simple: Give us the Father Jesus gave us, whose love for us is unrelenting.
/episode/index/show/a2vineyard/id/42563505
info_outline
Prodigal: The Older Son
08/17/2026
Prodigal: The Older Son
Prodigal: The Older Son - Pastor Hannah White - . Watch our livestream Sundays @ 11:00am - Summary: In the second week of our Prodigal series, we step into the story from the perspective of the older son. While the younger son’s rebellion is loud and obvious, the older son’s lostness is quieter—comparison, jealousy, entitlement, and a transactional relationship with his father. Jesus reveals that both sons have misunderstood their father's nature, and both are invited home by a father whose love cannot be earned. The father’s words to the older son—“My son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours”—invite us to let go of our report cards and receive the gift of being God’s beloved daughters and sons. Pastor Hannah calls us to allow God's imagination to change us. What would it look like to become a people who celebrate rather than compare, repair relationships rather than keep score, and make room at our dinner tables for people who look, think, and live differently from us?
/episode/index/show/a2vineyard/id/42464345
info_outline
Prodigal: The Younger Son
08/10/2026
Prodigal: The Younger Son
Prodigal: The Younger Son - Martha Balmer - . Watch our livestream Sundays @ 11:00am - Summary: Martha Balmer kicks off our three part series sitting in the story of the Prodigal Son, focusing on the experience of the youngest son. Martha brilliantly highlights how the greater the distance one is from God, the more profound the experience of God’s mercy, love, and grace upon return—and consequently the greater one's security in that love, not to mention the greater the love, gratefulness, joy that wells up for God. When entitlement has no place in our hearts, then everything is a gift. Martha's preaching invites us to see this parable with fresh eyes and a soft, humble heart.
/episode/index/show/a2vineyard/id/42379370
info_outline
Psalms: Psalm 42 - Gasping
08/03/2026
Psalms: Psalm 42 - Gasping
Psalms: Psalm 42 - Gasping - Pastor Donnell Wyche - . Watch our livestream Sundays @ 11:00am - Summary: Have you ever been thirsty in a way that water couldn’t fix? Psalm 42 opens with a deer gasping for streams of water and a poet honest enough to admit that their whole self, not just the polished Sunday version, is running dry. In this sermon, Rev. Donnell Wyche explores one of Scripture’s most honest prayers: a lament that moves between despair and hope without pretending either one away. Along the way, we encounter two Hebrew words that deepen our understanding of this psalm. Ar’gah, often translated as “pants,” more accurately means “gasps”: audible, physical, desperate. And nephesh, commonly translated as “soul,” refers to the whole embodied self: your breath, your life, your very being. Psalm 42 reminds us that every part of who we are is welcome before God, including our grief, our confusion, and the questions we would rather keep hidden. When the taunt comes, “Where is your God?”, the psalmist doesn’t answer with certainty or strength. They answer with thirst. In a time when faith is often measured by volume, Psalm 42 offers a quieter, deeper vision: faith that is rooted enough to bring its longing honestly before God. You don’t have to stop being thirsty to come. You just have to come.
/episode/index/show/a2vineyard/id/42301280
info_outline
Psalms: Psalm 117
07/27/2026
Psalms: Psalm 117
Psalms: Psalm 117 - Pastor Hannah Witte - . Watch our livestream Sundays @ 11:00am - Summary: Psalm 117 is the shortest psalm in the Bible, yet it carries truth that could transform the way we live. In a world that trains us to hurry, scroll, and stay distracted, Pastor Hannah explores how slowing down before God opens us to the unfailing love and enduring faithfulness that have always been available to us. Through Scripture, honest stories, and moments of quiet, Pastor Hannah invites us to discover that praise isn't something we manufacture—it becomes the natural response to encountering the God who never stops loving us. What if your wounds and failures weren't places to hide, but places where you could meet God's love most deeply? As we honestly bring our grief, shame, and everyday struggles into God's presence, the walls we've built begin to come down, our identity is rooted in Christ instead of being self-made, and we're renewed to love our neighbors with freedom and compassion. Receiving God's love isn't just for our sake—it's how God forms a people who carry his kingdom into their homes, neighborhoods, schools, detention centers, and cities.
/episode/index/show/a2vineyard/id/42226525
info_outline
Psalms: Psalm 10
07/20/2026
Psalms: Psalm 10
Psalms: Psalm 10 - Jonathan Hurshman - . Watch our livestream Sundays @ 11:00am - Summary: In this series, we are inviting the Psalms to speak a prophetic word to us. This week, after witnessing two more murders at the hands of ICE, we sit with Psalm 10, a very honest psalm of lament that calls on God to move in the face of injustice. Jonathan preaches that Psalm 10 instructs us to pray with honesty, to pray for God's action, and to pray banking on hope in God's character. He reminds us that this Psalm is not juxtaposing the good and evil, but rather the oppressor and the oppressed. Jonathan challenges us to remember that at times we might be the oppressor who needs sidelined. In conclusion, he simply has us pray Psalm 10, letting the Scripture powerfully speak for itself.
/episode/index/show/a2vineyard/id/42154850
info_outline
Migrant Journeys: Mary, Joseph and Jesus
07/13/2026
Migrant Journeys: Mary, Joseph and Jesus
Migrant Journeys: Mary, Joseph and Jesus - Pastor Hannah Witte - . Watch our livestream Sundays @ 11:00am - Summary: Pastor Hannah concludes our Migrant Journeys series by inviting us to sit with Jesus' story of fleeing to another country due to violence and hatred. Christ was a refugee. Through Matthew 2, we follow Mary, Joseph, and Jesus as they flee Herod's threats of violence, placing their story alongside the stories of migrants today. Together, they reveal a Savior who doesn't remain distant from suffering but enters into it himself. If Jesus identifies with the stranger, how should his people respond? Pastor Hannah casts a vision for lives marked by courageous compassion rather than fear, inviting us to see the image of God in our fellow neighbors and to prayerfully discern our next faithful step toward embodying Christ's love, mercy and justice in our right here, right now life.
/episode/index/show/a2vineyard/id/42058075
info_outline
Migrant Journeys: The Syrophoenician Woman
07/06/2026
Migrant Journeys: The Syrophoenician Woman
Migrant Journeys: The Syrophoenician Woman - Pastor Donnell T. Wyche - . Watch our livestream Sundays @ 11:00am - Summary: This sermon continues the Migrant Journeys series by examining Jesus’ encounter with the Syrophoenician woman in Mark 7:24–30 and Matthew 15:21–28. Unlike the previous stories in the series, the movement is reversed: Jesus is the one who crosses into Gentile territory, becoming the stranger, while the woman is at home in her own land. Yet despite being on her own soil, she must cross ethnic, religious, political, and gender barriers simply to stand before Jesus and plead for the life of her daughter. The sermon should invite the congregation to see the story through her eyes rather than through the perspective of the disciples. The sermon should resist the temptation to soften or explain away Jesus’ difficult words. Instead, it should linger in the tension of the passage, recognizing the painful reality of exclusion and dehumanization that immigrants, refugees, and marginalized people have experienced throughout history. The Syrophoenician woman refuses to accept the boundaries placed around her dignity. With remarkable courage and wisdom, she answers Jesus’ metaphor with one of her own, and Jesus receives her words, praises her faith, heals her daughter, and demonstrates that the kingdom of God is breaking beyond the boundaries people had assumed were permanent. The sermon should conclude by turning the question toward the church today. Rather than asking only what this woman teaches us about faith, it should ask where we still draw lines that Christ has already erased. Connecting Isaiah’s vision of God’s house for all peoples, Paul’s declaration that Christ has broken down the dividing wall of hostility, and Jesus’ teaching that welcoming the stranger is welcoming Christ himself, the sermon should call the congregation to repentance, hospitality, and courageous love. The final invitation should leave listeners reflecting on a single question: Where have I been drawing a line that Jesus is asking me to let go of, and whose dignity is waiting on the other side of it?
/episode/index/show/a2vineyard/id/41976355
info_outline
Migrant Journeys: Naomi and Ruth
06/29/2026
Migrant Journeys: Naomi and Ruth
Migrant Journeys: Naomi and Ruth - Pastor Hannah Witte - . Watch our livestream Sundays @ 11:00am - Summary: What does loyal love look like when life falls apart? In this sermon from the book of Ruth, Pastor Hannah invites us to walk alongside Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz as they navigate famine, migration, loss, and uncertainty. In the midst of a violent and broken world, they choose hesed—God's loyal, faithful love—again and again, discovering that small acts of courageous love can become the very places where God brings redemption. Their story ultimately points us to Jesus, God's hesed in the flesh, who entered our broken world, refused self-protection, and gave himself for us. As we receive Christ's faithful love, we're invited to become people who embody that same love in our ordinary lives, trusting that God uses everyday faithfulness to prepare us for moments that lead to redemption.
/episode/index/show/a2vineyard/id/41870360
info_outline
Migrant Journeys: Joseph
06/22/2026
Migrant Journeys: Joseph
Migrant Journeys: Joseph - Pastor Donnell T. Wyche - . Watch our livestream Sundays @ 11:00am - Summary:
/episode/index/show/a2vineyard/id/41725750
info_outline
Migrant Journeys: Hagar
06/15/2026
Migrant Journeys: Hagar
Migrant Journeys: Hagar - Pastor Hannah Witte - . Watch our livestream Sundays @ 11:00am - Summary: In week two of our Migrant Journeys series, we sit with Hagar—a woman whose story is marked by displacement, exploitation, and loss. Stripped even of the name her mother gave her, Hagar flees into the wilderness where she encounters El Roi, the God Who Sees. God pulls up a chair, listens to her story, and reminds her that she is more than the labels others have placed on her. Hagar's story invites us to remember that every person is an image bearer with immeasurable worth. What if we became people who see as God sees? This sermon invites us to trust that the God who saw Hagar sees us too—in our grief, our longing, and our wilderness seasons. And as we experience being fully seen and fully loved by God, we may find ourselves transformed into people who pull up a chair, truly care about honoring others' dignity, and help cultivate belonging wherever we go.
/episode/index/show/a2vineyard/id/41653045
info_outline
Migrant Journeys: Abraham and Sarah
06/08/2026
Migrant Journeys: Abraham and Sarah
Migrant Journeys: Abraham and Sarah - Pastor Donnell T. Wyche - . Watch our livestream Sundays @ 11:00am - Summary: This sermon reads Genesis 12 as a migration story, following Abraham and Sarah from the inside as displaced people rather than as tidy heroes of faith. It traces their uprooting from the safety of clan and homeland, their flight to Egypt driven by famine, and the cost of their vulnerability there, where a frightened Abram hands Sarai over to Pharaoh to save himself. The turn comes in God’s quiet intervention on Sarai’s behalf: even when no human being is advocating for the powerless woman in Pharaoh’s house, God sees her, and that faithfulness does not depend on Abraham getting it right. Reading through the lens of Karen Gonzalez’s The God Who Sees, the message presses the congregation to set down sanitized retellings, recognize God’s persistent attention to the foreigner and the unprotected, and let that same gaze reshape how they see migrants and strangers today.
/episode/index/show/a2vineyard/id/41573610
info_outline
Anchored: Life at the Center - United
05/18/2026
Anchored: Life at the Center - United
Anchored: Life at the Center - United - Pastor Donnell T. Wyche - . Watch our livestream Sundays @ 11:00am - Summary: In Anchored: Life at the Center – United (1 Corinthians 12:15-31), Paul confronts a Corinthian church fractured by gift rivalry, social hierarchy, and the same individualism that defines our own age, insisting that we are not merely like the body of Christ but actually are it: divinely placed, mutually dependent, and incomplete on our own. He exposes the absurdity of going solo, a foot disowning the body because it is not a hand, and the lie of self-sufficiency, the eye telling the hand, “I don’t need you.” Paul reveals the upside-down economy of God’s kingdom where the seemingly weaker parts are indispensable and the overlooked are given greater honor. Listing “helping” alongside apostleship and miracles, Paul dismantles the spiritual ranking system and points beyond competing gifts to the “most excellent way,” love, where gifts exist to build up the body rather than elevate the self. The invitation, sealed at the communion table, is to surrender our illusion of completeness, embrace honest interdependence, and discover that the life that is truly life is found anchored in Christ and united with one another.
/episode/index/show/a2vineyard/id/41332290
info_outline
Anchored: Resting in Prayer
05/11/2026
Anchored: Resting in Prayer
Anchored: Resting in Prayer - Pastor Hannah Witte - . Watch our livestream Sundays @ 11:00am - Summary: In this week’s Anchored series, Pastor Hannah invites us to rethink prayer—not primarily as asking God for things, but as cultivating an ongoing, loving relationship with God. Drawing from Psalm 73, she explores how prayer becomes a space where trust, intimacy, and awareness of God’s presence are formed over time. Through the example of Asaph’s honest wrestling with injustice and his ultimate declaration that “God’s presence is all I need,” Pastor Hannah reminds us that prayer is where we learn to rest in God, even when life feels uncertain or overwhelming. Through personal stories and practical invitation, Pastor Hannah reflects on how deep trust is built slowly through consistent presence, much like any meaningful relationship. She challenges us to consider what kind of relationship with God we hope to have years from now and whether our daily choices are leading us there. Telling a story of her unfortunate flat tire, she illustrates how prayer empowers us to carry the weight of life with strength and stability that comes from God rather than sheer willpower. Pastor Hannah teaches us the Welcoming Prayer and gives an invitation to step more intentionally into prayer practices that help us slow down, surrender control, and experience the sustaining presence and power of God.
/episode/index/show/a2vineyard/id/41247370
info_outline
Anchored: Generous Witnesses
05/04/2026
Anchored: Generous Witnesses
Anchored: Generous Witnesses - David Paladino - . Watch our livestream Sundays @ 11:00am -
/episode/index/show/a2vineyard/id/41141815
info_outline
Anchored: Becoming Like Christ
04/27/2026
Anchored: Becoming Like Christ
Anchored: Becoming Like Christ - Jonathan Hurshman - . Watch our livestream Sundays @ 11:00am - Summary: Jonathan sets the stage by showing that a centered-set mindset only works if we have clear language for who and what is at the center—Jesus and his ways. He compellingly highlights our need for Christlikeness, reminding us that it is the whole point of the Christian life. The term itself means “little Christs”—people who imitate and resemble Jesus. Yet one of the failures of the Western Church, he notes, is that few of our coworkers and neighbors associate being “Christian” with becoming like Jesus. What if that were different? He then offers a thoughtful exposition of Philippians 2:5–11, grounding it in the Greco-Roman world, where status and achievement were everything—often gained at the expense of others. Against that backdrop, we see again and again that the way of Jesus is humility: a willing lowering of oneself for the good of others. Jonathan calls us to embrace this humble way as we seek to become like Christ in all things.
/episode/index/show/a2vineyard/id/41032205
info_outline
Anchored: Steeped in Scripture
04/20/2026
Anchored: Steeped in Scripture
Anchored: Steeped in Scripture - Pastor Donnell T. Wyche - . Watch our livestream Sundays @ 11:00am - Summary: In this sermon from the Anchored series, Pastor Donnell names a tension many feel but struggle to articulate: we are surrounded by more information than ever, yet feel increasingly anxious, disconnected, and unsteady. Turning to Book of Romans (15:4–7), he reframes the problem. What we lack is not access to answers, but a deeper kind of formation—one that shapes who we are, not just what we know. Drawing on Paul’s language, the sermon presents Scripture as a training ground for endurance and hope. This endurance is not passive survival, but an active, resilient strength formed over time through daily, often quiet practices. Rather than offering quick fixes, Scripture works on us slowly—comforting, correcting, and challenging the false binaries that divide us. In this way, it forms a people oriented toward Christ, what Paul describes as homothumadon: not agreement on everything, but a shared direction of life. The sermon then moves from inward formation to outward expression. Paul’s call to “welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you” becomes the defining mark of a formed community. This welcome is rooted in grace, extended not when people have it all together, but precisely when they do not. Pastor Donnell invites the congregation to see that being anchored is not about rigid certainty, but about being rooted in the living Christ, whose ancient words continue to shape a people of endurance, unity, and radical welcome.
/episode/index/show/a2vineyard/id/40936165
info_outline
Anchored: Rooted In Grace
04/13/2026
Anchored: Rooted In Grace
Anchored: Rooted In Grace - Pastor Hannah Witte - . Watch our livestream Sundays @ 11:00am - Summary: Pastor Hannah invites us to anchor our lives in the person and grace of Jesus in a world marked by anxiety, injustice, and constant pressure to prove ourselves. Drawing from Titus 3:3–7, Pastor Hannah reminds us that left to ourselves we fall into broken patterns that harm our relationships, but God, in kindness and love, comes to us through Christ—not because of anything we’ve done, but because of mercy—to bring renewal, reconciliation, and life. In contrast to a culture of self-justification through performance, status, or moral superiority, the gospel offers a different way: we are made right by grace alone and invited to live as people rooted in that grace. As recipients of God’s mercy and heirs of eternal life, we are freed to tell the truth about ourselves, break cycles of hurt, and become people of presence, justice, love, and hope in the world.
/episode/index/show/a2vineyard/id/40824580
info_outline
Jesus' Enduring Questions - Simon, Son of John, Do You Love Me?
04/06/2026
Jesus' Enduring Questions - Simon, Son of John, Do You Love Me?
Jesus' Enduring Questions - Simon, Son of John, Do You Love Me? - Pastor Donnell T. Wyche - . Watch our livestream Sundays @ 11:00am - Summary: In this Easter message, “Jesus’ Enduring Questions: Do you love me?” (John 21:15–19), Pastor Donnell invites us into the quiet, powerful moment on the shoreline where the risen Jesus meets his disciples after the resurrection. While the resurrection has already stunned and surprised them, the disciples are still trying to make sense of it all—returning to what is familiar, carrying grief, confusion, and unfinished stories in their hearts. It is in this ordinary space that Jesus appears, not with spectacle, but with presence, preparing breakfast and creating space for a deeply personal encounter. Focusing on Jesus’ threefold question to Peter, Pastor Donnell explores the weight of failure, regret, and the longing to make things right. Rather than offering quick forgiveness, Jesus lovingly leads Peter through a process of honest reflection that mirrors his earlier denial. In doing so, we see that Jesus is not only restoring Peter but also inviting him to confront his fear, release his self-reliance, and rediscover what it means to truly love and trust Christ. This exchange reveals a Savior who understands betrayal and hurt, yet still chooses restoration and relationship. This sermon reminds us that the resurrected Jesus meets us exactly where we are—not where we wish we were—and calls us into a renewed life marked by courage, hope, and love. No matter our past or our failures, we are not beyond the reach of grace. Instead, we are invited to respond to Jesus’ enduring question in our own lives and to step forward into a calling to care for others, live with bold hope, and participate in God’s ongoing work of renewal in the world.
/episode/index/show/a2vineyard/id/40743550
info_outline
Jesus' Enduring Questions - What Shall I Say?
03/30/2026
Jesus' Enduring Questions - What Shall I Say?
Jesus' Enduring Questions - What Shall I Say? - Pastor Hannah Witte - . Watch our livestream Sundays @ 11:00am - Summary: Pastor Hannah invites the church this Palm Sunday to enter into the story of Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem and to see for themselves what kind of king he is. By imagining the scene through the eyes of the crowd, the sermon highlights the tension and excitement surrounding Jesus—hailed as king after performing miracles like raising Lazarus, yet arriving not with power or violence, but humbly on a donkey. Jesus is a radically different kind of king: one who brings peace instead of war, humility instead of status, and true freedom instead of political domination. In contrast to worldly power, Jesus demonstrates a kingdom rooted in self-giving love, fulfilling prophecy and inviting people into a new kind of deliverance from sin and death. Pastor Hannah invites us to consider our response to this king—especially when following him costs us something. Through Jesus’ own words as he approaches his death, we see his honest struggle yet unwavering obedience, choosing love and sacrifice over comfort. This becomes both a challenge and a source of healing: while we often resist costly obedience or seek recognition, Jesus fully gives himself for others without self-interest. Jesus' actions, especially on the cross, prove the depth of his love—offering both transformation for our sin and healing for our wounds. Ultimately, Pastor Hannah's invitation is to let Jesus’ self-giving love reshape our lives during Holy Week, trusting that his way of humble, sacrificial love leads to true life.
/episode/index/show/a2vineyard/id/40668605
info_outline
Jesus' Enduring Questions: Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?
03/23/2026
Jesus' Enduring Questions: Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?
Jesus' Enduring Questions - Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not what I say? - Pastor Donnell T. Wyche - . Watch our livestream Sundays @ 11:00am - Summary: We've been exploring Jesus' penetrating questions throughout this series, the way he comes to us not first with answers, but with inquiries that expose our hearts. Like God in the garden, moving toward Adam when Adam was hiding, Jesus approaches us with questions that give us a clear chance to practice honesty and find intimacy with him. And today, he asks one of the most unsettling questions in the Gospels: "Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?" Let's sit with this for a moment, because it's more layered than it first appears. The repetition, kyrios, kyrios, carries both authority and intimacy. This isn't formal, liturgical language. It is personal, even desperate. These aren't outsiders Jesus is addressing. These are people who know him, claim him, call on him. They show up. They listen. They use all the right words. And their words are correct. That is the thing we need to understand. Jesus isn't saying their theology is wrong. Their confession, "You are Lord," is exactly right. They have what the early church would come to call orthodoxy, right belief. They know who Jesus is. They can name it. They can sing it. They can say it with conviction, even with tears. But Jesus sees something missing. The word he uses for "do," poieite, is present tense, ongoing, habitual action. He is not asking for one dramatic moment of obedience. He is asking about the shape of a life. He is asking about orthopraxis, right practice, consistent behavior that flows from what we say we believe. And here is the tension Jesus is naming, one of the deepest struggles of the spiritual life. It is entirely possible to believe the right things and not live them. You can sing "Jesus is Lord" on Sunday and ignore him on Monday. You can feel moved in worship and remain unchanged in your relationships. You can be right about Jesus and still resist him. Now watch what Jesus does next. He does not give a lecture. He tells a story about two builders. And do not miss this. Both builders hear his words. Both are in the room. Both are part of the community. Both are building something with their lives. This is not a story about believers and unbelievers. It is a story about two kinds of disciples. The first builder comes, hears, and puts Jesus' words into practice. The Greek word for "comes," erchomenos, suggests ongoing relationship, not occasional visits. This person is in consistent, intentional connection with Jesus. And they dig down deep, eskapsen, costly, intentional work. They go beneath the surface, beneath what is convenient, beneath what is quick, and they lay their foundation on rock. The second builder hears the same words. Maybe they are even taking notes or sharing insights afterward. Maybe they feel inspired in the moment. But they do not dig. They build on the surface. They go with what is convenient. The same words are heard, the same houses are built, but the outcomes are completely different when the storm hits. So what is the difference? It is not simply doing more religious activities or trying harder. The difference is something deeper than behavior. It is what I would call orthopathy, right heart. Orthopathy is the kind of heart that actually wants to dig. Orthodoxy says, "Jesus is Lord." Orthopraxis says, "So I live differently." Orthopathy says, "I actually want to follow him." It is the posture of the heart that connects belief to action. It is the affection, the reverence, the longing for God that makes obedience more than duty. It makes it response. It is why one builder digs and the other does not. Not because one has more willpower, but because one has been captured by the reality of who Jesus is. The builder who digs deep is not just more disciplined. They are more oriented. Their love for Jesus makes the digging worth it. Their reverence for his words makes obedience feel like life rather than obligation. The builder who stays on the surface still has intact orthodoxy. They can say "Lord, Lord" and mean it in the moment. But something in the heart has not caught up to the confession. The belief is real, but it has not gone deep enough to reshape how they live. And this is where Jesus' story becomes urgent, because he does not say if the storms come. He says when. The storm might look like a diagnosis you did not expect, a relationship that fractures, a moment when your faith feels thin, or a season where what you believed does not seem to hold. Both houses face the same storm. One stands, and one collapses completely. The storm does not create the problem. It reveals what was already true about the foundation. This is why the integration of orthodoxy, orthopraxis, and orthopathy matters so much. This is not a theological exercise. It is storm preparation. What sustains you is not just what you believe about Jesus, and not just your habits of obedience, but whether your whole self, mind, heart, and life, has been built on the rock of who he is. Now let me be clear, because this can start to sound like a spiritual performance review, and that is not what Jesus is doing. Remember the context. Jesus has just been teaching about God's radical, indiscriminate grace, blessing the poor, the hungry, and those who mourn. He has taught us to love enemies, to not judge others, and to deal with the log in our own eye before the speck in someone else's. This is not legalism. This is love. The foundation of rock is not our moral achievement. The foundation is Jesus himself, the solid ground of God's unchanging love for us in Christ. We do not dig deep to earn his affection. We dig deep because of his affection. Orthopathy, right heart, is not something we manufacture through effort. It is something the Spirit cultivates in us as we remain connected to Jesus. And that is the good news inside this challenging passage. The rock is already there. You do not have to go find it. Jesus is inviting you to build on what is already solid, his word, his character, his faithfulness. The digging is simply clearing away the sand we have been building on instead. From that secure foundation, we can risk honesty. We can acknowledge the gap between our confession and our practice without drowning in shame, because our identity is not based on our consistency. It is based on his faithfulness. So Jesus' question stands before us today. Why do you call me "Lord, Lord," and do not do what I say? It is not an accusation. It is an invitation. Maybe your orthodoxy is strong, but your orthopraxis has drifted. You know what is true, but you have not been living it. That is not condemnation. That is the starting place for grace. Maybe your practices are there, but your heart has gone cold. The doing is present, but the delight is missing. Jesus wants to meet you there too. Or maybe you just feel the gap, the exhausting space between who you say you are and how you actually show up. Jesus is not asking for instant perfection. He is asking for honesty and a willingness to start digging. Digging might look like forgiving someone you have been avoiding. It might look like telling the truth where you have been managing appearances. It might look like returning to prayer, not out of obligation, but to reconnect your heart. The rock is already there. You do not have to find it. You just have to decide what you are going to build your life on.
/episode/index/show/a2vineyard/id/40592640
info_outline
Jesus' Enduring Questions - Who Do You Say I Am?
03/16/2026
Jesus' Enduring Questions - Who Do You Say I Am?
Jesus' Enduring Questions - Who Do You Say I Am? - Pastor Hannah Witte - . Watch our livestream Sundays @ 11:00am - Summary: Pastor Hannah invites the church to imagine what it means to truly answer Jesus’ question, “Who do you say I am?” After reflecting on the community’s shared life—its desire for deeper relationships, spiritual growth, and faithful presence in the world—the message turns to the moment in Matthew 16 when Jesus leads his disciples to the spiritually dark city of Caesarea Philippi and asks them to name who they believe he is. In that unlikely place, Peter declares that Jesus is the Christ, and Jesus responds by giving him a new identity and promising to build a church that even the powers of darkness cannot overcome. The sermon casts a vision of a people who courageously confess Jesus as Lord, receive their identity from him, and join his mission—bringing light, hope, and restoration into the very places that seem farthest from God. It ends by inviting each listener to answer Jesus’ question personally and step more fully into a life of faith, courage, and participation in the unstoppable work of Christ.
/episode/index/show/a2vineyard/id/40498780
info_outline
Jesus' Enduring Questions - What Do You Have?
03/09/2026
Jesus' Enduring Questions - What Do You Have?
Jesus' Enduring Questions - What Do You Have? - Dave Paladino - . Watch our livestream Sundays @ 11:00am - Summary: We continue sitting with Jesus' enduring questions that expose reality and invite us to repentance this Lenten season. Dave contrasts the two banquets in Mark 6—Herod’s feast of power and violence, and Jesus’ feast of compassion and life—to show how God’s kingdom confronts evil differently. Jesus invites his followers to become “under-shepherds” who both resist external injustice and cultivate soft, compassionate hearts, refusing the false choice between social action and personal holiness. By asking, “What do you have? Go and see,” Jesus calls us to offer what we have to him so he can multiply it into a kingdom banquet of care for the vulnerable.
/episode/index/show/a2vineyard/id/40360210
info_outline
Jesus' Enduring Questions - Why Are You So Afraid?
03/02/2026
Jesus' Enduring Questions - Why Are You So Afraid?
Jesus' Enduring Questions - Why Are You So Afraid? - Martha Balmer - . Watch our livestream Sundays @ 11:00am - Summary: This season, we are centering our life together around the questions of Jesus—questions that do not trap or shame, but restore and renew. When Jesus turns to his first disciples and asks, “Why are you so afraid?”, he invites them to be really honest about their inner world, that they might become free from fear and full of faith. We believe discipleship begins there: not in performance, but in honesty. Instead of rushing to answers, we are learning to let Jesus’ questions work on us, exposing what drives us beneath the surface and inviting us into a deeper and truer faith.
/episode/index/show/a2vineyard/id/40283415