Christ City Church, Washington DC

In this second week of the Advent season, Pastor Watson shows us that God's peace is not the absence of conflict, but the presence of wholeness—shalom—breaking into the chaos. It is the presence of God's Spirit that enables us to have peace in the midst of life storms and chaos. It is the presence of God’s Spirit in you that brings the Shalom we are aching for.

In this first Sunday of our Advent series, Pastor Andrea invites us to name our darkness while still daring to await the promised light of Jesus, whose arrival brings hope into places of fear, injustice, and exhaustion. True hope is not passive optimism but a courageous, active refusal to let darkness have the last word, trusting that God is already at work and that the dawn is breaking in.

Acts 28 shows that God meets us in the in-between places, where vulnerability opens us to receive and share the Spirit’s surprising kindness, healing, and love. Even in constraints and uncertainty, like Paul under house arrest, the Spirit remains unhindered—forming us, sending us, and working through ordinary acts of welcome, courage, and faithfulness.

Guest speaker Rev. Dr. Essentino Lewis, Jr. (Clifton Park Baptist Church) continues our series in Acts, preaching on Acts 27.

Pastor Andrea teaches on Acts 25:23-26:32, where we’re reminded that even when we feel bound by circumstance, God’s Spirit gives us the freedom to speak truth and bear witness through our own stories. Discover how your story, no matter how unfinished or ordinary, can become an act of resistance, faith, and transformation in a world that tries to silence what the Spirit is still writing through you.