Learning to Listen

Series Preview
Written by Jeremy Duncan

There is a kind of exhaustion unique to our moment. Not just physical tiredness. More like the fatigue of constant noise. Headlines. Notifications. Podcasts at double speed. Opinions arriving faster than we can process them. We are endlessly connected and yet, somehow, profoundly disconnected.

And maybe that’s because one of the deepest spiritual crises of our age is not disbelief, but distraction.

We have lost the ability to listen.

Not simply to hear words, but to truly pay attention — to neighbours and strangers, to scripture and silence, to creation and even our own souls. The scriptures insist that God still speaks, often through unexpected voices and overlooked places. 

Perhaps one of the deepest forms of discipleship today is simply learning to listen again.

Sundays in Kensington

Sunday Resources
Read the Bible as a Conversation
Read the Bible as a Conversation

What if the Bible was never meant to win arguments? When we're confused, afraid or disillusioned, it's tempting to treat scripture like ammunition, tossing verses back and forth until someone runs out. But that isn't how the scriptures work, and it isn't how they came to us.

Read more →
Why You Need Spiritual Ancestors
Why You Need Spiritual Ancestors

By examining how the writer of Hebrews reframes flawed historical figures and presents Jesus as the pioneer and finish line of faith, Bobbi illustrates how individual struggles are part of a shared, interconnected marathon where past and present believers are perfected together.

Read more →
What Nature Has To Say
What Nature Has To Say

Elijah’s experience of stillness in the natural world is a model for us to follow in a world full of so much noise. We’re invited to welcome the ways that nature grounds us and guides us in all our next steps.

Read more →
Listening to Strangers
Listening to Strangers

What might we hear from God if we made more room to listen to people we don’t yet know? In Genesis 18, Abraham welcomes three unexpected visitors. This sermon explores the mystery of that encounter and asks how curiosity and hospitality might open us to conversations we never saw coming.

Read more →
Loving Your Neighbour Starts with Listening
Loving Your Neighbour Starts with Listening

We revisit the Good Samaritan in Luke 10 and explore how Jesus shifts the question from identifying our neighbours to becoming a neighbour. Along the way, we consider the invitation to hear at the heart of the greatest commandment, the familiar stories we’ve stopped listening to, and the compassion that grows when someone else’s story becomes part of ours.

Read more →
Agnostic plus Jesus
Agnostic plus Jesus

In Mark 9, a father brings Jesus an honest prayer: “I believe; help my unbelief.” His story invites us to let go of perfection, make room for uncertainty, and take the next step toward the future we hope for.

Read more →

Sundays in Marda Loop

Sundays in Marda Loop
Learning to Listen to Nature
Learning to Listen to Nature

From the breath of life in Genesis 2 to the dry bones of Ezekiel 37, Scripture is an invitation to read as a conversation rather than a rulebook, and to listen for the story that restores our hope and leads us back to Jesus.

Read more →
Learning to Listen to Scripture
Learning to Listen to Scripture

From the breath of life in Genesis 2 to the dry bones of Ezekiel 37, Scripture is an invitation to read as a conversation rather than a rulebook, and to listen for the story that restores our hope and leads us back to Jesus.

Read more →
Why You Need Spiritual Ancestors
Why You Need Spiritual Ancestors

Ultimately, listening to spiritual ancestors equips us to enter fully into our own human experience, finding endurance in the surrounding "cloud of witnesses" and taking up the responsibility to live faithfully so that we, too, become good ancestors for the generations to come.

Read more →
God in the Unexpected Stranger
God in the Unexpected Stranger

In the series “Learning to Listen,” Bobbi explores the story of Abraham and Sarah being promised a son. Examining Abraham’s hospitality toward three strange travellers at the oaks of Mamre, she shows how welcoming the unfamiliar leads to a divine encounter, or "theophanic revelation."

Read more →
Finding God in Loving Your Neighbour
Finding God in Loving Your Neighbour

Marking the launch of Commons Church in Marda Loop, Bobbi explores what it means to truly listen to our neighbours through the story of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10. Far from a moral lesson on basic kindness, Jesus’ parable invites us into an expanding vision of faith — one that moves past rigid boundaries and passive rules into active, extravagant care.

Read more →
Jeremy Duncan
Previous

Chosen Family
Next

Soapbox Sundays