Colossians: The Peace You Long For - Ralph Castillo

This Sunday, Pastor Sam Gibson kicked off our January series, God Comes Where He's Wanted, with a teaching on the central importance of the altar of the heart. Scripture and revival history remind us that God moves where He is deeply desired, and that hunger for His presence is the true catalyst for renewal. While we cannot control when or how God moves, we are invited to cultivate hearts that welcome Him. Though our hearts are often damaged by this world and can become dull or divided, as we yield to God's healing and return to daily dependence on the Gospel and God's Word, we make room for the Holy Spirit to renew us and allow God's life to flow through us once again.

This Sunday, Pastor Jon Tyson continued our Advent series, He Shall Be, with a teaching about the good news of Jesus as Savior. In a world marked by exhaustion, violence, and brokenness, the sentimentality of Christmas is not enough for our weary hearts. Scripture tells us that the world became so fractured that God Himself came to save us, out of His deep love for us. Jesus is the true leader our hearts long for—reshaping the world through dignity, mercy, and grace. Advent points us to a God who is truly with us, meeting our sin, shame, and weariness with restoration, hope, and the gift of salvation to all who receive Him.

This Sunday, Pastor Suzy Silk continued our Advent series, He Shall Be, with a teaching on the significance of Jesus as the Messiah, reminding us how Advent and Hanukkah point us back to God's faithfulness and His promise-keeping nature, even in fearful and anxious times. Jesus is the Messiah whom God had long promised, perfectly accomplishing what no earthly king could and fulfilling dozens of specific Old Testament prophecies. Because God is the Lord of history and has proven Himself faithful time and time again, we can trust Him with our futures. Pastor Suzy invited us to lift our eyes above the chaos into a long-term perspective focused on God's faithfulness and to remember that the antidote to anxiety is not answers but the person of Jesus—resting in the certainty that the Messiah has come and will come again.

This Sunday, Pastor Jon continued our Advent series, He Shall Be, with a teaching on Jesus' greatness and how He redefined what greatness means in the Kingdom of God. He contrasted our culture's pursuit of success, status, and recognition with the way of Jesus, whose greatness is revealed in humility, dependence, and self-giving love. In a world obsessed with achievement, Jesus' greatness is found in His descent; he had everything but became a child for our sake. And when we follow Jesus' example and rest in the Father's secure love, we are freed to serve others without fear. The path to true greatness is not a life shaped not by recognition, but by humility and Christlike love.

This Sunday, Pastor Ralph Castillo kicked off our new sermon series during the Advent season, He Shall Be, with a teaching on Jesus as Immanuel, or "God with us". Pastor Ralph posed two questions for us to consider during this Advent season: How is the coming of Jesus at Christmas good news? And how does He meet the core longings that surface most intensely during this Advent season? Pastor Ralph explained that this is why we celebrate Christmas: because God came. He answered our loneliness and grief with Himself, and Pastor Ralph invited us to consider that the best Christmas present of all is Jesus' tangible presence with us.

This Sunday, Pastor Sam Gibson concluded our series on Making Sense of Church with a teaching on the Body of Christ, from 1 Corinthians 12. The Body is filled with people who are baptized by the same Holy Spirit, no matter our gender, culture, race, or any other identifiers, but we all play a part in either defiling or restoring the Body. The Spirit's primary role is to reveal Jesus and align us under His headship, and it is by this same Spirit that we are refreshed and renewed, freed and transformed, and made each day to look even more like Christ.

On Saturday, we hosted our first Vocational Mission Forum. In this recording, Pastor Sam Gibson interviews three young leaders on prayer and the workplace. Find out more at cvm.nyc

This Sunday, Pastor Jon Tyson continued our series Making Sense of Church with a teaching from Ephesians 2:14–18, focusing on Paul's vision of the Church as the "the new humanity." In a society marked by polarization, contempt, and hostility, Pastor Jon reminded us that Jesus Himself is our peace—the One who tears down dividing walls and creates a radically new kind of community. In Adam, the "old humanity" is marked by blame, fear, hiding, violence, and retaliation, but in Christ, we are brought into a kainos humanity—new in kind, not just in time. Through the cross, Jesus forms a people defined by grace, love, and unity.

This month, we want to take a look back at the remarkable things God has been able to release in our church through the generosity of our community. In 2022, we committed part of our Living the Liturgy Offering to becoming a church that could serve as a patron of the arts and cultivate a community of redemptive artists. We invite you to check out the impact your giving has had over the last few years in the recording.  Through your generosity, forty artists have been commissioned to create new work to bless our church and this city in just two years. We are so grateful for the generosity of this community, and we want to say thank you to everyone who has given through the years; this is your fruit! You can learn more about Living the Liturgy, and how to give today at church.nyc/give.

This Sunday, guest Pastor Guy Mason continued our sermon series, Making Sense of the Church, with a teaching on the Church as the City on a Hill. Anchored in Jesus' teaching in Matthew 5 commissioning His people to be the light of the world and a city set on a hill, we are reminded of our calling to pursue a life of undivided worship and Christ-centered holiness as a witness to the world. As we become a people set apart and built together in love to push back darkness with light, we can rest in the knowledge that this calling is simply a continuation of the perfect work Jesus began in and for us.