Olympic View Church

06/01/2026

https://youtu.be/JCE1ur39V-s

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05/25/2026

https://youtu.be/yP_JmGmMBF4

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05/11/2026

Sunday Update, May 10, 2026

Dear Church,

We celebrated a beautiful Mothering Sunday together! Thank you to Audree and Charrise, Mallory and Deborah, who participated in a group interview and shared so wonderfully from their hearts. The wisdom they shared blessed all of us. And it wonderfully illustrated that whether or not someone has children, biological or not, we can all mother those around us. I closed with this quote from pastor and mother Micha Boyett:

"The life of Jesus is what God wants to say to us. And if it’s true that mothering is a verb that any of us can practice, then Jesus reveals to us over and over the mothering work of God.
To mother is to protect the most vulnerable.
To mother is to give life.
To mother is to relentlessly choose hope.

I would offer the premise that if we begin to look for Jesus’s mothering presence, we will find it all over the Gospel stories. And maybe if we look for it in scripture, we’ll also look for it all around us. Maybe we’ll realize that we are surrounded by those who mother, and that we are invited to mother too. We are invited to protect the vulnerable, give life, choose hope."

-Liz Duval Saffold

05/11/2026

https://youtu.be/aCWRxwWdok8

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05/04/2026

Sunday Update, April 26, 2026

Dear Church,

This week we covered the process of repentance, part 2 in our series. As always, if you missed the previous Sunday and need to catch up the sermons are posted here: Olympic View Church YouTube

This quote from Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg sums up a lot of what I talked about:

"So many of us, consciously or unconsciously, walk around with a story in which we are the hero, not only making choices with good intentions, but always having a positive impact. Owning up to the hurt we may have caused someone else is difficult, even when it's as small as the embarrassing thing we said that didn't land as we hoped. It is that much more difficult to face a lie to a loved one, a failure to be there for someone in need, an angry outburst, a choice to be complicit in abuse, racism, or other actions with real, painful implications…

We have two options: show up with self-awareness and humility, or minimize, ignore, and justify bad behavior. It is awfully tempting to try to minimize the impact of our behavior or justify it with reasons. There are always reasons. We all do this, at least some of the time. There's a lot of talk about intent versus impact these days, and this is the thrust of it: most of the time, our intentions don't matter. It doesn't matter if you didn't intend to step on someone's foot if they're howling in pain. You still caused someone else's suffering. You have to take responsibility for that.

Intentions don't fix harm. Reasons don't fix harm. Fixing harm is only possible when we bravely face the gap between the story we tell ourselves, about ourselves, and the reality of our actions. Only when we summon our courage to cross that gulf of cognitive dissonance and face who we are and who we have been - even if it threatens our story of ourselves - can we repair the harm we've done and become the kind of people who might be able to do better next time. And that is what's truly heroic."

-Liz Duval Saffold

05/04/2026

Sunday Update, May 3, 2026
Dear Church,

Today we wrapped up our series, focusing on the topic of repair, especially our human relationships. And that starts with a proper apology, which includes these 4 things:

1. What you did (not generalized, specifically what you did)
2. Why it was wrong, or recognition of the pain it caused
3. That you are doing your best to make sure it doesn’t happen again
4. Ask how you can make it better (and be ready and willing to follow through)

All the work you have done on the previous steps of confession and repentance should be evident in this apology. It has to be fueled by empathy or it will cause more damage in the end. The goal is not restoring your reputation, or being accepted back into community, or even being forgiven. It is to enact the golden rule, to apologize to others the way you would like to apologized to.

We do all this because the gospel can be summed up in one word, reconciliation. The whole Bible is about God reaching out to us. When we work towards reconciliation in this sacred process, we are joining in the deepest and most important work of God. We are becoming true image bearers. When we value what God values, we put our energy into the things they care about. Jesus is our doorway to forgiveness, and we can be a doorway for someone else, whether that is helping them forgive us and be set free, or vice versa.

-Liz Duval Saffold

04/27/2026

https://youtu.be/QhCxJl7vBuw

Sunday Sermon Repentance by Liz Duval Saffold 2026 04 26

04/21/2026

https://youtu.be/XXll-_oudeg

Sunday Sermon Confession by Liz Duval Saffold 2026 04 19

04/20/2026

Sunday Update, April 19, 2026

Hello Church,

This Sunday kicked off a series that will be 3 sermons long, starting with confession, then repentance, and ending with repair. I hope you will be able to listen to all of them in order to get the full picture! We covered what confession looks like, whether that is speaking straight to God or with another person. We talked about sin, how to define it and identify it, and why we still use that language. Psalm 32 was the scripture and it gives a great template for confession. Here is a little recap:

Confession is acknowledging our sin, fully and honestly. It is bringing that sin to God, sometimes through another person, unloading the burden of it, and then receiving and accepting forgiveness.

The only thing necessary for God's forgiveness is the desire for it. We need to recognize our wrongdoing in order to want forgiveness. We have to experience it ourselves in order to extend it to others. Confession helps reshape my desire, away from self preservation and into trust in God. If I can trust God with my sin, then I can trust God to forgive me.

Liz Duval-Saffold

04/12/2026

https://youtu.be/irmrNAGNdTg

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