FCC Bentonville & WaterWay: Recent Episodes
Don Morrow
The sermon podcast of First Christian Church and WaterWay of Bentonville, Arkansas. We are a Disciples of Christ congregation with 2 locations and 4 worship services (8am Praise Service and 11am Traditional Worship at FCC, 9am and 10am Coffeehouse Worship at WaterWay).
The audio is a little rough at the beginning of this one. It gets a lot better about halfway through!
Ever wanted to know more about our denomination and tradition? This 2 week series dives into some things we think are unique.
We start a brand new series this morning! Throughout October and November we will working our way through the book of Acts, which tells the story of the early church after Jesus's resurrection. This morning we begin with the opening chapters which speak of a diverse group of people doing new and powerful things!
We don't really know what the future holds. Really, trying to predict the year 2040 is a bit absurd. Still, how do we react to things happening around? Maybe we start with trusting God right now.
We know that soon iPhones will be irrelevant and it seems that they will be replaced by advancing artificial intelligence. AI raises a really interesting and important issue: what does it mean to be human?
One of the ways that science and technology are rapidly changing the world is through medical innovation. People are living longer and longer and scientists have a stated goal of completely eradicating disease. Yet, we all have experiences that lead us to wonder if this is truly a good thing.
We live in a world in which things are constantly and rapidly changing, especially in the realm of science and technology. However, many of the things which feel strange now will be normal by the year 2040. Throughout this series we will engage changes that are occurring from the perspective of our faith. First up, is the potential that humans could soon walk on another planet!
We finish up our August sermon series, called "Reimagining Your Faith", with a sermon about what it means to be this thing we call church. What does it look like to follow Jesus in 2017?
There are lots of ideas and beliefs surrounding Jesus. When we get to the heart of the matter, though, what's the most important?
We bring many assumptions to our faith that are often unhelpful. We begin a new sermon series this week engaging some basic, but very important, faith issues. We start off the series with one of the most important issues: how we read the Bible.
We live in a culture in which we are surrounded by fear. What does this mean for people who are trying to follow Jesus?
This is a special Good Friday service. Good Friday is the day when we remember the Crucifixion of Jesus. This year, our Good Friday service was a U2charist. A U2charist uses the music of the Irish rock band U2. It was an amazing night, you don't want to miss this one!
The Pharisees criticized Jesus for not washing his hands before he ate - an important ritual of holiness in the 1st Century. Jesus, in turn, challenges their reasons for maintaining the 'rules'. At the heart of Jesus's ministry and message is justice, not rule-keeping.
What can we learn from Jesus? For some reason, we often neglect to think of Jesus as a teacher, even though he is consistently called one in the Gospels. Maybe we should return to this naming of Jesus as Rabbi. After all, good teaching gives purpose. And in the midst of worries and distractions, we really need purpose.
Jesus feeding the multitudes is one of his most famous miracles, and the only one that appears in all four Gospels. Yet, in Luke's version, Jesus says something fascinating to the disciples 'You give them something to eat." What could he have meant by that?
We start a brand new sermon series for Lent which will be based off of stories from the Gospel of Luke that center on meals. Gathering at the Lord's Table is central to who we are, the way we worship, and the things we hold dear.
Jesus is the WAY. Right? Or maybe that has been something you've struggled with wrapping your head around. Well, you're not alone.
Prayer. It's one of the hardest, and weirdest, pieces of the our faith. What does it mean to pray? Are we just sending Bat-signals to God?
Heaven and hell. Salvation and the afterlife. Sometimes Christians have emphasized that all those things are really quite simple. However, Scripture often speaks to those things in ways that have been ignored and overlooked by American Christianity. In the second sermon in this series, Don preaches on what Scripture does say about heaven and hell and what comes after this life.
Debate about how to read Scripture is at the basis of most divisions in the church today and throughout history. How should we approach our sacred text? What glasses do we put on to make sure we are getting the most out of the Bible?
Anger. It's everywhere right now. Everyone just seems to be angry. Some of it seems like the right response. A lot of it does not. What does Scripture say about anger and how destructive it can be? How do we get angry at the things God gets angry about without it ruining our relationships?
Everywhere we turn we are bombarded with stories of fear. in fact, fear is probably something we are acutely aware of at all times. But God wants us to listen to a different story. And the way we enter into that story is through trust.
We live in a culture and context that is defined by selfishness. Look out for yourself and get what you can get. Scripture talks a lot about selfishness...and how destructive it is to us, the world, and how it prevents us from living in the kingdom of God. The counter to selfishness, according to Scripture, is generosity.
The calendar has turned and a new year has begun. Around this time of year we often take a moment to focus on the things we want to change and the things we wish to improve upon. Throughout January, we will be focusing on the ways in which making changes can affect our spiritual lives. Every week in this series we will focus on losing something and adding something to our lives. First up is losing apathy through the addition of attendance.
It only happens every so often, but Christmas fell on a Sunday in 2016! Merry Christmas!
The Scriptures that we read during Advent speak of a deep longing for peace. Swords shall be turned into plowshares. The wolf shall lie with the lamb. Yet, we looked out at our world and see nothing of the sort. What do we do with that?
For some people, it's a hard time of year to be happy. But that's because happiness is tied directly to our circumstances. Joy, however, is based upon the incredible love that God shows to us. Joy, is there regardless of what our circumstances are.
This is the first in our Advent Sermon Series that focuses on this amazing thing we celebrate every Christmas - that God came into the world through the life of Jesus of Nazareth. This first week, Don shows the ways in which that even provides us hope.
Usually our gratitude and thankfulness are tied to times of seeming perfection. But what do we do when things aren't going very well? Are we still thankful and full of gratitude?
We live in a world of 'never enough'. It infects everything we do. From our lives as individuals to the ways in which we exist in community, 'never enough' is the main thing speaking. But shows us something different. That there's enough. And the thing that moves us from the world of never enough to the world of enough is gratitude.
It's that time of year again. Thanksgiving is coming up and we often start being more aware of thankfulness. Often, however, we never actually acknowledge why we should be thankful and we often avoid recognizing the things that steal gratitude away from us. One of the things that steals our gratitude is our fear of death, and it really makes us uncomfortable to talk about it. But Scripture talks about it a lot and constantly reminds us that we have nothing to fear because of who God is.
E Pluribus Unum is the motto found on the Great Seal of the United States that means 'out of many, one." This idea, however, didn't originate with in the US. over and over again the New Testament speaks to this hope that all will be and act as one, in Christ Jesus!
The role of government is affirmed in several places in Scripture, the most famous being in Romans 13. Most of us have a hard time with these passages. What are to do with them?
Today we begin a brand new sermon series. It's tempting to not engage the current political climate we are all experiencing but our faith should speak to the things going on in our lives and in our culture. Currently, many people are feeling hopeless. What does Jesus teach us about living in the world as it is currently?
This is the final night of our interfaith dialogues. Don is joined by Dr. Doug Krueger of the Fayetteville Free Thinkers to discuss atheism. This is an engaging and insightful discussion. *Note: the audio improves immensely about 7 mins into the discussion.
For a fun intro to the sermon, check out Steve Martin's "Atheists Don't Have No Songs!" This is the last sermon in our "Intersections of Faith" series. Our last tradition that we are intersecting with is not a faith tradition but atheism. Atheism continues to be a more and more prominent way of thought in our current culture. What can Christians learn from atheism?
Our interfaith series is focusing on a very special faith tradition this morning. Eastern Orthodox Christianity is not very visible in the United States, but it is one of the largest groups of Christians in the world. In this sermon, Don touches on the places in which our tradition of Christianity and Orthodox Christianity intersect.
In this sermon we engage in one of the most important interfaith discussions. Islam is the world's second most popular religion and the world's fastest growing one. Further, Islam is in the news everyday and the discussions surrounding this faith are tense. What exactly is Islam? Where does it intersect with Christianity? What are similarities and differences? And, what does it mean for Christians to engage with our Muslim neighbors?
In the third week of our interfaith sermon series, Don looks at a religion that is in many ways very familiar to Christians. This religion is Judaism, which was the religion of Jesus and Paul and most of the writers of Scripture!
Every Wednesday night during this series we will be in dialogue with a leader of a different faith tradition. This week, Don speaks with Paru Muni of the Hindu Association of Northwest Arkansas about her Hindu faith!
We are in the middle of a discussion of various religions from around the world. This Sunday, we look at ways in which Christianity intersects and engages with Hinduism.
For this special Wednesday night series, we have brought together faith leaders from the community. In this episode you will hear from Bob Myerson of Congregation Etz Chaim; Paru Muni of the Hindu Association of Northwest Arkansas; Doug Krueger of NWACC and the Fayetteville Freethinkers; Issa Abboud of the Bentonville Islamic Center; and John Atchison of St Nicholas Orthodox Church. It's a great discussion!
This morning, we begin a new sermon series called "Intersections of Faith" in which we will explore and dialogue with several different faith traditions. It's the 15th anniversary of 9/11 and the connection between religion and violence is fresh in our minds. To start our exploration and dialogue, it's important to take a moment and recognize the prevalence of violence in the Christian tradition. What do we do with that? What do we do with passages in Scripture that command violence against others?
We often neglect the Spirit in the church, and we have for a very long time. But the Spirit of God gives us insight into the beauty and creativity of God - the creativity that take us to new and amazing places!
Our S-word for this Sunday is salvation. Many people have a very specific definition of salvation. However, in Scripture, the meaning of salvation is rich and deep. We look at several stories in the Bible the speak to salvation and a God who always rescues, saves, and makes well.
Sin is a prominent word in our faith. So prominent that it has become the focus of faith for many American Christians. But, is that really the focus of God in Jesus? Does sin really separate us from God? What if sin is all the 'stuff' that gets in the way of us knowing we were created in the image of God?
We continue our sermon series with another s-word: Scripture. How do we read Scripture? What are we supposed to come away with? How does Scripture change our lives? Fortunately, Jesus gives us some pretty awesome insight into this!
We start a brand new sermon series this week called "He Said the S Word!" This series will be focusing on 5 tents of our faith and conveniently, each tenet starts with the letter 's'! Don begins the series with "Son" in which we explore what it means to call Jesus the Son of God!
This week we finish up our summer series "Finding the Sacred in the Secular" with The Gospel According to the Beatles! Check out the sermon and make sure to listen to the Beatles songs on your own!
The Martian was a movie that came out in the Fall of 2015 starring Matt Damon as Mark Watney. Watney gets stranded on Mars and has to figure out a way to survive until he can be rescued. There are countless ways this movie applies to our lives of faith. Give a listen as Don uses clips from the movie to bring all of those ways out!
The Eagles are one of the most popular bands in history. There music speaks often of love and freedom. Love and freedom happen to be themes that turn up over and over again in Scripture and the teachings of both Jesus and Paul. We had some issues recording our band, so listen to the songs on your own after Don introduces each one!
It was a challenging week for people of faith. The Imitation Game was an amazing movie that came out in 2015. Don uses the movie to speak to the challenges occurring in our world and calls people of faith to respond.
This morning we continue in our series "Finding Sacred in the Secular." The music of James Taylor is used as a springboard into lessons and insights from Scripture. The band does a great job, led by David Tessier, who is the leader of our 8 am service. In this sermon, we explore our connections to geographic places, our need to be alone, how things don't happen how we expect them to, and our need for friendship.
Win, Win is a movie that came out a few years ago. It wasn't popular, but it is incredibly funny and very heartfelt! The first piece of the sermon got cut off, but the meat is still there!
The voice. The mystique. The spirituality. Johnny Cash became a larger than life figure with an amazing catalogue of music. In our first ever 'Jesus and the Jukebox', Cody uses the songs of Cash to bring out several Scriptures and speak on our faith. Our worship absolutely nailed the songs in this one!
This is the first in our Faith and Film section of our summer sermon series. Don uses the film "Tomorrowland" to give insight into God's hope for our future!
This summer we are focusing on how movies and music can give us insight into God and our lives of faith. This introduction to our series challenges the idea that there is a divide between the sacred and the secular. There is also a lot of awesome music from our worship band!
Scripture points out again and again that comparing yourself to others has a negative impact. Except for one place. In Romans 12, the Apostle Paul instructs us to outdo one another in showing honor.
Between serving and loving is hospitality. How do we welcome the stranger into our homes, our churches, our community? What does Scripture say about hospitality? Actually, it says quite a bit!
We continue this morning in our series "Better Together" in which we are looking into passages in Scripture that center around the phrase "one another". in Romans 15, Paul tells the churches in Rome to "accept one another, just as Christ has accepted you." What might this look like in our own context?
We talk a lot about forgiveness at FCC & WaterWay because Scripture talks a lot about forgiveness. Today, Don brings together Jesus, Stephen, and Lyle Lovett!
In our second Sunday of this series, Don teaches about the importance of encouragement and how it is vital to our lives in faith and community.
We begin a new sermon series called "Better Together". Throughout this series we will be studying passages in the New Testament with the phrase 'one another'. Today, the sermon is kicking off our "Plan Be" Sunday in which we worship and then go out into the community to serve!
We like to think of God Almighty, who is powerful and awesome and shows strength. Yet, there's something that constantly gets in the way of that image of God: the cross of Christ. It might sound like foolishness, and it's definitely a stumbling block for some people, but God's power is made perfect in...weakness
This week we read through the story of the fig tree in Mark 11. It's a weird story and really hard to understand. But what if Jesus is teaching the disciples to give up all the 'stuff' and surrender to their relationship with God?
Talking about change is a difficult thing, especially with the ways in which the church has used it as a weapon against people. Yet, changing our lives is something that Jesus talks a lot about. This morning we look at the story of the Rich Man in Mark 10 and wrestle with what it means for change and for our prayer lives.
In this sermon Peggy wrestles with the story of the feeding of the 5,000 in Mark chapter 6.
Does God listen when we pray? What is going on when we keep praying for something specific but it seems God never addresses it? What if, prayer is not something we do to God, but something we do with God?
We begin a new series called "Marked by Prayer". During this series we will be reading through the Gospel of Mark and learning about the importance of prayer. In this first message, we notice that Jesus is always going off by himself to pray. What's going on with that?
We love to talk about how God has forgiven us. It really is an amazing thing that can change our lives. But Scripture also speaks to the necessity of us forgiving others. Really, if we refuse to live into forgiveness, we can not fully live into the love of God.
There's a lot of conversation about the church changing in our current society and culture. One of the biggest changes that we don't speak about enough is that we are so....busy. What if our busyness is keeping us from fully following Christ?
Life is hard. There's just no way around it. Often it overwhelms us; sometimes it even makes us doubt God. The Apostle Paul, however, took pride in his troubles and problems. How can that be? Paul knew that God was good and that race, while difficult, was worth running.
We live in a world that is paralyzed by fear. Everywhere we look, everything we read, seems to be trying to instill fear into us. Yet, over and over again, Scripture says that the counter to fear is faith.
We start a brand new sermon series this week called "Transformed: Small Changes that Make a Big Difference" In our first week, we focus on the way we approach life, our attitude. If we have certain attitudes, attitudes that Paul writes a lot about, we can transform crappy into happy!
The Sunday after Christmas is always an amazing time to think about the whole story of the birth of Jesus and how it affects us and how we let it affect us.
Music has a profound effect on our lives. Today in worship we were joined by the Chamber Orchestra from Bentonville High School. They provided an amazing backdrop as we talked about the joy that Christ brings into the world.
We are entering into the Advent and Christmas season of the year. Move through the story of the preparation for the birth of Jesus using the movie "The Giver" that came out earlier this year.
Our disgust, that we talked about the week before, doesn't just apply to foods we eat. Disgust gets applied to people. To protect ourselves, we put barriers and boundaries to block off the disgusting. But this thing keeps getting in the way: Jesus.
It's the week of Thanksgiving and food is on everyone's minds. There are the foods that we like and then there are the foods we are disgusted by. Why are there some foods that just gross us out? And why does Scripture talk so much about food? Cody dives into the story of Peter in Acts 10 and how we are reminded of God's grace in the meals we eat.
In the final sermon in our FAQ series, Don tackles the big issues of sin and salvation. God created us to be what? If Jesus comes to save, what are we being saved from? What's the problem? And what's the solution?
In the second of our Faith and Questions series, Don engages questions that have come up regarding Satan, Lucifer, the devil, and evil in general.
In a new sermon series entitled "Faith and Questions," Don tackles big questions that various people in the congregation have sent in over the past month. In this sermon, he specifically engages all the fuss that people make over the rapture, and how little biblical evidence there is for such a thing. Don also dives in to the Book of Revelation and the best approach to reading such an interesting book.
The world constantly tells us that there is not enough, what we could call a theology of scarcity. But in God's kingdom, there is abundance, more than enough for all. Jesus, and the prophet Isaiah, both use the image of a grand banquet to describe God's kingdom. Don shares his most profound Jesus moment, the moment that showed him what this all could actually look like.
We have a deep longing for joy in our lives, but the only way to reach that joy, the only way to experience more life in our life is to go against the grain and give. Jesus shows the way to joy is through self-sacrifice.
Don is joined by Katie Hicks, who is about to leave for Cambodia to work with Hope for Justice, an organization that works to free and rehabilitate young girls who have been trafficked into sex slavery. Where does Scripture speak to us in the midst of such difficult things going on in our world?
The Old Testament tells us about this idea of Jubilee when all of Israel was reset... Debts were forgiven, slaves and servants were set free, land was returned to its original owner. A crazy and radical idea. So radical most biblical historians don't think it ever actually happened. How could this radical idea of Jubilee shape our lives today?
The US is one of the most diverse countries in the history of the world, but do we live into that diversity? In the third sermon of this series, Don wrestles with recent studies that show we isolate ourselves from those who do not think, look, act, or speak the same as we do. What does this means for the kingdom of God that Jesus is always talking about?
In the second sermon of this series, Don explores the meaning behind Jesus's instruction to pray 'give us this day, our daily bread' and how that connects with the story of manna in the Book of Exodus. What do these passages mean in light of our obsession with food in our culture?
In this first message of a new series, Don explores the biblical topic of justice and it's connection to the Old Testament vision of Shalom and Jesus' vision of the Kingdom of God. He ends with a Hunger Games Challenge to all of us, to allow God access to our excess in order to make a difference in the world. The sermon begins with a brief clip from the first Hunger Games movie.
In this message, Cody reminds us that the Word of God is actually Jesus Christ, not the words we read on a page. Scripture points us to something greater than itself
How did Jesus read Scripture? Did he keep a literal reading of the Bible? Did he challenge anything that was written in the Old Testament? In this message, Don points out times Jesus quoted Scripture and what he kept and changed!
In this message, Don brings up passages in the Bible that condone violence and genocide. How do we take the Bible seriously when it says things that are so against love?
In this message Don tackles the heart of this series - the need to interpret scripture in a non-literal way.
In this opening sermon of a series on biblical interpretation, Don discusses the point of scripture as an invitation into conversation and relationship with the Living God who still speaks today.
In the midst of all the chaos, suffering, and destruction going on in the world, it's easy to wonder about God and whether this life of faith is worth it. James reminds us that the God we follow is good and that the world we long for is possible!
Words matter. And more often than not, the words we say cause way more problems than solutions. James challenges us to be quick to listen and slow to speak. What would that look like in our current context?
Throughout Scripture, from the prophets, to Jesus, to James, we are challenged to rethink the ways we use our resources
The first sermon in a series focusing on the Book of James. By reading James, we are challenged to do more than just 'believe' in God, but to carry out our beliefs with actions in the world!
An in-depth discussion of all of the pertinent passages regarding the complex issue of homosexuality and marriage equality, with personal reflections and interpretations from a more progressive point of view.
The second message in our 'Modern Family' series, talking about love & relationships. Each message in this series was introduced by a short clip from the Modern Family TV show.
In the first message from our 'Modern Family' series, we talk about biblical marriage & relationship being defined not by the specifics of WHO is in relationship, but HOW they relate to one another - with unconditional love. Each message in this series begins with a brief clip from the Modern Family TV show.