Christ City Church, Washington DC

Pastor Watson talks about "play" as a spiritual practice. When we play, it stirs up joy, keeps us present in the moment, and keeps the world’s sharper edges at bay while we enjoy the shared goodness of God’s world.

Pastor Watson talks about the practice and power of testimony, and gives time for the church to share the stories that have made us grateful of God's enduring love.

Pastor Andrea teaches on the spiritual practice of hospitality, and how God's own hospitality throughout Scripture calls us not only to open our table to strangers, but also to humbly accept the welcome of others.

Pastor Lisa teaches on how Jesus' time in the wilderness in Luke 4 makes room for Jesus' miracle at the wedding in Luke 15, and how we can apply those same spiritual practices of fasting and feasting to our own lives.

Pastor Justin teaches on Elijah's exhaustion under the broom tree, and his encounter with God's "sound of sheer silence" on Mount Horeb in 1 Kings 19. Like Elijah, God will draw us in to rest when we feel overwhelmed, and God will also send us back out when the time comes.

In the second message of our series The Way of Life: Practices that Shape Us, Pastor Watson explores how Scripture has been a source of transformation, comfort, and confrontation throughout Christian history, and how Jesus himself modeled what it looks like to truly know and live by God's Word.

Pastor Justin starts off a new series, The Way of Life: Practices that Shape Us, with a message on the practice of prayer. For more resources on prayer and the other spiritual practices within the series, visit christcitydc.org/practices.

This is the second part of a sermon collection on Acts 2, representing the remaining three members of our Preaching Cohort—a group from within our church who have spent the past five months learning and training in God's word as part of a grant from the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship to help develop lay preachers within our congregation. The speakers featured are Nate Shultz, Kate Denson, and Chris Hamilton.

This is the first part of a sermon collection on Acts 2, representing four members of our Preaching Cohort—a group from within our church who have spent the past five months learning and training in God's word as part of a grant from the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship to help develop lay preachers within our congregation. The speakers featured are Inga Green, Tim Margheim, Ariana Dugan and Charles Williams.

In the last sermon of our series "All Things New," Pastor Andrea teaches from two parables of seeds and growth to remind us that the kingdom of God works quietly, like seeds germinating in the dark or a mustard weed spreading in unexpected places. May we trust that God is always at work, turning even decay into new life.

In the Parable of the Sower, we see that God's liberating good news of justice, freedom, and flourishing can fall differently depending on the condition of our hearts. And still, regardless of the soil, the Sower sows.

Pastor Watson explores Jesus' Parable of the Weeds and Wheat (Matthew 13), unpacking what it looks like to live faithfully in a world full of both beauty and brokenness. Discover five spiritual practices that help us navigate a fallen world with hope, humility, and grace.

Pastor Lisa explores Galatians 5–6 and unpacks what it means to sow toward a life filled with the fruit of the Spirit. Rather than striving harder, God invites us to stay connected to the Spirit and trust that, in God's timing, a harvest will come.

In the second week of our series "All Things New," Pastor Andrea explores Psalm 1's vivid contrast between a windblown piece of chaff and a deeply rooted tree, inviting us to consider where our roots are reaching in a season that has left many of us feeling scattered and exhausted.

In a season of longing for renewal, we explore Jesus' words in John 15 and the image of the vine and branches — a reminder that our flourishing, revival, and new life are found by remaining in God, and held securely by the love of God no matter what winters we've walked through.

Pastor Justin shows how in John 20 the resurrection of Jesus meets people in their real lives—grief, fear, and doubt—bringing new life by calling them by name, offering peace, and inviting honest faith. This same resurrecting love is at work today, breathing life into us and sending us out to embody hope, healing, and love in a broken world.

Pastor Matthew Watson teaches on Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem as both a humble protest against oppression and a proclamation of God’s saving Kingdom, where power is redefined through love, justice, and healing. Through cleansing the temple and welcoming the marginalized, Jesus calls us to embody a faith that resists exploitation, centers restoration, and trusts God enough to both act and rest.

In this closing message on the book of James, Pastor Justin explores what it means to have a faith that endures — one that sees injustice clearly, stays active in waiting, and keeps showing up even when the road is long.

Guest speaker Rev. Dr. Eun K Strawser teaches on the Hebrew word for wisdom, "chokmah," used in the book of James, and how it can sometimes seem like a bad idea to the world, but it is that very wisdom that cultivates more brilliant beauty, stronger faith, and deeper relationships, bringing God's kingdom closer to Earth.

Pastor Lisa Rodriguez-Watson continues our series in James, reminding us of the importance of words, and the importance of wisdom. While the world around us is starting fires, we are invited to plant fields.

Pastor Watson continues our "Enduring Faith" series with a message on James 2, where we are warned against showing favoritism to the wealthy and powerful over the poor and marginalized, and we are reminded of God's mercy and grace when we fall short.

In this opening message of Enduring Faith, Pastor Andrea reflects on the gap between knowing and doing, inviting us into a faith that is practiced, embodied, and formed through real-life pressures. Rooted in the book of James, she calls our community toward endurance that leads to wholeness—an integrated life where belief, integrity, and action align in steady, courageous trust.

In this closing message of our series We Will Be…, Pastor Justin invites us to rediscover our truest identity as beloved children of God—already claimed in love, yet still becoming.

Guest preacher Rev. Mia M. McClain (Riverside Baptist Church) continues our series on who we are becoming, and reminds us that despite trial and tribulation, chaos and calamity, God is inviting us to dream impossible dreams.

When the countless voices, demands, stresses, busyness, and suffering in the world pull us apart, Pastor Lisa Rodriguez Watson talks to us about God's invitation to wholeheartedness and wholehearted living.

As we gathered online due to the inclement weather, Pastor Andrea preached on what it means to be sustained by God in every season, especially the hard ones.

In week three of our series "We Will Be," guest speaker Kat Armas pulls from her latest book, "Liturgies for Resisting Empire," and reminds us that liberation is not just about freedom from the empires around us, but also freedom from the empires within.

Although fear seems to be the defining force of our time, God’s most frequent command to us is "Do not fear." Through the story of Gideon, we can see that God meets us in our fear, and we are invited to be courageous in the knowledge to God is with us.

Pastor Justin starts off our new series, "We Will Be." What kind of people do we want to become in 2026? And who does God say we already are? 

Christmas doesn’t arrive in a vacuum. In this Christmas Day homily, Pastor Justin Fung names what is true: both the weariness many of us are carrying and the deeper truth the Church proclaims at Christmas—that the light has come. He explores what it means to say "Emmanuel, God with us" in a world that is still marked by grief, injustice, and exhaustion. Christmas is not about pretending everything is fine; it is about God choosing to enter human life as it actually is—fragile, complicated, unfinished—and to remain with us there. This message is for those arriving at Christmas in all kinds of ways: joyful, grieving, tired, uncertain, or somewhere in between. Wherever you find yourself today, you are welcome here.

In the fourth week of Advent, Pastor Matthew Watson reflects on the theme of love, naming Jesus’ birth as God’s light breaking into a weary world’s long night, inviting us to receive God’s love and to "punch holes in the darkness" through love.

Advent joy invites you to participate in what God is already doing in setting things right: The desert will bloom. The wilderness will sing. The speechless will find words. The ransomed will return with everlasting joy.

In this second week of the Advent season, Pastor Watson shows us that God's peace is not the absence of conflict, but the presence of wholeness—shalom—breaking into the chaos. It is the presence of God's Spirit that enables us to have peace in the midst of life storms and chaos. It is the presence of God’s Spirit in you that brings the Shalom we are aching for.

In this first Sunday of our Advent series, Pastor Andrea invites us to name our darkness while still daring to await the promised light of Jesus, whose arrival brings hope into places of fear, injustice, and exhaustion. True hope is not passive optimism but a courageous, active refusal to let darkness have the last word, trusting that God is already at work and that the dawn is breaking in.

Acts 28 shows that God meets us in the in-between places, where vulnerability opens us to receive and share the Spirit’s surprising kindness, healing, and love. Even in constraints and uncertainty, like Paul under house arrest, the Spirit remains unhindered—forming us, sending us, and working through ordinary acts of welcome, courage, and faithfulness.

Guest speaker Rev. Dr. Essentino Lewis, Jr. (Clifton Park Baptist Church) continues our series in Acts, preaching on Acts 27.

Pastor Andrea teaches on Acts 25:23-26:32, where we’re reminded that even when we feel bound by circumstance, God’s Spirit gives us the freedom to speak truth and bear witness through our own stories. Discover how your story, no matter how unfinished or ordinary, can become an act of resistance, faith, and transformation in a world that tries to silence what the Spirit is still writing through you.

When Paul stands on trial before Festus in Acts 25, he shows us what faithfulness looks like inside a broken system—telling the truth, using what we have, and remembering where our true citizenship lies. 

Guest speaker Rachael Wade, founder of the Olive Us ministry, preaches on Acts 24, where Paul is put on trial before the the governor of Caesarea because he was deemed to be a "troublemaker." This was not Paul’s first trial, or his first imprisonment. What can we learn from Paul on how to continue despite persecution, pain, and imprisonment? Where might we also need to stir up some "good trouble"?

In a world where control feels elusive and power is often abused, Acts 23 reveals that followers of Jesus are called to wield a different kind of power. This message from Pastor Justin reminds us that true power looks like love: speaking truth with integrity, showing up in solidarity, and trusting that God is still at work, even through ordinary people and unlikely circumstances.

Guest speaker Pastor Anthony Parrott from The Table Church teaches on Acts 21 - 22. What does God call us to do in the face of crowds of opposition? What do we say when we are outnumbered by those who refuse to believe the truth?

In Acts 21, Paul's journey to Jerusalem shows us how the Spirit leads us not around hardship but through it, inviting us to confront fear, persist in resistance, and trust that God is still at work even when we’re exhausted. In a time marked by collective weariness, our call is to endure, and to be rooted in the Spirit.

As Paul makes plans to leave Ephesus and say farewell in Acts 20:1-38, we can recognize six important lessons from Paul's time that feel particularly relevant for today.

This week in our Acts of the Spirit series, guest pastor Thomas Bowen preaches on Acts 19:21-40. Paul’s preaching against idols in Ephesus challenges both the people’s spiritual loyalties and their economic interests. A silversmith stirs up a chaotic mob, and the crowd, driven by fear and confusion, reveals how quickly people can be swept up in emotion and false idols, rather than facing the truth.

This week in our sermon series, Acts of the Spirit, Pastor Matthew Watson preaches on Acts 19:1-20, where the sons of Sceva discover what happens when you try to use the power of God without being faithful to God.

In Part 3 of our series "Acts of the Spirit," we find the mission of the Spirit revealed through Paul’s experiences in Acts 18, where both extraordinary moments and everyday rhythms of life play crucial roles in advancing the gospel. What does it look like for us to surrender control, embrace our God-given agency, and remain steadfast in our mission, even amid the chaos of the world? Through Paul's journey, we are reminded that the mission remains constant: to live out the gospel and participate in God’s redemptive work, whether in moments of crisis or ordinary faithfulness.

In a world unraveling at the seams, Christ calls us to belong to each other—not just as an ideal, but as a lived reality. We are not merely resisting empire. We are building beloved community.

This week in our Life Together series, Pastor Lisa explores work, worth, and boundaries, reminding us that our identity is rooted not in productivity but in God’s love, and that Sabbath rest is both resistance and delight.

In Week 7 of Life Together, Pastor Lisa Rodriguez Watson explores questions of work and worth, such as how we maintain healthy relationships at work, how we rest, and how our work impacts how we see ourselves.

In week six of our Life Together series, Pastor Matthew interviews therapist Pete Bauman on the cycles and emotional impacts of parenting, understanding how our parents shaped us, and what the pursuit of health can look like for each generation.