Ecclesia Houston - liturgy

What do you do when the world feels like it’s falling apart? Guest preacher Leroy Barber shows us how setting our hearts and minds on heaven changes the way we live here and now.

What if we spent as much time thinking about heaven as we do about things on earth? Pastor Chris begins a new series on Heaven and invites us to see why imagining heaven changes the way we live, grieve, and care for the people around us.

There are so many voices in our culture trying to define what it means to be a Christian. Stereotypes, reductionism, and legalism can make us feel like we don't belong. Pastor Chris reminds us today that Jesus is the one who defines what it means to be a Christian, and that our primary goal is to make the invisible God visible to those we interact with every day.

What if imagination is one of the ways we practice hope? Continuing our Ordinary Glory series, Ericka Graham explores Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones and the invitation to see the world honestly while still imagining what God might make possible. Even in exile, grief, and circumstances that seemed beyond repair, God invited Ezekiel not only to hope for new life, but to participate in bringing it about.

What if some of the things we’re trying hardest to hold onto are actually keeping us from experiencing new life? Continuing our Ordinary Glory series, Ericka Graham explores Jesus’ invitation to lose our lives in order to find them. Through the paradox of crucifixion and resurrection, she considers our desire for control, the rules and expectations we create for ourselves, and the difficult work of surrendering what no longer leads to life.

We want to be a people who follow Jesus the way Dolly Parton did. Pastor Chris guides us through the way Dolly Parton lived a life of faith and implores us to follow in her example in how she loved and included all people.

Pastor Chris continues the “Ordinary Glory” series on discovering the sacred in everyday life, teaching that the good life is not achieved but received, enjoyed, and shared wherever you are.

We kick off a brand new series, Ordinary Glory, a series about discovering the sacred that's already present in your ordinary, everyday life. Pastor Chris Seay challenges the idea of "work-life balance," inviting us instead to live one integrated life, fully surrendered to God in every part of it.

What if we've become so focused on studying the Bible that we've forgotten how to experience it as a story? In this message from our A Faith for Today series, Josephine explores a different posture toward Scripture. Rather than approaching the Bible simply as a textbook, self-help manual, or collection of individual verses, we're invited to encounter it as one unfolding story of creation, covenant, Jesus, redemption, and new creation.

So many of us grew up believing God is a judge waiting to catch us doing wrong, but today, Pastor Chris walks through Zephaniah, John 21, and the story of Peter's greatest failure to show a different picture. A God who delights in you, sings over you, and meets you with breakfast on the beach when you fall.

What if sin is about more than breaking rules? In this message from our A Faith for Today series, Erika Graham explores a richer biblical understanding of sin—not simply as rule-breaking, but as "missing the mark." Rather than leading us toward shame or perfectionism, Scripture invites us to recognize our need for God's grace and continue aiming our lives toward the way of Jesus.

Guest preacher Leroy Barber explores a powerful parallel between financial identity theft and the spiritual identity theft happening to followers of Jesus today. Just as we protect our bank accounts and credit with daily vigilance, Leroy challenges us to guard our identity in Christ with the same intentionality — rooted not in culture, politics, possessions, or achievement, but in who God says we are.

After a devastating earthquake hit the region near Caracas, Pastor Chris and our team traveled to Venezuela to stand with our long-time partners and grieving communities on the ground. This week we hear directly from that trip: the loss, the prayers, the families living in tents, and the question that kept coming up: what actually makes the church the church? Then Lucho shares his own story. From worship leader in Venezuela to working without a salary for a year, to losing everything during the country's economic collapse, to food banks and a phone call that changed everything. It's a story about showing up uncomfortable and trusting God with what comes next.

In this message, guest speaker Dr. Ruth López Turley explores one of Scripture's most consistent themes: caring for our neighbors. Yet while the call to compassion is clear, the way of Jesus often challenges our assumptions about generosity, deservingness, and responsibility.

What has technology done to us, and how do we live differently? Pastor Chris continues our series "A Faith for Today" by considering our relationship to an ever-evolving landscape of technology and faith.

In this message from our A Faith for Today series, Pastor Ericka reflects on Jesus' instructions to the apostles in Matthew 10 and what they might teach us about following Jesus today. As Jesus sends his followers out to heal, serve, and share good news, he also invites them into a life of trust, hospitality, and mutual dependence. Through stories of lost sermons, pet scorpions, music, and everyday faith, this message explores what it means to cultivate a faith that can grow, adapt, and endure through every season of life. Faith was never meant to remain static. It is something we practice, experience, and return to again and again as God continues to shape us over time. Whether you're navigating uncertainty, carrying disappointment, or simply wondering what faith looks like in this season, this message is an invitation to trust that God is still at work.

You can read every book ever written about friendship and still not know how to be a friend. You can study grief without ever really understanding it. And you can know all the right things about Christianity without ever actually experiencing God. Pastor Chris is launching our summer series, A Faith for Today, where we explore why Christianity was never meant to be an ideology you study from a distance.

Pastor Chris invites us to show up as image bearers wherever we already are. Knowing the names of people who are struggling. Praying for your sick neighbor.

From the Tower of Babel to Pentecost, this message traces the arc of a God who doesn't abandon scattered people but keeps pulling them back together. Pastor Chris shares what's happening at The Hill, a building that Ecclesia is converting into affordable housing. The sermon moves into a guided spiritual formation practice that asks you to imagine exactly where you'll be at this time on Tuesday. Your work, your tasks, the people around you.

Mary Magdalene stood at an empty tomb, weeping, searching for someone who was already standing right beside her. In this message, Ericka Graham draws from John 20 to explore what it means to find resurrection hiding in plain sight, in the ordinary, in the everyday moments we're too busy or too grief-stricken to notice.