Creekside Park City: Recent Episodes
creekside PARKCITY
Creekside is a community seeking to live in creative, connected, and honest ways. We are eager to step into the abundant life Jesus invites us into. Here you'll find sermons, conversations, stories, and more that dig into the deeper sides of life.
This week is the week before Christmas, and many of us have a lot going on in our schedules and in our hearts. In this message, Seth takes us into the Christmas story from a whole different perspective that is often overlooked, inspiring connection and presence on a deeply relevant level, not only with the Divine, but also with each other and all of the universe.
How do we face our limits? Do we just push through them? Or are we crippled by fear because of limits like our own mortality? How do we overcome that fear?
How do we change, grow, and transform? Unfortunately, and all too often, it feels like we move backward rather than forward. But what if some of our most humiliating moments are also our biggest opportunities?
When we live our day to day human experience, we can often feel burnt out - that we'll just never be enough. But what if the strength you need doesn’t have to come from trying harder, but can be found through a sort of back-door portal? What if it's easier, more accessible, and more connected than we can realize?
What will matter to you for 2022? It seems we are all seeking something, whether we realize it or not. The question is: will we face this next year with a new focus of discovering what God has actually planted in our hearts? Or will we get caught up chasing the less important things?
The holidays are upon us. What does this time of year feel like for you? Does being around certain family members or situations cause you to react, and then lead you into a 'Rube Goldberg machine' of reaction after reaction after reaction? This week, Seth observes Jesus' entry into the world as a helpless baby, what that actually says about God, and what that means for us.
This last year has been a doozy. In a year where so many circumstances were out of our hands, how can we learn to trust that it's all going to be ok? This week, Gordy shares his meditation on Psalm 31 to help ground us in that reality, that all of our pain and confusion is in God's hands no matter what.
Jesus talked about two kinds of yeast. But what exactly is the difference between the two? It's a question we have to ask. Though it's subtle and unnoticeable, the "yeast" beneath the surface has the power to shape everything we do. . . and often without us even realizing it.
Some of Jesus’ most well known parables appear in the middle of Luke, including the parable of the prodigal son. But what if there is more to learn about God when we put that well-known parable in the context of the following one: the parable of the shrewd manager? We may be surprised at what Jesus says about God's grace.
Whether we want to admit it or not, our culture is obsessed with appearance. We just can't avoid this mindset. So what does it take to get out of it? The good news is: Jesus models and points to a different way, and the doors this new way may open might surprise us.
How would you define the “Kingdom of God?” Could it be bigger, wider, and deeper than how we currently see it? This week, Gordy brings us into one picture that Jesus uses to describe the Kingdom, revealing one of the biggest reasons we miss God’s Kingdom active in our lives.
Jumping back in James 1, Abbi dives further into what it means to transform suffering. What do we do with our pain? How can the reality of God's light and love shape us to love ourselves and love others more, given all that we go through?
Where do we find our security and peace? Through diving into part of the Sermon on the Mount, a personal story, and a concluding point about manna, Seth shows us the journey it takes to truly believe that we live in an abundant and good universe.
This week week Gordy shares about how the apostle Paul and Jesus teach through using metaphor. Spiritual understanding can be found by looking at the physical and allowing that to speak to us and give us insight into the unseen things of the heart.
What do we need? Do we seek for it in a nostalgic past or an idealized future? This week, Seth invites us to sit with a mysterious detail in Israel's wilderness journey, and it has much to say about where to seek fulfillment.
How does the way we see God influence how we see ourselves? This week, Abbi walks us through James 1:1-12, unpacking how we can become the types of people that persevere through life's most difficult trials and circumstances.
Do you know how extensive love can truly be? This week, Gordy shares through story how the love of God is so much bigger than we can ever comprehend, and it is freely available to each of us.
What happened in Adam is still happening to us. This week, Seth presents the multifaceted nature of Hebrew art and literature and how it is a map to the mystery of God in us and the world around us, and what that means for our relationships every day.
Today, Seth shares stories of cultures that love big and reflect the expansiveness of Jesus' teachings that can help us break through the division of today. We are all challenged by this message - what kind of culture are we building, in our families, in our businesses, in our cities?
In this weeks message, Gordy opens up about the lessons he has been taught through the Holy Spirit over the past year. His four points touch on the goodness of God, being vulnerable and authentic to who we were each uniquely created to be, and learning presence in every moment.
This week we seek to enter a new depth of how we see. Gordy reads the story of Mary Magdalene’s first encounter with Jesus, who she thinks is just a gardener. But what can we realize when someone encounters God in what is first thought to be an ordinary person?
What is anger and how do you deal with it? Join us today as we look at what Jesus says about it, and how this powerful emotion can be the start of profound transformation and spiritual growth.
This week Gordy gives us a vision of what God is like and how we are all learning to be fully embraced by our Creator.
How do we change? Sometimes in life, the biggest change or progress comes when you put a little effort in the right place. Join us as we focus on the teachings of Jesus and what he says about bringing transformation into our lives and relationships. Music at the end by Sasha Jo Coleman.
Every day, we all face the choice of how we will respond to struggle. How often do you take matters into your own hands because it feels like progress isn't happening? If God is really with you, why are you still stuck? In this message, Seth lays a foundation for the teachings of Jesus, his significance throughout history, and how his WAY leads to true freedom.
Did you know that you have a rock collection? In this message, Seth dives in to a story of curious abundance in the wilderness that leads to a broadening of Paul's vision of the gospel in a way that has the power to change everything. We leave you with the reflection: what are the rocks in your story?
Today we look at the magnitude and inclusiveness of Paul's message in Ephesians; how "before creation" God chose to embrace humanity in love... and that includes you.
What does it really mean to be set free by the truth? Join us today as Gordy leads us into an exploration of the Father's Heart, and what Jesus' taught in John 18.
It's possible to be loyal to religion, while killing your connection with God. What are the big issues we are called to be committed too? What are the small issues that we can let go of? Join us as we study a conversation that Jesus had with an "unqualified" woman that led to a revolution and sheds light on God's deep priorities.
When you have to make a significant decision, how do you seek direction? This week, Seth talks on why we cannot rely on coincidence and shallow spirituality to find meaning. Looking in John Chapter 18, we learn what it means to dig deep and choose true purpose.
How does our view of being "in God" impact our lives? This week Gordy uses Jesus' words in John 17:20-23 to be honest about his own life over the years. Although we have had moments where we've missed the very thing Jesus invites us into, we can always come back to the truth of our connection with Him.
What do we do when we get knocked off the horse and everything we thought we knew about the world and ourselves is changing? Listen to this message from Seth as we look at the story of Paul and discover what growth and transformation can look like.
Too often, we forget who we are at our deepest core. As we continue into Jesus' culminating message before his death and resurrection, we realize more about the nature of who God is and who we are. Gordy's message this week speaks to finding peace with our identity as God sees us, free from our own shame or the world's projections and assumptions.
For this Palm Sunday, we want to dive into where it all started. How was humanity seen at the beginning? What were we welcomed into?
When we root ourselves in the big picture, at the origin, we start to realize what Palm Sunday, the Cross, and the Resurrection are all about. . .
What happens when we revisit the places that hold our greatest pain and shame? Seth takes us into the experience of a person who walked with Jesus and processed this very thing.
But through this process we also discover just how much our healing is wrapped up in the view of ourselves and our picture of God, and how Jesus invites us into a new way of seeing both.
In life, everyone faces the loss of something or someone. Toward the end of John, Jesus knew his disciples were about to face those painful feelings due to his impending death. So how could he ever prepare them for it? Seth takes us deep into Jesus' words to his disciples, revealing a powerful way to process the consuming grief and loss in our lives.
As we continue through John 16, we see how the Spirit is depicted. This week Gordy uses a helpful visual aid to show how the Father relates to us through the Holy Spirit, since the beginning. When we turn our back on God, does God ever turn His back on us?
What ideas about ourselves are keeping us stuck in shame and pain? This week, Gordy helps us see what it means to go beyond those lies and into the truth of what it means to remain in God’s love.
What does Jesus see as as a key to finding joy, peace, and oneness with him? Using an analogy of fruit and an example from Peter, Seth shows that it's not about direct effort to become more whole. It goes much deeper. We learn what it means for us to remain in the spirit of God, as we walk through the day to day moments of our lives.
At the beginning of John 15, Jesus begins to talk about one powerful image: the true vine, the gardener, and the branches. This week, Gordy unpacks just the first two verses, showing that perhaps God's act of pruning and cutting is different than we realize.
This week, Abbi dives into John 14 and continues to unpack how the Spirit transforms the world through His people. From the rituals of the Old Testament to Jesus' own hand on humanity, we see that God doesn't hesitate to embrace what's unclean. In fact, its through this holy touch that we learn how we, too, can do the miracle of taking what's "unclean" and make it "clean" and beautiful.
In John 14, we see that Jesus has an understanding of how the Holy Spirit is meant to live in humanity. Seth gives a short sermonette of how one particular image can shed light into the way the Spirit is looking to land and live in us today.
With our in-person gathering postponed because of a Covid outbreak in the community, we decided to do a short, meditative service from the living room with worship by Sasha Jo.
Where's the secret stash? In a ski town, this question is always on the mind of powder lovers. But, in a funny sort of way, it can also be asked of our spiritual lives.
Where can we find God's Spirit so that we can move through life with confidence? In John 14, Jesus promises that He will give us the "Spirit of Truth," and as Seth shows, it's closer than humanity could ever imagine.
What do we do about people with different views? Our views are deeply connected to who we are, so what's the best way to interact with such differences, especially if these people are close to us? This week, Seth shows how a story in John 12 can help answer that question.
We all have stories to tell. When the blind man tells his story of when he was healed by Jesus, did he leave certain parts out? This week, Seth shares how we all do this, whether we realize it or not. And how we respond to that fact can make all the difference in how we relate to those we love most.
What does the awesomeness of God mean? This week Gordy takes a break from the book of John and takes us into Ecclesiastes. Through the wisdom of this book, what can we glean about the nature of God and our world, especially in these current times?
THE LIVING ROOM. Take a moment, pull up a chair, and settle in as we seek out how to live God's full and abundant life... together.
What does it take to connect to the world around us—to our friends? To our family? Even to ourselves? Or how about to nature or to God? Abbi, Maggie, and Tessa, three sisters in totally different stages of life, join Jackson for a casual, spontaneous conversation in the living room to talk about these very things.
This week Gordy tackles more of who Jesus claims to be by moving through John 10:22-42. Ultimately, Jesus points to the deeper heart of who we are and who He is. As we continue to seek Him, will we trust His message in its fullness?
This week Gordy continues his message about the character of the Good Shepherd. By first unpacking the parable in John 10, and later tying it together with the images in Psalm 23, we see how it lays a foundation of love that is at the heart of the universe. Why not take time to let that unfathomable truth sink a little deeper?
What does Jesus mean when he compares himself to a door and a shepherd. Gordy gives a glimpse into what is packed into those simple images. If we sit with that reality, we might find that there is a life of peace, guided by the shepherd's love, waiting right there for us.
Most of us know the story of Jesus healing the blind man. But if we slow down and imagine it in all of the details, what can we discover? This week Seth shares a message that begs the question: why would Jesus choose to heal the blind man the way he did—using a mess and a journey?
Jesus' words come like lightning. They light up our lives in ways where we begin to see actual reality. But do we take time to reflect on our daily decisions in light of his words? This week Gordy shares about how the Pharisees couldn't even begin to do this, but we have every opportunity to walk in freedom to seek truth with God on a daily basis.
THE LIVING ROOM. Take a moment, pull up a chair, and settle in as we seek out how to live God's full and abundant life... together.
What's it like to give birth? This week Abbi takes a moment to reflect on what it took for her to make it through the most physically intense experience of her life. Through it all, she discovers the essential roles of presence, rhythm, and the ability to feel the very thing that she so badly wants to avoid.
How do we make sense of the good and the bad mixed into our lives? Jesus' answer? Just look at this one aspect of nature to understand the truth. This week, Seth unpacks the parable of the wheat and the weeds, pointing to an important principle of walking in The Way.
Jesus knows the way to real life. And our day to day experience can tell us a lot about whether we are experiencing it or not. This week Gordy shows us that we all serve something. The question is: are we honest about what we build our life around?
THE LIVING ROOM. Take a moment, pull up a chair, and settle in as we seek out how to live God's full and abundant life... together.
How do we respond in difficult situations? Cassie and Jeanda went out for what they thought was a typical hike... but suddenly, out of the blue, they assumed important roles to stabilize chaos. Through it all, they experienced a profound sense of how God works His way through the details of even the most scary circumstances.
How does God meet us in the familiar? What would happen if Jesus' available light entered our own "ordinary" life to ignite our own light? Join us as Gordy brings us a message from John 8:12-20, where Jesus proclaims: "I am the Light of the World."
THE LIVING ROOM. Take a moment, pull up a chair, and settle in as we seek out how to live God's full and abundant life... together.
This week Jackson, Ken, and Brian chat about how to navigate a number of things in these tricky times: how do we take time to prioritize? What actually matters when everything is changing so rapidly? How are our relationships affected with all this change and confusion?
"Why do you not walk according to the tradition?" This is the question asked Jesus when he encourages his disciples not to follow the ritual of washing their hands. Why exactly does Jesus choose to go against the status quo? What deeper issue is he trying to address? Seth, along with Jo and their new baby River, bring you this week's "HomeChurch" message from the comfort of their living room.