⚠ Content warnings: Abuse, child abuse, rape, gaslighting, and victim-blaming. ⚠ Through the lens of King David’s rape of Bathsheba, Pastor David’s sermon explores how someone can do all kinds of godly things and be widely considered godly and righteous… but also be abusive.

Pastor David’s sermon is based on Psalm 89, a passage that 1st-century BC Rabbi Ibn Ezra described as containing words that are “blasphemous.” What is this blasphemy, and what does it teach us about our relationship with God when promises go unkept?

What does Herodias’ daughter dancing have to do with Jairus’ daughter? How is Herodias connected to Jezebel and to the woman with the hemorrhages in the middle of the story of the raising of Jairus’ daughter? What’s Elijah got to do with all this? And what’s the connection between truth and the stories we tell?

Has anybody ever pigeonholed you? “The clown,” “The Smart One,” “So-and-So’s Sibling?” Ever left home and come back different, only to be treated like nothing had changed? (That last one happened to Jesus.) In this sermon, Pastor David Schell offers some ideas about being pigeonholed, and about taking a second look at others – and…

It’s okay to lament, and it is good to lean into hope in the power of God… but what kind of power does God have?

Sometimes, folks try to put stuff on us that doesn’t fit us, try to get us to be somebody else, somebody more like them. But God calls us to be ourselves and live into our own strengths, not to try to be somebody else’s idea of who we think we should be.

Every story has three phases: Status Quo, Interruption of Status Quo, New Status Quo. After a year of lockdown and covid scares, what will our New Status Quo be?

What is the “unpardonable sin” in the Bible? Is it really unpardonable? Is “unpardonable” the same as “damnable”? What does it mean to “blaspheme the Holy Spirit”? Do pastors have the answers to all of these questions? Spoiler: the answer to that last question is “no,” but Pastor David offers a tip on how to…

In many Christian traditions, and many songs, Jesus is described as satisfying God’s anger on the cross. Pastor David shares a story about why this “God is angry” message is (trauma-)triggering for him, why it’s heresy (because of the essential Christian doctrine of the Unity of the Trinity, OBVIOUSLY), and two ways he gets around…

Speaking in other languages is impressive, but Pastor David is surprised by how the Spirit enables people to hear an offensive message and respond to it in humility.