Shows
The Lake Forest SermoncastBeloved: A Foretaste | Matthew 17:1-9 | 2.15.26On this Transfiguration Sunday, we stand at a turning point in the church year—and in Jesus’ ministry.High on the mountain, Peter, James, and John catch a glimpse of Jesus in glory: radiant, affirmed, and named as God’s beloved Son. But the story doesn’t end there. The mountaintop moment isn’t meant to be preserved or protected—it’s meant to prepare Jesus (and us) for the journey down the mountain and toward Jerusalem.As we turn toward Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent, this sermon reflects on transfiguration, belovedness, and transformation...
2026-02-1816 minThe Lake Forest SermoncastStay Salty, My Friends | Matthew 5:13-20 | 2.8.26This week we return to the Sermon on the Mount with a fresh look at some of Jesus’ most famous—and most misunderstood—metaphors. In this message, we explore Matthew 5:13-20, where Jesus tells a group of ordinary, weary people that they already are the salt of the earth and the light of the world.Through a distinctly Appalachian lens (complete with a much-needed "y'all" translation), we dive into what it means to be a "counter-testimony" to the powers of the world. Jesus wasn't calling for moral heroics or flashy displays of piety; he was describing a commun...
2026-02-1018 minThe Lake Forest SermoncastBlessed are You... | 2.1.26What does it really mean to live the good life—and would you even recognize it while you’re living it?In this sermon on the Beatitudes, we step into one of the oldest human questions and discover just how radically Jesus answers it. Drawing on philosophy, Scripture, and real-life stories, this message explores how Jesus’ vision of the good life turns conventional wisdom upside down. Instead of celebrating the strong, successful, and self-sufficient, Jesus blesses the poor in spirit, the grieving, and the meek—those who already know the world is not as it should be.Set...
2026-02-0218 minThe Lake Forest SermoncastWhat are You Looking For? | John 1:29-42 | 1.18.26In this week's sermon, we turn to John 1:29–42 and Jesus’ very first words in the Gospel of John: “What are you looking for?” As Andrew and Peter begin to follow Jesus, they don’t arrive with clear answers or confident belief—only curiosity and a willingness to stay. This sermon explores how our expectations shape what we see, why Jesus offers belonging before belief, and how faith often begins not with certainty but with abiding. Drawing on humor, honest questions, and the witness of John the Baptist, we’re invited to rediscover the church’s calling: not to b...
2026-01-1915 minThe Lake Forest SermoncastBaptism & Vocation | Matthew 3:13-17 | 1.11.26What if baptism isn’t about being set apart from the mess of the world—but sent more deeply into it?In this sermon on Jesus’ baptism in Matthew 3:13–17, we stand again at the muddy banks of the Jordan, where Jesus steps quietly into line with everyone else. Before the miracles, before the teaching, before the cross, Jesus is named Beloved—soaking wet, anonymous, and vulnerable.Drawing on personal story, Rowan Williams’ theology of baptism, and the church’s practice of ordination and shared vocation, this sermon explores baptism as a holy paradox: God’s unshakable claim...
2026-01-1318 minThe Lake Forest SermoncastHonored, Opened, and Given | Matthew 2:1-12 | 1.4.26In this Epiphany sermon, we journey with the Magi of Matthew 2:1–12 and rediscover a long-held but often forgotten truth: God reveals God’s self not only through scripture, but through creation itself. Before prophets, before texts, before sermons, the cosmos bore witness to God’s light—and the Magi were listening.Drawing on scripture, theology, and the Epiphany tradition of Star Words, this sermon explores how outsiders were the first to recognize Christ, how fear and power resist good news, and how God’s revelation often arrives from unexpected places. We reflect on what it means to follow the...
2026-01-0714 min
The South Alabamian News PodcastOf Record and NoteThe following deeds and licenses were recorded by the Clarke County Probate Office: Marriage License Dec. 19 - 26 Chad Calvin Bradford to Mary Margaret Pittman Carroll Henry Lee Perine Jr. to Cynthia Rodgers Watkins Deeds Dec. 19 - 26 James Kenneth Pugh, Donald Clyde Pugh to James Kenneth Pugh (Statutory) Dixie Reneke to Billestate LLC (Warranty) Ollie Blackmon, William P. Taylor to William P. Taylor (Executor’s) Ollie Blackmon, William P. Taylor to Kristy Blackmon (Executor’s) Helen Jean Hicks, Helen Wright Hicks, Lavonya Hicks Clark to Kishankumar Dilipha Patel (Statutory) Robert H. Cox, Johnnie H. Cox to T.L. Joe Parden,...
2025-12-3100 minThe Lake Forest SermoncastChristmas Time is Here | Matthew 2:13-23 | 12.28.25On the first Sunday of Christmastide, we turn away from sentimental manger scenes and toward one of the Bible’s most troubling Christmas stories. Drawing from Matthew 2 and Isaiah 9, this sermon explores how God speaks through dreams—not as an escape from reality, but as a way through it. In a world shaped by fear, political violence, and forced migration, we listen for God’s quieter dream: a dream of courage, hospitality, and “robust love.” From Joseph’s midnight flight to modern questions about power, refugees, and security, this sermon asks whose dreams we are living by—and invites us to trust th...
2025-12-3118 minThe Lake Forest SermoncastFaithful Risk and Fearless Love | Luke 2:1-14 | 12.24.25On Christmas Eve, we return to a story we think we know—and listen again for what it reveals about who God is. Drawing from Titus 2 and Luke 2, this sermon reflects on the risky, vulnerable way God enters the world: not in power or spectacle, but in a crowded town, under empire, wrapped in cloth and laid in a manger.This message invites us to notice how God shows up not in moments of readiness or control, but in exhaustion, disruption, and ordinary life—in the journeys we didn’t plan to take. Exploring themes of love, vulner...
2025-12-2807 minThe Lake Forest SermoncastBlooming in the Desert | Matthew 11:2-11 | 12.14.25On this Third Sunday of Advent—Gaudete Sunday—we explore a deeper, sturdier vision of joy through Isaiah’s promise of a desert in bloom and John the Baptist’s searching question from prison: “Are you the one who is to come?” Drawing on the image of a “superbloom,” this sermon reflects on joy not as fleeting happiness, but as a resilient gift cultivated through faith, patience, and community—one that can take root even in seasons of doubt, dryness, and waiting.
2025-12-1613 minThe Lake Forest SermoncastThe Only Thing That Stays the Same | Matthew 3:1-12 | 12.7.25In this second week of our Advent series, Out of the Blue, we explore one of Scripture’s most startling invitations: the call to repentance. But not the shame-filled version many of us inherited. Instead, we look at repentance as a holy reorientation—a turning toward the God who surprises us with renewal in the very places we thought were beyond hope.We'll hear John the Baptist’s bold call to “prepare the way” and explore repentance not as shame, but as a holy reorientation—turning toward the God who brings new life out of what looks cut down or...
2025-12-1021 minThe Lake Forest SermoncastLiving in Holy Tension | Matthew 24:36-44 | 11.30.25In this first week of Advent, we enter the holy tension between the world as it is and the world as God promises it will be. Drawing from Matthew 24:36–44 and Isaiah 2:1–5, this sermon invites us to explore what it means to stay spiritually awake in a distracted age—awake to God’s presence, awake to our neighbor’s need, and awake to the coming peaceable Kingdom.Reflecting on a scene from A Boy Called Christmas, the advent essays of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and the honest realities of our messy, overfull lives, we’re reminded that Advent isn’t passive waitin...
2025-12-0212 minThe Lake Forest SermoncastWhat We Leave Behind | Isaiah 65:17-25 | 11.16.25What does it take for all things to be made new—and who needs that newness the most? This sermon invites us into Isaiah’s sweeping vision of a new heaven and new earth (Isaiah 65:17–25), given to a people returning from exile and longing for home. In a world marked by inequality, displacement, and the weight of systems that work for some but not for others, Isaiah’s words open our imagination to God’s desire for creation: joy instead of weeping, security instead of exploitation, flourishing instead of fear.Through the story of Kenneth and Phyllis Laurent an...
2025-11-2719 minThe Lake Forest SermoncastLove at the Last | Luke 22:33-43 | 11.23.25On this Reign of Christ Sunday—marking 100 years since the church first proclaimed this feast day—we remember a truth as radical now as it was in 1925: Christ’s reign stands in opposition to every earthly power that demands our allegiance through fear, coercion, or dominance.This sermon explores the origins of Christ the King Sunday as a deliberate act of resistance against rising authoritarianism, nationalism, and political idolatry in the early 20th century. Through the lens of Luke’s crucifixion narrative (Luke 23:32-43), we revisit the kind of king Jesus actually is—not a warrior or a Caesar...
2025-11-2714 minThe Lake Forest SermoncastThis Isn't That | Luke 20:27-38 | 11.9.25In this weeks message, we step into the temple with Jesus — right into the heart of things — where a clever question meant to trap him turns into a profound conversation about life, death, and what really matters.In Luke 20:27–38, the Sadducees try to make resurrection sound absurd, but Jesus turns their logic upside down — reminding us that resurrection isn’t just about life after death, but about life transformed here and now.Join us as we reflect on what it means to be children of the resurrection — people who live with courage, generosity, and hope, even in a wo...
2025-11-1021 minThe Lake Forest SermoncastThe Power of Repair | Luke 19:1-10 | 11.2.25In this week’s message from Luke 19:1–10, we revisit the story of Zacchaeus — a man seen by the crowd as beyond redemption, yet sought out by Jesus for relationship and restoration. What begins as a simple encounter in a sycamore tree becomes a profound moment of transformation, as Zacchaeus learns that salvation looks less like escape and more like repair.Through this story, we explore what it means to participate in God’s healing work — to face what’s been broken in our lives, our communities, and our world, and to take small, faithful steps toward making things right...
2025-11-0219 minThe Lake Forest SermoncastWrestled Blessings | Genesis 32:22-32 | 10.19.25In this week’s message, we step into one of Scripture’s most mysterious and powerful moments — the night Jacob wrestled with God at the river’s edge. From the book of Genesis, we’ll explore what it means to wrestle with the divine, to hold on through the struggle, and to come away changed — limping, yes, but blessed.Along the way, we’ll talk about tricksters and transformation, Bugs Bunny and blessings, and the kind of faith that isn’t about having all the answers, but about refusing to let go of God — even when we don’t understand.
2025-10-2818 minThe Lake Forest Sermoncast... And Always Being Reformed | Luke 18:9-14 | 10.26.25This week’s message comes from Reformation Sunday, a time when the church pauses to remember that God’s Spirit is always reforming us — reshaping our lives and our community in grace.Our scripture reading comes from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 18, verses 9 through 14 — a parable about two people who go to the temple to pray: a Pharisee and a tax collector. It’s a story that gets to the heart of what true humility looks like… and what happens when faith turns into comparison.In this sermon, Pastor Chad Wright-Pittman reflects on what Jesus’ words might me...
2025-10-2718 min
Crossings KnoxvilleI Heard… and Then I Saw (Revelation 7:1-8:5)This week Chad Wright Pittman of Lake Forest Presbyterian joined us to continue our study of Revelation. Together, we asked: “How do account for the differences between what we’ve heard and what we see? How do we endure discomfort as we reminder ourselves that one day, we will experience a true sense of home?”
2025-09-0734 min
Bold and WrightBW 38: TO BE FRANKRyan and Gannon talk football, but not too much of the parts that hurt them to talk about.
Here's what you need to know: Arkansas is unlucky, but you knew that. Arkansas isn't good yet and you definitely know that. Still trying to get Eric Musselman on the show, but COVID has made that hard to happen - not because he doesn't want to because he totally does. Pittman has a tough job ahead of him and he's already a better coach than Chad ever was. Most importantly, I will fight everyone who says mean things against A...
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