Christ's Church Vancouver Island

Just before Jesus' famous "Come to me" invitation is His "Woe to unrepentant cities" speech. In it He calls out humanities tendency to eagerly seek out the miraculous healing and redemption that Jesus offers without turning their whole hearts and lives to follow Him. In this sermon Fr Ryan talks about the grace of Jesus' invitation to repent, the final judgement, and the serious truth that according to Jesus the worst kind of evil is most likely to be found in churches.

As we celebrated Epiphany (the coming of the Magi) Fr Ryan taught on God's promise to the Gentiles fulfilled in Jesus.

The season of Advent is all about living in the tension between Christ's first coming (birth) and Christ's second coming. In this sermon Fr Ryan looks to the words of St Peter for perspective and comfort as we process both the biblical and scientific predictions that this world is going to pass away and how the Way of Jesus offers hope to a generation asking, "What's the point in living if the world is going to end?"

Robyn Wilson begins our Advent journey with her reflections on St Luke's comparison of Zechariah and Mary as they hear the news from Gabriel of John's and Jesus' miraculous conception.

In this sermon Fr Ryan explains what Jesus means when He says that "the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force" and Jesus' analogy that John the Baptist's message was like a grief laden poem and His message a joy filled song that both were rejected by the numb-hearted religious communities.

In this episode Fr Ryan brings a close to our Harvest series on Jesus' ethics of evangelism with a "Harvest Check-List" to help you receive, move forward in, and engage in Jesus' work of harvest with authenticity and conviction.

Rev Geoffrey Dixon (Honorary Assistant at CCO) preaches this week on Jesus' teaching of rewarding those who receive the person who brings them the Gospel whether as a friend, evangelist, missionary, or pastor.

In this week's sermon Fr Ryan looks at the Good News hidden behind one of Jesus' harder teachings, "Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person's enemies will be those of his own household."

In this episode Fr Ryan tackles one of the weightier aspects of Jesus' instructions concerning His ethics of evangelism and answers the following questions; Should we engage in mission in a pluralistic society? If so, how and what do we do with our fear of others? What are the consequences of not living openly, honestly, and publicly about our faith?

As Jesus sends out the 12 (and us) He warns of the inevitability of persecution arising wherever the Gospel is preached and gives instructions for how to walk through it. In this sermon Fr Ryan explains why Jesus says we will be "hated by all" for Jesus' name sake.

Having established that compassion is Jesus' motivation for sending His followers out to participate in His mission to the "harassed and helpless" Fr Ryan walks us through Jesus' instructions for how to be sent out in our public personal faith, to offer real help for real life, give good news without payment, in a non-anxious way, with transparency, respecting their agency and decision, knowing that Christ's judgement awaits those who misuse religion to harass and harm.

Why did Jesus choose and appoint the 12 Apostles? What was the significance of the role and how did it fit into His plans for the Church? In this sermon Fr Ryan looks at the 4 marks of the apostolic office and how the Apostolic Tradition is essential for the mission and evangelism of Christ's Church--even and especially today.

This week Fr Ryan looks at the 6 Essentials of the Harvest from Jesus' statements in Mtt 9:35-38.

We pick up our studies of the Gospel of Saint Matthew this Sunday by beginning a new series (Harvest) on the why and how of sharing your faith in Jesus with others. For many followers the idea of sharing your faith with friends and family is a solid mix of genuinely wanting to, feeling afraid to, feeling guilty for not, and feeling embarrassed by how others have done it. This section of Jesus' teaching provides us with the right message and the right motivations to help us feel more confidently ourselves while living openly about what we have found in the Way of Jesus.

Vision Sunday is a day every year where we at Christ's Church Oceanside revisit and recommit to Christ's vision or what the Church is and how the Church is built; Scriptural, Sacramental, Supernatural, Sacrificial, and Salvations.This year Pastor Ryan preached on 1 Jn 2:12-14 and the Stages of Growth in the Way of Jesus.

In this sermon Fr Ryan does Pt 2 (v8-19) of Psalm 51 and how repentance in the Way of Jesus results in genuine change for the individual and the betterment of society and even institutions.

How should we pray when we have screwed up big? When we have sinned against God, ourselves, and others? Psalm 51 shows us how to turn to the steadfast love and mercy of God when faced with the guilt of our own bad decisions. This is Part 1 of 2.

Psalm 110 is a Psalm of King David that prophetically sees the ascended Christ ruling and reigning in the midst of a broken world and beginning His mission of judging evil by shattering the unjust kings and chiefs of every nation. Join us a Pastor Ryan shows how this becomes the way we pray to Jesus about the topic of politics.

Our Summer in the Psalms series continues with this message from Fr Ryan on Psalm 102: The Prayer of the Afflicted or like we would say today, "The Prayer of Someone Going Through $#%?!" What we see in this Psalm is that the biblical way of petitioning God for His help and intervention begins with desperation, moves through brutal honesty, into rubber-meets-the-road faith, and ends with confident hope.

Fr Ryan is back preaching on Psalm 23 with its astounding clarity and comfort for all those who have or are going through difficult days in the "valley of the shadow of death."

This Sunday Pastor Geoffrey talks about why he is a Christian using the ancient words of Psalm 111.

This Sunday Rich Whiteman preach through Psalm 27 "The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?"

This Sunday Robyn Wilson teaches on Psalm 73 and the feelings of doubt we all feel while struggling to see the love of God in a broken and evil world.

This Sunday Rev Geoffrey Dixon introduces our new series "Summer in the Psalms" by walking us through Psalm 1 and explaining why the Psalms are considered the Prayer Book of the Bible and essential for the prayer life of any follower of Jesus.

In this sermon Fr Ryan reflects on and celebrates what Jesus has done in his five years of leadership at Christ's Church, what motivated him to take the position in the first place, all that he is thankful for, and the promises and dreams propelling us into our future mission.

How does evil oppress your voice? Are you able to give voice to the things closest to your heart to the people who matter most to you? More importantly, are you able to express your heart in worship to God?In this teaching Fr Ryan unpacks how the redeeming presence of Jesus banishes the voices of evil, restores our voices, and leads us into worship.

How does worship illuminate Jesus while we are going through dark times? This week Fr Ryan continues our series on New Wine Worship by looking at Mtt 9:27-31 and Jesus' healing of two blind men.

This week Fr Ryan shows how the wineskin needed for new wine worship needs to include three pieces sown together; the past (tradition), the present (this cultural moment), and the future (eternity in heaven).

In Jesus' teaching on the New Wine He highlights the importance of a New Wineskin, one which will ensure that the New Wine is not lost or wasted. In this sermon Fr Ryan begins talking about the role Tradition plays in the Church as a wineskin.

In this sermon Fr Ryan explains how the Way of Jesus brings an end to the need for religion (humanities work to reach God) and ushers in a new Way of relating to God in which He bridges the gap and achieves all that is needed to enter into His presence.

In this sermon Fr Ryan begins to answer, What is the new wine? How do we receive it? What does it look like for a local church to cultivate a culture of new wine worship? and how does Jesus' teaching in Mtt 9:14-18 help us?

This sermon from Mtt 9:14-17 turned into an ongoing series focused on Worship Renewal in Christ's Church.

Encouragement, affirmation, honour, and deep respect fuel this sermon by Fr Ryan as he seeks to genuinely celebrate the women of faith in Christ's Church.

How essential is baptism? Why exactly does it matter? Does it do or achieve anything? These questions and more get answered by Fr Ryan in this Palm Sunday message.

It's hard to understand how to make sense of all the different kinds of churches, expressions, and streams within Christianity. This sermon by Fr Ryan gives an introduction to church history to help us understand why churches are different, what they should hold in common, and how you discern what church you should call home. Additionally this episode covers what it means to be apart of the "Via Media" of Anglicanism!

What is the Church and what does it mean to be a part of the Church? Fr Ryan addresses the fundamentals of what the Church is actually supposed to be about in the beginnings of this new series on Church History.

Do we believe Jesus is good enough, safe enough, and strong enough for the needs of our friends and family?

Reading: Mtt 8:28-34

The way of Jesus, in the face of Leviathan and Behemoth and the storms that they churn.

'Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead'

“You say, ‘If I had a little more, I should be very satisfied.’ You make a mistake. If you are not content with what you have, you would not be satisfied if it were doubled.” —Charles Spurgeon

Taking some time to really consider, what does it mean to be a true follower of Jesus?

Christ the Son of God, the Author of human salvation, the fount and source of all goodness, furnished heavenly medicine, He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all that were sick. Dæmons and diseases He sent away with a word, that by these signs, and mighty works, He might show that He was come for the salvation of the human race.

Jesus' tender power fully displayed through faith, a touch, and a word.

Happy Epiphany Church!

"When Jesus heard this, He marvelled." Can this be what we aspire to as a Church? as a community and a people? To be something Jesus marvels at?

After a short hiatus (Apologies from Duncan) We are BACK! Exploring the way and the person of Jesus!

The beginning of Advent- and our new series: The Born King

Surely the righteous will never be shaken; they will be remembered forever. They will have no fear of bad news; their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the Lord. Their hearts are secure, they will have no fear; in the end they will look in triumph on their foes. They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor, their righteousness endures forever; their horn will be lifted high in honour.

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”