Archive for category: News

Can I Have Faith and Still Have Doubts? An Honest Look at Heavy Seasons | Shawnee Community Christian Church

/in , , /by

We’ve all had those dark, quiet nights where the weight of the week catches up to us. We lie awake wondering, Where is God in this? Does anyone notice the heavy season I’m walking through? Society often tells us that strong people don’t struggle, and traditional religion sometimes whispers that if we just had “enough faith,” all our difficulties would disappear.

But real life isn’t that neat, and faith was never meant to be a smooth, polished facade. When heavy seasons land on our doorstep, doubt isn’t a sign that we’re lost—it’s an invitation to pull up a chair, ask hard questions, and discover a hope that is anchored in reality.

Genesis 32:22–31: A Neighborly Paraphrase

“That night, Jacob sent his family and all his possessions across the river to safety, leaving him completely alone in the dark. Out of nowhere, a mysterious stranger grappled with him until dawn. When the stranger saw Jacob wouldn’t yield, he struck Jacob’s hip, throwing it out of joint. Yet even in pain, Jacob held on tight and declared, ‘I won’t let you go until you bless me.’ The stranger asked his name, and when he answered ‘Jacob,’ the stranger said, ‘Your name is now Israel, because you have wrestled with God and humanity and stayed the course.’ Sun rose as Jacob limped forward—marked by the struggle, but carrying a brand-new blessing.”

Weightlifters know that muscles don’t grow when things are easy; microscopic tears form under resistance, and strength builds as those tears repair over time. Our spiritual lives work much the same way. Doubt acts as spiritual resistance. When we wrestle with tough questions or walk through real-life challenges, our faith gets strained and rebuilt into something resilient enough to hold us.

God doesn’t cause our struggles or hand out painful seasons to teach us a cosmic lesson. Instead, God gets right down into the dust with us—close enough to feel our exhaustion and share the strain. Wrestling keeps faith personal and alive. Sometimes winning doesn’t require a perfect answer; it simply means refusing to give up and hanging on until we find the blessing hidden in the mess.

At Shawnee Community Christian Church, you never have to pretend you have it all together. Whether you are celebrating or limping through a hard week, your doubts are safe here, and your seat at our table is permanent.

The Neighborhood Statement: Shawnee Community Christian Church is a “nesting, resting, and growing place” for our community. We are a family of neighbors valued for our diversity and committed to asking hard questions together.

The Messy Hard Work of True Unity: Moving Past Our Echo Chambers | Shawnee Community Christian Church

/in , , /by

Let’s be completely honest for a second: we all love the idea of unity. It sounds beautiful on paper. But when it comes to putting it into practice, our natural human tendency kicks in, and we quickly retreat into our staunchly held beliefs and comfortable echo chambers. We often prefer comfort and conformity over the actual hard work of loving people who think and act differently than we do.

In Romans 15:1-13, the Apostle Paul challenges the early church to move past this exact struggle. He writes that those who are strong should lift up the weary, rather than just pleasing themselves. We are called to build up our neighbors in harmony, welcoming one another just as Christ welcomed us. Paul reminds them that the ancient walls – like the massive divide between Jew and Gentile – are held secondary to the command to love. He closes with a powerful prayer: May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Paul wasn’t writing to a perfect, picturesque community. The Roman church was actively tearing itself apart over cultural practices, dietary restrictions, and traditions. They were using their faith as a hammer to beat each other over the head.

When we look at the church today, it’s easy to see the same patterns. We don’t argue about meat sacrificed to idols, but we find plenty of other divisions. The truth is, the church isn’t a flawless, idealized family – we are much closer to the messy dynamics of The Simpsons. But true spiritual strength comes from relying on God to do what we cannot do alone: practicing a radical, open-handed hospitality. Like the stones in an ancient archway, our differences exert pressure on one another, yet we are infinitely stronger together than we ever could be apart.

YouTube Chapters

  • 0:00 – The Engineering of an Ancient Stone Arch

  • 1:48 – Reading Romans 15:1-13

  • 4:04 – The Church as a Spiritual Archway

  • 5:22 – Why True Unity is Messy (The Roman Church’s Arguments)

  • 8:14 – We’re the Simpsons, Not a Picturesque Ideal

  • 10:18 – Loving the Neighbor We Disagree With

  • 12:52 – Radical Hospitality and Finding Identity in Christ

  • 16:47 – Benediction: Overflowing with Hope

 

The Discomfort of Our Borders + A Theological Exhale on Zacchaeus | Shawnee Community Christian Church

/in , , /by

The View from the Tree

Think back to the last time you had to stretch, strain, or shuffle around just to get a clear view of something important—or worse, the last time you felt intentionally blocked out by a crowd. In the story of Zacchaeus, we meet a man who climbed a sycamore tree just to catch a glimpse of Jesus. But maybe he wasn’t just short; maybe the crowd was actively elbowing him out because of his reputation. It’s easy to judge the person on the outside until we realize Jesus is looking right past the comfortable crowd in the middle to invite Himself over to that very person’s house.

Luke 19:1–10 (A Front Porch Paraphrase)

Jesus traveled into Jericho, passing right through the heart of town. A wealthy chief tax collector named Zacchaeus wanted to see who Jesus was, but he couldn’t see over the dense crowd. So, he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree. When Jesus reached the spot, he looked straight up and called him by name: “Zacchaeus, hurry on down, because I need to stay at your house today.” Zacchaeus scrambled down, thrilled to welcome him. But the onlookers immediately began to grumble, muttering, “He’s going to be the guest of a sinner.” Zacchaeus stood tall and said, “Look, Lord, I give half of what I own to the poor, and if I’ve cheated anyone, I pay them back four times over.” Jesus responded, “Today, healing and salvation have come to this home, because he too belongs to the family. The Son of Man came to look for and rescue what was lost.”

Living in the Messy Middle

Depending on the translation you read, Zacchaeus is either promising to fix his corrupt ways in the future, or he’s revealing that he has already been quietly living generously despite his terrible job. Either way, the crowd missed his humanity because they were too busy defining their own goodness by who they kept out. Whenever we build walls around who is acceptable, Jesus walks straight through them, sits down in the dirt with the folks on the outside, and reminds us that false piety isn’t a good look. Let’s be a community where grace has room to breathe, where we prioritize honest care over comfortable judgment.

YouTube Chapters

  • 00:00 – The Art of Doodling: What Medieval Margins Tell Us About Ourselves

  • 02:15 – Luke 19:1-10: Zacchaeus Climbs the Sycamore Tree

  • 04:40 – The Uncomfortable Truth About the “Good Church Folks” in the Crowd

  • 07:10 – The Grammar Plot Twist: Was Zacchaeus Already Righteous?

  • 10:35 – Jesus Climbs Right Over the Borders We Build

  • 13:10 – A Pastoral Prayer for Communal Care and Liberation

 

Carrying Heavy Stones + The Dust that Breathes | Shawnee Community Christian Church

/in , , /by

If you walked into our sanctuary this morning, you would have been handed a physical rock and asked to hold it straight out in front of you. It doesn’t take more than a couple of minutes for your arm to start aching and for that small stone to feel like a massive boulder. That’s the exact reality of how many of us navigate our daily routines—carrying a heavy, exhausting backpack filled with the rocks of old judgments, unmet expectations, and deep-seated shame. We wait for permission to put them down, buying into the lie that we have to be completely polished before we can show up at God’s table.

In the ancient story of our beginnings found in Genesis 2, the Divine didn’t fashion humanity out of pristine, flawless marble. God gathered the raw, messy dirt of the earth, molded it with care, and breathed life right into the soil. From that dust, a beautiful partnership was born, designed for deep connection and community. And the most striking note left behind in the text? They stood in their raw vulnerability, completely open to one another and to God, and they were not ashamed.

We live in a culture that thrives on telling us we aren’t enough—not successful enough, not thin enough, not patient enough, or not holy enough. Even within church spaces, religion has sometimes weaponized a shame-based framework that whispers we are fundamentally unworthy. But our vulnerability and imperfection are not manufacturing defects; they are built directly into the original prototype. As Brené Brown famously notes, there is a massive shift between constructive guilt (“I did something bad”) and destructive shame (“I am a bad thing”).

God already called the dust good. Our fractures aren’t barriers keeping God away; they are the exact spaces where the breath of life enters in. You are allowed to drop the heavy rocks you’ve been lugging around for years. Bring your mud, bring your unanswered questions, and pull up a chair. You are fully loved exactly as you are.

Shawnee Community Christian Church is a “nesting, resting, and growing place” for our community. We are a family of neighbors valued for our diversity and committed to asking hard questions together.

YouTube Chapters

  • 0:00 – The Rock Exercise: Experiencing the Heavy Weight of Shame

  • 1:12 – Scriptural Foundation: Creation, Dust, and Living Beings (Genesis 2)

  • 3:45 – The “Adam” Scholarship: A Person Created for Partnership

  • 4:10 – The Core Truth: They Were Not Ashamed

  • 5:12 – Built From Dirt: Embracing Our Imperfect Prototype

  • 6:55 – Guilt vs. Shame: Why Your Mess is Welcome Here

  • 8:15 – Drop the Rocks: Choosing Freedom and Letting Go

  • 9:20 – A Neighborly Prayer for Grace and Presence

 

When Family Foundations Falter, Grace Builds a New Table | Shawnee Community Christian Church

/in , , /by

We all know the idealized image of the perfect family—the Norman Rockwell dinner table where everyone gets along, laughs effortlessly, and shows up unconditionally. But for so many neighbors in our community, that picture doesn’t match reality. Families can be deeply complicated, and when the bonds that are supposed to protect us instead bring pain, dysfunction, or rejection, it carries a very specific, heavy kind of grief. If you are carrying the weight of a broken family foundation today, please know this: your hurt is completely valid, but your story does not have to end in that brokenness.

In the Book of Ruth, we meet Naomi, Ruth, and Orpah—three women left entirely vulnerable and un-protected after facing immense loss and economic hardship in a foreign land. In her grief, Naomi urges her daughters-in-law to return to their biological families where they might find safety. While Orpah makes the reasonable choice to return, Ruth makes a radical, unexpected covenant. She looks at Naomi and declares: “Where you go, I will go; where you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. Not even death will stand between us.” This wasn’t a biological or legal obligation; it was a brave, conscious choice to become family in the middle of a heavy season.

God is incredibly skilled at helping us build beautiful, sacred community out of leftover pieces. When our biological foundations falter, shared grace provides a chosen path forward. True belonging isn’t just about blood ties; it’s about a shared commitment to hold one another close when we feel cast adrift. Choosing your family—opening your heart to deep connection after being wounded—is a profoundly holy and courageous act. Whether it is through a loyal friend, a gentle mentor, or a community that accepts you exactly as you are, God constantly weaves a tapestry of unexpected connections to remind us that we are never truly alone.

YouTube Chapters

  • 0:00 – The Myth of the Perfect Family

  • 1:15 – Grounded Insight: Rebuilding from the Messy Leftovers

  • 2:30 – Scripture Story: Ruth’s Radical Choice to Stay

  • 4:10 – The Messy Middle: Navigating Family Grief

  • 6:15 – Active Hope: How God Weaves Chosen Community

 

When Independence Fails: Carrying One Another’s Burdens in Community

/in , , /by

The Messy Middle of Doing It All Alone

We live in a culture that treats self-reliance like a badge of honor. We are told that if we just have enough grit, work hard enough, and pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps, we can handle anything life throws our way. But if we are being completely honest on this digital front porch, that narrative is a myth. It tells us that needing people is a weakness and asking for help is a defeat. When we hit a heavy season—whether it’s the paralysis of grief, a scary diagnosis, or an overwhelming financial crisis—our immediate instinct is to hide, put on a mask of perfection, and pretend everything is fine.

But you cannot be carried if you refuse to admit that you are stuck.

Mark 2:1-12 (A Paraphrase)

When Jesus returned to a packed house in Capernaum, the crowd was overflowing out into the street. Four friends arrived carrying a paralyzed man on a mat, but they couldn’t get through the door. Refusing to let an obstacle stop them, they climbed onto the roof, dug right through it, and lowered their friend directly down to Jesus. When Jesus saw their collective faith, he forgave and healed the man, telling him to pick up his mat and walk home.

Sharing the Corners of the Mat

This ancient text forces us to look at the beautiful, messy middle of real life. This man’s physical and spiritual breakthrough didn’t happen because he crawled over the crowd on his own; it happened because he had a community desperate enough for his healing that they were willing to tear open a roof to get him to Jesus.

As Paul reminds us in Galatians 6:2, we are called to bear one another’s burdens. This means that when your personal faith falters, when you are too heartbroken to pray, or when the darkness feels like too much to handle, your church family steps in. We believe for you, we pray for you, and we grab a corner of your mat to help lift the weight. Faith is not a solo journey. We are saved into a body of believers where our healing is mutually dependent on our willingness to show up for each other, even when it’s awkward, inconvenient, or unpolished. Let’s drop the ego, lose the pride, and allow ourselves to be part of a radical community that carries one another home.

YouTube Chapters

  • 0:00 – The Myth of Self-Reliance and the Lone Hero

  • 1:45 – Mark 2:1-12: Breaking Through the Roof in Capernaum

  • 3:12 – Facing Our Own “Mat Experiences” in Heavy Seasons

  • 5:04 – The Hard Work of Community: Sharing the Corners of the Mat

  • 6:45 – Moving Beyond Individualism: Collective Faith in Action

  • 8:15 – Letting Go of Ego and Allowing Ourselves to Be Carried

 

Unanswered Questions + The Gift of Abiding | Shawnee Community Christian Church

/in , , /by

An Honest Conversation Over Breakfast

A few months ago, I was grabbing breakfast with our retired “big biscuit” group on Shawnee Mission. As we caught up, I mentioned how excited I was to turn 50 soon—thinking that reaching a real grown-up age meant I’d finally have everything figured out. They laughed right out loud, and honestly, they had every right to. We all carry this hidden expectation that at some point, the heavy seasons will magically pass and life will finally make complete sense. But real-life challenges don’t disappear with age. We often find ourselves sitting in the “messy middle,” wondering why we don’t know more by now.

A Neighborly Paraphrase of John 14:1-7

“Don’t let your hearts be heavy or anxious,” Jesus told His friends. “Keep trusting God, and keep trusting me. There is plenty of room in my Father’s presence—it’s an expansive home with space for everyone. I am going ahead to make sure a place is ready for you, and I will absolutely come back to gather you close, so we can always be together. You already know the way to where I’m going.”

Thomas, always the practical and literal thinker, spoke up : “Lord, we honestly have no clue where you’re going. How are we supposed to know the directions?”

Jesus looked at him and said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. Real life is found in knowing me and walking with me. By knowing me, you are already resting in the presence of the Father.”

Resting in the Messy Middle

For generations, people have taken verse 6 (“No one comes to the Father except through me”) out of context, using it like a theological grenade or a slamming door to gatekeep who belongs and who doesn’t. But Jesus didn’t offer this insight to Thomas as a declaration of exclusion. He was talking to a tight-knit family of friends on the single hardest night of their lives—right after Judas walked out and right before the arrest.

Jesus wasn’t handing out a checklist to get into heaven; He was offering a beautiful, restorative invitation to abide. To abide means to rest deeply in God’s grace, knowing that wherever we are, God already is.

We acknowledge with deep humility that the institution of the church has often harmed people by trying to draw lines around God’s love. That is why we actively reaffirm our commitment to being an open and affirming church. God is our home, a divine place of permanent belonging for all people. We are committed to throwing that door wide open, ensuring that no neighbor ever has to hide who God beautifully created them to be.

YouTube Chapters

  • 00:00 – The Adulting Myth: Why reaching a milestone age doesn’t mean you instantly have life figured out.
  • 03:15 – A Troubled Night at the Table: The heavy real-life challenges the disciples faced before the arrest.
  • 06:40 – Unpacking the Misused “Gatekeeping” Text: How John 14:6 became a weapon instead of a promise.
  • 10:10 – What it Means to Abide: Finding safety and receiving God’s peace in the thick of it.
  • 13:55 – Reaffirming the Welcome: Our commitment to being an open, affirming, and actively repentant family.

 

Moving Beyond Conflict to Peace | Shawnee Community Christian Church

/in , , /by

If we are being completely honest, human relationships are messy. We disagree, we say things we don’t mean (or things we do mean but shouldn’t say), and we build up walls of resentment, pretending the divide between us is simply too wide to fix. We look at our broken world, our fractured politics, and our personal disagreements and think: reconciliation is impossible. But what if the blueprint for healing our communities isn’t found in a perfect set of rules, but in the very nature of a mysterious, loving God?

The Scripture: 2 Corinthians 13:11-13

Finally, brothers and sisters, farewell. Be restored, listen to my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.

Finding Peace in the Messy Middle

This past Sunday, we celebrated Trinity Sunday—a day dedicated to one of the most beautifully complex ideas in our faith: God in three persons. If you’ve ever tried to explain the Trinity using metaphors like water, shamrocks, or an egg, you know how quickly we run out of depth. And as Pastor Tabatha confessed, that is completely okay. God is not a puzzle for us to solve; God is a relationship to inhabit.

When Paul wrote his final sign-off to the church in Corinth, he wasn’t dealing with a perfect, shiny congregation. They were cliquey, they were suing each other, and they were actively leaving people out. They were in the thick of real-life conflict. Yet, Paul’s parting blessing points them directly to the Trinity: grace, love, and communion.

Our peace and our unity come from the exact same source. We don’t have to fully comprehend the mystery of God to open ourselves up to the grace of Jesus, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. When we lean into that divine community, we are invited to extend that same grace to our families, our neighbors, and even our adversaries. God is extending a hand, inviting us out of our isolation and into a beautiful dance of restoration. Will we step onto the floor?

YouTube Chapters

  • 0:00 – Stumbling Through the Things We Don’t Understand
  • 1:15 – The Mystery of the Trinity: Beyond Our Understanding
  • 3:42 – Relationships are a Messy Middle (Lessons from Corinth)
  • 5:50 – Moving Beyond Hurt and Resentment
  • 7:30 – Invited into the Divine Dance of Love

 

When Church Feels Like a Bad App Notification + The Spirit’s Heart Language | Shawnee Community Christian Church

/in , , /by

If you’ve ever downloaded a language learning app, you know exactly how it starts. You’re motivated, you’re locked into your screen every morning, and you feel great about yourself. But then life gets overwhelming. You miss a day, and suddenly a little green cartoon owl is blowing up your phone with passive-aggressive, guilt-trippy notifications. Before long, what started as an exciting journey turns into a resentful obligation.

Too many of us have experienced a faith tradition that feels exactly like that nagging app notification. We carry the heavy seasons and unpolished scars of religious environments that used guilt and institutional power rather than unconditional love. But this Pentecost Sunday, we are reminded that the movement of God’s Spirit isn’t an algorithm designed to shame us into conformity – it’s a divine breath calling us back to who we truly are.

A Neighborly Paraphrase of Acts 2:1–21

When the day of Pentecost arrived, Jesus’ followers were gathered closely in one room. Suddenly, a sound like a rushing, vibrant wind filled the entire house, and what looked like flames of fire rested gently on every person there. Filled with the Holy Spirit, they began speaking in completely different languages. Permanent residents and immigrants from every corner of the known world—Parthians, Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Rome, and Egypt—were utterly bewildered. They weren’t just hearing standard information; they heard Galileans speaking beautifully about God’s power in their own deep, native tongues. While some skeptics laughed it off as too much early-morning wine, Peter stood up and declared: This isn’t drunkenness. This is the fulfillment of ancient hope. God’s Spirit is being poured out on everyone—sons, daughters, young dreamers, and old visionaries alike—bringing a beautiful disruption where anyone who seeks love will find safety.

As our guest preacher Stephen beautifully illuminated, the real miracle of Pentecost wasn’t just a supernatural shortcut to bypass studying a language. The crowd living in Jerusalem already spoke the common public languages of Aramaic and Greek to get by. They didn’t need a mechanical translation.

What they needed was to be heard.

Your first language is your “heart language”—the subconscious language of emotion, the language you use to pray, cry, or whisper “I love you”. For immigrants and outsiders living in a foreign empire, speaking their native tongue often carried social stigma and real danger. By speaking to them in their heart languages, the Spirit wasn’t just transferring data; the Spirit was actively affirming their identities, breaking down systemic walls, and declaring that they belonged.

Today, the institutional church has often forced people to speak “Christianese”—a language of rigid dogmas that can sound closer to an abusive partner than a loving Creator. If you’ve been wounded by the ugly side of church power, hear this clearly: your questions, your background, and your authentic self are radically affirmed here.

We don’t get a magical shortcut or a faith “Duolingo” to fix the hurt in our world. We have to do it the hard way—by staying in relationship, listening longer than we speak, tearing down walls, and learning the unique heart languages of our neighbors.

Our Neighborhood Statement: Shawnee Community Christian Church is a “nesting, resting, and growing place” for our community. We are a family of neighbors valued for our diversity and committed to asking hard questions together.

YouTube Chapters

  • 0:00 – Welcome & Celebrating the Birthday of the Church
  • 3:09 – The Green Owl: My Toxic Relationship with Duolingo
  • 5:48 – Looking Beyond the Familiar: The True Disruption of Pentecost
  • 7:33 – Spiritus: How the Divine Breath Empowers Prophets and Disruptors
  • 10:15 – Shavuot, Immigrants, and the Sacred Nuance of the Miracle of Tongues
  • 11:46 – Heart Language vs. Necessity: Finding Healing for Our Core Identity
  • 15:10 – Moving Beyond Institutional Power and Healing from Religious Trauma
  • 16:53 – Learning the Hard Way: How We Become Living Translators of Love
  • 18:42 – Communal Prayer: A Breath of New Life and Creative Hope

 

When Life Goes Sideways, God Stays | Shawnee Community Christian Church

/in , , /by

We’ve all had those moments where life gets complicated, heavy, or completely upside down. We sit in the quiet, or we lay awake at night, crying out into the dark, “Where are you?” It is an honest, weary question that every human faces sooner or later. When the world feels fractured and we are navigating a tough season, it’s easy to look up at the sky and feel like we’ve been left to figure it out all on our own.

But this week, as the global church recognizes Ascension Sunday, we are reminded of a powerful truth: God is not a “peace out, y’all” kind of God. God is the God who stays.

“Before things got incredibly difficult, Jesus sat at the table with his friends, shared a final meal, and looked up to heaven to pray for them. He basically said: ‘Father, I’ve done what you asked, and now I’m coming back to you. But my friends are still out there in the thick of it. Protect them. Keep them close and keep them united, just like you and I are united. And I’m not just asking for the people sitting at this table right now—I’m praying for the ones who will believe down the road because of them. I want them to know they belong to us, that they are completely loved, and that they carry our joy inside them no matter what happens’.”

John’s gospel doesn’t give us a dramatic scene of Jesus floating up into the clouds while the disciples stand around staring blankly at the sky. Instead, it gives us an intimate table conversation. This prayer was spoken right on the edge of the most painful, grief-filled moments of the disciples’ lives. Jesus knew they were about to enter a confusing, liminal space.

He didn’t pray to take them out of the hard realities of the world; he prayed to sustain them through it.

When Jesus repeatedly tells God, “They are yours,” he is establishing an unbreakable boundary of ownership and love. You belong to God. That prayer didn’t stop in the upper room; it has traveled generation by generation, trailing after us through our happiest days and our most challenging nights, echoing all the way to us today in Shawnee, Kansas.

For centuries, we’ve called these final chapters of John the “Farewell Discourse”. But what if we changed our outlook? What if we called it the Beginning of the Conversation? The Ascension isn’t a story about abandonment or God becoming distant. It’s a transition of responsibility. We are a family of neighbors tasked with living out Jesus’s compassion, love, and healing in real-time. We aren’t doing it alone—we are riding on the coattails of a faith handed down to us, covered in prayer, and walking forward with the Holy Spirit. God goes with you to complete the work you’ve been given. Let’s step off the porch and get to work together.

YouTube Chapters

  • 0:00 – The Vulnerable Front Porch: Sitting Beside Jesus
  • 1:15 – The “I am in You and You are in Me” Breakdown
  • 4:32 – Grounded Insight: What to Do When Life Goes Sideways
  • 7:15 – Active Hope: Turning a Farewell into a New Beginning