They explored the falls and the woods alongside the Mississippi, discovering unique shelters and foraging delights. Melissa, Arts Group member, said, “Unlike the city, nature feels still, patient, and unhurried. It helps us slow down, appreciate beauty and simplicity, and think about things we don’t usually think about.”

The group closed out with a picnic lunch by the river. Overall it was a great time getting out in nature together! See some photos below.

Click to enlarge

This trip was a final bonding experience as well as a commissioning of the students as “everyday missionaries.” Now they are out in the world, taking what they’ve learned to “do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God” (Micah 6:8) wherever they go!

If you’re interested in SEM, enrollment is open here!

Join us this Sunday for our last series within The Unveiling: The End Is the Beginning.

In this series, we come to the grand finale of Revelation, where the groom and the bride finally unite. God and his people come together, finally, into a place without death, suffering, or tears. And in these final pages, our deepest questions find answers as the truth is unveiled one last time. The story of Scripture starts in a garden, and here, in the last chapter, returns to a garden. The end is the beginning of something glorious and new, where all is as it was meant to be!

The End Is the Beginning starts Sunday, May 31. Join us in-person or online at 10am!

The start of a new series is a great time to join a Gathering Group! Groups meet online each week, Tuesday evenings, Wednesday, or Sunday mornings. Learn more.

At Woodland, we want to learn to love together because we know there’s no such thing as following Jesus solo. Our Gathering Groups are one place where people can connect to do Kingdom life in community.

Tim and Nancy, in Minnesota, and Andrew and Cathy, in Wales, have been in the same Gathering Group for a couple of years. Recently they were able to make their first off-screen connection when Tim and Nancy took a trip to Scotland and the couples met up in Glasgow.

Tim and Nancy said, “Meeting in person felt surprisingly different from meeting online—you never really know how tall or short someone is until you’re face-to-face. Once we sat down for dinner, though, it felt more like the Zoom calls we were used to. We had a lovely, peaceful time exploring the Isle of Cumbrae and getting to know each other better. We really are ‘better together.’”

Andrew and Cathy shared, “The bond that we had forged online in our Gathering Group made it feel natural and easy to pick up our friendship in person. It was so good to spend time together getting to know each other better. It was like being a Woodland Hills family.”

We love hearing these stories because you are showing us what it looks like to practice a Jesus-looking life in community, even when nearly 4,000 miles apart!

If you are looking for connection, we invite you to join a Gathering Group, too! You can find more information here.

The SEM class of 2026 has graduated! For three years SEM has been forming and equipping these 11 students from London, Mexico City, Oregon, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota. As they move on, they look forward to building up communities of Jesus-looking people around the world.

At their graduation ceremony, Matt and Eliezer shared what brought them to SEM and the hopes they have for what comes next. We hope you’ll be as encouraged by their reflections as we are!

Matt:

For me, SEM is a community of subversives who are revolting against the powers who are “over” by following powers who are “under.” It’s a community of people I want to follow as they show the world that God looks like Jesus willingly hanging on a cross out of self-sacrificial, other-oriented love to rescue us from the Kingdom of darkness.

2 Kings 7 tells a beautiful story about four lepers. There’s a famine in the land of Israel. The four lepers are so desperate they decide to go to the enemies’ camp and beg for food. When they get there they find that the whole camp has fled because of supernatural intervention by God and the people have left everything behind.

While the four lepers are feasting on all the food, verse 9 says: “Then they said to each other, ‘What we’re doing is not right. This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves.’”

Now that those of us who have been in SEM have spent three years feasting on the good news of Jesus, I hope we don’t keep it to ourselves. We need to tell a world that is desperate and in a spiritual famine, that there’s a feast to be had at the table of King Jesus.

Eliezer:

At first, I thought SEM would be an amazing place to challenge Greg about open theism and bring all the many theological questions I had for him! But God quickly surprised me.

It was during the moments when each of my classmates shared their life stories that I realized I was being shaped and learning even more than I expected. Those moments broke down several taboos in me that might never have changed otherwise. Martin Luther King Jr. was right: “True understanding and brotherhood can only happen when people actually live, learn and grow together.”

Shortly before finishing my first year at SEM, I moved back to Mexico City (until then, I had been living and working in the Washington DC metro area). At the church where I grew up, I soon had the opportunity to teach a small group of young adults. Although the group has never been more than five young people, what God has allowed me to build and teach there has been a real blessing.

And what I’ve taught has simply been what I learned at SEM as I have taken Kevin’s, Greg’s, and Paul’s classes, translated them, and adapted them. It brings me joy to share that, as a result of this, a couple of those young adults recently decided to be baptized.

In addition, inspired by one of our class readings, I proposed that the church leadership should adopt a house church model. We have now finished laying a teaching foundation and are currently training the church to implement these small groups in homes. If all goes well, I hope that at least five house churches will be launched in the second half of the year.

I’m leaving SEM with many wonderful memories and great friendships. I don’t know what the future holds, but I do know that SEM has given me clarity and renewed my passion for working toward a world that looks more like God’s Kingdom.

We are excited for you, class of 2026, and whatever Kingdom work comes next as you invite others to the feast!

You can learn more about SEM here.

This past Sunday, Heroes Gate families partook in another Family Hangout – this one involving some Spring cleaning!

Families gathered after the service for snacks, followed by some outside-time to collectively pick up litter surrounding our building and parking lot areas.

We got word that the heaviest bag of collected litter was 4.5 pounds! Not only does it look good when outdoor litter is picked up, it helps rid the area of environmental pollution.

It also impacts wildlife by removing harmful materials birds would use for nests, or food packaging left on roadsides, which draws in wildlife putting them at risk of being hit by cars, for example.

One of our Children’s Pastors, Paula, said that, “All kids won for the best attitude because they were all awesome!”

Let’s give Heroes Gate families a hand for doing a small part in caring for creation!

1 Thessalonians 5:11 “…encourage one another and build each other up…”

In his sermon, Watch Your Words, Greg talked about the power of words to do both good and harm. As a congregation we want to take the opportunity to use our words for good by sending out notes of encouragement to people in our lives. Here’s how:

Think of someone you know—friend, teacher, coworker, neighbor, family member—who could use an encouraging word. Then print off one of these postcards, write some encouragement and mail it.

Postcards PDF

Some ideas:

• Name a quality you appreciate in them and say why you value them.
• Tell them a good thing they’ve done recently that you noticed.
• Thank them for who they are in your life.
• Offer words of comfort if they are in a tough spot and let them know you’re there for them.

Have fun!

Woodland Hill’s Sojourners Missional Communities is a ministry to help people learn to love together by building “families on mission.” This tight-knit, intentional community seeks to learn and grow in the ways of Jesus in a manner that impacts those outside the Church family and draws them in.

Josh Wanggaard is a Sojourners leader, and he and his wife, Amy, run the nonprofit Think Say Go, which includes Unity Meals, an outreach providing food in the Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis. Travis is a team lead who works alongside Josh, and shared with us about what missional family looks like inside the ministry of Unity Meals.

I started attending Woodland around 2010, and met my wife, Lindsey, through a small group that formed during the Scandalous Love series. When I joined the SEM program, I talked to a fellow student, Tim, about his friend, Josh, who has a close relationship with the Muslim community. For a while, I’d been looking for something where Christians and Muslims can come together for a common cause.

In October 2025, I began helping Josh cook and serve food in a parking lot (and by “parking lot,” I mean space for about two cars) in the Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis. I was hooked from the first time, and I told Josh he was stuck with me—pretty much forever. It felt like Robin finding Batman. I had talents I didn’t know how to use until Josh showed me, through his words and actions, what it looks like to be a real servant. I truly believe the Holy Spirit brought us together as family, with Josh as my big brother.

Unity Meals is first and always about relationships. Whether someone is experiencing food insecurity, homelessness, addiction or other economic hardships, we meet them exactly where they are. That often means walking the streets, alleyways, under bridges and into tent encampments—showing up with consistency, dignity and care.

We are intentionally interfaith—bringing together Muslims, Christians and those who choose not to label their faith. This creates space for volunteers and participants to share sidewalks and stories with people from different backgrounds, united by compassion and shared humanity rather than doctrine.

A Unity Meal only happens through partnership—nonprofits, grassroots groups, local businesses and individual volunteers all playing a part. The relationships that are formed are what keep people coming back—both those we serve and those who serve alongside us.

My godmother, Julie, was a rather unlikely volunteer. She lives out in the country on a farm, but calling her a “country girl” barely scratches the surface. She is also very particular about germs and cleanliness, so when she asked if she could see what I was doing with Unity Meals, I was shocked.

On the drive there, she kept repeating, “I know this isn’t for me.” But something shifted. She felt the Holy Spirit wash over her, and with it, her fear melted away. Before I knew it, Julie was out on the streets—serving food under bridges, praying with people who asked and offering her presence without hesitation.

On the drive home, she struggled to find words. It had been an emotional day in the best possible way. Finally, she said simply, “This is where God wants me.”

In my own experience, a favorite moment happened one evening while I was bagging meals and a gentleman asked if I would pray with him. He asked if he could be the one to pray and I nodded.

What followed was a gritty, honest prayer—raw and full of emotion. When he finished, we were both holding back tears. I looked at him and said, almost without thinking, “Wow, you’re really good at this.”

He choked on his words as he replied, “That was my very first prayer.”

I was stunned. This wasn’t a young man. And yet, he had chosen that moment—on the street, over a simple meal—to pray for the first time, and to invite me into it. I told him what an honor it was to be part of that sacred moment.

Unity Meals is about more than food. It’s about presence. It’s about dignity. And it’s about discovering that blessing others often changes us just as deeply.

Thank you Josh and Travis for showing us what a missional family looks like!

If you are interested in learning more about Sojourners, contact Kevin at kcallaghan@whchurch.org. For more information about Think Say Go or about Unity Meals, contact Josh at josh@thinksaygo.org or 612-488-5683.

Hear that? It’s the sound of two exciting changes coming to our youth ministry, Echo.

First, we’ve started a new weekly Sunday morning meeting for 7th and 8th graders. This came in response to requests from families and the general observation that many middle schoolers did not have a space on Sunday that was well suited for them. Of course, some students prefer to attend the main service, as do many of our high school students, but we sensed this was a way we could serve students and families better.

This Sunday morning time for 7th and 8th grade makes space where students can have more content, games and discussion designed specifically for their age group. We already have a solid small group of students who attend each week and it’s been great to explore topics together like: being made in the image of God, the season of Lent, and now, belonging.

Our second shakeup is that, beginning in June, we’ll be welcoming incoming 6th graders from Heroes Gate (the children’s ministry) into Echo!

This means Echo will soon be 6th-12th grades, and so when the school year begins, Echo Wednesday nights will also shift to make spaces more tailored to both middle and high school students. We’re excited to make this change as a way to meet the needs of specific age groups and we will have more information for you down the road.

In the meantime, if you’re thinking, “Wow, this sounds like they might need more adults to help with such a cool and accessible group of students,” you’d be right and we’d love to hear from you!  You can contact Amelia at aboatman@whchurch.org. We’d also love your prayers as we continue to walk in this new direction.

See you 6th, 7th and 8th graders soon!

When Gary first began attending Woodland Hills he was just fine sitting in the back, enjoying the music. Then one Sunday he decided to come to the front for prayer. During that conversation, the prayer minister asked him, “What do you do on Thursday nights?” Gary said, “I got a feeling you’re going to tell me!” And that was how Gary ended up at Woodland’s Thursday night recovery support group, which he has now been helping facilitate for over a decade!

“Recovery in Christ” is a hybrid group for people to walk together in their recovery journeys, and meets on Thursdays at 6:30pm. It’s called “Recovery in Christ” because Jesus is at the center of the process. Gary says, “We go through the 12 steps, and we invite Jesus into that. So we heal internally and externally, we pray, listen to music and meditate, and we use scriptures as guideposts. Groups like Alcoholics Anonymous are very scripted because all the prayers are already laid out and the time slots already filled, but I try to keep it experiential. I just let the Holy Spirit move.”

Because the group is hybrid, people from all over the country, and even internationally, have joined. Pat is a podrishioner participant who shared his experience with us.

“I’ve been in recovery for a long time and when a group I was in ended, I was looking for something else. My wife told me about Greg Boyd and we started listening to the services. I joined a Gathering Group and met a guy who was in recovery who connected me with Gary, so I started to Zoom in. It’s really helpful to me to have a faith-based meeting. There’s a lot of different types of spirituality in recovery but I have this belief in a loving God that I really found in attending groups like Woodland’s. I go to a lot of kinds of meetings, but not one like this. The big difference is that I can talk about God specifically and deeply in this meeting.”

Woodland’s Recovery in Christ group is open to others beyond those in recovery from drugs and alcohol, whether they are struggling with sexual addictions, eating disorders, anxiety issues, gambling, codependency or something else.

Pat sees that variety as a strength. “If I’m sitting next to someone with an eating disorder, then that tears down a little bit of my judgment about people with eating disorders or people that are doing something else that I don’t really have any experience with or don’t understand. What I can understand is they’re in recovery and they’re trying to practice the same principles that I am and apply them to their issue.”

Sometimes just showing up can be a challenge, and Pat knows what it’s like to overcome that. “I was very cynical and very paranoid when I got into recovery. You go in there thinking, ‘I’m the only one with this problem and everybody else has it together.’ Or, ‘I don’t want to give too much information so they know anything about me and I’ll just sit there and listen.’ And all of a sudden you hear somebody talking so honestly—it’s frightening in the beginning how honest people are. You don’t have to bare your soul like that, but the process just seems to encourage people to be honest. When I heard things that I could identify with, that gave me the motivation to come back and to believe that I could try this myself. I thought that if it worked for them, it could work for me, and I could get out of my own little world of dysfunction and get healthy. This addiction was a disease that I had, and these people had found a solution for themselves and were willing to give it away to me.”

Gary encourages anyone considering Recovery in Christ to give it a shot. “It’s not a group you need to sign up for or commit to. You don’t have to be sober, you can try it out and go from there. We have people just starting out or people like Pat who have been doing this a long time, and everything in between. I believe that the Spirit sends people to the group at just the right time. I’ve walked with hundreds of people who have come through the group. Some stay, some go. We’ve had as many as 25 people and as little as two, yet as Jesus says ‘where two or more are gathered….’ It takes all the courage someone can muster to admit that this is a problem, and getting sober is hard, so this is not something we take lightly. But it can be a beautiful thing. One woman said, ‘You’ve accepted me into this group with unconditional love, and I didn’t plan on that.’ That’s it in a nutshell: we set out to show God’s unconditional love to people at a time when they need it the most.”

Thank you Gary and Pat for your courage, humility and compassion.

If you are interested in Recovery in Christ, contact Gary at gbeste@whchurch.org. For other support group information, visit our Healing Well page.

In this final installment of our “Wholehearted” series, we take a close look at the critical role of unity in the church. While the world divides, Jesus calls us to draw together. He tells us to make every effort to keep unity. We do so by choosing things like peace, patience and forgiveness. While forces outside the body of Christ try to tear us apart, we know that in God’s Kingdom we are always better together.

Better Together starts this Sunday, April 12! We hope you’ll join us – either in-person, or online, at 10am CT.

Discuss Sermons in Gathering Groups & Better Together Clubs:

For the duration of the series, we’ll be hosting Clubs again! We’ll have groups for men and women that meet in-person, Sundays before the service, and one for Woodland Hills volunteers. Learn more here!

The start of a new series is also a great time to join a Gathering Group! These groups are ongoing, and meet online each week on Tuesday evenings, Wednesday mornings, or in-person at Woodland on Sunday mornings. Learn more here.

As we continue our Wholehearted series with it’s last sub-series, Better Together (which starts April 12), we’ll also be continuing short-term Clubs!

“Better Together” Clubs will meet in April and May throughout the sermon series. Here’s what we’re offering:

• Women’s Club – Sundays at 9am (April 19-May 24)
• Men’s Club – Sundays at 9am (April 19-May 24)
• WH Volunteers Club – Mondays at 6:30pm, via Zoom* (April 13-May 18)

With a short-term commitment and no prep other than listening to the sermon, the clubs are an easy way to find connection with others through sermon discussions – and of course, coffee! You can read a recap of the “Love Is” Clubs here.

*Volunteer club for those who volunteer at Woodland who may not be able to meet at the 9am time right before church, due to volunteering 😉 Contact Shawna for the Zoom link!

If you’re looking to join in sermon discussions but would prefer longer term groups OR if you aren’t local, consider checking out our Gathering Groups!

We hope you’ll consider joining in the discussions!

Woodland’s School of Everyday Mission (SEM) is a place where students learn to love together, with all their hearts and minds. A few students told us what this experience has meant to them.

How’d you get connected to SEM?

Amy: I was first introduced to SEM through my husband, Josh, who served as a facilitator during the early years of another discipleship program at Woodland, and had been encouraging me for quite some time to join. Kevin Callaghan was also a strong and consistent voice, encouraging me to step into this experience—and I’m so grateful I did.

Juston: I started noticing that a surprising number of people I knew were going through SEM. One person in particular really encouraged me to attend so I enquired about the program. I heard so many good things about it that I turned around and pushed someone else to join, who is now going through it with me.

Megan: I’ve attended Woodland Hills my whole life, so I’d heard about SEM through the usual announcements, but it was my mom who really encouraged me to give it a try. She knows how passionate I am about theology and scripture. As always, I’m ever so grateful I took her advice.

What are some SEM highlights?

Amy: Some of the most meaningful parts of SEM for me have been the retreats, which created space to truly know and be known by others, and to experience the vulnerability people shared in their life stories. This year’s healing journey has been especially powerful, and the teaching from Paul, Greg, and Kevin has had a lasting impact on me.

Juston: The letter-writing assignments to our younger selves and to God stand out. They opened up exploratory questions about my history in ways I hadn’t thought to ask before. Those assignments gave me a structured reflection on specific life stages and a framework for revisiting things I’d just always left alone.

Megan: The SEM retreat is a highlight every year. I’m such an introvert but I absolutely love spending multiple packed days with my SEM family! We laugh, we cry, we sing and we bask in the presence of the Spirit together. I feel confident in saying that I have created lifelong friends in SEM. I cannot wait to journey with these people even after our time in the program ends.

How has SEM changed you?

Amy: One idea I keep returning to is Paul Eddy’s teaching that we are not ultimately citizens of any earthly nation, power or empire—we are citizens of God’s Kingdom. And as citizens of the Kingdom, we are called to be his ambassadors wherever we are planted. That truth has taken on even deeper meaning for me in light of the turmoil in the world, and especially here in Minneapolis over the past several months. Remembering my identity as a citizen of God’s Kingdom has been a steady source of hope and grounding.

Juston: My default mode has always been to move forward without paying much attention to the past. SEM disrupted that in a healthy way and it gave me the tools to look backwards. It’s easier, too, to understand other’s struggles when you do the work of examining your own story.

Megan: SEM has started to open my eyes to just how loved I am by God. The course material, the teachers and my classmates make me feel seen, heard and cherished, and it’s creating ripple effects in my life for how I see myself, how I interact with others and how I lean on God at all times.

How would you describe SEM in three words?

Amy: Transformative, Kingdom-centered, safe

Juston: Framework for growth

Megan: Wrestling, growing, peace

Thank you Amy, Juston and Megan, and may the rest of your time in SEM be equally encouraging!

Applications are open for SEM 2026. You can learn more about SEM here and find the application here.

Spring has officially sprung, and the days are getting longer and warmer! Check out what we have going on throughout all our ministry areas over the next couple months…

Heroes Gate Children’s Ministry

• Club 56 Fun Night (4th-6th graders) – Friday, April 17 from 6:30-8pm
• Connecting Sunday – April 19 after church
• Family Hangout (outside clean-up) – Sunday, May 3 after church
• Connecting Sunday – May 17 after church
• 5th + 6th Grade Level-Up Ceremony – Sunday, May 31 during church
  Learn more: whchurch.org/heroes-gate

Echo 7-12th Graders

• Echo Service – Wednesdays from 6:30-8pm
• Journey Groups – Wednesdays from 8-9pm
• 7th + 8th Grade Sunday Gathering – Sundays from 10-11:10am
• Echo Video Show –Wednesday, April 22 from 6:30-9pm
• Parent Meeting – Wednesday, April 29 from 6:30-8pm
• Echo Echo Awards – Wednesday, May 13 from 6:30-9pm
• Summer Retreat – Friday-Sunday, May 29-31 (registration due May 10)
  Learn more: whchurch.org/echo

Vessels Young Adults

• Weekly Gatherings – Sundays from 6:30-8pm (no Vessels April 5, May 24 or 31)
• Life Groups – Sundays from 8-9pm
• Bingo night – Thursday, April 9 from 6:30-9pm
• Bonfire night – Friday, April 17 from 7-9pm
• BBQ night – Sunday, June 7 from 6-8pm
  Learn more: whchurch.org/vessels

Gathering Groups & “Better Together” Clubs

Ongoing weekly Gathering Groups:

• Tuesday Online – 6:30pm
• Wednesdays Online – 10am
• Sundays In Person – 9am
  Learn more: whchurch.org/gathering-groups

“Better Together” Clubs meeting throughout the sermon series:

• Women’s Club – Sundays at 9am at Woodland (April 19-May 24)
• Men’s Club – Sundays at 9am at Woodland (April 19-May 24)
• WH Volunteers Club – Mondays at 6:30pm, via Zoom (April 13-May 18)
  Learn more: whchurch.org/better-together-clubs

Missional Community Groups

• Every Meal Missional Community – Teams providing weekend meals for elementary kids
• Urban Compassion Outreaches – Saturdays in South Minneapolis
• Sojourners Missional Community Gatherings – Saturdays, RSVP on website
  Learn more: whchurch.org/missional-communities

Healing Well Support Groups

Some in person, some online. Join anytime!

• Light in the Darkness (depression/anxiety) – Mondays @ 6:30pm, in person
• Moms in Prayer – Mondays @ 6:30pm, online
• Pure Desire (men’s sexual sin) – Thursdays at 7pm, in person
• Recovery in Christ (drug/alcohol support) – Thursdays at 6:30pm, hybrid
  Learn more: whchurch.org/healing-well

Life on Purpose Spiritual Practices Group

• Mondays @ 6:30pm, online and in-person
  Learn more: whchurch.org/life-on-purpose

Renovation Lay Counseling

• Monday evenings, online and in-person
  Learn more: whchurch.org/counseling

TRIO Prayer Appointments

• Individual prayer on Monday evenings
  Learn more: whchurch.org/prayer

Arts Group

• Makerspace Tour @ Twin Cities Maker – Sunday, April 19 at 12pm
• Art In Bloom @ Mia – Saturday, April 25 from 10am-12pm
• Art Feedback Workshop – Sunday, May 17 from 11:30am-1:30pm
  Learn more: whchurch.org/arts

Coffee & Connections

Hang out and enjoy treats after church!

• Sunday, April 19
• Sunday, May 17

Special Services

• Good Friday – Friday, April 3 at 7pm
• Easter – Sunday, April 5 at 10am

Covenant Partner Gathering

• If you’re a Covenant Partner, make sure to RSVP for our annual gathering happening Wednesday, May 20 at 7pm!

We hope to see you around!

We hope you’ll join us for our upcoming Good Friday and Easter services! Details below.

GOOD FRIDAY

On Friday, April 3 at 7pm, we’ll hold a special service as we come together to reflect on Jesus’ sacrifice. (If you missed it, you can watch the service here.)

EASTER

Then on Sunday, April 5 at 10am, join us for a special service as we joyfully celebrate the Resurrection! It often feels like we live in a “Good Friday” world, but Easter Sunday reminds us that our hope lies in Jesus! (If you missed it, you can watch the service here.)

Both services will be in-person, and live-streamed at whchurch.org/live (or in our app).

We encourage you to bring family & friends! If you’re watching from home, invite your loved ones over. Let’s celebrate this Easter season together!

Camp Penuel, in Costa Rica, brings Jesus’ love to children in need through a free camp for 7-11 year olds from poor and challenging backgrounds. This year’s mission team is the most recent in a series of teams Woodland has been sending since 2014.

The purpose of each team is to come alongside the camp directors, Paul and Thelma, and their volunteer staff. Tim, who is a trip leader says, “We see how they pour out everything they have to the campers so we aim to come under them and support their efforts.”

Camp Penuel provides a three day camp experience where kids get to be kids, while they are fed three meals a day (not guaranteed at home), enjoy activities and crafts, and learn about Jesus.

The impact on the kids is far-reaching. Tim shared with us, “We met a pastor who brought a group of kids to camp from his church—it’s a church only for children, in one of the worst neighborhoods in that area of Costa Rica. He came to Camp Penuel as a camper 20 years ago, and encountered Jesus there. Now he’s grown and bringing kids so they can experience the same hope and love of Jesus that he found when he was their age.”

This is the kind of work that the Costa Rica team wants to be—and is—a part of! We are thankful for this ongoing long-term relationship with Camp Penuel and for the Kingdom work they do.

Because of the snowstorm this weekend, we’ve decided to cancel our Sunday morning in-person service so everyone can stay safe and off the roads. Greg recorded his sermon on Saturday night, though, and it will be available in all the normal places (like here) at 10am. We hope you’ll tune in; the live chat will be active like usual!

Watch here

Stay warm, stay safe, and we look forward to seeing everyone again next Sunday!

This past Friday, our Arts Group held its first Art After Hours event!

This was a time for artists of all skill levels to showcase their work and get to know other artists within the Woodland Hills community.

Everyone’s unique pieces were on display, and a select number of folks got up to present their work.

Hannah, our Graphic Designer and Arts Group organizer, said: “I was really grateful for all of the artists who shared their work at Art After Hours, especially the people whose work touched on deeply personal experiences. There’s a lot of beauty in being able to shed light on what it means to be human and to join in on the holy work of creating, first displayed in Genesis 1.”

Check out a gallery from the event below! Click to enlarge.

Written work:

Hiking at Evening Last Love Song Thrown

Keep an eye out for future Arts Group events! If interested, you can learn more or get added to the Arts email list here.

Our Serve-a-thon is a way we choose to live the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. beyond MLK Sunday. This year we had a goal of 500 hours of service, and you came up with …. 1,303!

You volunteered at food shelves, supported people in recovery, tutored students, assisted with tax returns, advocated for the incarcerated, encouraged struggling neighbors, gave rides, donated blood, taught English and more.

And many of you served in response to a particular need. Our Serve-a-thon coincided with ICE’s unprecedented surge in our metro area, which affected thousands of vulnerable neighbors who were suddenly in need of significant help. Many people asked what the church should do and this is what Greg shared:

“At the center of the gospel, is our call to love like God loves and to care about our neighbors, to protect our neighbors, especially the ones who are vulnerable, especially those who are oppressed, and especially foreigners and immigrants and aliens, because one of the most dominant themes in the Bible is care for the foreigner and the illegal, the immigrant and the alien … And this isn’t about playing politics, and it’s not about trying to run the government of the world or anything of the sort. We’re just trying to protect our neighbors and care for our neighbors and love on our neighbors, because that’s our mandate in the Kingdom of God.”

John and Ruth Ann responded to this call by volunteering to stand watch outside a school during pickup and drop off times. John says, “It was emotional! We were able to mentally put ourselves in the place of the principal and staff and share the fear they carried and witness the love they expressed as they opened car doors and embraced their kids.”

Ruth Ann adds, “Many families from this school were feeling afraid. Standing in our neon vests we became another statement to the children and their families that the community was there for them and cared.”

At another school, Emily also kept watch. “It was a rather simple way to serve (although a bit chilly some mornings!). Helping in this way gave me the opportunity to pray for and offer a smile to people coming to school in the morning.”

Shannon and Jerry decided to volunteer with Arrive Ministries, an organization that Woodland has worked with in the past. Arrive serves refugees and needed help delivering groceries to families afraid to leave their homes. So, on the first Friday of February, Shannon and Jerry delivered a week’s worth of groceries to six families, and have done so every week since. Shannon says, “Arrive is going to continue to deliver groceries as long as there are people living in fear and so Jerry and I are going to continue with Friday deliveries for them as long as needed. The truth is we are all in this life together and we may be the neighbor/stranger in need of help any day in this unpredictable world.”

Sharon also volunteered for grocery delivery, and felt a very personal connection to the work. She says, “I felt the rhetoric against Somalis rather personally because I have quite a few Somali students in my classes. After a student was taken by ICE agents brandishing weapons on the campus where I work, quite a few of my students of color were afraid to attend in person and attended the final week of classes via Zoom. I really found my calling after hearing that Valley View Elementary in Columbia Heights, a few blocks from where I used to live, had 25 kids who had a parent taken by ICE, including little 5-year-old Liam. The need was so great—for a while they had 20-30 requests for groceries coming in every day! So I began delivering to families who live in my old neighborhood. Even though I haven’t lived there for over 35 years, it still feels like my neighborhood, and those families still somehow feel like my neighbors.”

Michelle was connected to a group started by a Latina woman organizing for her community. As the group grew, they needed more space to store food and supplies. Michelle says, “I knew I had a very large garage that was not being used and tables, a fridge, freezer, etc. to house items. I also had the ability to be home for drop-offs and pick-ups. We were very ‘under cover’ to ensure no one was being followed as the pickups were from food shelves and people’s homes. I was SO very sad for those that felt like they couldn’t leave their homes to get food, so it was wonderful to feel like I was being a part of the solution. I was also humbled to be a part of a community that was doing something and met wonderful people who renewed my hope in the fact that most people are good and want to serve.”

In this unprecedented time, these volunteers, and many more, took to heart the
Kingdom call to love our immigrant neighbors.

We are grateful for each one of you who served in such varied and creative ways, and we hope you’ll carry on!

That’s a wrap for our March Food Drive – we’ve ended on a final total of $52,480!

We can’t thank you enough! Everything over will help us respond to needs as they arise in our neighborhood.

March is Food Nutrition Month, so throughout the month, we’re collecting food, donations and brown paper bags for our food shelf, the Corner Shelf. Our goal is to raise $25,000 to help support our food-insecure neighbors!

At the Corner Shelf, we continue to see an increased need for food. It’s a great testimony that most weeks we can still keep up with the demand, and we want to continue to support as many families as we can. Our food drives help ensure that!

How you can help:

1. Make a financial contribution – Because of the food distribution partnerships we have, this is a very cost-effective way to make a difference. Every $1 buys roughly three meals!
2. Drop off grocery bags – We would love to give your brown paper bags a second life! We go through hundreds of them each week, and typically need to purchase some to keep up.
3. Donate food – If you prefer this route, here are the items that are most helpful:

• Cooking oil
• Rice
• Spaghetti noodles
• Pasta sauce
• Macaroni & cheese
• Ramen noodles
• Jelly
• Cereal

Make a financial contribution

Give here

Make sure to select “Food Drive” as the fund. The fund will be open until the end of day on Tuesday, March 31. Additional funds collected beyond the goal will be used to serve the community.

Drop-offs

On Sundays throughout the month of March, you can drop off food donations and grocery bags in the Gathering Area at church. If you’d like to bring food or bags to church on a different day of the week, just email Kinsey: kzafke@whchurch.org.

Thank you so much for helping us serve families in our community!