West City Fellowship Podcast

This is an exciting Sunday for our church as we move to our new location – Minnie Howard School. We will start this new season of ministry with a new series called JOY!, from the letter to the Philippians. The first message will discuss how the more we learn to love in a godly manner, the more we experience the blessing of joy.

This week we hear from our Worship Leader, Nick Santostefano, on his background, what led him to WCF and what it means to be 'Throne Builders' in our worship.

What is Success? This somewhat abstract term can be defined in many ways. Living in the Washington, DC area we see quite a few. Wealth, position, influence...the list goes on. But is that how the Bible defines success? This week, we will seek to not only explore the Biblical definition of success, but also how we as christians should pursue it.

Jesus calls us into situations where we must depend upon Him. If we ignore His call, we miss great opportunities. Yet, if we follow with a cavalier attitude, we are likely to be quickly humbled. When we follow Jesus with courage and humility, however, we develop a deepened faith in who He is and what He can do. Out of that faith, we can follow Jesus on exciting adventures as we join Him in establishing His Kingdom. We’ll talk about that Sunday, as we conclude our ‘Catching Fire’ series.

To go where God calls us, we must pray. And we should pray for great things - even seemingly impossible things. Yet, when it comes to this kind of prayer, we are often hesitant, tentative, and doubtful. Jesus encouraged us in this by telling us that if we pray with even the faith like a tiny mustard seed, God will respond in astounding ways.

As God’s church, we have the privilege of being included in God’s work to establish His Kingdom. In that process, we get the opportunity to actually see places where God’s Kingdom ‘breaks in’ to this broken world in which we live. This Sunday, we will also consider how God blesses us with the opportunity to make eternal investments in His Kingdom.

Jesus taught us to pray for God to establish His Kingdom ‘on earth as it is in heaven.’ There are several places in Scripture where we see a description of this Kingdom as it is in heaven. But we also see that there are places on earth today where we can observe living examples of God’s Kingdom breaking in to our world. By God’s design, the church is one of those places we catch a glimpse of the Kingdom of God!

Jesus showed unconditional love for all, yet only some decided to follow Him. Why? Jesus gives us a clue when He tells us that those who are “healthy” have no need of a doctor. Only those who know they are “sick” need a doctor. So, what is Jesus teaching us here about ministering to our community as a church?

Jesus went out to people who were rejected by society – people like lepers who were isolated and cast out from the community. Not only did Jesus go to them and heal them, but He was willing to touch them. So what might this mean for us as God is preparing us for a new phase in the life of our church?

Last week we remembered that God created every human being in His image, but that this image has been blurred and twisted. This week we’ll remember how the Gospel is effective and necessary to heal that broken image of God in us and to restore our relationship with God.

Sometimes church can become routine and we can lose our enthusiasm for the great things that God is doing through His church. On Sunday, we start a new series called, ‘Catching Fire’ where we’ll remind ourselves of the incredible way God wants to work through us as a church to make a difference in the world. This should be an exciting time for us as a church as God begins this process of moving us to a new physical location and also calling us to a new stage in our ministry.

George Orwell said, ‘Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.’ Most of us understand that there is a tension between generations and that tension can lead to separation. But the Bible teaches that each generation has something valuable to offer the others – but experiencing that blessing takes work and understanding.

Everywhere we go anymore we see what has become "the Super Hero industry." Avengers, Batman, you name it. It's become far more popular in mainstream culture then the comic book industry could have imagined at it's birth. Why is this? How is it we identify with people like Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne? Christianity and spreading the gospel has a lot to do with this.

All of us have parents, and many of us are (or will be) parents. But the dynamics between parents and children can be challenging. This becomes more confusing because there are so many different messages out there about the best way to raise children. And what are children’s responsibilities toward parents? What is the role of the family in society?

Most people are driven in some way by a desire for intimacy or even just good old fashioned lust. The Bible is clear that sex is a good gift from God. But it can also be a snare leading the unwary to incredible pain and suffering.

What do we do if we find ourselves in positions of power and influence? How should we think about those who have less power than we have? We might be business owners, civil leaders, managers, or anyone with some degree of power over others. The Bible has much to say about our responsibilities toward the poor and powerless.

Work and wealth are two topics that are part of everyone’s experience. How should we think properly about them? How should our thinking influence us as employees or as business owners?

There is a surprising similarity at the core of what the righteous and the unrighteous seek after. Join us as we explore the incredible story of Haman in the book of Esther, and how his life illustrates this truth.

Part of living in society is that we sometimes have conflict with others.  Yet a great blessing of living with others is that they can give us counsel and encouragement when we need it.  The Bible tells us that what we say, how we say it, and when we say it has much more impact than we often think.  Therefore, it's important for us to develop wisdom about handling conflict and giving and receiving counsel.

All of us must make decisions – some small and some very big! Making poor decisions can lead to all sorts of suffering. Therefore, we need wisdom to choose wisely. This series will take a look at what the Bible says about wisdom, drawing on the Book of Proverbs.