Berkeley Covenant Church

05/31/2026

Spirits and the spirit world are real. They are not to be toyed with, but this is not a battle of roughly equal forces. Jesus is Lord and King--and salvation belongs to him!

How Jesus rescued a New Age psychic from spiritual darkness.

05/21/2026

This video is addressed to church leaders, but the message is important for all of us as a church. What can we learn here about the spiritual needs of our neighbors and loved ones? And make no mistake: These are /spiritual/ needs. How will we respond?

72% of American teenagers have already turned to AI for companionship. Not the troubled kids. Not the extreme cases. Three in four teenagers are going to a m...

10/04/2025

https://relevantmagazine.com/faith/church/80-of-non-believers-would-go-to-church-if-invited-so-why-dont-we/

When we talk about the Great Commission, often our minds go to overseas missions, grand efforts to reach “far lands.” But what if one of the greatest

09/24/2025

Hi All --

I am writing to let you know about something we are trying: We are creating a new Facebook group, which will allow group members to create their own posts. This public page for BCC will remain for those looking for the church, but its usefulness as a place to interact online is limited.

The new group will be findable by all, but people will have to ask to join and be approved by an administrator, so it is considered a 'private' group. The group will be moderated to keep it from being overrun by scammers and bots, and to encourage and nurture an atmosphere of Christian love and respect, even if we disagree on some matters. Some ways people might participate:

- sharing prayer requests
- offering items they are giving away
- posting questions or articles for group discussion
- making people aware of community events/opportunities

Everyone who is currently a part of this group will automatically receive an invitation. Please do NOT feel obligated to join the new group, but you are most welcome.

We pray God's blessing on all of you who are a part of Berkeley Covenant Church's extended family! ❤️

09/11/2025

A taste: "Christianity has always been personal, but it has never been private. The earliest believers gathered in homes, pooled resources and carried one another through persecution and doubt. Their faith endured because it was shared.

Scripture assumes this: 'Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds,' the writer of Hebrews says, 'not giving up meeting together … but encouraging one another' (Hebrews 10:24-25). The New Testament’s dozens of 'one another' commands only make sense if your life is tangled up with other people...

Christianity begins as personal, but it endures as communal. The point isn’t that you’re weak. The point is that God designed you to be known, encouraged, corrected and carried by others. If your faith feels thin, don’t try harder alone. Build a life where other people can find you."

We like to imagine faith as a solo climb. You, a Bible app, a late-night playlist. No distractions, no drama, just a private line to God. It sounds

09/04/2025

A major reason why I do not recommend the ESV Study Bible and only read the ESV alongside other translations when studying: Their thumb is on the scale on some important biblical and theological questions. Be a Berean!

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Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. (Acts 17:11)

A taste: "These twenty-seven departures from the Greek undermine the ESV’s claim to be 'the very words of God to us' (9) and to let the reader see as directly as possible the structure and meaning of the original. Regarding women in Paul’s teachings, the ESV and its notes do not fulfill its promise to represent the original text accurately, differing evangelical positions fairly, or the broad tradition of evangelical orthodoxy. Its translation and notes repeatedly assume 'male leadership' in home and church as the 'order of creation' (53, 2328). It supports a wife’s subordination as 'equality' (2206), based on the theory of the Son’s eternal subordination (2214, 2514), belying its claim to 'classic evangelical orthodoxy' (10)."

08/01/2025

Author John Taylor observes that traditional church services "demand a type of focus that feels almost foreign in today's attention economy" and sees the status quo as a recipe for an experience of guilt and shame rather than connection for many in this generation.

Dr. David Anderson, the 24-year-old psychologist interviewed in this piece, says, "I love Jesus. I just can't worship the way the Church seems to want me to." But how much can the church adapt to fractured attention and hyper-stimulation without losing something intrinsic about the way human beings connect with God? 40-minute sermons may not be necessary (and yeah, I feel sheepish saying that given the way I preach), but focus and silence seem essential to learning to connect to the Transcendent One.

Anderson thinks that "spiritual depth doesn't have to be sacrificed for accessibility. Shorter segments, reflective pauses or occasional interactive elements can meet people where they are without hollowing out the experience." I think he is partly right; we should be able to shorten segments and introduce interactive elements. But I am less convinced than he is that spiritual depth is not compromised. We can do better meeting people where they are. But don't we /have/ learn to slow down and to be quiet and still to become aware of Someone who is present and means to commune with us?

My opinion (so far): God loves us where we are and will meet us there. But he will not leave us there. He will train us to learn to be quiet and to focus, if we are willing to give ourselves to the process of learning and being formed by him. But it will take time and effort. It is why they call silence, fasting, solitude, and such 'spiritual disciplines.'

If you're willing, I'd love to get your input on this in the comments. I promise not to debate you; I am just trying to understand how people view/approach this obvious mismatch.

Sunday mornings aren’t built for scattered attention spans. For a growing number of young adults—many living with ADHD—sitting through a 40-minute sermon

07/11/2025

A taste: "'Every revival is a rediscovery of the living Christ,' said Donald Gee, one of the early leaders in the Pentecostal movement.

If Christ isn’t at the center—and if lives aren’t changed beyond the altar call—then it may not be revival. It may just be noise.

In Acts, the Spirit descends not just with tongues of fire but with deep communal transformation. Believers shared their possessions, cared for the poor, worshipped together daily. Revival, in that sense, is less about spectacle and more about surrender.

Maybe you’ve never experienced anything like what you’d call revival. Maybe you’re suspicious of the word altogether and tired of the emotionalism, the manipulation, the overpromises. That’s fair.

But what if revival is less about chasing an experience and more about cultivating a posture?

It starts with honesty. With hunger. With repentance. With asking God to revive us—not for the sake of a headline or a moment, but for the sake of a sustained, holy restoration. Maybe that’s a quiet prayer in the car. Maybe it’s a small group confessing sin together. Maybe it’s a church community choosing service over self-interest.

Whatever it is, the real revival probably won’t be the one going viral. It’ll be the one changing hearts when no one’s watching."

Depending on where you grew up or what kind of church you went to, the word revival probably brings something specific to mind. For some, it conjures up

07/08/2025

Food for thought -- and action.

A taste: "It hits sometime between the second scroll through Instagram and the sound of the microwave beeping. The feeling isn’t panic, exactly. It’s quieter than that. Like a hush that settles in your chest and stays. You’re not sad. You’re not anxious. But you are, unmistakably, alone.

By now, the science is almost boring in its consistency: loneliness shortens life spans, increases the risk of depression and dementia, and is, according to the U.S. Surgeon General, as dangerous as smoking 15 ci******es a day. In 2023, nearly one in three American adults reported feeling lonely at least once a week. One in five said they feel that way every day.

But beneath the surface of the headlines, something deeper is stirring. Loneliness is no longer just a mental health concern — it’s a crisis of meaning. And for millions of people, that makes it a spiritual one.

'You can be surrounded by people and still feel like you’re drowning,' says pastor and author Levi Lusko. 'Loneliness doesn’t always mean you’re isolated. Sometimes it means you’re disconnected from something deeper. Something eternal.'

It didn’t happen all at once. But over the past two decades, the infrastructure that used to bind people together — church, neighborhood, family, friendships — has thinned out. Church attendance is at an all-time low. Most Americans say they don’t have close confidants. For men under 35, more than 60 percent say they lack a single close friend. The average person spends more than seven hours a day looking at a screen.

What’s happened is that we’re now trying to fix a spiritual fracture with clinical Band-Aids. When people say they’re lonely, they’re not always saying they need more people around them. They’re saying they feel invisible. They feel unanchored...

'The loneliness you feel is a reminder that you’re not home yet,' he says...

That doesn’t mean life is hopeless until heaven. It means we build homes for one another now — spiritual homes. Families. Small groups. Shared tables. Real eye contact. And maybe, through that kind of presence, we rediscover the kind of healing that apps and policies and self-care routines can’t provide.

Church, at its best, isn’t a cure-all. But it is a start. It’s a place where people bring their ache — their grief, their silence, their longings — and find that they’re not the only ones. Where they remember that to be seen and loved is holy. And where, if only for a moment, loneliness gives way to something like belonging."

It hits sometime between the second scroll through Instagram and the sound of the microwave beeping. The feeling isn’t panic, exactly. It’s quieter than

07/02/2025

This past Sunday, we had the chance to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of Candace Martinez as director of Mustard Seed Preschool. We gave thanks, blessed all that God has done over this past decade through her leadership, and dedicated the ministry of Mustard Seed to the Lord.

No eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor heart conceived -- all that God has prepared for those who love him!