Sunday’s Service

by Jon Dennis

Parents often feel like they are drowning, no matter how many kids they have. Drowning with food prep. Drowning as a chauffeur. Drowning in clean-up. And then your church or someone else asks you also to catechize? No thanks.

My wife, Amy, and I for sure did not do everything perfectly. But if we could give parents of young children one challenge for raising children to love Jesus and understand their role as disciples in this world, it would be to use a simple catechism with them.

by Nayo Hill

While I knew from an early age that I am made in the image of God, no additions or subtractions, when that truth is in conflict with my lived experience of being regarded differently than my white peers, it is hard to embrace as actually true. Instead, I ended up trying to change myself to fit into the image of what society seemed to want. I now realize that in elevating one part of me while constraining another part, I was actually rejecting a piece of who God made me to be as his image bearer.

by Malissa Mackey

The Downtown congregation of Holy Trinity Church (HTC), where I am a member, has a unique and simple strategy for cultivating community in our urban environment. Pastor Jon Dennis encourages us: “If your lease is ending soon, consider moving within a 10-minute walk of other HTC congregants.” I could have never imagined the impact that vision would have on my life when I joined the church 5 ½ years ago.

by Sully Curtin

Scripture gives us the story that gives meaning to our lives… Every book of the Bible should shape how we view ourselves and the world around us. Scripture should shape what we desire, how we act, and what we believe is true. Without keeping Scripture central, we either succumb to the alternate, false narratives of others or we flounder in purposelessness. Discipleship is helping people live into the true story of the world.

by Joel Miles

While the world wants us to believe that our purpose is about becoming who we always wanted to be, realizing our potential, or fulfilling our dreams, the vision of the good life that the Bible gives us is the way of the cross. According to the Scriptures, our purpose in life in the here and now—as we await the return of our Lord—is about taking up our cross and following our crucified King.

by Malissa Mackey

The culture is continually trying to form us to a vision of the good life that’s fulfilled through money, sex, and power. Christian discipleship must counter-form us by showing that it is actually being poor in spirit, sacrificial in giving, and a servant in our leadership that leads to the good life now, and will be fully revealed as such when Jesus returns. We can’t think our way into living that different story. We need to be saturated in liturgies and engaged with a community that shows us a different story that molds our hearts and aims our loves.

by Sully and Laura Curtin

There are probably a few reasons why we were so eager to hang our stockings and drink hot chocolate this year. For starters, we have spent so much time at home, it's nice to mix it up and add some twinkly lights and ornaments to it. But we want to suggest there might be a deeper longing revealed by our eagerness to drape everything in garland…All this change might actually give us fresh eyes to remember what this season means and what it is meant to do to us.

By Lily Raineri

In July, I ordered the book, Family Discipleship, written by Adam Griffin and Matt Chandler, with the intention of using it as a resource for my work as the Kid City director for Holy Trinity Church, Downtown. However, from the introduction alone, I knew that this would be a book that I would recommend wholeheartedly to everyone—single, engaged, married, and so on.

by Lorena Reyes

“I remember telling my new hire when she first started that she shouldn't be scared to ask questions if she didn’t understand or know how to do something. I encouraged it and knew that eventually, as she learned and used our systems more, things would start to click and make sense. And in that same light, I could hear God telling me, “It's okay, you can ask me!”

by Robin Cho

We have noticed that the stigma of talking about mental health, anxiety, and depression is subsiding in our world today. And that’s a good thing. Perhaps we could equally embrace removing the stigma of talking about spiritual depression, too.

by Malissa Mackey

In a moment of clarity, it occurred to me that this fall is not going to usher in a brand new season with the fresh winds of change that I want, no, need it to. And suddenly all of my coping strategies and go-to distractions that have helped me survive this pandemic, seemed to be crumbling all around and threatening to plunge me into a pit of despair. I was left wondering in what, or in whom, have I actually been placing my trust?

by Kyle Edwards

As I think about my hope for the future of my own church and the church around the world, the phrase humble excellence captures my desire for every ministry, every event, every Sunday service, and each part of the Sunday services. At the risk of being overly ambitious, I would include as well the particular callings of every Christian.

by Josh Wellinghoff

It turns out that in order for me to learn about the essence of Encore, I had to go back to the beginning of Holy Trinity and [our] commitment to loving and serving our neighbors and neighborhoods… HTC, from its inception, was convinced that ministering to the poor was rooted in the very character of God, who actively shows concern for the underprivileged, the fatherless, and the weak. Encore was founded on these principles, and the entrepreneurial vision and leadership of our founding pastors, for HTC to have a practical impact on the lives of those around us.

by Ted Ling Hu

It’s easy to shrug this off and say that this is not our fight. The discomfort might be too much, or the chasm of understanding the Black experience might be too large. But this is our fight. Why? Because this is God’s fight.

by Mary Beth and Larry Lake

We have been given a crash course in what living for Christ in the city of Chicago means. When we participate in the Zoom prayer calls, our day is informed by a psalm of lament or prayer for the anxiety of another. We have learned the names of each medical worker in the congregation….God has gotten our attention. We are learning to see our new city and church with His eyes and to hear the news with His ears.

By David Pickens

While the Bible has become a stumbling stone for both Whites and Blacks, with the former misusing its words and interpreting it for their own benefit and the latter in believing that the God of the Bible would allow such things, it has also done the impossible in bridging these two worlds together in which the beauty of Jesus Christ radiates brightly.

by Joel Miles

The cross was the result of Jesus’ life of love, justice, and mercy. Jesus denied himself and bore in His body the crushing impact of sin, pain, and the injustice of our world. Through that act, we are both forgiven of our sins and promised that His just and righteous Kingdom will come. But as we await that day, we are sent into the world as He was sent (John 20:19–21). We too are called to take up our crosses, bearing the weight of the world’s problems, and follow him.

by David Pickens

As each of the aforementioned cases occurred one by one, I began seeing myself in these individuals and became more self-aware of my place in this country as a Black man. More importantly, I began understanding how race was deeply interwoven in the fabric of our country from its inception to the present.

by Joel Miles

When someone proclaims both the gospel and a conspiracy theory, it suggests to our watching world that the reasons for believing the gospel are just as unfounded as these theories. But that is not true, and my hope is to show the radical difference between faith in the gospel and belief in a conspiracy theory.

by Malissa Mackey

I hate that this lonely season shines a terrifying spotlight on an area of my life that is already a struggle to embrace: singleness. A call to embrace this season feels like wrapping my arms around pain and heartache, and honestly, I’d prefer to hug a cactus.

by Joel Miles

We can spend our lives thinking that true life is somewhere out there, in a different context, at a different time, waiting to be discovered. We can live as if it is possible to miss what God calls us to do, and so miss our lives. Ecclesiastes 3 tells us that life is right now. It is here. Whatever situation you are in is the season God has placed you in. Embrace it. You can be confident this is his will for you right now. And though it may be difficult, in time God will make it beautiful.

by Ashanti Pettaway

We cannot be those who pass by suffering on the road, simply because that person doesn’t look like our neighbor. We all need to respond. And in order to do so, we must not only be aware of the situation, but we need to understand how it has come about…

by Malissa Mackey

When I realized that I was afraid of an elderly couple in Walgreens buying cough medicine and angry at two carefree and unmasked guys for invading my six-foot bubble on the sidewalk, I started wondering: how are the habits I’m forming in this pandemic shaping me?

by Joel Miles

Right now we are experiencing the sting of death. It is all around us. And as Christians, we should not feel any pressure to get over how hard this is. Yet in the midst of that weeping, we can still, and must, proclaim the victory and salvation that we will fully enjoy one day.

by Oscar Leiva

In this week following Easter 2020, I want to pause with you to explore why the resurrection matters more than ever in a culture of imminent death. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 15, tells us that in the resurrection—even in our confusion of the pandemic around us—God protects his truth, provides forgiveness, and promises hope.

by Jon Dennis and Katina Yohpe

Our conviction, which is sometimes comforting and sometimes not, is that our kids, in the midst of this crisis, are learning a lot about life and faith and relationships no matter what kind of curriculum we are (or aren’t) using.

by Joel Miles

I don’t know how long this will go. But I do believe that this time of loss, fear, and anxiety can drive us to the Lord. And in that we should rejoice.

by Malissa Mackey

It is a time to lament. It is a time to bring all of these things before the Lord and be reminded that He hears our prayers, He holds our tears, He is grieved over this brokenness too.

by Jon Dennis

In that darkest moment when the world was gripped by the terrors of global war, German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer composed a beautiful text on Christian unity. In this frightening moment where our globe is gripped by a pandemic, his words of unity offer hope.

by Joel Miles

“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing.”