St. Andrew's United Spruce Grove

09/06/2026

Welcome to Sunday Worship at St. Andrew's United Church!
Please join us in person or online every Sunday at 10:00 a.m. for worship. Come as you are—there’s always room for you here.
We are a congregation where everyone is truly welcome. Here, you are safe, you belong, and you are affirmed just as you are. Whether you are a lifelong believer, new to faith, questioning, exploring, or finding your own path, this is a place for you.
We celebrate you for who you are and affirm the love you share, in all its beautiful diversity. No matter your background, journey, or identity, you are seen, valued, and uplifted in this affirming community. Together, we stand with everyone and strive to reflect the inclusive and boundless love of God.
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09/03/2026

08/13/2026

Reverend’s Corner
A Faith Strong Enough to Be Challenged

Friends,

This week’s scripture brings us into one of the most uncomfortable conversations in the Gospels. A Canaanite mother approaches Jesus, crying out for help because her daughter is suffering. At first, she is met with silence. The disciples want her sent away, and the words that follow seem to reinforce the boundaries separating insiders from outsiders. Yet this mother refuses to disappear.

She speaks again, not because she lacks respect, but because her love is stronger than her fear. She challenges what has been said and insists that God’s mercy must be wide enough to reach her daughter too. Jesus listens, recognizes her remarkable faith, and healing follows.

This story invites us to consider whether our faith is strong enough to be challenged. Sometimes we treat questions as threats and changing our minds as weakness. Yet a living faith is not afraid to listen, learn, wrestle, and grow. Faithfulness does not mean pretending we have every answer. Sometimes it means admitting that our assumptions have prevented us from seeing another person clearly.

Every one of us carries beliefs shaped by our families, churches, cultures, experiences, and fears. Some of those beliefs lead us toward compassion, while others create walls. The sacred work of faith is allowing God to reveal which is which.

Whose voice are we tempted to dismiss because it makes us uncomfortable? Who has been expected to survive on crumbs while others enjoy the feast? Where might someone’s courageous truth be inviting us into greater understanding?

The Canaanite mother reminds us that love sometimes refuses to remain quiet. Her story also reminds us to listen when someone tells us they are hurting. The voice challenging us may be the very voice God is using to widen our hearts.

God’s grace is not scarce, and God’s table is not reserved for a privileged few. May we become a community where difficult questions are welcomed, every person is treated as sacred, and no one must beg for dignity or belonging.

May our faith be courageous enough to speak, humble enough to listen, and alive enough to change.

Rev. Shane

07/25/2026

Pride in the Park is on in Jubilee Park. Come on down and say hi, get a glitter blessing and a bracelet! You are loved ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

07/23/2026

REVEREND’S CORNER

Friends,

When Jesus speaks about the kingdom of heaven, he does not give us only one description. Instead, he invites us into a collection of images: a mustard seed, yeast mixed into flour, treasure hidden in a field, a pearl of great value, and a net gathering fish of every kind. Each image reveals something different because the fullness of God’s kingdom can never be contained within one simple explanation.

Sometimes the kingdom begins like a tiny seed. It may appear insignificant, but within it rests the promise of life, growth, and shelter. Sometimes the kingdom works like yeast, quietly transforming everything from within before anyone can see what is happening. Sometimes it is discovered unexpectedly, like treasure hidden in an ordinary field. At other times, it is found after years of searching, like a precious pearl finally held in the hands of a hopeful merchant.

These parables remind us not to mistake smallness for weakness, quietness for absence, or hiddenness for inactivity. God is often working beneath the surface, within ordinary moments and through simple acts of faithfulness. A kind word, a shared meal, an offered prayer, a listening ear, or a courageous act of welcome may become part of a transformation much greater than we can presently imagine.

The image of the net reminds us that God’s kingdom gathers people of every kind. It stretches wider than our comfort, our categories, and our expectations. The church is called to reflect that wide and generous welcome by becoming a community where people of every age, identity, background, ability, and story can discover that they are valued and that they belong.

The kingdom of God is already being planted, mixed into the world, discovered, sought, and gathered. Our calling is to recognize it, nurture it, treasure it, and allow it to change how we live.

May we look carefully this week for the small, hidden, and precious signs of God’s kingdom among us. They may be closer than we realize.

Rev. Reverend-Shane Goldie

07/07/2026

Reverend’s Corner:

Friends, this Sunday we gather around one of Jesus’ most beautiful and grounding parables, the parable of the sower and the seed. It is a story about growth, but it is also a story about patience, trust, community, and the sacred work God is doing beneath the surface long before we can see anything blooming.

So often in life, we want the harvest right away. We want the answer, the healing, the change, the clarity, and the new beginning to appear fully grown. But seeds do not work that way. A seed first has to fall into the soil. It has to be covered, watered, held, and given time. Before anything green reaches the sunlight, something sacred is happening in the dark. Roots are forming. Life is stretching. Growth is beginning quietly.

I wonder how many of us need that reminder. Just because we cannot see the growth does not mean God is not working. Just because we are in a season of waiting does not mean nothing is happening. Sometimes God is preparing the soil of our hearts. Sometimes God is softening what has become hard, clearing what has become crowded, watering what has become dry, and helping our roots grow deeper.

This is also true for us as a church community. We are called to be good soil for one another. That means becoming a place where people can come as they are and find welcome, care, belonging, challenge, healing, and hope. Good soil does not force every seed to grow the same way. Good soil creates the conditions where life can flourish.

May we be a church that waters dry places with kindness. May we be a community that protects tender growth. May we trust the seasons of planting, waiting, pruning, and blooming. And may we remember that God is still scattering seeds of love, justice, courage, healing, and new life among us. Even when we cannot see the full harvest yet, God is still growing something good.
- Rev. Shane

06/11/2026

Reverend’s Corner

Friends, this Third Sunday after Pentecost invites us to remember that Pentecost is not simply one day in the church year. Pentecost is the continuing movement of the Spirit among us. It is the breath of God still stirring, still calling, still awakening the church to become more faithful, more courageous, more loving, and more alive in Christ.

In Romans 5:1-8, Paul reminds us that we stand in grace. What a beautiful and powerful image. We do not have to beg our way into God’s love. We do not have to prove our worth before Christ welcomes us. We do not have to have every part of our lives figured out before the Spirit begins to move through us. We stand in grace because God has already made room for us.

That truth matters deeply, especially in a world where so many people are made to feel like they do not belong. Too many people have been told they are too broken, too different, too complicated, too young, too old, too wounded, or too much. But the gospel tells a different story. In Christ, belonging is not something we earn. It is something we are invited to receive, and then something we are called to help others experience.

A truly welcoming church is not just a church with open doors. It is a community with open hearts. It is a place where people are not only greeted, but valued. It is a place where grace is not only spoken about, but felt. It is a place where the Spirit moves us to become better people, people shaped by compassion, justice, humility, courage, and love.

Paul also reminds us that hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. That does not mean life is always easy. It means that even in struggle, God is present. Even in uncertainty, grace holds us. Even in suffering, hope can still rise.

May we be a community that stands in grace, lives with hope, and makes room for the Spirit to keep creating new life among us.
- Rev. Shane

06/04/2026

Happy Pride Month from all of us at St. Andrew’s!

At St. Andrew’s, faith flourishes with diversity as we celebrate the sacred worth of every person. We strive to be a community where all are welcome, all are loved, and all belong. As we celebrate Pride Month, we give thanks for the beautiful diversity of God’s creation and recommit ourselves to living with love, inclusion, justice, and compassion for all.