Church of the Messiah (@cotm.umc)

Parents, you know this one. 👀 You’re in the middle of a conversation, and a little hand starts tugging on your sleeve. “Just a minute, please.” Tug. “Remember how we’re learning not to interrupt?” Tug, tug. Then comes the yell, and the news that little Johnny really needs the bathroom. 🚽😅 Oh. Cue…

On April 3, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stood with striking sanitation workers in Memphis and retold the Good Samaritan story. In his version, the workers being treated unjustly were the man lying by the side of the road. King pointed out that the Levite asked, “If I stop to help this man…

On his way to heal a synagogue leader’s daughter, Jesus stopped for a woman who touched his cloak. As Pastor Don put it, “His interruption got interrupted.” 😄 Then there’s Zacchaeus, perched up in a tree, minding his own business, until Jesus invites himself over for dinner. 🌳🍽️ Quite the…

“That scholar wanted a line drawn around who was neighbor, and Jesus erased it.” ✋ The priest and the Levite had their reasons for walking past. Maybe they were busy, or afraid, or helping a stranger just wasn’t on their to-do list that day. Pastor Don says most of the time we’re walking right…

Ever finish a day where you got a lot done, just none of what was on your to-do list? 📝 Pastor Don has a solution: write the surprises down at the end of the day so you can cross them off. 😅 (He also has a very skilled therapist.) In the Good Samaritan story, the man who helped was the one who let…

🛗 Going up! 🎉 We’re excited to share that our elevator has officially passed all required inspections and is fully operational and ready for you to ride! Thank you so much for your patience while we waited for the final thumbs up. We know the stairs got a lot of extra love these past few weeks…

Everything belongs to God. God gives first. Giving means giving back to God. 🙌 Pastor Katy walks us through Scripture to show how this thread runs from Genesis to Paul’s letters. “The earth is the Lord’s.” “When you open your hands, God, they are filled with good things.” “What do you have that…

Ever watched a toddler try to eat ONE Cheerio out of a fistful of ten? 🥣✊ Pastor Katy has, and it’s pretty much all of us. When she tried to help open her kids’ little hands, they screamed like she was stealing their snack. That’s how it can feel when we think everything we hold belongs to us: our…

Tired of carrying it all? 😮‍💨 All the stuff. All the resources. All the time we have to plan for, protect, and manage. Pastor Katy invites us to imagine the freedom that comes when our perspective shifts from “It’s mine” to “It’s God’s, and I hold it for now.” That shift lifts a weight. When…

Ever feel like every interruption is stealing your time? ⏰ Pastor Katy turned to one of her favorite books, C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters, where a senior demon explains to a junior demon why humans cling so tightly to “my time.” When we believe our time belongs only to us, every claim on it…

What if we held everything like a 5th grader taking home the class guinea pig? 🐹 Pastor Katy opened Sunday’s message with Pepper, the guinea pig who went home with a different student every weekend. Pepper belonged to the school. Your job was to take good care of her for a little while and bring…

“If everything comes from God, why are there people who don’t have what they need?” 🤔 It’s a fair question, and Scripture takes it on directly. Pastor Katy points us to the manna in the wilderness: God provided daily, and those who gathered too little still lacked nothing. Paul echoes the same…

“Mom, she took my shirt! It was mine!” 👕😤 Anyone else grow up fighting over borrowed clothes? Pastor Katy did, and it led straight to one of the most relatable pictures of how we hold on to what’s “ours”: a toddler with a fistful of Cheerios, screaming when Mom tries to help open their hand. 🥣…

Tired of carrying it all? 😮‍💨 All the stuff. All the resources. All the time we have to plan for, protect, and manage. Pastor Katy invites us to imagine the freedom that comes when our perspective shifts from “It’s mine” to “It’s God’s, and I hold it for now.” That shift lifts a weight. When…

Jesus sees the whole of who you are. 💛 In John 8, a crowd drags a woman before Jesus and puts her worst moment on display. Jesus, the only one in the room with the right to judge, chooses mercy. He sees what she’s done, and He sees so much more: who she is right now and who she might become. We…

Set it down. 🔍 Sooner or later, it happens to all of us. Someone says the wrong thing, forgets to call, or makes a choice we’d never make. Before we know it, we’re holding up a magnifying glass, and that one moment starts to become the whole story of who they are. Pastor Katy’s invitation from…

What are you magnifying? 🔍 Humans can magnify almost anything: a blood vessel, a ping pong paddle, even a sound from outer space. We’re also pretty skilled at magnifying each other’s faults. One careless word or one personal slight, and suddenly it’s all we can see in someone we love. In the final…

"You don't have to win to be loved." 🙌 Pastor Don Wallick closed Week 4 of Faultlines with a challenge for the week ahead. Think of one relationship where you've been fighting to be right. In your next conversation with that person, ask one real question before you make your point. And when you…

"Look, Paul... that's not how we humans do business most of the time." 😅 Remember those WWJD bracelets? In Philippians 2, Paul asks us to regard others as better than ourselves and to look out for their interests. Pastor Don Wallick admits those verses catch him up short every time. Paul's call to…

"I have yet to see a heart go untransformed." 🤝 In Week 4 of Faultlines, Pastor Don Wallick shares two ways to cultivate humility. The first is a prayer: "Not my will, God, but yours." The second is something our Church of the Messiah family knows well: serving others. When we serve alongside…

"How have we missed that memo?" 📝 Romans 12. Ephesians 5. Matthew 20. 1 Corinthians 13. Over and over, Scripture calls us to humility, to put others first, and to look out for one another's interests. In Week 4 of Faultlines, Pastor Don Wallick reminds us that humility is central to following…

"You are not all that and a bag of chips." 😄 Bishop Greg Palmer's famous reminder comes with a smile and a promise: you are a precious child of God, and that's enough. In Week 4 of Faultlines, Pastor Don Wallick reminds us that biblical humility begins with knowing we are loved. From there, we can…

We're afraid of what saying it out loud might change. And we're afraid of what it won't. 💭 Pastor Katy named something so many of us know too well. We rehearse the same conversation 40 times in our heads and never have it once with the actual person. It feels safer to keep carrying the weight than…

"I'll let go of this grudge when I'm ready." 🤔 Sound familiar? Pastor Katy pointed out that the Greek word Jesus uses for forgiveness is the same word used for canceling a financial debt. Forgiveness, in the way of Jesus, is a practical, intentional release. It's a choice we can make to let go of…

When Pastor Katy's kids were little rock collectors, she had to teach them to decide what to carry. How many rocks do you want? Which ones are worth it? Which ones will keep you moving toward where you're going? 🪨 This week, she asked all of us the same questions. 💭 How many grudges do you want to…

Some grudges last a couple of days. Others stick around for weeks, years, or even that thing from 15 years ago you can still replay in vivid detail. A grudge is anger, irritation, resentment, or hurt that we keep around long after the moment has passed. And just like rocks in our pockets, grudges…

Good news: you don't have to let go of every grudge today. 😅 Just one. Pastor Katy asked us a hard question this week. Is what you're holding onto keeping you from going where God is calling you? We can only carry so much before it slows us down on the way to becoming people of deep love for God…

You're allowed to be annoyed. 😤 You don't have to pretend it's fine. Pastor Katy offered us a new pattern this week. Notice the rock before it goes in your pocket. Feel your feelings, and then say the sentence out loud: "Hey, can we figure out a better way to do this?" It might not fix everything…

Anyone who has hiked with a little kid knows how this goes. 😂 Pastor Katy's family had a rule that if you find a treasure, you carry it yourself. One day, that meant a pair of pockets so full of rocks the pants were falling down and every step was a struggle. 🪨 That's what grudges do to us. Some…

Remembering you're mad takes energy. So do the silent treatment, the replayed arguments, and the unkind words. 🪨 This week Pastor Katy asked us to think about grudges like rocks in our pockets. We often carry them hoping they'll teach someone a lesson or keep us safe. Meanwhile, they're quietly…