Real Hope Community Church

04/17/2026

do you want more joyous self-care today? Here's one of my favorite places to go when I need to breathe and regulate. I especially love the jellies. Their mesmerizing. And somehow, they just make life better. Paying attention to God's creation Will do that. https://www.montereybayaquarium.org/animals/live-cams

With ten live cams to choose from, you can experience the wonder of the ocean no matter where you are. Be delighted by the antics of our sea otters or mellow out to the hypnotic drifting of our jellies. Tune in to one of the Monterey Bay Aquarium's web cams.

04/15/2026

What can we pray for for you? We’d love to support our community.

04/14/2026

we believe there is a place in God's kingdom for anyone who chooses to follow. For us, this is a justice issue as much as a spiritual one. Most people think that Jesus got angry and cleared the temple with a whip because he didn't like people selling things in the temple. That's not really accurate. In context we can see that he does it because the buyers and sellers are in the outer court reserved for people who are not Jewish. People who wanted to come and learn about God but who could not go any farther. And their chance to learn and worship was barred by the buyers and sellers who didn't really care. That's what made Jesus angry. People were gatekeeping and closing the door of access when they didn't have the right to do that.

At real hope, we hope we offer access. We hope we don't gate keep. We believe that if you want to follow Jesus, there's a place for you here. There's a place for you and God's kingdom. We don't know what it is – that's for you to discover.

04/14/2026

Ezekiel 36.26-28 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove your stony heart from your body and replace it with a living one, and I will give you my spirit so that you may walk according to my regulations and carefully observe my case laws. Then you will live in the land that I gave to your ancestors, you will be my people, and I will be your God.

This, of course, is a promise to the Israelites. But as we continue to talk about transformation, we understand that this future promise is for everyone who would like this kind of heart surgery. Our hearts can get stony, gravelly, because they're tired, broken, and yes, sometimes very, very selfish. God promises to replace that brokenness with life. That's what the transformation of the resurrection is all about. We will not live in a certain land, obviously. But we will live in that in between place between heaven and earth, and God promises to be our God. That's a big promise.

04/10/2026

I missed posting on Meet the Pastor Thursday because I was kind of busy. Also had a case of food poisoning, but we’re not going to talk about that.

A fellow pastor and I are on a working/Civil Rights road trip. So here are a few of the things this pastor has been doing this week.

04/10/2026

You want some joy today? Just watched this video. It's also may be a challenge, but it's very much joy. As a pastor who is also an amateur entomologist, I love this so much. https://www.ted.com/talks/jaime_rojo_the_magical_mesmerizing_migration_of_monarch_butterflies

When monarch butterflies migrate, they produce one of the most iconic wildlife spectacles in the world — and provide us with an important indicator of ecological health, says photographer Jaime Rojo. Telling a story about our relationship to the natural world, he shares his experience photographin...

04/09/2026

do you have a story of transformation? Tomorrow, I will be telling one of mine. But we would love to hear one of yours. Hearing about transformation brings joy and encouragement both to those who have experienced it and those who are still waiting. So what's your story?

04/08/2026

We believe we can all be transformed by Grace. This seems the appropriate "We believe" statement for this week, given that our theme for Easter was transformation. What can't be changed by the grace of God? Paul wrote in Romans that absolutely nothing in the heavens or the Earth, in between, in our imagination, or anywhere else could separate us from the love of Jesus. Nothing. And there is nothing that that love cannot change when we let its grace enter our lives. There is nothing that is not better when we extend grace to others.

As a pastor –someone who is supposed to have “made it” in terms of being holy, right? –I know that I I'm often grateful that I am not the person I was five years ago, 10 years ago, 40 years ago. I expect that trend to continue. Grace is not usually fast, but very few things that are worthwhile are.

04/06/2026

If anyone is in Christ, that person is part of the new creation. The old things have gone away, and look, new things have arrived!

In the new creation, God promises the things we have only imagined. God promised peace, reconciliation, equality, justice, generosity, and more. God promises that we can have our hearts changed so that we are partners – joyful partners –in bringing this about. The old things have gone away, whatever they were that were holding us back from being the kind of people we actually want to be. (There's nothing holding us back from being the kind of person we want to be if we want to be a terrible person too, but very few of us really want that.) Few of us want that because God says that eternity has been placed in our hearts, and we know deep in our souls what is good. And Jesus says, if we turn to him, we can be partners in that good. We can be new creations.The new creation, by the way, is happening now, not in heaven later. Right. Now. Right. Here.

04/05/2026

After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the tomb. Look, there was a great earthquake, for an angel from the Lord came down from heaven.

Coming to the stone, he rolled it away and sat on it. Now his face was like lightning and his clothes as white as snow. The guards were so terrified of him that they shook with fear and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, “Don’t be afraid. I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He isn’t here, because he’s been raised from the dead, just as he said. Come, see the place where they laid him. Now hurry, go and tell his disciples, ‘He’s been raised from the dead. He’s going on ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there.’ I’ve given the message to you.”

With great fear and excitement, they hurried away from the tomb and ran to tell his disciples. But Jesus met them and greeted them. They came and grabbed his feet and worshipped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Go and tell my brothers that I am going into Galilee. They will see me there.”

04/04/2026

Tomorrow on Easter, we're going to talk about Jubilee. It's one of the most amazing ideas in the Jewish Bible. The underlying intent of Jubilee was to ensure that everyone had access. No one was shut out through poverty, calamity, or ancestral circumstances from the ability to sustain their family with dignity.

At least every 50 years, families were given back their property and their people. They got the chance to start again—to start again with no barriers, no past failures, no shame, and nothing being held over their heads. It would have been transforming –if they had let it be.

Jesus said he'd come to honor that transformation. He'd come to let us know what it was like to start over completely. He lived, died, and rose again with all of that and more in mind. Easter, too, is transforming. If we let it be.

Leave a comment here if you would like to know more about our Easter service. Since our usual meeting place is closed, we usually try to meet outside for Easter, but it's looking a little chilly this year. We can let you know if you want to come. 10 o'clock Easter morning.