The NorthWord

We want to hear from You! Send us a Text! What do you do when everyone around you seems to be thriving and you feel completely stuck? Father Aaron explores the story of a blind man sitting in Jericho — the ancient city of victory — who couldn't see any of it. If you've ever felt surrounded by possibility but unable to access it, this one is for you.Support the show

We want to hear from You! Send us a Text! What do you do when everyone around you seems to be thriving and you feel completely stuck? Father Aaron explores the story of a blind man sitting in Jericho — the ancient city of victory — who couldn't see any of it. If you've ever felt surrounded by possibility but unable to access it, this one is for you.Support the show

We want to hear from You! Send us a Text! Most of us carry patterns and habits we've never stopped to examine — passed down, absorbed, and accepted without question. In this episode, Father Aaron uses a simple story about a family recipe to open up the much bigger question: what are you doing just because it's always been done that way, and is it actually serving you? Faith begins with the courage to look honestly at the life you're living.Support the show

We want to hear from You! Send us a Text! Sojourners and exiles — present in the world, but not absorbed by it. Peter's closing warning is a call to stay engaged without losing yourself. The Resurrection is what makes it possible.Support the show

We want to hear from You! Send us a Text! Holy doesn't mean flawless — it means set apart, oriented toward a different King. Father Aaron reclaims the word "holy" from shame and weaponization and puts it back where it belongs.Support the show

We want to hear from You! Send us a Text! The world has many categories. God declares one: those born of water and the Spirit. In a divided world, baptismal identity matters more than ever.Support the show

We want to hear from You! Send us a Text! Ordination sets some apart for specific roles, but baptism makes every believer a royal priest. Father Aaron unpacks what the royal priesthood means for your ordinary week in the North.Support the show

We want to hear from You! Send us a Text! The Church isn't a building — it's a building being built. A living stone only lives when it's connected to the Living Stone. Disconnected, it's just rubble. Are you part of the wall?Support the show

We want to hear from You! Send us a Text! St. Peter opens with a call to cast off malice and all that leads from it. The first step of the Christian life is stripping down to become like a newborn, hungry for the Word.Support the show

We want to hear from You! Send us a Text! A garden doesn't grow by accident, and neither does a life with God. Four simple practices to carry into the weekend — and a reminder that the shepherd has already walked through the worst of it.Support the show

We want to hear from You! Send us a Text! A sheep on its own gets picked off. The Christian life was never meant to be private or isolated. Today we talk about why community isn't optional — and what to do if church has hurt you in the past.Support the show

We want to hear from You! Send us a Text! The shepherd calling you has wounds. He is not asking you to walk anywhere he has not already gone. Today we look at 1 Peter 2 and learn what it means to entrust ourselves to the one who judges justly.Support the show

We want to hear from You! Send us a Text! Psalm 23 doesn't promise a God who removes the valley. It promises a shepherd who walks through it with you. Mid-week, we name the valley we're in and learn what it means to fear no evil.Support the show

We want to hear from You! Send us a Text! Jesus didn't come so you could just get through the week. He came that you might have life, and have it abundantly. Today we ask where we've quietly settled for surviving when the shepherd is offering something fuller.Support the show

We want to hear from You! Send us a Text! Today we start the week by naming the voices we've been following and asking whether any of them have actually earned the trust we've given them.Support the show

We want to hear from You! Send us a Text! Father Aaron preaches from John 10, Psalm 23, and 1 Peter 2 on Good Shepherd Sunday. Every other ship will take on water. This shepherd has already walked through the worst of it — and he is calling you by name.Support the show

We want to hear from You! Send us a Text! Staying on the road isn't a feeling — it's a practice. Constant. Contemplation. Reaction. Testing. Jesus showed us on the road to Emmaus. He walks, opens the Scriptures, lets it burn, breaks the bread. A framework for daily faith.Support the show

We want to hear from You! Send us a Text! He acts as if he's going further. They hold on. And then — bread. Broken. Given. Jesus takes the most ordinary thing and makes it holy. The table is not a memorial. It is the same moment those disciples had.Support the show

We want to hear from You! Send us a Text! "Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road?" The burning was there the whole time — before the recognition, before the breaking of the bread. That feeling you couldn't name? It had a name all along.Support the show

We want to hear from You! Send us a Text! Their eyes were kept from recognizing him — not they failed to recognize him. God's doing. He walks with people who have given up on him, before they can see him. Support the show

We want to hear from You! Send us a Text! That restless feeling on a long drive — the road won't stay in focus and something in you just wants to stop. Cleopas and his friend know that feeling too. "But we had hoped..." the most honest line in all of ScriptureSupport the show

We want to hear from You! Send us a Text! Christians have always been called "the people of The Way" — tace ho-DOO — the people of the road. This week we walk the road to Emmaus with two disciples who quit, and discover what Jesus does when you stop.Support the show

We want to hear from You! Send us a Text! Luke 24:13–35. Two disciples walking away from everything they'd hoped for — and Jesus gets on the road with them. Father Aaron preaches on the burning Word, the breaking of the bread, and what it means to stay on the road when you can't see who's beside you. Support the show

We want to hear from You! Send us a Text! We’ve spent the week defining true freedom: it isn’t doing what you like; it’s doing what is right. As we prepare for Sunday worship, Father Aaron leaves us with one diagnostic question: Where are you still under a yoke?Sometimes the chains we choose for ourselves feel more comfortable than the ones we were handed, but they are still chains.Support the show

We want to hear from You! Send us a Text! The most accepted lie in our culture fits perfectly inside Christian language. We say, "I'm free in Christ," or "God knows my heart," but we often use that freedom as a cover for doing exactly what we want. Support the show

We want to hear from You! Send us a Text! You cannot share what you are pretending to have. Psalm 139 and the practice of honest self-examination — and why that's the only foundation worth building on. Support the show

We want to hear from You! Send us a Text!  Freedom and slavery get decided in the small quiet moments, not the dramatic ones. A short midweek check-in to help you stay honest about where you're choosing this week.Support the show

We want to hear from You! Send us a Text! You can dress up slavery in the language of grace — but Paul is clear. If you're doing what you want even when it isn't beneficial, you're still under a yoke. A closer look at what it actually means to live as people who are free.Support the show

We want to hear from You! Send us a Text! You are free in Christ — but that word free might not mean what you think it means. This week on NorthWord we're sitting with what true freedom actually looks like, and why doing what you like and doing what is right are not the same thing.Support the show

We want to hear from You! Send us a Text!  What does it mean to believe when you haven't seen? On this Second Sunday of Easter, Father Aaron preaches from John 20 and the story of Thomas — and makes the case that faith is not a feeling you leap into, but evidence you stand on. From Abraham to Moses, from David to the resurrection, God said it and God did it. Live by the script. Support the show

We want to hear from You! Send us a Text! Before you walk into worship tomorrow, Father Aaron gathers the threads of the week and offers a word about coming to Sunday not with performance, but with an open and honest heart.Support the show

We want to hear from You! Send us a Text! Where did you learn who Jesus is? Father Aaron sits with Pilate's question and invites listeners into a simple but honest practice heading into the weekend — one that asks what you are still holding back.Support the show

We want to hear from You! Send us a Text!  Father Aaron sits down with Rev. Jeremiah Raible, Assistant District Superintendent with the ABNWT District of the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada, for a conversation on the daily practice of evangelism. Jeremiah is a passionate leader who believes the church is the hope of the world — and in this episode he challenges us to engage in the only mission Jesus ever gave his church: making disciples. https://www.impactus.org/author/jeremiah-raible/Support the show

We want to hear from You! Send us a Text! Easter is not just about forgiveness — it is about restoration. Father Aaron draws on St. Irenaeus and St. Augustine to unpack what it means that the glory of God is a human being fully alive, and what the resurrection is truly offering you.Support the show

We want to hear from You! Send us a Text! Midweek is where the Easter feeling often fades — and that is okay. Father Aaron offers a short, honest word for the Wednesday of Easter week.Support the show

We want to hear from You! Send us a Text! A program is something you do. A relationship is someone reaching into your life to do something to you. Father Aaron explores what it means to live faith as a living relationship with the risen Christ rather than a system to manage.Support the show

We want to hear from You! Send us a Text!  There is a difference between changing your behaviour and actually being transformed — and that difference is everything. Father Aaron opens Easter week with the image of the dry drunk, and the question of what real change actually requires.Support the show

We want to hear from You! Send us a Text! This is the Easter Sunday sermon from St. John's Fort Smith. Father Aaron preaches on what the empty tomb really means — not just as history, but as a living reality for the quiet emptiness inside you right now. The risen Christ doesn't want your belief. He wants your heart.Support the show

We want to hear from You! Send us a Text!  Black Saturday is the day nothing happened — and that's exactly why it's so hard. Father Aaron sits in the silence between the cross and the empty tomb, and asks what devotion looks like when it's stripped of everything else. From St. John's Fort Smith. Support the show

We want to hear from You! Send us a Text!  Good Friday is not designed to make you feel inspired — it's designed to make you honest. Father Aaron brings the week's central refrain to the foot of the cross. From St. John's Fort Smith. Support the show

We want to hear from You! Send us a Text!  Tonight Jesus washes the feet of the man who will deny him — knowing exactly what Judas has done and what Peter is about to do. Father Aaron reflects on what devotion looks like when it's made flesh. From St. John's Fort Smith. Support the show

We want to hear from You! Send us a Text!  Today is Spy Wednesday — the day tradition marks Judas's quiet arrangement with the chief priests. Father Aaron reflects on how the big compromises rarely arrive as big ones. From St. John's Fort Smith. Support the show

We want to hear from You! Send us a Text!  We get swayed in our relationships, our work, our faith — quietly, gently, like a boat we didn't notice had moved. Father Aaron brings the sermon's challenge into the specific places we drift. From St. John's Fort Smith. Support the show

We want to hear from You! Send us a Text!  The crowd on Palm Sunday didn't fall because they were bad people — they fell because their picture of Jesus was built on what they wanted him to be. Father Aaron re-enters the sermon's central tension as Holy Week begins. From St. John's Fort Smith. Support the show

We want to hear from You! Send us a Text!  Palm Sunday opens Holy Week with a striking reversal — the same crowd that cried Hosanna would cry Crucify. Father Aaron preaches on what untethers us from the real Jesus, and what it means to be anchored by devotion rather than driven by emotion. From St. John's Fort Smith. Support the show

We want to hear from You! Send us a Text! Tomorrow the crowds wave palms and cry Hosanna — and most of them don't understand what's coming. Father Aaron gathers the five valleys of Lent and asks: which darkness are your eyes still adjusted to? Bring it to the cross.Support the show

We want to hear from You! Send us a Text! On Sunday Father Aaron closed with this: "Not your resolution. Not your performance. Your surrender." Today he gives the week a specific practice — something physical to do this weekend before Palm Sunday.Support the show

We want to hear from You! Send us a Text! What makes you fully yourself! Found out how sin is keeping you from being fully yourself!Support the show

We want to hear from You! Send us a Text! Today the Church pauses Lent to celebrate the feast of the Annunciation — the moment Mary said yes, and the incarnation began. Father Aaron reflects on what her open hand has to do with everything we've been talking about this week.Support the show

We want to hear from You! Send us a Text! Two words in Romans 6 carry the weight of the entire gospel — "but now." Father Aaron pauses at the midpoint of the week to sit with the turn Paul makes, and to ask: which side of "but now" are you living on today?Support the show