Ekklesia

(ek-klay-see'-ah) Be Welcome. Be Accepted. Be Loved. Everyone who needs a place is invited. Our desire is to love and to love well. Ekklesia (ek-klay-see’-ah).

It means "You Are Welcome Here". Everyone who needs a place is invited, and we aspire to be a people who love well.

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34-35

We meet each Sunday, and childcare is always provided.
10:00am - Community Time
10:30am -

Worship

Join us as we seek to live our lives in community with one another in a way that honors and glorifies God. Copies of our Vision, Values, and Core Beliefs can be found at our website www.eklovewell.org

05/23/2026

Enjoy your holiday weekend everyone! No service tomorrow, May 24. See you all next week!

05/17/2026

Sermon Series:
A good God created a good Creation. But generations of mistakes and missteps have left our lives and our world in a state of de-Creation. What are we to do? Who will save us from ourselves? The prophet Isaiah spoke of a God who would make all things new, a God who could not only create, but re-create (Isaiah 43). And in Jesus, we meet both the image and the catalyst of this re-Creation. Chaos is calmed, temptations are resisted, life overcomes death, and people are born again! During the season of Eastertide (April 5-May 17), join us as we discover the hope and joy of re-Creation!

Join us as we worship together with Pastor Dave McNeely and worship leader Ryan Long.

https://www.eklovewell.org/news-notes/

04/24/2026

Your weekly message from Ekklesia pastor Dave McNeely:

"Earlier this year, Melissa Kirsch of The New York Times began a curious project that might seem out of step with the “doom and gloom” of so much contemporary news: The Good List. The concept is simple: Each day, look for and write down the “good things” you notice, no matter how small or seemingly trivial. The breakfast eggs that were cooked just right. The key change in the song that makes the hair on your arm stand up. The casual text you received from a friend that made you smile.

Within hours of announcing her new project, Kirsch was inundated with messages from both aspiring beginners and grateful veterans of such a good routine, including Sarah Morford of Fort Worth, TX, who shared this: “Last year, my 8-year-old son was diagnosed with acute leukemia. My friends decided that asking me, ‘How are you?’ was just straight up banned. My friend Tricia replaced it with, ‘What’s good today?’ It’s how I frame my conversations with my friends, how I share my day on social media, and it has shaped my thinking. Even on my darkest, lowest days, I could find something good. Sometimes, that was three minutes of sunshine on my shoulders, or a hot coffee, or a hug, or a preferred nurse, or that he was still here; sometimes, it was way better. What’s good today, April 1st? A year of remission. Crawling roses on the fence. A smoothie for my dog. A glass of crisp rose. Falling asleep in a house with everyone under its roof.”

As I read these everyday goodness testimonies, I couldn’t help but notice that we were days away from Easter, our annual reminder and celebration that God is making all things new. And I found myself wondering, “What might a ‘Resurrection List’ look like?” In what ways in our everyday life are we offered glimpses of new life and rebirth?

The beautiful white and pink hues of the blooming dogwoods,

The re-emerging birdsong that welcomes each new sunrise,

The hip hop artist who takes an old song and remixes it into something surprising and new,

The friend who proudly displays her 3 Month sobriety token,

The test results that show clear screens,

The spouse who forgives you.

Everywhere you look, a glimpse of new life and a foretaste of eternal rebirth.

What’s on your Resurrection List today?"

03/25/2026

Your weekly message from Pastor Dave McNeely:

"Despite the second chances and hints of resurrection we see at the end of Genesis 3, something destructive and difficult to control has been unleashed. The offspring of Adam and Eve quickly descend into the most irreversible act of de-Creation and, by chapter 6, we read that, “The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled” (Genesis 6:5-6).

At first glance, God seems to give in to the forces of de-Creation as well, unleashing a comprehensively destructive flood across the earth. But if we focus on the flood, we may miss the ark.

Rather than a divine act of de-Creation, God has decided to engage in a surprising act of re-Creation. Rather than abandoning creation (and specifically the chief culprits of de-Creation, the humans), God gives the humans another chance (we’re well past a “second chance” by this point).

As Noah’s family disembarks from their floating symbol of grace and hope, God reissues the vocation of Adam and Eve to these freshly-baptized sons and daughters of the soil. Be fruitful and multiply. Begin again. Instead of death, unleash life on the world. (Genesis 9:1, 7)

In the remarkable (and criminally underrated!) Stephen Schwartz musical Children of Eden, the show ends at this very scene, the christening of a fresh start for all of creation, and with these words:

“Our hands can choose to drop the knife

Our hearts can choose to stop the hating

For ev'ry moment of our life

Is the beginning...

There is no journey gone so far

So far we cannot stop and change direction

No doom is written in the stars

It's in our hands...

We cannot know what will occur

Just make the journey worth the taking

And pray we're wiser than we were

In the beginning

It's the beginning

Now we begin . . .”

Creator God, creating still, may we receive every morning as a new beginning, a daily second chance to wake to Your dream for creation and live into our sacred calling to care and cultivate, to bear the fruit of Your Spirit and multiply light and love, to be Your faithful and beloved children. Amen."

03/03/2026

Your weekly message from Pastor Dave McNeely:

"Two years ago, when I was diagnosed with a kidney disease, I came to a crossroads. After consulting with doctors and a nutritionist, it was clear that I would need to dedicate myself to a much more disciplined diet. Not only my health, but my very life depended on it.

Knowing something and doing something are two different things, however. Among other alterations, I was going to have to significantly reduce my red meat and sodium intake. And if you ever want to know just how much you crave something, just try to abstain from it (as many learn during the season of Lent!).

Throughout their wilderness journey, the Hebrews came face to face with many of their own cravings and they learned - often the hard way - which cravings would lead to death and destruction. At one stop in their journey, they even named the place “Graves of Craving” (Numbers 11:34) to memorialize the discovery they had tragically made.

As it turns out, our bodies and spirits work in similar ways. The health of each is dependent on what we put in and what we keep out. In a sense, the guides we turn to to nurture our faith - pastors, authors, counselors, etc. - might be thought of as spiritual nutritionists. Ultimately, our goal is to understand our unique spirits better, discover what nutrients will best nourish them and which toxins will do the most damage, and begin making the choices that will ultimately keep our spirits alive and healthy.

This, too, however, is easier to know than to do."

02/26/2026

Your weekly message from Pastor Dave McNeely:

"Like many of you, my eyes have been glued over the past month to the conflict in Minneapolis between ICE agents and the wide communion of citizens seeking to support and protect their neighbors. The stories go well beyond blowing whistles in the streets to remarkable acts of mutual aid, strangers organizing grocery deliveries and childcare, and churches organizing “Know Your Rights” trainings.

But the image (and sound) that continues to inspire me is the work of Singing Resistance, which understands the deep value of song as a spiritual power that undergirds our social work. In one particularly defiant yet hopeful song, participants sing (to ICE agents and their abettors), “It’s okay to change your mind / show us your courage / leave this behind. Oh, it’s okay to change your mind / and you can join us / join us here anytime.”

It’s a song that resonates deep with the scriptural witness. The Bible offers a variety of words and images for the overarching concept of repentance. One of the more common Hebrew words, for instance, indicates a physical turning. Meanwhile, the most common Greek word used in the New Testament for the act of repenting is metanoeo, which most literally means “to change one’s mind.”

Jesus, in fact, relies on this potent verb when making His initial Kingdom announcement in Mark 1:15: “The time has come! The Kingdom of God has come near! Repent (change your mind) and believe the good news!”

In Minneapolis, it’s not uncommon to hear a communion of saints singing these ancient words of repentance outside of the hotel rooms of ICE agents, but you don’t have to be an ICE agent to recognize that this invitation is for you. During the season of Lent, in fact, we are reminded that this is an invitation to all of us - to repent, to change our minds, to join the (Jesus) revolution of kindness and mercy.

Each morning, as I wake up, I listen for those voices outside my own window. The voices of the saints throughout the years, echoing the invitation of Jesus, calling out to me: “It’s okay to change your mind. Show us your courage. Leave this behind. It’s okay to change your mind, and you can join us, join us here anytime.”

02/19/2026

Your weekly message from Pastor Dave McNeely:

"This week marks the beginning of the Christian season of Lent, which is traditionally understood and practiced as a penitential season. What on earth does that mean?

If you look penitence up in a dictionary, you land on a lot of other words that may sound old-fashioned to contemporary ears, words like penance, contrition, compunction, and repentance. And even if we know what these words mean, they still might be a stumbling block as we conjure images of some of the worst excesses of our religious impulses. And yet the ideas - and the season of Lent - persist for very good reasons that are worthy of our attention.

If I might reframe the season of Lent for us with more contemporary language, I think the season of Lent invites us to consider three questions:

What is causing trouble in my life and in our world?

What is God doing to address these troubles?

And what is God inviting us to do to take responsibility for these troubles?

At Ekklesia during the season of Lent, we’ll be exploring these questions through some of the Old Testament’s stories of human trouble, divine intervention, and collective responsibility. Along the way, we may run into jewelry offerings, surprise quail, a really nice Babylonian robe, the world’s worst hosts, and maybe even a talking snake. And surprisingly, we may just discover mirrors to our own world in these ancient stories."

02/09/2026

Your weekly message from Pastor Dave McNeely:

DAVE’S NOTE: This past Sunday (Feb. 8), Hannah Shuler shared some beautiful personal reflections with us during our worship service. So beautiful that I thought they were worth sharing again and more widely. Enjoy!

"As we’ve experienced immense amounts of turmoil in our nation over the past few weeks (or maybe even disproportionately this past half decade or so!), I've come to experience my lament and grief as a holy privilege.

Every day I wake up not wanting a second more of it, but I grab onto it with hope and prayer like my life depends on it. And to some extent, I think it might.

Challenging myself to stay in the discomfort longer than I want to has been terrible. Using honest, angry words with God has felt borderline heretical at times. Knowing God’s goodness has never escaped me, but being able to say it out loud has been a different story. I’m sure I’m not alone in this.

So what’s the point of me intentionally digging into places of pain? When I dive deep into the dark of whatever the brokenness might be, it primes me to become much more aware of the light. Rather than drowning myself in despair, I’m buoyed by God’s kindness.

Instead of pretending the bad doesn’t exist, I experience “peace that surpasses all understanding” only once I yield to the lament—not because the world has suddenly been made right but in spite of it. My resistance comes from noticing the light in the darkness, allowing it to break in, and being willing to share it with others, too. John 1:5 tells us “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness shall not overcome it.” The Message version says, “the Life-Light blazed OUT OF the darkness; the darkness couldn’t put it out.”

My resistant rays of light in the darkness right now are Lady Gaga’s new rendition of “Won’t You Be My Neighbor” from Mr. Rogers—despite our culture’s obsession with labeling someone as the other.

It’s seeing the Amazon delivery notification that a box of cookies and diapers has been delivered to a group that is housing children in Minnesota whose parents have been detained—despite the fact that they are currently living without their parents.

It’s Charlize Theron quoting Nelson Mandela during the Olympic opening ceremony: “Peace is not just the absence of conflict; peace is the creation of an environment where all can flourish.”

So I ask you now if you might be willing to walk through a series of questions with me . . .

Can you think of a time where you yielded to lament, allowing whatever you were experiencing and all the feels wash over you?

How did it feel to sit in the discomfort as it was happening?

Did you feel alone? Did you feel God’s presence?

Were you able to experience any kind of light in the midst of despair?

While being careful not to minimize or discredit any pain you’re feeling right now, might you be willing to seek the light in your own dark spaces, resting in this Life-light?

Let’s pray . . .

Father God, we are grateful that you are a safe place during hard times and that you provide endless love and grace to us regardless of the circumstances. Thank you for the opportunity to perform the holy work of grief and lament and for the opportunity to counter it, always, with celebration and joy.

Jesus, we are grateful that you stand by our side, accepting us for exactly who we are as we wrestle with ourselves and with you—never giving up on us, always providing compassion.

Holy Spirit, may you move within us so that we may both see bright glimpses of your Kingdom here on earth and that we may BE bright glimpses of your Kingdom here on earth. Amen"

Address

1711 East Broadway
Maryville, TN
37804

Opening Hours

9:30am - 12pm

Telephone

+18659956149

Website

http://www.eklovewell.org/

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