Episodes

5 days ago
5 days ago
What are we really, really wanting from our pursuit of faith? What are some ways we might get there? How do we find our way "home" and how do we stay there?

Sunday Jan 25, 2026
Sunday Jan 25, 2026
Tom Oord rejects the longhand assertion that God is omnipotent or almighty from a careful study of the Bible's original language. As an alternative, he proposes his belief in Amipotence - God's essential nature of love - which requires that God cannot be coercive yet is surely influential more than any other agent. This was the final presentation of CrossWalk's conference, Fresh Faith: The Problem of Pain.

Sunday Jan 18, 2026

Sunday Jan 11, 2026
Sunday Jan 11, 2026
Part of the deconstruction/reconstruction process is to clarify why we pursue faith in the first place. Without identifying the why behind our what, we run the risk of simply rebuilding on an already shaky foundation.

Monday Jan 05, 2026
Monday Jan 05, 2026
The first in the series The Quest for Thin Places, informed by Dana Hicks' book by the same name, this teaching introduces the listener to the critical step of thoughtful deconstruction, which should be a normal and natural ongoing part of faith. For more, see the blog: https://www.crosswalknapa.org/blog/deconstruction

Sunday Dec 21, 2025
Sunday Dec 21, 2025
Mary found the source of her faithful devotion to all that God invited her to embrace: the magnificence of what the God of Love was communicating to her about her ( and everyone else). Her should magnified that Love. When we build our lives from the Love up, we are able to say yes to the God's invitation to love the world into its wellbeing.

Wednesday Dec 17, 2025
Wednesday Dec 17, 2025
Enjoy this thought-provoking, permission-giving, freedom-yielding teaching from Matt Real!

Sunday Dec 07, 2025
Sunday Dec 07, 2025
The Wise Men weren't and aren't the only ones who follow stars. We all are looking to our own respective "stars" for guidance. How do you know if the star you're following is going to lead you where you want to go? What is your assessment criteria? It turns out that the Christmas Story offers some keys that might be helpful in sorting out what to follow and what to let go.

Sunday Nov 30, 2025
Sunday Nov 30, 2025
The sermon reflects on the choices we make—during Thanksgiving, in our daily lives, and in our spiritual journeys. Using Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken as a starting point, it argues that choices “make all the difference,” though not always in positive or easy ways. Frost’s poem reminds us that every path taken excludes another and that the consequences of our decisions shape our stories.
Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 7 contrasts two paths: a broad, easy road leading to destruction and a narrow, challenging road leading to life. Unlike Frost’s neutral fork in the woods, Jesus warns that the popular, well-worn way often misleads, while the life-giving path requires intention, courage, and deep attention. Throughout the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus describes this narrow path through practices like nonviolent resistance, countercultural generosity, reimagined prayer, and redefined blessing. His own life embodies the narrow way—one filled with love, resistance to injustice, and even suffering.
C.S. Lewis adds that the Christian life is not about managing one’s desires or being “good” in a surface-level way, but about surrendering the whole self so that Divine life can flow through us. This surrender is both “harder and easier” than moral effort because it transforms from within rather than demanding endless self-striving.
The sermon then shifts toward Advent and Christmas, noting that every character in the nativity story faced choices when the “star” invited them toward God’s unfolding work—some embraced the narrow path, some rejected it. The star becomes a metaphor for divine guidance still shining today, calling us away from easy, crowded routes and toward the quieter, more demanding way of love, justice, and grace.
Ultimately, the sermon invites listeners to consider what the “narrow path” means for them now, how it shapes their lives and relationships, and how the “unforced rhythms of grace” (Matthew 11) can guide them to live more freely, lightly, and intentionally.

Sunday Nov 23, 2025
Sunday Nov 23, 2025
At first glance, following the Golden Rule - doing unto others what you would want done to you - seems simple enough. But it's not. To truly appreciate it requires to work and humility.
