Why You Need Spiritual Ancestors

Sunday, October 11, 2026

Scriptures: Hebrews 11:1–3, 24–27, 39–40; 12:1–2

• Sermon Summary

  For the fifth instalment of our current series Learning to Listen, Bobbi is at our Kensington location and she explores the ancient roots of our faith and how those who came before us shape our understanding of God. Drawing from Hebrews 11, she talks about an "Encomium on Faith" that highlights biblical figures who trusted God despite living through complex, painful, and messy circumstances. Yet, despite their commended faith, these ancestors did not receive the full promise on their own, pointing to a larger story that is completed together with us. Ultimately, Jesus leads us through our own struggles and anxieties by taking us beyond immediate fears toward a deeper, enduring hope.

• Discussion Guide

  Community is shaped by the conversations we share. These questions and reflections are a tool to help you meaningfully engage with the themes of this week's teaching.

  Connect: Where we come from and who we come from can have a big impact on us as individuals. Where does your family come from and how has that shaped you as a person?

  Share: Bobbi argues that we often take a surprising number of characteristics from our family and from other people who are important to us.

  When you look at your own life or faith journey, what is a specific value, perspective, or habit you inherited from someone in your past that still strongly influences who you are today?

  Reflect: Bobbi notes that many hero figures in Hebrews 11—like Moses and Rahab—had deeply flawed, complicated, or even violent real-life stories that the text glosses over to highlight their faith. What do you think about the tension between celebrating someone's faith and acknowledging their messy or imperfect history? Does looking at biblical figures this way make faith feel more accessible or more challenging to you?

  Engage: Consider Bobbi’s words:

  “What if the miracle isn't in the moment at the end of the road where it comes together, but in all the choices we've made all along the way to become the kind of person that would find ourselves in the kind of situation we are uniquely prepared to be in?"

  How does this challenge the way you think about the overarching story of your life, as well as the individual chapters of your life?

  Take away: What is one thing that you're taking with you into your week, either from the sermon or our conversation?

  Prayer

  Loving God,
  We pause in your presence to think of a word or image we would like to carry with us today.

  Being in this room together, we are given the hope that we are not alone.
  And that is true here today
  But it’s also true in a way that goes beyond what we can see.

  I’m so grateful for a faith tradition that I, along with the people in this room with me, get to shape.
  What trust you have put in us, even while we betray what it means to be made in your image.

  So today, won’t you remind us that there is beauty and healing on the path of faith.

  Spirit of the living God, present with us now, enter the places of our hurt and our traumas and heal us of all that harms us.

  Amen.

• Service Songs & Prayers

  CALL TO WORSHIP Psalm 95

  MUSIC Curated by Kevin B.
  Brook Ligertwood - Looking
  Mission House - Your Eyes See Me
  Bryan & Katie Torwalt - Nothing Is Holding Me Back
  Kristin Stanfill - In Christ Alone
  
  EUCHARIST INVITATION
  Written by Yelena Pakhomova

  On this Thanksgiving weekend, we gather around the Eucharist table.
  This central practice of the Christian faith has always been grounded in gratitude. 
  The very word - Eucharist - means thanksgiving. 

  As we break the bread and crush the grape,
  We give thanks for the goodness of creation which we can taste, see and touch all around us.
  We give thanks for the life that Jesus shares with us.
  We give thanks for the Spirit – ever-present and ever-guiding us toward a more real, more joyful, more abundant life.

  The gratitude we practice at this table is rooted in the resilient hope of God at work mending every broken thing in the world. It is a gratitude that meets us as we are and shapes us into the likeness of Christ.

  [STORY]

  And so we remember the story, how on the night when Jesus was betrayed, he gathered with the people he loved at the table.
  While they were eating, Jesus took the bread, gave thanks for it, broke it and gave it to his friends, saying, “This is my body, given for you.”
  Then he took the cup, gave thanks for it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my life, poured out for you.”

  As Jesus prayed and gave thanks, so do we.
  Let us pray.

  [PRAYER]
  Loving God,
  This holiday, many of us will gather with our loved ones.
  And many of us will feel the loneliness of the day or wish things were different.
  You welcome and hold all our stories and we give you thanks for that.
  As we share this meal today, may we know your presence and your love.
  May our gratitude heal us, and may it shape the way we see and move through the world.
  Amen.

  SERIES BUMPER
  Learning to Listen