Pastor Chris continues his series of conversations with friends serving around our nation and around the world, discussing the common call we share in response to this global pandemic, and exploring in depth some challenges that may be contextually unique. Chris’s guests today are our dear friends from the Holy Land, Elisa Moed and Christina Samara.

Ferris was right, "life moves pretty fast," until it doesn't. In the midst of a pandemic, one of the first things we notice is that life doesn't always move that fast. Maybe we've been trained to move fast, but what does that speed mean? What does it do to us? What if we have been living at a pace that fundamentally disconnects from our deeper wants, truer selves, and the people God has given us?

Pastor Sean Palmer offers a needed reminder in this season of trial and confusion as we continue to face the fragility of the structures we have built as a people. We are reminded that in this life, we are granted only a foretaste of what we believe awaits; a taste which sustains us through any hardship and heartache. We pray that it is an encouraging word as we walk this road together.

For care and connection throughout the week, visit: ecclesiahouston.org/onlinecare

This is the first installment in a series of conversations that Pastor Chris will have with friends serving around our nation and around the world. They will discuss the common call we share in response to this global pandemic, and explore in depth some challenges that may be contextually unique. Chris’s first guest is our dear brother Marcelo Robles, Pastor of La Mision Church in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Around the world governments and health experts are urging people to #stayhome, and Shelter-In-Place orders are given every day. The world is facing a pandemic few of us were prepared to face. While we love our families, we are not accustomed to being with the same people 24/7. What if the greatest temptation is not what we think it is? What if the greatest temptation isn't being with one another, but to abandon one another even while we're in their presence?

As the world continues to grapple with the vast effects of this pandemic, we are all learning to gather and care for one another in new ways. Pastor Chris invites us to consider our identity as God’s beloved children ; trusting that we will be provided for, and the ways in which we will be a part of that provision for others.

For care and connection throughout the week, visit: ecclesiahouston.org/onlinecare

COVID-19 is presenting us all with challenges and obstacles we could never have imagined. We are now forced into new realities; relational, financial, emotional, and spiritual. For followers of Jesus, how do we hold this space with life, grace, and perhaps more importantly, peace? This week, we take a look at time, and how Israel’s greatest leader, Moses, can guide us.

Responding to the challenging and rapidly developing circumstances surrounding the spread of COVID-19, members of our family across the globe gathered largely in our living rooms as we came to worship and commune together in a new way. Pastor Chris invites us to consider how the church is uniquely called to step into this season: in the care of our neighbors, and those most vulnerable in our city and beyond.

For continued updates, stay tuned to ecclesiahouston.org/online

Pastor Chris continued our series in the Gospel of John, exploring the story of Jesus’ encounter with a woman facing judgment and his challenge to the gathered crowd. We’re reminded of God’s compassionate presence lifting us from shame, and the crucial truth that righteousness is not to be wielded as a weapon.

It was wonderful to welcome back Ines Franklin; offering a deep and encouraging reminder of the Holy Spirit not as a distant abstraction, but as a relationship as tangible in essence as the flesh-and-blood person of Jesus Christ. We are grateful for the simple truth, often forgotten, that the Spirit of God knows the way. May God help us to trust in that truth, even when it feels we are driving in the dark.

Pastor Chris Seay shares an update on our ongoing partnership with local churches caring for the countless many still displaced along the Venezuelan border. As we look ahead to the season of Lent; forty days of prayer and temptation following Jesus in the desert, we ask how we are called to enter into and be transformed by rhythms of fasting. Our hope is for you to join us in pulling away from our excesses, living simply, and gathering our resources to continue making a place at the table for all.

Pastor Sean Palmer continues our series on signs in the Gospel of John with a vital word for our family; telling the story of the blind beggar healed by Jesus, and his questioning by the Pharisees which followed. All too often, our own assumption of “sight” has left us blind to the greater movement of God that may well be staring us in the face.

Ericka Graham invites us to continue in our journey through the Gospel of John. We are shown, time and again, the signs of God’s redeeming love accepting us as sinners while calling us toward the “sainthood” of living fully into that love.  

Pastors Chris Seay and Wayne Brown continue our series on signs in the Book of John by leading us through the story of the healing at Bethesda. Jesus has great compassion for us as we navigate the pain in our lives. We learn that feeling pain is what gives us the ability to walk, and our willingness to share our pain with others allows us to walk in hope with others.

Gideon uses Isaiah 42 to invite us to see the presence of God as we walk through Order, Disorder, and Reorder in the journey of our lives. The Order are the containers and structure in which our beauty is called to flourish; Disorder is the pain and darkness through which we necessarily walk in this broken world; and Reorder is the invitation to resurrection, healing, salvation, and transformation.

Pastor Sean shares the sign of the fish and loaves from the Gospel of John. He challenges us to be aware of the signs we are being shown instead of waiting for the signs we expect.

Pastor Sean invites us to hear Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well with new ears. This is an invitation to examine our stories of shame and allow Jesus’ kind presence to bring hope and healing into places of isolation and despair.

Pastor Chris leads us into the new year with Jesus‘ first miracle in the Gospel of John. Through the lens of this story, Chris takes a look at the problem of codependency and invites us into a better, more healthy way of viewing ourselves and others. 

Our brother Gideon Tsang guide us into the practice of contemplation, a practice that invites us to notice your life deeply.

Gideon serves as a member of the pastoral team of Vox Veniae in Austin.

In this season of expectation, Pastor Sean reminds us that a baby changes everything and calls us to worship fully. Jesus’ birth changes and challenges the kingdoms of our life and calls us into transformation. Also, Campus Pastor, Ramon Huertas gives an update on two important projects in the life of our church. We are joined by musical guests the African’s Children Choir, our friends and water partners in Uganda. To support water projects with the African’s Children Choir visit ecclesiahouston.org/advent.