A collection of media, reflections, and resources from Ecclesia in Houston, Texas. Ecclesia is Houston’s Holistic Missional Christian Community. For additional information on Ecclesia Houston visit us online at http://ecclesiahouston.org
Reading the feed…
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 ab
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, ex
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.
Mother’s Day carries many different emotions — celebration, grief, longing, joy, loss, gratitude, and everything in between. Ericka Graham reflects on motherhood, mercy, grief, community, and what it means to care for one another in a hurting world. Through stories of friendship, elephants protecting one another, and the parable of the prodigal son, Ericka invites us to consider how we might show up for others with compassion, presence, and care.
What if the version of Christianity you inherited was designed to help you get in and out without touching anything or anyone? In this message, Pastor Chris explores the doctrine of incarnation, not as a theological concept, but as the living foundation of what it means to follow Jesus.
What does it actually mean to be a neighbor? In this message from the More Than Belief series, Pastor Marcelo Robles, a 20-year ministry partner serving in the shantytowns of Buenos Aires, Argentina, brings a powerful reflection on Luke 10 and the parable of the Good Samaritan.
What does it actually mean to follow Jesus — not just believe, but live it out? In this message, we explore a challenging truth found in Isaiah and the teachings of Jesus: that faith cannot be separated from how we live, how we love, and how we respond to the needs around us. Through the images of salt and light, we’re invited into a kind of spirituality that is deeply present — rooted in real relationships, real pain, and real acts of justice and compassion.
What if the faith you inherited was incomplete? Not wrong, just missing something. In this message, Pastor Chris kicks off a new series called More Than Belief, exploring what it means to have an embodied faith for everyday life. Drawing from James chapter 2 and the theology of Latin American scholar René Padilla, he challenges the idea that faith is simply about believing the right things or securing a spot in heaven. Jesus wasn't pointing people toward a distant destination. He was announcing a kingdom coming here, now, and inviting us into it. Faith without action, James says, is like a bod
This Easter, we gathered across our community to celebrate the hope at the center of our faith — the resurrection of Jesus. In this gathering, you’ll hear stories from people in our community and a message from Pastor Chris reflecting on what it means to experience new life, even in the midst of ordinary and complicated circumstances.
It's one thing to accept a supporting role. It's another thing to embrace it. guest preacher Tyshawn Gardner, looks to John the Baptist, a man with every credential to be the headliner, who chose to point away from himself instead. Through the stories of a college football recruiting trip, Andre Agassi living out his father's dream, and a Super Bowl moment most people forgot, we're reminded that the most significant thing you can do is find your role in something bigger than yourself and play it well.
We are a community full of people with different cultures, contexts, stages of life, personalities, vocations, religious backgrounds, and capacities. As we all enter into Lent in our own unique ways, our pastoral staff is inviting us to join together in one Community Spiritual Practice—the Examen—to learn, practice, and grow deeper in with God. You can pray the Examen on your own, as a family, or with a small group.
What if God's interruptions are actually invitations? In this message, Ericka explores the story of Abraham and Isaac through the lens of emotionally healthy spirituality and discovers that the most disruptive moments in our lives are often the most sacred ones. From the Ignatian Examen prayer to the ancient Jewish Midrash about Abraham smashing his father's idols, this sermon traces a through-line from Abraham's radical break with the gods of his culture to the cross of Christ. What old story do you need to put down? Whether you're carrying guilt you can't shake, patterns of self-punishment y
Faith isn't about having all the answers. It's about taking the next step even when you can't see the road. In this message, Pastor Chris draws from the story of Abraham to explore what it looks like to trust God through fear, uncertainty, and the mistakes we'd rather not admit. Through stories of migrant brothers and sisters walking thousands of miles toward hope, and the raw vulnerability that happens when we finally share who we really are, we're reminded that God doesn't call the fearless. He walks with the afraid. Whatever season you're in, the invitation is simple: just keep walking.
