Westside Church

The Gospel of John: Week 13 | In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus, by handing himself over to his attackers, shows that he is not a powerless victim, but the only one with authority to choose the path of the cross to save others.

The Gospel of John: Week 12 | Jesus invites us to remain connected to him like branches to a vine, trusting that real transformation and fruitfulness comes not from abiding in his life and teachings – choosing to simply be with him – not striving to prove our dedication or worth.

The Gospel of John: Week 11 | The peace that Jesus offers isn’t found in specific circumstances or self-improvement. It is found by realizing that we are vessels of his goodness, and are fully reliant on his presence through the Holy Spirit.

The Gospel of John: Week 10 | While the disciples argued about who among them was the greatest, Jesus stooped to wash their feet. By loving even those who would betray and abandon him, Jesus showed that loving your neighbor has nothing to do with status – it is about lowering yourself in order to lift up another.

The Gospel of John: Week 9 | Mary’s (the sister of Lazarus) bold act of anointing Jesus with costly perfume reveals that true discipleship flows from humble devotion at his feet – not pride, efficiency, or transactional religion that believes God “owes” us something.

The Gospel of John: Week 8 | Jesus’ bold declaration, “I am the resurrection and the life,” confronts the hard question: Why God sometimes seems slow in the face of suffering? We are invited to trust Christ’s nearness in grief, believe in His power to bring life from death, and become a community marked by grace and resurrection hope.

The Gospel of John: Week 7 | Jesus’ declaration as the Good Shepherd invites us to consider what it truly means to recognize His voice amid the noise and competing influences of everyday life.

The Gospel of John: Week 6 | When Jesus declared himself the Light of the World, it was a declaration that asked something of humanity, too. It asked us to keep our eyes open and willing to recognize that before we saw Jesus’ light, we were blind – but by acknowledging his light, now we can see!

The Gospel of John: Week 5 | When Jesus fed the crowd but refused to be made a national savior, he disappointed the revolutionaries who viewed him as a means to an end – just like the Pharisees had before. Instead of seeing Jesus simply as someone who can change our circumstances, we should see and seek him for who he really is: the Bread of Life.

The Gospel of John: Week 4 | Following Jesus means allowing his teaching to change us. When John wrote about Jesus healing the paralyzed beggar, he noted how easily brokenness can become our identity – and how Jesus calls us to leave it behind.

The Gospel of John: Week 3 | Jesus is not half grace and half truth. He is fully grace and fully truth, which allowed him to completely see our sin and then sacrifice himself as a perfect atonement for it.

The Gospel of John: Week 2 | The Jesus who quietly and miraculously turned water into wine, refilling what had run dry, is the same Jesus who overturned tables at the temple, bolding disrupting a system that was denying people access to God. Jesus’ peace does not mean quiet – but it does mean wholeness, justice, and joy for those who take part in it.

The Gospel of John: Week 1 | The Apostle John’s account of the Gospel differs from Matthew, Mark, and Luke’s accounts in that John’s Gospel is a personal reflection on his experience of living and serving in Jesus’ presence. John writes earnestly that Jesus, who was the living, breathing Voice of God, is on humanity’s side.

Through the humility of Mary, the obedience of Joseph, the faith of Simeon, and the joy of Anna, we are reminded that the light of Jesus cannot be overcome. We are invited to believe – and expect – that God will move powerfully now, just like he did in the past.

Advent Week 4: LOVE | We are often told that we must always move up, be more, and fix ourselves. During the last week of Advent we look at LOVE, and how it tells us a different story. Instead of climbing higher, loves descends down into our wounds. Love is a person, and he chooses to be with us.

Advent Week 3: JOY | True joy isn’t something we achieve through success, circumstances, or possessions, but a gift produced by God’s nearness. We receive it when we make room for Him in our ordinary lives, which allows us to live in child-like wonder, even in times of sorrow.

Advent Week 2: PEACE | In the second week of Advent, we reflect on peace. Jesus is a peacemaker, and as Christians, or “little Christs,” we are called to make peace wherever we go as well. Peace is not something we get from people-pleasing, arguing, or avoiding conflict at all costs – it is something we learn from Jesus.

Advent Week 1: HOPE | The Advent season begins in a way we might not expect; it begins with longing, questions, and waiting. This hopeful posture of waiting is where God meets us – so bring your aches, longings, and questions to God, and let him form a sense of hope within you.

When it comes to thankfulness and gratitude, we can find ourselves in one of three positions: unthankfulness, reasonable thankfulness, or gospel gratitude. While thankfulness is a meaningful action, gratitude is a posture — a way of being — that we find when we trust that God perfectly loves us.

Vision Part 2 | This week we celebrated Global Sunday and looked back on how God has used Westside to reach people beyond our country’s boarders. As we prepare for the new year, we are reminded that God loves the entire world — not just our corner of it — and how we are called out of apathy and into Jesus’ Great Commission.

Vision Part 1 | Proverbs 29:18 reads, “Without vision, the people perish.” For two weeks, Senior Pastors Ben and Evan are expanding upon how Life, Love, Jesus does not serve as a catchy slogan for Westside Church, but as the foundation for the Jesus-centered community being formed here.

Sunday School Week 8 | Rahab’s story reveals that God’s grace reaches beyond labels, and that even the most unlikely people are welcomed into God’s Kingdom through simple faith. Through the redemptive grace that Jesus brings in the New Testament, all are invited to trade shameful labels and identities for new life in Christ.

Sunday School Week 7 | Joseph’s story shows us that God’s silence is not His absence. When we are deep in the pit, we can trust that God will turn what was meant for evil into good, just as He did through Joseph and ultimately through Jesus.

Sunday School Week 6 | Gideon’s story is one that shows us how God often calls insecure and unlikely people to lead—not because of strength they have built on their own, but because His presence alone qualifies them.

Sunday School Week 5 | Like the widow who faithfully collected empty jars to fill with oil in a time of desperation, we are invited to ask God for help in times of emptiness, disappointment, and waiting. God alone has the power to fill the spaces that we cannot.

Sunday School Week 4 | Jonah’s story shows us that God never gives up on us—even when we actively avoid Him. While Jonah ran from the Ninevites, hating them and believing them unworthy of God’s grace, God continued to pursue them despite Jonah’s greatest efforts.

Sunday School Week 3 | David’s courage to face Goliath came from years of quiet trust in God, not sudden, violent bravado. What might look weak—a sling with a few stones, a young boy tending sheep, or Jesus hung on the cross—is where God’s power and grace shows up.

Sunday School Week 2 | Courage does not always sound like the loudest voice in the room or look like the fiercest fighter. The story of Daniel teaches us that being courageous in a broken, anxious, and compromising world can – and should – look like going to God earnestly in prayer.

Sunday School Week 1 | How we read the Bible is just as important as if we read it at all. When reading stories like Noah’s Ark from the Old Testament, it is crucial that we look for Jesus in the worldly and divine violence of each setting—Jesus is our ark, and humanity is in desperate need of a Savior.

The Ten Commandments were not given as a list of rules to earn God’s love or avoid his anger, but as guidance for how people already freed by God’s grace can live in good relationship with Him and one another.

Good & Beautiful Week 6 | In looking for the purpose that God has in store for us, we often find ourselves wandering through the wilderness of life. We can step out of this wandering by staying open to God’s voice, actively participating in our own lives, and allowing God’s grace to saturate our shortcomings.

Good & Beautiful Week 5 | At the heart of transformation in Christ is practicing real love in community—not just symbolic gestures, but humbly serving and caring for people in their brokenness, just as Jesus washed His disciples’ dirty feet.

Good & Beautiful Week 4 | When God said that we are made in His image (Genesis 1:26), he did not mean that we are made in only God the Father’s image — He made us in his image as the Triune God: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. From the very beginning, we were created to be in and grow in community.

Good & Beautiful Week 3 | Our hearts can only truly change when we replace the false narratives of our lives with the true narratives that Jesus calls us into. Even at our most broken, we are perfectly loved and accepted by Jesus—His call for us to live like him is an invitation for us to change for good.

Good & Beautiful Week 2 | The good life that Jesus tells us about is not found or achieved by sitting cautiously in a comfortable place that we know is safe. The good life is found by seriously pursuing Jesus—who has no intention to fence you in! There is wide-open, spacious life to be found in Christ.

Good & Beautiful Week 1 | Christianity is not rooted in performance or becoming a statistically better human—rather, it is quite inefficient. Relationship with Jesus is rooted in giving up our natural tendencies, like working for validation or refusing to truly rest, and accepting the invitation to live like Him.

Big Questions Week 6 | Hope in the context of Christianity is often depicted as the obvious, quick and easy answer to despair, but in the scripture, we see that “…creation was subjected to frustration…in hope” (Romans 8:20). Hope is not always a simple one-and-done solution, but one that requires vulnerability, persistence, and groaning (v. 22).

Big Questions Week 5 | Prayer is not a practice where we just ask God for things, but a space where we encounter God himself. Through prayer, we discover that our futures are not tied down by fate—instead, our lives are moldable in God’s hands.

Big Questions Week 4 | Seasons of doubt and exhaustion are not signs of spiritual failure but invitations into deeper honesty with God, who meets us with gentleness. When feeling uncertain, we are called to cling to God and seek community while asking questions and remaining curious.

Big Questions Week 3 | Discerning God’s will isn’t about chasing certainty, but about aligning our hearts with God’s promises, obeying His instructions, and walking by faith alongside others—even when it feels like our futures are teetering on our own decisions.