By Ellis White, Senior Pastor Have you ever picked up your phone to check one thing—and resurfaced 27 minutes later wondering what just happened? You opened it to check the weather. Or respond to a text. Or look up one quick detail. And somehow you ended up in an entirely different corner of the internet. […]
Come and Search
By Julie Hawkins, Pastor of Ministry This week, the Church enters a season called Lent. For some of you, that word is familiar. For others, it may feel mysterious or unnecessary. So let’s begin simply. Lent is the 40 days leading up to Easter. Just like Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness before he […]
Dry Bones and Living Hope
By Caleb Bagdanov, Director of Student Ministries Tomorrow, a team of 34 high school students and 11 adult leaders from our church will head to Ensenada, Mexico to serve alongside our partners at Rancho Agua Viva Ministries. As bags are packed and final preparations are made, we go with a shared theme that has been […]
Dying with Dignity?
By Ellis White, Senior Pastor Note: Pastor Ellis wrote this blog just before his grandmother passed away. Thank you for your continued prayers for him and his family. As I write this blog I’m in Ireland, sitting at the bedside of my 97-year-old grandmother. My late father was her only child, and so my sister […]
Rejoicing Is Not Denial—It’s Resistance
By Judson Taylor, Senior Director of Marketing and Communications Recently I had lunch with a mentor of mine—someone God used to give me direction when I was in my 20s. It was one of those quietly significant moments, not because anything dramatic happened, but because time itself becomes a teacher. Sitting with someone who knew […]
Walking Together Through Transition
By Ellis White, Senior Pastor The life of a church is shaped not only by sermons and programs, but by people who faithfully serve, often behind the scenes, in the lives of others. From time to time, those people step into new seasons, and it’s important that we walk through those transitions together with clarity, […]
An Invitation “to Winter”
By Katie Nelson, Director of Care Ministries In my attempt to “practice what I preach” as the Director of Care Ministries here at Chapel Hill—that flourishing comes when we heal and tend to our whole self, God, and others—I take a jog in the woods about twice a week on a regular basis. There is […]
Trusting God in the Long Work
By Rachel White, Pastor of Next Steps It was so inspiring to see answers to prayers from 15 years ago when we visited Oxford last Fall. Walking around the city reminded me of countless prayer meetings and the hopeful anticipation during the season we lived there that God would answer those prayers with large numbers […]
When Christmas is Over but the Stress Isn’t
By Ellis White, Senior Pastor The Christmas decorations are still up, the tree needles are still in the carpet, and the credit card statement has already arrived…uninvited. December may be over, but the financial decisions we made during it are very much still with us. Somewhere between “It’s Christmas! It only happens once a year” […]
Reading the Bible Together in 2026
By Ellis White, Senior Pastor In the UK, Boxing Day, December 26, is a public holiday that follows Christmas Day. Traditionally, it’s a slower day: a pause after the celebration, marked by rest, long walks, and time with family. For me, it has always felt like a hinge moment—Christmas behind us, a new year quietly […]