Ministrey Podcast W/ Trey Van Camp

In Ezra 3, the people of God gather to rebuild the Temple. Despite their fears, they prioritize God’s presence and are able to finish the altar to consecrate themselves back to God. But some are disappointed. Rather than looking ahead to what God might do, they looked back to compare their current situation with their preferred past. As we continue to build our future, we want to prioritize Jesus and His presence, even when facing fear or disappointment. Being “Jesus-First” means we give, pray, serve, and worship for God’s presence alone, not our progress.

Guest speaking at Olive Baptist Church in Pensacola, Florida.

Guest speaking at Olive Baptist Church in Pensacola, Florida.

We're Not Just Building a Building Ten years is a long time to wonder about something. For most of our church's life, the question of a permanent home has hovered in the background. And honestly, looking back, I think the timing matters. We needed all of this time, all of these years of being formed by Jesus together, before we were ready to take meaningful steps toward building something permanent. God has been building us peace by piece. Now we get to build with him. But before we talk about what we're building, we need to talk about why. We're Living the Same Story The books of Ezra and Nehemiah sit near the end of the Old Testament, and they tell a story that feels surprisingly familiar. Israel has spent years in exile, displaced from their homeland by the Babylonian empire. The temple, the place where God's presence dwelled among his people, has been destroyed. The city walls are rubble. But God makes a promise: they'll return. They'll rebuild. And God will come to dwell with his people again. Tha

The story we’ve been told about life isn’t working. Most of us have placed our hope in ourselves, believing that peace, happiness, and freedom come from looking inward. But this has left us more anxious, less hopeful, and still hungry for meaning. But on Easter, we orient ourselves around a better story. In John 20 we see Jesus meeting three groups of people who represent many of us today. To those grieving, Jesus comes to us as a Gardener making all things new. To the fearful, he is a Peacemaker coming to offer us peace. To the doubting, he is a Pursuer who comes to make himself known. Because of the resurrection, we’re given peace, purpose, and power through the Holy Spirit. Easter is a celebration of the truth that the empty tomb is good news, both for our real lives today, and into eternity.

First ever message on our church property.

In Ephesians 6, Paul describes the armor of God and tells believers to take up “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” When Jesus faces off with the devil in the wilderness, he uses Scripture as his main defense. Each temptation from the devil was met with a specific truth from God’s Word. In the same way, we too are called to apply Scripture specifically to our lives in order to combat the deceptions, accusations, resistance, and temptations from the enemy. The more we saturate our minds with Scripture, the more the Holy Spirit brings specific verses, promises, or truths to our minds in the moments we need them most.

In order to be formed by Scripture, we must learn to submit to its authority. In Psalm 119, the Psalmist describes God’s Word as a lamp, something that illuminates just enough for us to take one small step of obedience to Jesus at a time. This means that Scripture can’t simply be read, it must be obeyed. If our attitudes, actions, behaviors, and beliefs are never redirected by the Bible, then we aren’t treating it like a lamp unto our feet. But by ruthlessly assessing the darkness in the world and our own hearts, and by radically accepting the light of God’s Word, we can slowly practice submitting to Scripture and obeying it as truth.

The Christian life is not defined by a single powerful moment. Instead, Scripture shows us that formation happens through both moments and marathons. In Acts 19, the church in Ephesus experienced a defining moment where God moved powerfully to save its people and bring revival to the city. But years later, Paul wrote Ephesians to guide them through the long obedience of faithful discipleship. Eventually, Jesus Himself addressed this church in Revelation, warning that perseverance without love leads to drift. The invitation of the gospel is not to grit our teeth through the race, but to keep falling in love with Jesus. To do this we must learn to guard our hearts, walk in community, practice faithfulness, and rely on the Holy Spirit to form us peace by piece over the long haul.

All of us want peace, transformation, and a life that reflects Jesus. But becoming like God is not something we can accomplish on our own strength. Paul reminds us in Ephesians that transformation is only possible through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not a force but a person who dwells within us. We can grieve Him through our words and relationships, even while remaining secure in our salvation, sealed by His presence. And while those who follow Jesus already have the Spirit within them, we are continually invited to be filled by Him through repentance and surrender. As we walk together in worship, gratitude, mutual submission, and love, the Spirit forms us, peace by piece, into the likeness of Christ.

It’s no secret that America is experiencing a loneliness epidemic. Though most of us are surrounded by people, digitally connected, and relationally busy, few of us have actually experienced the deep and life-giving reality of authentic community. In Ephesians 4, Paul paints a picture of what Christian community can look like. Rather than giving us model, brand, or method, Paul describes community as a body. Just like a body, each person within a community has a part to play in supporting those around them. But also like a body, if one person is unhealthy and unwilling to change, the rest of the community can get infected. Lying, anger, stealing, foul language, and bitterness can cause damage to the communities we find ourselves in. Because of this, true community is a risk. But it’s also the way in which we can grow more like Christ, accept his love, and share that love with those around us.

This week in the Peace by Piece series, we explore Ephesians 4:1, focusing on the crucial role of teaching in Christian formation. Many of us are shaped by ideas and images that subtly pull us away from God’s truth. True transformation doesn’t happen through quick fixes or isolated frameworks, but through a holistic, patient process of engaging with the essentials: Teaching, Community, Practice, Holy Spirit, and Moments & Marathons. This process requires confronting the lies we believe, renewing our minds with Scripture, and allowing God to form us piece by piece over time. As we grow in this grace, we begin to embody the peace of Christ in a chaotic world.

In a cultural moment marked by anxiety, reaction, and fragmentation, the church is tempted to respond as either a consumer or a crusader. Drawing from Ephesians 3–4, this message invites Passion Creek into a new imagination—one rooted not in speed, technique, or outrage, but in formation. Becoming Peace by Piece names the slow, patient work of God in forming a people who are not tossed to and fro, but who grow into maturity measured by Christ’s fullness. Peace is not something we manufacture by willpower, nor something we passively receive—it is something done for us in Christ and formed in us over time as we guard our hearts and walk together under His easy yoke.

In this message from 1 John 4, we look at Christmas through the eyes of the Apostle John near the end of his life. After decades of ministry, suffering, and loss, John doesn’t offer advice for fear—he offers good news: God is love. This teaching explores: Why fear doesn’t just live in our thoughts, but in our nervous system How God’s love takes the initiative long before we do What “perfect love” actually means—and how it casts out fear Why the opposite of love isn’t hate, but fear How the incarnation of Jesus is God’s answer to human anxiety Rather than calling us to be braver, Christmas invites us to receive love more fully—a love that is sacrificial, unconditional, and strong enough to heal even our deepest fears. If fear has shaped your expectations, habits, or faith, this message is an invitation to step further into the love of God—and to discover the freedom that comes with it. “There is no fear in love. Instead, perfect love drives out fear.” — 1 John 4:18

In Matthew 20 Jesus tells a parable about a master who rewards his workers based on grace, not their merit. In the parable, Jesus explains that God gives grace out of his goodness, not our productivity. Most of us struggle with this truth today. While we’re grateful for God’s mercy extended to us, we can grow bitter when God gives mercy, providence, and blessings to those we don’t think deserve it. But this comparison keeps us from experiencing joy from God’s grace towards us. To avoid becoming bitter with God’s generosity towards others, we practice contentment.

In Matthew 18:21–35, Jesus tells a parable that exposes the danger of harboring unforgiveness. In the story, a servant is forgiven for his great debt by a king, but then refuses to forgive others who owe him a great debt as well. Jesus uses this parable to show that unforgiveness is poison to our souls. It hardens our hearts against others, turns wounds into bitterness, and bitterness into bondage. But forgiveness is freedom. Jesus invites us to forgive not merely for our hearts, but from our hearts and ultimately to our hearts—receiving His forgiveness so deeply that it transforms the way we see and treat others.

The parable of the Good Samaritan is another popular parable of Jesus that often gets overlooked. In this story, Jesus describes a Jewish man in need on the side of the road. Religious experts and the “spiritually mature” pass him by, but a Samaritan, one of the most despised people to the Jews, stops to help him. In our lives today, we can be tempted to simply pass by those whom God is calling us to love and serve. We’re either too busy, we see them as too bad, or their situations are too broken for us to reach out in love. Like the man Jesus tells this story too, we can be caught asking “who exactly is my neighbor?” rather than “who will I be a neighbor to?” But by asking this question, we can begin to allow Jesus to transform us into people who are truly spiritually mature, people fully capable of loving and serving those around us.

In Luke 14, Jesus gives us a parable full of paradoxes. In the parable, many are invited to a banquet, but only the outcasts and marginalized show up. The paradoxes are that God’s greatest blessings can also become our greatest barriers, the gospel is both radically exclusive and radically inclusive, and to dine with Jesus is also to die with Jesus. To become good hearers of this parable and receptive to its gospel truth, we too must wrestle with these paradoxes that remind us God’s invitation to His Kingdom is urgent, costly, and worth everything.

The first parable recorded by the three gospel writers Matthew, Mark, and Luke is a parable about seeds. Jesus explains that like a seeds planted among different types of soil by a farmer, the words and teachings from Him are shared among different types of people. Some reject His words and teachings, some don’t allow it to take root, and others give up following the way of Jesus by giving into the worries of this age. But there are a few who hear God’s word, receive it by applying it to their lives, and bear good fruit. These are the people who allow God’s word to confront and convict them, and who reorient their lives in response. In order to be these types of people, we must receive the seeds God generously wants to share with us, and learn to apply them to our daily lives.