Views from The Ridge 11.5.25
Sunset Ridge is a church that desires to follow Jesus, reach people, and radiate God’s love and hope to all.
Worship
Sunday
9 AM, Chapel, Acapella
11 AM, Sanctuary, Instrumental
This Week’s Verse: Exodus 20:17
We are going through the Ten Commandments this fall.
Watch previous sermons here.
Discipleship
Sundays, 10:15 AM, Bible Class & Discipleship for All Ages
Fellowship Hall
Adult Bible Class: Open to all
BEMA Podcast Discussion group
Chapel Classroom, new study: The Practice of Compassion, open to women and men of all ages
Roots: Children’s Discipleship through Godly Play
Bible Story Focus this Week: The Prophets
Key Verse: Amos 3:7
Room 102, PreK - Kindergarten
Room 122, 1st - 2nd Grade
Room 209, 3rd - 4th Grade
Sundays 10:15-10:45 AM, Room 220, BOYS 5th - 7th Grade, Formation Study w/ Bryan Wolfe
Sundays 10:15-10:45 AM, Room 220, GIRLS 5th - 7th Grade, Formation Study w/ Den Slater
Wednesdays, 5:15 - 5:45 PM, High School Girls’ Sermon Study Group
Room 220, Contact Den to join this group, open to 9th-12th Grade
Wednesdays, 6 PM - 7:30 PM, Teen Alpha Course
Room 220, Contact Den to join this group, open to 9th-12th Grade
Community Connections
Camelot Christmas Toy Drive
On December 5, Sunset Ridge Collective will partner with Camelot Elementary for our fourth Camelot Christmas — a day that brings families together through generosity, dignity, and connection. Parents can shop for quality gifts at affordable prices while kids enjoy crafts, games, and music.
If you’d like to help make it happen, join us for the Volunteer Information Meeting on Sunday, November 9, 12:30–1:30 PM in the Fellowship Hall on our campus to learn about ways to serve during the event. If you’d like to contribute, we’re also collecting toys from our wish list.
Help Feed a Neighbor This Week — Just $7
Recent SNAP cuts have left many of our neighbors without the resources they rely on to put food on the table. Our Farmers Market team is leading a Bulk Pantry Drive to make sure everyone in our community has access to nutritious food — and we’d love your help.
Every $7 you give feeds one person for an entire week.
This effort is rooted in our values of sustainability, nutrition, and community care — and your donation makes it all possible:
Feed more people with every dollar – Bulk purchasing keeps costs low and impact high.
Support nutritious, balanced meals – Every donation helps meet real nutritional needs.
Create zero waste – Even the bulk bags will be transformed into reusable market totes.
Funds from this drive will directly support three nearby apartment communities, where many families have now gone a week without benefits. Your generosity helps us respond with hope and action — nourishing both people and the planet.
Upcoming Community Events
Every Wednesday, 11 AM - 1:30 PM, Open Studio Painting
Second Saturday, November 8th, 9 AM - 1 PM, Sunset Ridge Farmers Market, Charis Park
Sunday, November 9th, 2025, 12:30 - 1:30 PM, Camelot Christmas Volunteer Info Meeting, Fellowship Hall
Wednesday, November 27th - Friday, November 29th, Church office closed for Thanksgiving
Sunday, November 30th, 3 - 4:30 PM, Healing Holidays Service, Church Chapel
Beyond Sunday
When Love Becomes the Law
Jess Lowry, Executive Director & Pastoral Leader, Sunset Ridge Church & Sunset Ridge Collective
We have thought of the Ten Commandments as a list of don’ts — a series of boundaries meant to keep us in line. But the Spirit, through Scott’s preaching, has been patiently reminding us that they were always meant to be something more tender than that — proclamations and invitations.
Invitations into trust instead of control.
Into generosity instead of grasping.
Into truth, rest, and reverence.
Into love that fulfills the law rather than fear that obeys it.
That’s what we glimpse every December at Camelot Christmas.
This year, we’ll welcome 170 children and their families — an unprecedented number for the fourth year of this event. The growth itself feels like a kind of miracle, a sign that love multiplies when shared.
In our church building during this special time, the spirit of the commandments takes on flesh. Parents walk through rows of gifts with dignity. Volunteers offer smiles, remember names, and through these small acts say — you belong here. Music hums, hot chocolate brews, and somehow the simplest acts — choosing a toy, wrapping a present, laughing with a stranger — begin to feel like worship.
Here, the antidotes to “you shall not” come to life.
Where the world idolizes what’s shiny or new, this special night together honors the sacred image of every person.
Where comparison breeds envy, joy overflows.
Where scarcity says there won’t be enough, generosity multiplies abundance.
Each commandment whispers its opposite truth into this space:
You shall not steal → live generously.
You shall not covet → practice contentment.
You shall not bear false witness → speak blessing and truth.
You shall have no other gods → remember who is the source of all this love.
Even Sabbath finds its way into the day. In a season that so easily becomes hurried and transactional, Camelot Christmas becomes a small act of rest — a pause from the striving and the noise, a few hours where joy, belonging, and peace get to breathe again.
When we refuse to make idols, we stop worshiping images of perfection and start honoring the image of God in one another. That’s the real miracle of this event: it’s not charity, it’s communion — a sacred exchange where every giver and receiver remembers that we belong to each other.
The Ten Commandments were never meant to restrict joy; they were meant to protect it. They guard what’s holy — love, truth, family, life, rest, and gratitude. And that’s what Camelot Christmas does too.
It protects joy.
It restores dignity.
It reminds us that the law of love still holds: when we love God and love our neighbor, everything else falls into place.
In the end, maybe the truest commandment written across this event is simple:
You are invited to love — and to be loved — in return.
I can’t wait to celebrate with you this year.
Love —Jess
