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The Table: Belonging Luke 15 1-2 Pastor Aaron Perry Download Dear Church Family, This past Sunday we kicked off our new series, At the Table: What Technology Can’t Replace, and this week we named something almost all of us feel: we’ve never had more ways to connect, and we’ve rarely felt more alone. Technology used to be a room in the house. Now it’s in our pockets, on our wrists, and in our kitchens, and it’s trying to take a seat at the table. About half of American adults now use AI chatbots, and the share of Americans who say they have no close friends at all has quadrupled since 1990. We used to call our buddy Floyd when the car made a weird noise, or call Mom when the baby wouldn’t nap. Now we ask a screen first. We get faster answers, but we lose something along the way. The cost of convenience is connection. Here’s the truth underneath it: technology can give us a taste of connection, but it can’t embrace us, love us, forgive us, or make us feel a part of something. Every one of us longs to be loved, accepted, and redeemed, and only the Table Maker can give us that. Jesus doesn’t send a notification. He knocks. “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.” (Revelation 3:20) We saw it in two stories. In Luke 15, a son who wasted everything comes home rehearsing a servant speech, and his father runs down the road, throws his arms around him, and throws a feast, because “this son of mine was dead and is alive again.” And in 2 Samuel 9, Mephibosheth, lame in both feet and hiding in a town called Lo Debar, calls himself a “dead dog,” but King David gives him a permanent seat at his table “like one of the king’s sons.” He wasn’t invited because of who he was. He was invited because of who his father was. And that’s the gospel. We don’t get a seat at Jesus’s table because of what we can earn. We get it because of who our Father is. “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1) That’s also why we launched two services this week. We’re not just adding a service to fit more people in; we’re setting more places at the table. Somewhere in Kokomo, someone is in Lo Debar right now, convinced they’re too far gone. The Father is still running, and the King is still setting places. So here’s the question to carry into this week: which one do you most need right now, to be loved, accepted, or redeemed? Whatever your answer, the door is open and the table is ready. We’d love to have you with us for the rest of the series. -Pastor Aaron Perry

Recovery Sunday Chuck McCoskey Download Dear Church Family, This past Sunday we had our annual Recovery Sunday in which we heard three brave people share their stories of recovery and how Jesus has transformed their lives! A common theme in their stories were honesty, forgiveness, and hope. If you missed it, follow the link below to hear their powerful words! - Pastor Aaron Perry

Distortions: No One's Beyond Redemption Luke 19:10 Pastor Jerry Ausbrook Download 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

Distortions: The Problems with Power Mark 8:34-36 Pastor Aaron Perry Download 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

Distortions: I Have to Qualify to Belong Ephesians 2:8-9 Pastor Aaron Perry Download 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

Distortions: Nobody Cares About My Pain Genesis 16-13 Pastor Aaron Perry Download 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

Distortions: Christians Are Hypocrites Matthew 7:3-5 Pastor Aaron Perry Download 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

Distortions: Distortions and Doubt Mark 9:24 Pastor Aaron Perry Download 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

Who We Are - Kingdom First - Matthew 6:33 Pastor Aaron Perry Download 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

Who We Are - Open Hands - 2 Corinthians 9:8 Pastor Aaron Perry Download 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

Who We Are - Together In Love Luke 5:17-20 Pastor Aaron Perry Download 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

Who We Are - Praying With Purpose Luke 11:5-8 Pastor Aaron Perry Download 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

Who We Are - Rooted In Jesus Luke 6:43-45 Pastor Aaron Perry Download 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

Boat Stories - The Fire - John 2:1-19 Pastor Aaron Perry Download 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

Boat Stories: The Walk Matthew 14:22-33 Pastor Aaron Perry Download 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