Category: pastor’s notes

Pastor’s Notes 11/21/2025

Posted on by Wende Gonzales

“God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you ay share abundantly in every good work. 
– 2 Corinthians 9:8

As we approach Thanksgiving, we come to the final Sunday in our fall worship series, Living Our Verbs. Over these past weeks, we have explored what it means to be  people who love, serve, pray, and worship.

It feels fitting that “Sharing” is our final verb, because it is the thread that weaves all the others together. When we share our lives, our gratitude, our time, our compassion, and our resources, we embody the heart of Christ. We become living witnesses to God’s love at work among us.

This Sunday, our scripture from 2 Corinthians 9:6–12 invites us into a grace-filled vision of generosity. Paul writes to the church in Corinth as they prepare an offering to support their struggling siblings in Jerusalem. His message is not about guilt, pressure, or meeting a quota. Instead, he reminds the reader that sharing is an act of worship, a response to God’s abundant blessings.

Paul uses simple, earthy imagery: seeds, harvests, sowing, and reaping. When we share with others, the harvest is not merely financial; it is a harvest of gratitude, justice, compassion, and thanksgiving to God.

In a world where scarcity and fear so often dominate the headlines, Paul’s words offer us a different perspective. We live thankfully because everything we have is a gift from God.
We share generously because God first shared generously with us.

This Sunday, we will reflect together on the joy of sharing. We will focus upon how God continues to “multiply our seeds for sowing.” We will also give thanks for the countless ways our lives, stories, faith, and generosity continue to shape our ministry in Sun City.

I look forward to sharing with you on YouTube or in person on Thanksgiving Sunday.

Brett

Pastor’s Notes 11/14/2025

Posted on by Wende Gonzales

God is Spirit, and those who worship God must be led by the Spirit to worship him according to the truth.
–John 4:24

If you grew up in Sunday school, you might remember singing:

“The church is not a building, the church is not a steeple,
the church is not a resting place—the church is the people!”

That little song carries a big truth. Worship isn’t about stained glass, pews, or even the sanctuary itself. Worship is about the people. Us. Worship is about those gathered in the Spirit, turning our hearts toward God.

In John 4:21–26, Jesus has a remarkable conversation with a Samaritan woman at a well. She asks him where the proper place to worship is, on her people’s mountain or in Jerusalem. Jesus replies that a time is coming (and is already here!) when true worship will no longer depend on location, but on spirit and truth. In other words, worship isn’t about where we stand, but how open our hearts are to God’s presence.

This Sunday we continue our series, “Living Our Verbs” by exploring the word “Worship,” not as a noun, but as an action. Worship is what we do together when we lift our voices, pray, and come to the table. But it’s also what we do when we carry that spirit of truth and love into the world.

Come ready to live your verb and to bring your voice, your story, and your gratitude as we worship together in spirit and truth. Hope to see you on Sunday if not sooner for the big craft fair we are hosting this Saturday!

Brett

“Don’t Worry, Be Happy”

Posted on by Wende Gonzales

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.  — Philippians 4:4–7

Remember Bobby McFerrin’s catchy song Don’t Worry, Be Happy? It is almost impossible to listen to this ditty without smiling. Every note of that tune, from the bass line to the whistling, was created using nothing but McFerrin’s own voice. It was the first a cappella song ever to reach number one on the charts, and it carried a simple message that people all over the world needed to hear: don’t let worry steal your joy.

Of course, “don’t worry” is easier said than done. Though it might not hurt to try, most of us can’t just sing our anxieties away. But the Apostle Paul gives us something deeper than a happy tune to hold onto. In Philippians 4  he writes: “Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”

Where McFerrin offers a melody, Paul offers a practice: prayer. Through prayer, we turn our worries into words shared with the God who loves us. Prayer keeps our hearts open and connected to the Holy. This connection brings peace beyond understanding and  also leads us to a deeper relationship with one another, as we lift each other in gratitude and care.

This Sunday we will live into our next verb to define Sun City Christian Church, which is pray. We’ll explore how prayer sustains our connection to God and one another. Come ready to rejoice, to pray, and sing songs of praise. I look forward to worshipping with you online or in the sanctuary on Sunday. 

Brett

One of the most visible expressions of our faith: serving

Posted on by Wende Gonzales

“Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;”
–Matthew 25:34b

Church family, let me begin with gratitude!

Thank you so much for the clergy appreciation gifts. Your kind words in the card touched me. The love gift is amazing and totally unexpected, and the T-shirt captured my thoughts perfectly! I am the pastor of an awesome congregation, and I can’t wait to see how we put our faith into action next.

This Sunday, we continue our worship series, “Living Our Verbs,” by focusing on one of the most visible expressions of our faith, serving.

It’s fitting that this focus falls on All Saints Sunday, a day when we remember those who have served Christ faithfully before us. There are saints we remember and some we have never known who shaped our congregation and strengthened this church through quiet acts of love and care.

Our scripture comes from Matthew 25:31–40, the separation of the sheep and the goats and more importantly, the compassion that will lead us through the gates one day.

“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.”

In this parable, Christ identifies himself with those in need. To serve others is to serve Christ himself. It is a reminder that sainthood isn’t reserved for the few; it’s lived out daily by those who see Christ in the face of another.

On Sunday, we’ll give thanks for the saints who have gone before us, those whose service continues to echo through this community. We’ll also reflect on how we, in our time, can live as saints-in-progress: serving God and others, not for recognition, but out of love.

Brett

Moving from commandment to calling to embodiment

Posted on by Wende Gonzales

Jesus said to him, ‘“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
–Matthew 22:37-40

Many thanks for your participation last Sunday in working with our Thriving Team to identify the verbs that represent who we are as the living body of Christ. The catered meal was great, and the conversations were thoughtful. All the ideas collected will be used by the Thriving team in the finalizing of our current identity statement, mission, and congregational vision.

I was moved by the blessings you wrote during our final activity. Your words were beautiful and inspired by the Holy Spirit. Not only will they influence the work of the Thriving Team, but we will share them together as spoken benedictions to end our upcoming worship services.

For the next several Sundays we will continue our work of “Living Our Verbs” by highlighting the words that appear most representative of who God is calling us to be right now. This Sunday will center ourselves around loving. Deuteronomy 6:4-5, Matthew 22:37-40, and John 13:34-35 will remind us how we are to love.

In Deuteronomy, we are commanded to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength.” Jesus later lifts up that same commandment, adding that we are also to love our neighbor as ourselves, declaring that all of God’s law and purpose hang on this. And then, on the night of his betrayal, Jesus takes love one step further: “Love one another as I have loved you.”

Through these three texts, we move from commandment to calling to embodiment. Love begins in God, is expressed through us, and becomes visible in our relationships and actions.

As we gather this Sunday, we’ll reflect on how love isn’t just a feeling or a virtue, it is an action that defines who we are and how we live. I look forward to worshipping with you in the sanctuary or on YouTube!  

Brett

Pastor’s Notes 10/17/2025

Posted on by Wende Gonzales

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’  
– Matthew 28:19-20

This Sunday we’ll be exploring what it means to live the verbs of faith. Our scripture, Matthew 28:16–20, records Jesus’ final words to his disciples and they are words filled with movement: Go… make… baptize… teach… remember.

As preachers Karoline Lewis and Anna Carter Florence remind us, faith is not just what we believe, it’s what we do. The verbs of our lives: how we love, serve, listen, care, and share, become the way God’s story continues in the world through us.

Living the verbs draws us into the energy of our faith story. Focusing on the verbs makes faith a living response rather than a static belief. When we do so, we see ourselves as participants in God’s ongoing story.

Viewing ourselves as an active presence changes how we see church. Instead of defining who we are by what we have (buildings, programs, endowments), we define ourselves by what we do in Christ’s name, love, welcome, serve, pray, grow, forgive, share.

After worship, we’ll gather around tables for a special meal and conversation lead by our Thriving Ministry Team. Together we’ll name the verbs that describe who we are as a congregation and who God is calling us to become. Are we a welcoming, serving, growing, encouraging church? What actions define our shared calling?

Come ready to worship, to move, and to dream together, because the verbs of our faith are still being written in us. I look forward to worshipping with you on YouTube or in the sanctuary this Sunday! 

Brett

Our shared meal becomes a mission of love

Posted on by Wende Gonzales

He said also to the one who had invited him, ‘When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.’  – Luke 14:12-14

Last Sunday, we gathered around the Lord’s Table in the spirit of World Communion Sunday. We are reminded that Christians everywhere, in all times and places, share one bread and one cup. But if we take that moment seriously, it calls us to something even deeper: to live communion, not just receive it.

This week’s scripture from Luke 14:12–24 is one of Jesus’ parables about a great banquet. This feast table imagery mirrors the communion table we gather around each week. In the story, those who were first invited make excuses as to why they cannot attend, so the host sends servants out into the streets to bring in the poor, the blind, the lame, and the forgotten. The table becomes a place of radical welcome, widened again and again until every seat is filled.

It is a reminder that the blessing found at the Communion Table doesn’t end when the worship service does. Every act of kindness, every moment of forgiveness, every time we make space for another, that is communion, too. The Holy Spirit empowers us to keep communion a verb, an act we repeat throughout our week by doing as Jesus would.

This Sunday, we’ll continue reflecting on what it means to live as the body of Christ in daily life. We will explore how our shared meal becomes a mission of love that continues long after the bread and cup are passed.

Come ready to gather, to grow, and to go forth in service together! I look forward to worshipping with you on YouTube or in our sanctuary!  

Brett

Pastor’s Notes 10/3/2025

Posted on by Wende Gonzales

The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ?  Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. –1 Corinthians 10:16-17

This coming Sunday, October 5, we will join with Christians all around the world in celebrating World Communion Sunday. It is one of those holy days that reminds us we are a part of something greater. It is a day when our table feels a little bigger, our prayers reach a little farther, and our fellowship stretches across languages, cultures, and traditions. It is the one Sunday a year when Christians, no matter our denominational or local church practice, take Holy Communion.

Our scriptures for Sunday, 1 Corinthians 10:16–17 and Matthew 13:1–9,  help set the tone for our belonging and connection together. Fittingly, our choir ensemble will offer the hymn Seed, Scattered and Sown as special music. This hymn, written by Dan Feiten in 1987, was inspired by these very passages of scripture. It poetically ties together Jesus’ parable of the sower with Paul’s teaching about the unity of the church through bread and cup. The hymn invites us to see ourselves as seeds scattered throughout the world, yet brought together as “one bread, one body.” Its imagery reminds us that while we come from many places and experiences, at Christ’s table we are gathered and made whole.

On World Communion Sunday, we will break bread and share the cup with the awareness that we are part of something larger than ourselves. From small congregations in rural villages to large cathedrals in bustling cities, believers everywhere will echo the same words of blessing, share the same bread of life, and drink from the same cup of blessing.

Let us prepare our hearts this week to come to the table with gratitude, humility, and joy—remembering that in Christ, we are never just scattered, but always gathered and bound together in love. I look forward to meeting you at table in the sanctuary or on YouTube.

Brett

Pastor’s Notes 9/26/2025

Posted on by Wende Gonzales

On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided. – Genesis 22:14b

Fall is officially here,  and it won’t be long (God willing!) for the heat of summer to leave us. This means it is time to emerge from our air conditioning, welcome back old friends, and return to the full schedule of life together.

Wednesdays will become a very active day for us at Sun City Christian Church. 

Wednesdays at 10:00 am in a classroom off of the Library will be Supporting Seniors hosted by Fred Wieck. Sessions will begin on October 8th;  each week folks will touch base about life, celebrating highs and lows and encouraging each other through whatever it is we currently face.

From 11:00-11:50 am in Cobbs Hall will be Wednesday Workout with Bella. Come and exercise! Bella will introduce the group to some new exercises as well as work in some of the classic and helpful chair exercises from last season, so lace up the tennis shoes and get the blood flowing a bit!

At 12:00 pm every Wednesday, we will have lunch and a program/activity. Keep your eyes out for our calendar, bulletin inserts, and weekly announcements for the specifics but each month the rotation should look like this.

First Wednesday: Lunch and Learn presentation around a Health or Wellness topic.

Second Wednesday: Project day. Bring the current quilt, crochet, knitting, sewing or other craft project you are a working on and “stitch and mingle” with one another. If you don’t have a project to bring, Disciples Women will have a shared project for you to take part in. Bring a salad to share for lunch that day.

Third Wednesday: Lunch and Learn presentation around a life interest topic. Previous sessions have been about fireproofing our homes, being on the lookout for scams, and last month Bob Wasson introduced us to Scotland and Ireland.

Fourth Wednesday: Board Games will now begin at 12pm. Snacks will be the food of choice as we play some of our favorite card, domino, and tabletop games.

Fifth Wednesday: Potluck and a movie. Bring a dish to share and watch a show!

Monthly Sunday afternoon concerts will also begin soon so we will keep you posted! Many great things are happening at Sun City Christian Church—come and join us!

This Sunday, as I will be on vacation, Rev. Janel Randle, who is an associate at Foothills Christian Church, will bring the sermon entitled “Unlearning Sacrifice” based upon Genesis 22:1-14.

Brett

Pastor’s Notes 9/19/2025

Posted on by Wende Gonzales

“He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” –Micah 6:8

Expectations and requirements are important in a relationship. It has proven advantageous in my life to respect both. When going out at night with friends, my father had an expectation that I “be good.” The rules had been previously established, boundaries set, and preferred behavior explained. To act in a way that proved otherwise may lead to consequences, a stricter curfew, and disappointment (which sometimes felt like the worst punishment).

To go with that, my mother had one requirement: check in. It was before the days of cell phones, so there was some effort involved, but if I called with the location of our whereabouts and  a general description of what we were up to, all was good. Expectations and requirements matter, and when they are met, covenant is upheld. Mom would go back to sleep, save the worry for another day and good graces remained.

We continue to be in an active relationship with God, and as the Bible reminds, there are requirements for us to keep. Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God says the Prophet Micah. In the gospels, Jesus reveals the greatest commandment is to love. Love God first and then love your neighbor as you wish to be loved.

As the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) we hold these passages to be foundational to our existence as the body of Christ. As a movement for wholeness in a fragmented world we accept the expectations placed upon us to set a course to live with the compassion of Jesus. I look forward to joining you at the table Sunday, as we remind ourselves to love in remembrance of Christ.

Brett