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

Image: Jorge Bautista Dear Beloved Community, This Sunday, we’ll reflect together on one of Jesus’ most surprising stories, the healing...

Image: Jorge Bautista Dear Beloved Community, This Sunday, our gospel reading comes from Luke 17:5–10, where the apostles cry out to...

Image: Kevin Doyle Dear Beloved Community, If you are anything like me—someone who pays attention to the news, maybe a little too...

Image: Jorge Bautista Dear Beloved Community, This Sunday we’ll be exploring one of Jesus’ most puzzling parables in Luke 16:1-13 -- the...

Image: Jim Garrison Dear Beloved Community, I never grow tired of saying how much I love when we share meals together. This past Sunday’s...