The Grove Church

The Grove Church
  • 4.8 (8)
  • Christianity
  • Updated Semiweekly

Weekly Teachings from The Grove Church in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Please visit our website at www.thegrovechurch.org Fully Devoted, World Changing, Followers of Christ.

  1. 2d ago

    Come and See

    Most of us feel like we need to have all the answers before we can tell anyone about Jesus. The right words, the right theology, the right moment. So we wait — and the invitation never comes. In the final week of The Grove's mission series, Charlie walks through a small but significant story in John 1 — Philip, Nathanael, and a two-word response that's still the best evangelism strategy around: come and see. You don't have to convince anyone. You don't have to win the argument. You just have to know where you found hope — and be willing to bring someone with you.

  2. 5d ago

    The Parable of the Two Sons

    This week on Cultivate, Charlie and Abigail work through one of the shortest and sharpest parables Jesus ever told — the Parable of the Two Sons in Matthew 21. It's four verses. Jesus gets an immediate explanation in. And it lands like a slap. A father asks two sons to go work in the vineyard. The first says no — and then goes anyway. The second says yes — and never shows up. Jesus asks the chief priests which one did what the father wanted. They answer correctly. And then Jesus tells them: tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. Charlie and Abigail dig into why this parable lands so differently than the ones with weeping and gnashing of teeth, what John the Baptist actually has to do with it, what a prophet actually is (versus the Harry Potter definition), and why the Pharisees' entire problem was that they couldn't humble themselves all the way down. They also get into economy of words, Charlie's discomfort being photographed loading backpacks at staff meeting, the correct plural of moose, and a preview of next week — the Parable of the Tenants, where Jesus unloads the whole magazine.

    The Parable of the Two Sons

  3. Aug 12

    Do You Have Your People?

    Most of us have friends. Acquaintances. People we like. But there's a different category — the kind of people who show up when everything falls apart, who know you well enough to know what you actually need, and who will tell you hard things because they care too much not to. Do you have those people? In week two of The Grove's mission series, Charlie walks through three stories about a man named Barnabas — one of the most underrated figures in the New Testament — and what it looks like to be that kind of person for someone else. He fought for Paul when nobody believed in him. He found him at his lowest and brought him back. And when Paul needed to hear something he didn't want to hear, Barnabas said it anyway. That's the kind of relationship the church is supposed to be built on. And it's closer than you think — it just might require one uncomfortable step to get there.

  4. Aug 5

    The Parable of the Fig Tree

    This week on Cultivate, Charlie and Abigail work through one of the shortest and strangest parables Jesus ever told — the Parable of the Fig Tree in Luke 13. It's only four verses. It doesn't resolve. And Jesus drops it almost as an aside, mid-crowd, without anyone asking for it. A vineyard owner has a fig tree that hasn't produced fruit in three years. He tells the gardener to cut it down — it's wasting soil. The gardener pushes back: give it one more year, let me tend to it, and if it still doesn't produce, then cut it down. And then the story just... stops. We never find out if the owner agreed. We never find out what happened to the tree. Charlie and Abigail dig into why that ambiguity is the point, who the gardener actually represents and whether the original audience could have possibly known, and what this parable has in common with Noah, Jericho, and two thousand years of patience that most people don't stop to notice. They also get into why God's grace and God's judgment aren't opposites — and why deciding God should never hold anyone accountable is its own kind of arrogance. Plus: Charlie's classic dad move of telling everyone to be ready at 7 when the flight is actually at 7:15, Abigail's experience reading Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry at the beach, and five parables left before the series wraps for good.

    The Parable of the Fig Tree

  5. Aug 4

    Rooted: What It Actually Takes to Stay Grounded

    Life doesn't come at you in one big wave. It comes in a relentless series of them — and if you don't have something solid underneath you, you end up somewhere you never meant to be. In this week's sermon, Charlie kicks off a new three-week series on The Grove's mission statement and lands on one specific, practical challenge: what does it actually look like to know Jesus — not just know about him, but really know him? He works through Psalm 1 and the contrast between a tree planted by a river and chaff blown around by the wind, and makes the case that the difference between the two isn't talent or circumstance. It's roots. It's what you're letting sink in every day. There's also a church-wide goal announced — reading through the New Testament together this year using The Grove's plan on the YouVersion Bible app. Whether you're brand new to the Bible or have read it a dozen times, this one's a good place to start.

  6. Jul 29

    The Parable of the Talents

    This week on Cultivate, Charlie and Abigail dig into one of the most well-known parables Jesus ever told — and one of the most misunderstood. The Parable of the Talents (or Bags of Gold, depending on your translation) is sitting at the tail end of their parables series, and Charlie says it's easily top three, maybe number one. A wealthy man goes on a journey and leaves enormous sums of money — one talent being roughly equivalent to a million dollars — with three servants. Two of them put the money to work and double it. The third digs a hole and buries it. When the master returns, the first two are celebrated. The third is called wicked and lazy and thrown into the darkness. The question the parable raises: what exactly did God give you, and what are you doing with it? Charlie and Abigail work through what "talents" actually means (a unit of weight, not a skill — though Sunday school has always blurred that line on purpose), why the amounts given to each servant aren't the point, what it means to steward something that doesn't fully belong to you, and why not doing anything wrong is not the same as being faithful. They also get into whether heaven has neighborhoods, the surprising fact that first-century Jerusalem had interest-bearing savings accounts, and how It's a Wonderful Life explains banking better than most finance courses.

    The Parable of the Talents

  7. Jul 28

    The Gospel Was Always for Everyone

    The disciples thought the good news was for their people. Their nation. Their tribe. They had to be pushed — sometimes literally scattered by persecution — before they understood what God had been saying since Abraham: this was never just for one group. In the final week of Foundations, Mark walks through Acts 1 and 15 and traces the early church's journey from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. From a confused Ethiopian official reading Isaiah on the side of the road, to a Roman soldier named Cornelius whose conversion broke every cultural assumption the disciples had, to the council in Jerusalem finally putting it in writing — all the obstacles removed, by grace through faith alone. The question at the end isn't theological. It's personal. You have the Spirit. You have the power. Is it locked up in the garage — or are you letting it loose?

  8. Jul 23

    The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus

    This week on Cultivate, Charlie and Abigail work through one of the most unusual parables Jesus ever told — the Rich Man and Lazarus in Luke 16. It's the only parable where a character gets a name. The poor, sick man covered in sores outside the gate is called Lazarus. The wealthy man who ignores him every day gets no name at all. That detail alone is worth sitting with. Charlie and Abigail dig into why Jesus tells this story directly at the Pharisees, what the chasm between heaven and hell actually means, how much theological weight we should put on the fire imagery, and what Jesus is really saying in the last line — "they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead." That line lands very differently in hindsight. They also wrestle with the harder questions: Is this a definitive picture of the afterlife, or is it imagery? What does it actually mean that there's no crossing over? And is Jesus saying rich people go to hell and poor people go to heaven — or is he saying something more specific, and more uncomfortable, than that? Plus: La La Land is a bad movie, The Odyssey is tense for 2 hours and 50 minutes straight, and Abigail's niece is still learning her middle name.

    The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus
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Ratings & Reviews

4.8
out of 5
8 Ratings

About

Weekly Teachings from The Grove Church in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Please visit our website at www.thegrovechurch.org Fully Devoted, World Changing, Followers of Christ.

Information

  • Creator
    The Grove Church
  • Years Active
    2017 - 2026
  • Episodes
    707
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    ℗ & © 2019 The Grove Church
  • Show Website
    The Grove Church