Distortions

Dear Church Family,

This past Sunday we continued our series Distortions: Naming the Things That Keep People From the Real Jesus, and this week we looked at one of the most damaging distortions of all: the belief that some people are beyond God's grace.

Using the story of Zacchaeus in Luke 19, we were reminded that Jesus specializes in seeking out the people others have written off. Zacchaeus wasn't just a curious man in a tree. He was a tax collector, a cheat, and someone despised by nearly everyone around him. Yet before Zacchaeus changed anything about his life, Jesus stopped, called him by name, and chose to spend time with him.

The message centered on a powerful truth: grace always comes before change. Jesus did not wait for Zacchaeus to clean up his life before extending love and friendship. Instead, it was the kindness and grace of Christ that produced genuine transformation. As followers of Jesus, we are called to do the same. We can love and accept people without approving of everything in their lives, trusting God to do the work of changing hearts.

We also saw that real repentance produces real action. After encountering Jesus, Zacchaeus immediately began making things right. His generosity and restitution did not earn his salvation; they revealed that his heart had been changed. As Scripture reminds us, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and the new has come."

Another important reminder from the message was that no one is beyond redemption. Jesus declared that He came "to seek and to save the lost." No matter how far someone has wandered, how many mistakes they have made, or how impossible their situation may seem, God's grace is still reaching toward them.

Finally, we were challenged to see people the way Jesus sees them. While the crowd saw a label, Jesus saw a person. While others saw a sinner, Jesus saw someone worth pursuing. The same challenge remains for us today. There are "Zacchaeuses" all around us, people longing to be seen, known, and loved.

May we walk through this week with eyes open to those around us, extending the grace we have received and remembering that no one is too far gone for the transforming love of Jesus.

- Pastor Jerry Ausbrook

South CreekOctober 18, 2026

Distortions

Hey South Creek Family,

This past Sunday we continued our series Distortions, and this week we named one of the most common ones: that Jesus is about power. Getting it, keeping it, and protecting it. It’s not hard to see where that idea comes from. Throughout history and still today, people have taken the name of Jesus and used it to hoard power for themselves.

We saw it show up in three ways. In politics, Jesus gets fused to a party or a platform, from every side, and the church starts looking like one more power bloc fighting to win. In prejudice, whoever holds power gets to define what “normal” looks like and then calls it Christian, and people who don’t fit that picture conclude Jesus isn’t for them. And in protection, churches and leaders protect their reputation instead of the people who were hurt. Each of these is the exact opposite of how Jesus used his power.

Here’s the truth underneath it: hoarded power harms, but power given away heals. Jesus had every chance to take power. He was offered all the kingdoms of the world and said no. He told Pilate his kingdom was not of this world. And on the night before he died, knowing the Father had put all things under his power, he got up from the table, wrapped a towel around his waist, and washed his disciples’ feet. Jesus said it himself:

“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Mark 10:45

Jesus never enforced the kingdom. He embodied it. His power didn’t build up and stay in him; it flowed out of him, and people were healed. He didn’t change the world from the top down. He changed it from the inside out, through relationships, meals around tables, and a cross. And he calls us to do the same. We don’t get to make God into our image. We need to be formed into his.

Most of us will never hold political office or run an institution, but every one of us has power: at home, at work, with our kids, with our money, and with our words. So, here’s the question we left with on Sunday: Where do you have power right now, and who is it serving?

-Pastor Aaron Perry

South CreekOctober 11, 2026

Distortions

Hey South Creek Family,

This past Sunday we continued our series Distortions, and this week we named one of the most common ones: "I have to qualify to belong."

Most of us know the feeling of scanning a list for our name and not finding it. Few things wound us like being left out and feeling like we're not enough, and rejection has a way of seeming to confirm our deepest fears about ourselves. As I've read through baptism stories from the past few years, the same theme kept coming up: people felt there was a checklist to faith they could never keep up with, and they were convinced everyone else could. The enemy is good at making us feel like we're the only one. But the truth is that we were all sitting in the same room, holding the same checklist, each convinced we were the only one who couldn't finish it.

That distortion is dangerous. It keeps some people from ever coming to Jesus because they've decided they won't belong. It wears others out as they try harder and harder and it's never enough. And it causes us to miss the heart of the gospel, treating salvation as something to earn rather than something to enter because of what Jesus has already done.

Here's the truth underneath it: over and over in Scripture, God draws near to people who don't qualify, and then He qualifies them. Jesus welcomed Zacchaeus before he changed anything, while the crowd grumbled about who deserved a seat. When the early church argued over whether outsiders had to meet a standard to get in, Peter said:

"We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are." (Acts 15:11)

We are not called to be the gatekeepers of God's grace. In Jesus, we see a God who doesn't just send an invitation; He is the invitation:

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." (Matthew 11:28)

Because of that grace, we talked about three intentions to integrate, not instructions to follow, that keep us out of the checklist and connected to Christ and His mission: humility, vulnerability, and hospitality. Each one frees us, and each one helps free the people around us.

We closed with the tax collector in Luke 18, who had nothing to offer but "God, have mercy on me, a sinner," and went home justified. I know what it feels like to pray like that. At summer camp, singing "The Heart of Worship," I finally surrendered to Jesus and understood that grace was never about me being worthy. It was about Him being worthy, and Him making me worthy. Superiority will not save you; only surrender to Jesus will.

- Pastor Aaron Perry

South CreekOctober 4, 2026

Distortions

Hey South Creek Family,

This past Sunday we continued our series Distortions: Naming the Things That Keep People From the Real Jesus, and this week we named one of the most common ones: Nobody cares about my pain.

Here's the truth underneath it: at our core, everyone wants to be seen, heard, and cared for. When we're not, it doesn't just wound us, it distorts how we see God. He becomes distant, mean, or not real. We talked about how, good or bad, people's experiences will often inform their outlook more than information. When someone has been let down, abandoned, or rejected by people, it can feel like they've been let down, abandoned, or rejected by God. And when it's Christians who didn't show up, that distortion only compounds.

We looked at John 11, where Jesus deliberately waits two days after hearing his friend Lazarus is sick. When he arrives, Martha and then Mary each say the same thing to him:

"Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died."

Jesus doesn't correct them or defend himself. He already knows he's about to raise Lazarus, and still, the shortest verse in the Bible says it all:

"Jesus wept."

Those tears aren't weakness. They're what his care looks like. This is the same God Hagar called "the God who sees me," and the same Jesus who cried out from the cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" He doesn't stand at a distance from our pain. He enters it.

So what do we do with our own pain? We talked about three simple steps: name it, reframe it, and reclaim it. Your feelings are always valid, but they're not always true, and reframing isn't rewriting what happened. It's refusing to let what happened write the story of who God is. Then we invite God to reclaim it, trusting him to use even our sorrows for good so that we can be the comfort to someone else that we've received.

We closed with the story of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who wrote "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" in the middle of a national war and his own devastating loss. His poem admits real despair, and then answers it not with an explanation, but with who God is: not dead, not asleep, and not done.

That answer doesn't stay in the room. Whether you're carrying a wound from someone who didn't show up for you, or you realize you may have been that person for someone else, the real Jesus is still here, still weeping with us, and still not done.

-Pastor Aaron Perry

South CreekSeptember 27, 2026

Distortions

Hey South Creek Family,

This past Sunday we continued our series Distortions: Naming the Things That Keep People From the Real Jesus, and this week we named one of the most common ones: Christians are hypocrites.

Here's the truth underneath it: hypocrisy is receiving grace and refusing to give it. We talked about two kinds. There's obvious hypocrisy — when we know exactly what's right and choose the opposite anyway. And there's oblivious hypocrisy, the kind we don't even see, because it's just what we've always known and no one's ever shown us otherwise. Either way, the result is the same: people are told one thing about Jesus — grace, love, mercy, a seat at the table — and then experience something else entirely from us.

We looked at Mark 2, where Jesus sits down to eat with tax collectors and sinners — the very people everyone else had decided didn't belong. When the religious leaders objected, Jesus answered simply:

"It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

Jesus never ranked people by how acceptable their sin looked from the outside. We often do — and when people notice that gap, it doesn't just disappoint them, it disorients them. It makes them wonder if anything they've heard about Jesus is even true.

We closed with the story of a servant who was forgiven an impossible debt and then refused to forgive someone who owed him almost nothing. The king's question is the one we are left with:

"Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?"

That question doesn't stay in the room. Whether you've been the one withholding grace — on purpose or without even realizing it — or you're carrying a wound from someone else's hypocrisy, the real Jesus is still at the table, still extending mercy he doesn't owe, still inviting you to come as you are.

May this week you choose to remove the planks from your eyes so that you and others can see Him more clearly.

-Pastor Aaron Perry

South CreekSeptember 20, 2026

Distortions

Hey South Creek family,

This past Sunday we kicked off a new series called Distortions: Naming the Things That Keep People From the Real Jesus.

Here's the idea we'll come back to again and again over the next six weeks: A distorted picture of Jesus leads to a distorted response to Jesus. But a real encounter with the real Jesus invites us to real life.

So many of us didn't meet Jesus first, we met a version of him that had already passed through other people's hands: a church, a parent, a headline, an argument online. Somewhere along the way, the message got distorted. And what we've responded to isn't always actually him.

Our goal at South Creek isn't to add to that static, it's to be a community that helps people see the real Jesus.

We opened the series with one of the most honest distortions there is: doubt. And we were grateful to have a guest voice, Pastor Dave Perry open it up for us. He reminded us that doubt isn't something to be ashamed of — even Abraham, Moses, Peter, and Thomas wrestled with it. As he put it, quoting Mark 9:24, our honest cry can simply be:

"I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief."

A relationship with God matters more than having every question answered. You don't have to have it all figured out to follow Jesus — and that's an invitation, not a requirement.

Over the next several weeks, we'll keep naming these distortions honestly and looking to be Jesus followers how to not add to the distortions but rather help people find and follow the real Jesus.

We'd love to have you with us for the rest of the series. Come along for the ride of faith.

Pastor Aaron Perry

South CreekSeptember 13, 2026

Who We Are

Dear Church Family,

This week we closed out our "Who We Are" series with a message called Focused on the Kingdom — and it might be the one that ties everything else together.

We started with a story about hiking the Narrows in Zion National Park — walking upstream, against the current, the whole way. Here's the thing: you don't get to see the beauty of that canyon without fighting that current. There's no shortcut. The reward is upstream, not downstream.

That's what following Jesus feels like too. Every day, we're pulled toward comfort, control, and whatever's easiest — our own little kingdoms. But Jesus calls us to something bigger: His Kingdom, not ours.

Here's the truth we sat with this week:

When we fully surrender to and pursue His Kingdom, we will not be able to build our own.

We looked at what the Kingdom actually is — God's people, in God's place, under God's rule — and then asked how we actually seek it, both vertically (surrendered to the King, trusting Him instead of gripping tightly to control and worry) and horizontally (loving our neighbor, living out "on earth as it is in heaven" right where we are).

And we were reminded: this isn't just a personal call. As a church, we want to help seek and build His Kingdom — not merely our own castle. That's why partnerships, church planting, and missions matter to us. That's part of why we're moving to two services on November 1. It's all the same posture — making room, giving ourselves away, because His Kingdom is worth more than our comfort.

We never fully "arrive" at total surrender in this life. But like that hike — you don't stop just because the current's still pushing back. You keep walking. Because His Kingdom is still moving, and we get to move with it.

A few questions to sit with this week:

What are you white-knuckling right now instead of trusting God with?
Who's one person near you that His Kingdom needs to reach — through you?

Grateful to walk this out together.

-Pastor Aaron Perry

South CreekSeptember 6, 2026

Who We Are

Dear Church Family,

This past Sunday we continued our Who We Are series by looking at two more of our core values: Radical in Generosity and Eager to Serve.

We started with the story of the Toledo War — when Michigan gave up the city of Toledo to Ohio and received the "worthless" Upper Peninsula in return. At the time, everyone thought Michigan lost. Nearly 200 years later, that "consolation prize" has produced far more than Toledo ever would have. The world's math was wrong the whole time — and that's exactly how generosity and service look from the outside, too.

We looked at the widow who gave two small coins — everything she had (Mark 12) — and the man who found treasure so valuable he joyfully sold everything to get it (Matthew 13:44). Then we watched Jesus himself kneel and wash His disciples' feet (John 13), the lowest task of a servant, given freely by the greatest among us.

The big idea: generosity and service aren't how we get loved — they're how loved people respond, because loved people, love people.

We also shared some exciting news: starting November 1, South Creek is moving to two Sunday services. We ran out of chairs this season, and we don't want that to be a barrier for anyone walking through our doors. This isn't about building something bigger for us — it's about making room for more people to encounter Jesus here. We'll share the full vision and details next week.

Where is God inviting you to open your hands? Who is He calling you to serve?

-Pastor Aaron Perry

South CreekAugust 30, 2026

Who We Are

Dear Church Family,

This weekend we continued our "Who We Are" series, moving into two more of our core values that are deeply connected: Gracious in Love and Committed to Community.

We opened with a personal story — a season right after college that started in the warmth of real, consistent friendship, and then shifted into a new church and a new season where that same kind of community wasn't there in the way we expected. It's a familiar ache: feeling alone even while being "plugged in" somewhere. But toward the end of that season, something shifted — not because the community became what we wanted, but because we realized it was already full of people showing us gracious, kind love all along. As Bonhoeffer put it, loving our dream of community more than the real community in front of us can actually keep us from experiencing it. God, in His kindness, often gives us what we need rather than what we want.

From there we looked at two truths that hold this whole message together: we were made in community, by community, and for community (Genesis 2:18) — and yet nearly 1 in 5 American adults report having no close friends today, a number that's roughly doubled since the early 1990s. We were built for connection, and as a culture, we're starving for it.

We saw what that looks like lived out in Luke 5 — a group of friends so determined to get a paralyzed man to Jesus that they tore open a roof to lower him into a packed room. Jesus "saw their faith" — not just the man's — a reminder that sometimes God moves in our lives because of the faith and prayers of the people carrying us, not just our own. We need to be committed to community because we need friends who will carry us to Jesus.

Then we turned to Exodus 34, where God reveals His own character as "compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness" — long before Jesus ever walked the earth. That's who God said He was. And in John 8, we saw that God in the flesh: Jesus meeting a woman dragged before a crowd, alone and exposed, and extending grace to her face-to-face, unearned and unconditional. Condemnation and shame cannot survive where there is grace and love.

We closed with Colossians 3:12-14 — "clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness... and over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together" — and this reminder: loved people, love people. We only have love to give because we were loved first.

Two questions worth carrying into this week:

Who are the people in your life that you would carry — and who would carry you?
Who is the one person you feel God has placed in your life that He wants you to show that gracious love to?

We weren't made to do this alone — and we weren't made to earn our way into love. Both are gifts, given in relationship.

-Pastor Aaron Perry

South CreekAugust 23, 2026

Who We Are

Dear Church Family,

We continued our "Who We Are" series this week, moving from being rooted in Jesus into what that rootedness actually looks like in practice: persistent prayer.

We opened with the story of Colonel Sanders of KFC — pitching his fried chicken recipe to restaurant after restaurant, hearing "no" over a thousand times before one finally said yes. There's power and purpose in persistence — and Jesus told us to bring that same refusal-to-quit into our life of prayer: "Keep on asking... keep on seeking... keep on knocking" (Luke 11:9-10).

We defined prayer simply: communion and communication with God — not a monologue we perform, but a dialogue we enter into. We speak, and we listen. And in fact, prayer is often the very first spiritual practice of anyone who follows Jesus — how we got in, and how we stay in.

We looked honestly at what gets in the way of praying (we get distracted, discouraged, demotivated, disconnected), then walked through three things persistent prayer can change:

Circumstances — through the stories of the friend at midnight (Luke 11) and the persistent widow (Luke 18), we saw that we serve a God who can, and sometimes does, move our circumstances. But even when he doesn't, prayer always changes our hearts.
Others — Paul's prayer for the Colossians reminded us that persistent, specific intercession for the people we love matters (Colossians 1:9-12; James 5:16). We also talked about what this looks like not just individually, but as a church — praying together, persistently, for one another and for what God is doing among us.
Us — ultimately, the point of prayer isn't to get things from God, it's to get more of God (Matthew 6; Philippians 4:6-7; 1 John 5:14-15).

We closed with a question worth carrying into this week: What's the prayer you feel like God wants you to not give up on?

Don't stop knocking.

-Pastor Aaron Perry

South CreekAugust 23, 2026

Who We Are

Dear Church Family,

If you were with us Sunday, you know we kicked off our new series, Who We Are — a look at the seven core values that shape South Creek — starting with the one everything else depends on: Rooted in Jesus.

We talked about our mission (to love people and lead them to new life in Christ) and our vision as a church community rooted in Jesus, persistent in prayer, gracious in love, radical in generosity, eager to serve, committed to community, and focused on His Kingdom. But we started with the first value on purpose — because if we're not rooted in Jesus, the rest are doomed to fail. If we miss Jesus, we miss everything.

A few things we sat with together:

Everyone is being shaped by something, whether we realize it or not. The only real choice we get isn't whether we're rooted — it's what we're rooted in. Comparison, achievement, others' approval, shame — they all produce real fruit, just not the kind that lasts.
Jesus said a tree is known by its fruit (Luke 6:43-45). You can call yourself rooted in Jesus all you want, but eventually what's actually rooted in you will show. Show me the root, and I'll tell you the fruit.
In John 15, Jesus doesn't just call us to be rooted — he calls us to abide, to remain, connected to him like a branch to a vine. "Apart from me you can do nothing." That's not a value alongside the others; it's the source everything else grows from.
Paul tells us in Colossians 2 to let our roots grow down into Christ and our lives be built on him — not so we don't get pulled off course by empty philosophies, but because in Christ we are already complete. Knowing who we are isn't the finish line; it's what makes real, intentional action possible.

Here's where we landed: root yourself in Jesus. Know who you are. Practice the way. That's what this whole series is going to be about — but it starts with one question we didn't try to answer for you Sunday, because it's one only you can answer:

Where is your life rooted?

-Pastor Aaron Perry

South CreekAugust 9, 2026

Boat Stories

Dear Church Family,

f you were with us Sunday, you know we brought our Boat Stories series to a close — and fittingly, it ended right back where it started, with Peter and a boat.

We looked at John 21:1-19, the story of Jesus meeting Peter on the shore of the Sea of Galilee after the resurrection. Peter had already seen the risen Jesus — more than once — and yet we find him doing something surprising: going back to fishing. Back to the old life, the old identity, the thing that felt safe and familiar after failure.

A few things we sat with together:

Jesus doesn't wait for Peter to fix himself first. He's already got a fire going and breakfast cooking before Peter even brings in the catch — and it's the same kind of fire, the same Greek word, as the one Peter was warming himself at the night he denied Jesus three times. That's not a coincidence. Jesus stages this restoration at the exact place Peter's worst moment happened.
Three times Jesus asks, "Do you love me?" — matching the three times Peter denied him. But he doesn't just forgive Peter in that moment, he commissions him: "Feed my sheep." Restoration comes with a future, not just a pardon.
The last time Peter hauled in a catch this size, back in Luke 5, the net began to tear. This time, it holds. Even in the middle of a story about failure, there was something worth noticing — real growth had happened in him too.

Here's where we landed: this story won't let you believe you have to clean up the pattern before you're welcome back at the fire. Grace shows up before we are cleaned up. Failure is never final — Jesus keeps inviting us to follow him again and again. And that's really what this whole series has shown us, from the storm to the sinking to the shore: Jesus meets us exactly where we are, with exactly what we need.

-Pastor Aaron Perry

South CreekAugust 2, 2026

Boat Stories

Dear Church Family,

We have been walking through our Boat Stories series — and this week took us out onto the water with Peter.

We looked at Matthew 14:22-33, the story of Jesus walking on the sea in the middle of the night, and Peter's brief, wobbly walk out to meet him. It's a story a lot of us grew up on as a lesson in boldness — "get out of the boat like Peter." But this week we asked a different question: what if the story was never really about grading Peter's performance at all?

A few things we sat with together:

Jesus's words to the terrified disciples — "Take heart, it is I" — echo the very name God gave Moses at the burning bush. This wasn't just Jesus saying, "it's me." It was a claim about who he is.
Peter's request, his walk, and his sink all happen fast — and so does Jesus's response. Matthew uses the word "immediately" three times in this one story, which is unusual for him. Grace doesn't make you wait for it.
Whether Peter's initial ask was bold faith or something closer to testing God, and whether his cry to be saved took great faith or almost none — Jesus met both the same way. The hand came out before the correction did.

Here's where we landed: this story isn't asking you to figure out if you're a "walker" or a "sinker" this week. It's inviting you to see who was standing on the water in the first place — a Savior who is powerful, persistent, and present exactly when it counts. You may sink. The promise was never that you won't. The promise is that you won't drown.

-Pastor Aaron Perry

South CreekJuly 26, 2026

Boat Stories

Dear Church Family,

This past Sunday we continued our Boat Stories series by looking at one of the most vivid moments in the Gospels — Jesus calming the storm in Mark 4. But as we walked through the text, we discovered the real question at the center of the story wasn't about a storm at all. It was about a heart.

Jesus and His disciples were caught in a violent storm on the Sea of Galilee. The waves were crashing over the sides, the boat was filling with water, and the disciples — several of them professional fishermen — were convinced they were about to die. And Jesus was asleep. A few feet away, in the middle of the chaos, completely at peace.

When they finally woke Him, they didn't ask, "Can you help us?" They asked, "Do you not care that we are perishing?"

That question turned out to be the heart of the message. When the storm hits, most of us don't actually doubt God's power. We doubt His heart.

We saw that care most clearly in His presence — He was already in the boat before the storm ever started, and His care was never only going to be measured by whether the wind stopped. We saw it in His authority — when He finally spoke, He didn't pray over the storm, He simply commanded it, and it obeyed. And we saw it in His question back to the disciples afterward: "Have you still no faith?" Not whether they had any left, but whether they'd actually reach for what was already theirs.

One of the key truths we took away was this:

His care isn't proven by whether the storm stops. It's proven by the fact that He's already in the boat.

Jesus didn't wait for calm water before He showed up. He got in the boat before the wind ever picked up — and He stays, whether the storm ends the way we hope it will or not. It's the same pattern we saw with Peter the week before, just wearing a different set of clothes: Jesus meets us exactly where we are, with exactly what we need.

If you missed Sunday's message, we'd encourage you to catch up online and join us this week as we continue our journey through Boat Stories.

-Pastor Aaron Perry

South CreekJuly 19, 2026

Boat Stories

Dear Church Family,

This past Sunday we launched our new series, Boat Stories, by looking at one of the most familiar miracles in the Gospels, the miraculous catch of fish in Luke 5. But as we walked through Peter's story, we discovered that the greatest catch that day wasn't the fish. It was a fisherman.

One of the most encouraging discoveries in this passage is that Luke 5 wasn't Peter's first encounter with Jesus. Before Jesus called Peter to leave his nets, He had already met him, spoken a new identity over him, and even healed someone in his family. Long before Peter fully surrendered, Jesus was patiently pursuing him.

That's often how Jesus works in our lives too.

Many of us think our relationship with God begins the moment we decide to follow Him. But often, when we look back, we realize He had been at work long before we recognized it. He was placing people in our lives, opening doors, stirring our hearts, and patiently drawing us closer to Himself.

One of the key truths we took away was this:

Jesus didn't love Peter because of his calling. Jesus called Peter because He loved him.

That same truth is still true today. Jesus doesn't wait until we have everything together before He loves us. He meets us exactly where we are and lovingly invites us into something greater than we could ever imagine.

As we continue this series, we'll see this pattern again and again:

Jesus meets us exactly where we are, with exactly what we need.

Thank you to everyone who joined us for Baptism Sunday as we celebrated lives being changed by Jesus. There is no greater reminder that He is still pursuing people today.

If you missed Sunday's message, we'd encourage you to catch up online and join us this week as we continue our journey through Boat Stories.

-Pastor Aaron Perry

South CreekJuly 12, 2026

A Season In The Minors

Dear Church Family,

This past Sunday, we wrapped up our Season in the Minors series by looking at the final book of the Minor Prophets, Malachi.

Malachi reminds us that Israel's greatest problem wasn't that they had abandoned God. They had simply begun treating Him as ordinary. Their worship continued, but their hearts had drifted. They offered God less than He deserved because they had lost sight of who He truly was.

The same danger exists for us today. It's possible to become so familiar with God that we stop standing in awe of Him. When we lose sight of God's greatness, our worship, our obedience, and our devotion all begin to suffer.

Throughout the series, we've seen the same invitation repeated in different ways. God is continually calling His people back to Himself.

As we concluded the series, we were reminded of three lasting lessons from the Minor Prophets:

Remember His love.
Give Him your whole heart.
Walk faithfully with Him.

The greatest hope of the Minor Prophets is that they all point beyond themselves to Jesus. As Hebrews tells us, God spoke through the prophets in many different ways, but He has now spoken most clearly through His Son. Jesus is the perfect revelation of the Father, the Great King who came to rescue wandering worshipers and invite us back into relationship with Him.

As you go through this week, take a few moments to ask yourself:

Have I begun treating God as ordinary, or am I still living in awe of the Great King?

And remember:

If we miss Jesus, we miss everything.

-Pastor Aaron Perry

South CreekJuly 5, 2026

A Season In The Minors

Dear Church Family,

This Sunday we continued our series, A Season in the Minors, by looking at the message of the prophet Haggai.

After years in exile, God graciously brought His people home. They had every intention of rebuilding the temple, but as life became busy, their priorities slowly shifted. They rebuilt their homes, pursued stability, and put off what mattered most. The temple remained unfinished.

The problem wasn't that they didn't know what God wanted. They simply kept saying, "Not yet."

That challenge still speaks to us today. Spiritual drift rarely begins with rejecting God. More often, it begins with delaying Him. As we said on Sunday, delayed devotion leads to deadly distraction.

Haggai called God's people to "consider your ways." Their lives felt empty because their hearts had become disordered. We were reminded that a disordered heart always produces a disordered life. When we place anything ahead of God, even good things, we eventually discover they can never satisfy the deepest needs of our souls.

The good news is that God doesn't leave us there.

The people responded to God's Word, and as they obeyed, God made them a wonderful promise: "I am with you." That promise ultimately points us to Jesus, the true temple, through whom God came to dwell among us. We don't rebuild our lives to earn God's presence. We rebuild because, through Jesus, God has already come near.

As you head into this week, ask yourself:

What have I been saying "later" to that God is calling me to do today?

Maybe your next step feels small, but don't underestimate what God can do through one act of faithful obedience. Return to Jesus. Rebuild on the Rock.

-Pastor Aaron Perry

South CreekJune 28, 2026

A Season In The Minors

Dear Church Family,

This Sunday, we continued our series, A Season in the Minors, by looking at the book of Micah.

Micah spoke to people who looked spiritually healthy on the outside. They had worship, sacrifices, and the temple. Yet beneath the surface, they had forgotten God’s faithfulness, neglected justice, and assumed God would bless them no matter how they lived.

Micah reminds us that God is not looking for religious performance. He is forming people who reflect His heart.

Micah 6:8 says:

“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

This is not a call to earn God’s love by trying harder. It is an invitation to return to Him and walk with Him.

The good news is that we do not have to transform ourselves by our own effort. Jesus came as the Shepherd-King Micah promised. He forgives our sin, heals what sin has broken, and makes possible what we could never do on our own.

This week, consider these questions:

Where have I forgotten God’s faithfulness?
Am I confusing God’s patience with His approval?
What would it look like for me to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God this week?
Where do I need to abide in Jesus instead of relying on my own effort?

God has not called us to perform for Him. He has invited us to walk with Him.

-Pastor Aaron

South CreekJune 21, 2026

A Season In The Minors

Dear Church Family,

This past Sunday in our A Season in the Minors series, we explored the book of Amos. Amos was a shepherd and farmer whom God called to deliver a message to the Northern Kingdom of Israel during a time of prosperity and success.

At first glance, everything appeared healthy. The economy was strong, the nation was secure, and religious activity was thriving. Yet Amos revealed a sobering truth: what we celebrate on the surface cannot hide what God sees underneath.

We looked at four key movements in Amos:

The Problem: God's people had become satisfied with His blessings and forgotten His heart. As Hosea 13:6 reminds us, "When they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me." Forgetfulness will almost always lead to unfaithfulness.

The Warning: God sees where our hearts really are. Israel continued their religious activities, but their worship had become disconnected from the way they treated others. God was not impressed by worship that never transformed the worshiper.

The Invitation: "Seek me and live" (Amos 5:4). God's desire was not destruction but restoration. The call of Amos was not simply to do more religious things, but to return to God with their whole hearts.

The Hope: God restores what returns to Him. Even in a book filled with warnings, Amos ends with hope and restoration. God's final word is not judgment, but redemption.

One of our key takeaways was this: God wants to transform the real you, not the version of you that you want everyone else to see. That transformation does not begin on the exterior. It begins on the interior, and it begins when we return to Him.

As we continue through the Minor Prophets, may we remember that in every season, God is inviting us to return to Him.

-Pastor Aaron Perry

South CreekJune 14, 2026

A Season In The Minors

Dear Church Family,

This Sunday, we began our new series, A Season in the Minors, by looking at the book of Hosea.

Hosea reminds us that God’s people have always struggled with spiritual drift. Israel wanted God’s blessing, but they also chased after other idols. And if we are honest, we can do the same. We may not bow before Baal, but we often look to money, comfort, approval, success, politics, relationships, or even ourselves for what only God can provide.

The warning of Hosea is clear: idols always overpromise and underdeliver. They offer temporary satisfaction, but they cannot give lasting fulfillment.

But Hosea is not only a book of warning. It is a book of invitation and hope. God says, “Return, Israel, to the Lord your God” (Hosea 14:1). The good news is that God’s love is greater than our wandering. In Jesus, God has made a way for wandering people to come home.

Wherever you are this week, hear the invitation again:

Return.

Have a great week friends, join us this Sunday as we dive into the book of Amos.

-Pastor Cole Maxwell

South CreekJune 7, 2026