Image: Jorge Bautista Dear Beloved Community,    This Sunday we’ll reflect on Mark 1:9–15 alongside Mary Oliver’s poem “Wild Geese.” In Mark’s gospel, Jesus begins not with a list of achievements, but with baptism, and a voice of belonging: “You are my beloved.” Before Jesus preaches or proves anything, God names him as loved. And then, surprisingly, the Spirit drives him into the wilderness, reminding us that hard seasons are not signs of failure, but places where truth is f

Image: Jorge Bautista Dear Beloved Community,  This Sunday’s gospel, coming from Matthew 5:13-20, holds a surprising kind of comfort: Jesus doesn’t tell us to become salt and light. He names what is already true. “You are the salt of the earth… You are the light of the world.” And here’s the good news: salt can’t actually lose its saltiness. You can crush it, dissolve it, scatter it—after everything, it’s still salt. In the same way, nothing can take away the God-given “flav

Image: Jorge Bautista “Our goal is to create a beloved community, and this will require a qualitative change in our souls as well as a quantitative change in our lives.” — Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dear Beloved Community,  While you’ll be receiving this newsletter on Wednesday, I’m writing this on MLK Day, and the quote above is one of my favorites. Dr. King’s vision of a “beloved community” reminds us that justice means both changing hearts and changing systems, to bu

Image: Jorge Bautista Dear Beloved Community, This Sunday we’ll sit with one of Jesus’ simplest—and most life-changing—questions: “What are you looking for?” (John 1:29–42). Two weeks into a new year, we’ll reflect on what we’re truly seeking right now, especially in light of the grief, change, and questions many of us carry. How have our longings shifted over time? What do our answers reveal about the direction of our lives? In the sermon, we’ll explore how Jesus doesn’t ru

Image: Roy Gesley Dear Beloved Community, This Sunday Roy Gesley will guide us in a unique, do-it-yourself Epiphany service that is designed to be participatory, reflective, and fun. It will be a DIY Epiphany Worship Experience. Together, we’ll begin with our shared understanding of Epiphany. During the service, we will be invited to offer key words and concepts that come to mind when you think of Epiphany. Jim will capture everyone’s contributions on a whiteboard in classic

Image: Jorge Bautista Dear Beloved Community, Happy New Year! I truly hope you had a wonderful New Year, and I’m grateful beyond words for this community, your love, your prayers, and your commitment to one another. Thank you for being a church that chooses connection, compassion, and justice. I’m honored to begin this new year with you. This Sunday we’ll reflect on John’s Christmas proclamation: “The Word became flesh and lived among us.” We’ll explore our original blessing

Image: " Carol of the Field Mice" from Wind in the Willows, 1908 Dear Beloved Community, This upcoming Sunday we will light the pink candle of joy. In the story, it is not the powerful or the well-connected who first hear the news of Jesus’ birth, but ordinary people. Working people on the edges of society. God’s joy shows up in the fields, in the dark, with those who are usually overlooked. That’s the kind of God I follow: one who shows up in unexpected places, with good new

Image: Jorge Bautista Dear Beloved Community, This Sunday I’ll be preaching with John the Baptist as our very intense, very honest companion (Matthew 3:1–12). John is blunt in a way that most of us would probably find offensive, but underneath his harsh words is a deep conviction: we really can change. Advent is not just about waiting for a baby in a manger; it’s about trusting that God is still opening up a future for us, even when we’ve settled, gone numb, or started to bel

Image: Jorge Bautista Dear Beloved Community, I want to take a moment to express my deepest gratitude to each of you for the outpouring of love, care, and solidarity you’ve shown since I was assaulted by a Customs and Border Patrol agent nearly two weeks ago. Your prayers, messages, and steadfast presence have meant more to me than words can express. I am profoundly proud to serve as your pastor and to represent College Heights Church -- a community that truly believes every

Image: Jorge Bautista Dear Beloved Community, This upcoming Sunday, I’ll be preaching on Luke 18:1–8, where Jesus tells the parable of the persistent widow who refuses to give up on justice. Together, we’ll explore what it means to worship a God who is moved , a God who feels with us, wrestles with us, and responds to our cries. Through this story, and the image of Jacob’s night of wrestling, we’ll discover how God’s compassion invites us to be moved too , to let our hearts