Spiritual Formation: Scripture – Hebrews 4:12 - Martha Balmer - a2vc.org. Like us on fb.com/vineyardannarboror watch our livestream Sundays @ 11:00am - vimeo.com/annarborvineyard

Summary:

In this second sermon of our Spiritual Formation series, Martha Balmer explores how Scripture can serve as a “structure” in our lives that enables the Holy Spirit’s transforming work. Building on Pastor Hannah’s message about surrender, Martha reminds us that transformation is ultimately about union with God—moving from separation to deep intimacy with Him. This is not merely about fixing what is broken, but about responding to God’s longing for us and allowing His presence to reshape us. Scripture, she explains, is not static words on a page; by the Spirit, it becomes living and active, drawing us into God’s story and shaping us from within.

Martha weaves her own journey with Scripture into the message—from memorizing the 23rd Psalm at her grandmother’s knee, to seasons of disciplined daily reading, to times of spiritual dryness when group Bible study sustained her. She notes that simply reading builds familiarity, while deeper study provides discernment tools, but that both can lose vitality without prayerful engagement. True spiritual formation through Scripture, she says, comes when we approach it as a conversation with God, allowing Him to speak personally into our lives. She introduces two historic practices—Lectio Divina and imaginative meditation—as ways to read slowly, notice what stirs in us, respond to God, and rest in His presence.

Through practical teaching, Martha explains how Lectio Divina’s four movements (read, reflect, respond, rest) and imaginative meditation’s sensory-rich engagement with biblical narratives can open us to God’s voice in fresh ways. Both methods require slowing down, noticing our assumptions, and trusting that the Spirit will meet us in the text. She encourages us to keep reading and studying Scripture, but to also adopt these prayerful approaches as “structures” that help us say yes to the Spirit’s work—positioning us, like the caterpillar in its chrysalis, for the kind of transformation only God can bring.

Spiritual Formation: Paying Attention – Romans 12 - Pastor Hannah Witte - a2vc.org. Like us on fb.com/vineyardannarboror watch our livestream Sundays @ 10:45am - vimeo.com/annarborvineyard

Summary:

In her first sermon as a pastor at Ann Arbor Community Church, Pastor Hannah Witte introduced herself with warmth, humor, and a powerful testimony of God’s transformative grace in her own life. She shared her journey from a non-religious upbringing in Columbus, Ohio to a life devoted to Christ, sparked by an invitation to a youth group and a deep encounter with God’s love. Framing her heart for ministry, she emphasized a longing to see all people recognize their belovedness, to participate in renewal in Ann Arbor, and to co-create a diverse, Spirit-empowered church.

Rooted in Romans 12, Hannah invited the congregation to consider what it means to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Using vivid metaphors—a smiling God delighting in our spiritual growth and the metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly—she challenged listeners to examine the rhythms shaping their lives. Transformation, she said, is not a matter of self-improvement but surrender, and the Spirit does the deep work as we create space through spiritual practices.

As the church enters a month focused on spiritual formation, Pastor Hannah laid the foundation for a series exploring four time-tested practices: self-examination, scripture meditation, Sabbath, and solitude. Rather than being conformed to the world around us, we are invited to arrange our lives—like a cocoon—for the Spirit’s renewing work, becoming the people God created us to be. With honesty and hope, Pastor Hannah encouraged the community to pay attention and open themselves to God’s loving transformation.

God at Work: When Justice Demands More – Amos 5 - Rev. Donnell T. Wyche - a2vc.org. Like us on fb.com/vineyardannarboror watch our livestream Sundays @ 10:45am - vimeo.com/annarborvineyard

Summary:

In this final sermon of the God at Work in an Unstable World series, Pastor Donnell Wyche unpacks the powerful words of the prophet Amos, challenging listeners to reimagine justice not as courtroom judgment but as the flourishing of God’s creation. Drawing from Amos 5 and other prophetic voices, Pastor Donnell explains that God rejects worship when it is divorced from justice. Instead, true devotion flows from our participation in God’s passion for the marginalized, the oppressed, and the poor. Justice, in this vision, is not a religious add-on—it is the very heart of covenant faithfulness.

Pastor Donnell urges the congregation to replace inherited notions of justice as punishment with a biblical view of justice as gardening—tending creation so that life can flourish. He reminds us that justice is about proximity, mutual care, and restoration. Whether it’s standing with someone in pain, cultivating dignity in our relationships, or transforming public systems with wisdom and love, we are called to be co-laborers in God’s garden.

The sermon closes with a practical framework: immediate justice in our families and workplaces, proximate justice with our neighbors, and civic justice in the broader world. Rather than something reserved for the heroic few, justice is shown to be a daily, Spirit-led act of tending God’s creation—an essential, life-giving calling for every follower of Jesus.

God at Work: When Hope Defies the Darkness - Daniel 1 - Rev. Donnell T. Wyche - a2vc.org. Like us on fb.com/vineyardannarboror watch our livestream Sundays @ 10:45am - vimeo.com/annarborvineyard

Summary:

In this sermon, Pastor Donnell explores the power of hope in the face of despair, drawing from the story of Daniel’s exile in Babylon. He opens by acknowledging the pressure many of us feel—externally from our world and internally from fear, anxiety, and the urge to numb ourselves. While these responses may seem natural, Pastor Donnell argues they are ultimately unsustainable. What we truly need, he says, is hope: a deep, soul-anchoring confidence that God is still at work, even in the midst of instability.

Daniel’s story is presented as a model for living with hope in an unstable world. Despite being stripped of his land, language, name, and freedom, Daniel refuses to assimilate or disappear. Instead, he chooses faithfulness, trusting that God is present even in Babylon. Pastor Donnell draws out Daniel’s quiet resistance: his refusal to eat royal food, his steadfast prayer life, and his unshaken identity. In doing so, Daniel becomes a witness to God’s power, even converting the hearts of kings through his hopeful trust in God’s presence and justice.

Pastor Donnell concludes by reminding us that hope is not weakness—it’s a spiritual superpower. Like Daniel, we are called to bear witness in dark places, to resist despair, and to persevere in love and faith. He draws a powerful parallel between Daniel and Jesus, both unjustly sentenced, both placed in sealed tombs, both emerging alive by the power of God. With this, Pastor Donnell urges listeners: if you feel overwhelmed, abandoned, or like giving up, keep hope alive. In an unstable world, hope is how we endure, resist, and remain faithful.

God at Work: When Faith Confronts a Broken System – Rev. Donnell T. Wyche - a2vc.org. Like us on fb.com/vineyardannarboror watch our livestream Sundays @ 10:45am - vimeo.com/annarborvineyard

Summary:

In this powerful sermon, Pastor Donnell Wyche reflects on Jesus’ critique of the religious system in Mark 12 and the widow who gives all she has. Pastor Donnell challenges the common interpretation of this passage as merely a lesson in sacrificial giving and instead invites listeners to see the widow as a signpost of deep, radical trust in God. While Jesus condemns the corruption of the temple system, he lifts up the widow’s faith—not as a command to imitate her giving, but as an invitation to trust God with the same abandon and freedom. Her generosity is both a spiritual act and a quiet rebuke of the transactional, empty religion surrounding her.

Throughout the sermon, Pastor Donnell weaves together biblical critique and personal reflection, reminding the congregation that God is not an idol to be bargained with but a living presence who desires relationship. He emphasizes that true faith is not rooted in performance but in love—a love that responds to need not because of expected return, but because of alignment with God’s heart. The widow’s act of giving everything she has is only possible because she believes someone (God) will care for her—and that kind of trust is freeing.

Finally, Pastor Donnell calls the church to embody this faith through presence, generosity, and justice. Whether speaking up against broken systems or quietly buying groceries for a stranger, he urges each person to align their heart with God’s—ready to respond when the Spirit prompts. The sermon ends with a pastoral reminder: people don’t always need our solutions—they need our presence. And in a world marked by isolation and scarcity, faith like the widow’s shows us how to live with open hands and a heart shaped by God’s justice and love.

God at Work: The Practice of Compassion in an Unstable World – Rev. Donnell T. Wyche - a2vc.org. Like us on fb.com/vineyardannarboror watch our livestream Sundays @ 10:45am - vimeo.com/annarborvineyard

Summary:

In this fourth sermon in the God at Work series, Pastor Donnell Wyche explores Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25–37) as a call to radical compassion in an unstable world. The message begins with a question posed to Jesus by an expert in the law: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Rather than answering directly, Jesus draws the man into a deeper conversation about love, mercy, and what it truly means to live. Pastor Donnell explains how Jesus resists the logic of empire—where worth is earned and compassion is conditional—and instead presents a vision of God as a generous, sufficient, and loving Father who desires mercy, not sacrifice.

Pastor Donnell highlights that Jesus shifts the conversation away from legalism and boundary-setting by telling a better story—a story that bypasses arguments and invites transformation. The Samaritan’s compassion, not his credentials, is the turning point in Jesus’ parable. The priest and the Levite preserve religious appearance, but the Samaritan, moved by compassion, takes costly action. Pastor Donnell emphasizes that the original question “Who is my neighbor?” is left unanswered by Jesus because it’s the wrong question. The better question is, “Will I allow myself to be moved by compassion?”—a question that requires not theological certainty but a heart formed by God’s love.

Bringing the message into the present, Pastor Donnell connects the call to compassion to real-life challenges facing communities today, including Ann Arbor’s land use debates. He reflects on how compassion invites us to see others not as threats or obstacles, but as neighbors who belong. Pastor Donnell encourages listeners to resist the impulse to restrict mercy and instead practice a compassionate presence rooted in God’s grace. In a world that asks us to draw boundaries, Jesus asks us to open our hearts and join our spirits with God’s—to love boldly, generously, and without condition.

God at Work: The Practice of Mercy in an Unstable World – Rev. Donnell T. Wyche - a2vc.org. Like us on fb.com/vineyardannarboror watch our livestream Sundays @ 10:45am - vimeo.com/annarborvineyard

Summary:

In this third installment of the God at Work series, Pastor Donnell Wyche explores what God desires from us amid the uncertainty and instability of the world. Drawing from Hosea 6:6—“For I desire mercy, not sacrifice”—Pastor Donnell reframes our assumptions about pleasing God. Rather than asking for performance, ritual, or religious effort, God calls us to embody mercy. This mercy is not just a feeling, but a relational, transformative force that reorients us toward God and each other, even in the face of evil and injustice. Pastor Donnell emphasizes that, in Scripture, God doesn’t provide neat answers to the problem of evil, but instead offers witness and invitation—inviting us to respond mercifully in a broken world.

Pastor Donnell illustrates that mercy isn’t abstract or reserved for grand gestures—it starts in everyday relationships and small, personal decisions. Whether it’s in how we speak to our family members, interact with neighbors, or respond to strangers, mercy is a discipline of love. He offers compelling personal examples, including his role in organizing a local “Warrant Resolution Day” to help people clear court debts and restore freedom. Through this story, he shows how mercy can take tangible form in systems and communities, not just individual interactions. In contrast to transactional religion, Pastor Donnell invites the congregation to participate in a faith rooted in God’s character—one that prioritizes compassion over control.

Closing the sermon, Pastor Donnell brings it home with a challenge: where are you being invited to practice mercy? Whether in a crowded Costco checkout line or a tense neighborhood meeting, each situation is a chance to choose relationship over reaction. Echoing the prophets and Jesus himself, Pastor Donnell reminds us that faithful worship without mercy is hollow. The way forward is not through louder prayers or deeper sacrifices, but through the often quiet, often inconvenient practice of loving mercy—especially when it’s hardest to do.

God at Work: The Practice of Peace in an Unstable World - Rev. Donnell T. Wyche - a2vc.org. Like us on fb.com/vineyardannarboror watch our livestream Sundays @ 10:45am - vimeo.com/annarborvineyard

Summary:

In this powerful sermon, Pastor Donnell Wyche invites the community to consider what it means to be a peacemaker in a world marked by instability, injustice, and unpredictability. Rooted in Romans 12:18—“If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone”—the message challenges simplistic or false notions of peace. Pastor Donnell reminds us that real peace is not about avoidance, politeness, or keeping quiet; it is an active, justice-rooted, and costly way of living that reflects God’s heart for wholeness and dignity.

Drawing on both scripture and lived experience, Pastor Donnell explores how peace requires posture, participation, and power-awareness. He names the pain of being misunderstood, dismissed, or gaslit, and affirms that some people or systems may not want peace at all. Even so, Christians are called to be people of peace, not doormats. Peace, he emphasizes, should never come at the expense of truth or dignity, and peacemaking may require letting go, speaking up, or even walking away from harmful situations.

The sermon closes with practical wisdom for living peaceably: stay grounded in God’s story, find beauty and stillness, engage scripture deeply, and lean into community. Even when efforts at peace seem to fail, God is present in the trying, the awkwardness, and the tears. God is at work in us and through us—right in the messy, faithful practice of peacemaking.