FOLLOW begins with a question that is easy to skip past: is it possible to be a Christian without being a disciple of Jesus? Pastor Keithen opened the series by pointing to Dallas Willard's concern that the church has too often separated the two, and he reframed discipleship in the language of apprenticeship. A student collects information. An apprentice learns a way of life. In the world of Matthew 4, rabbis invited only the most promising learners to follow them, which makes it striking that Jesus walks up to working fishermen who had already been passed over and says, "Follow me." The invitation comes before any proof of worthiness, and it carries three aims that echo through the rest of the series: to be with Jesus, to be formed by Him, and to join Him in His mission.
Reordering What We Love
From that starting point, the series spends much of its time on the interior life, the loves and loyalties that quietly steer us. Messages on seeking the Kingdom, resisting temptation, and obedience all press on the same question of what sits at the center of our lives. Pastor Ralph observes that everyone is seeking something, and that lasting change comes less from willpower than from discovering a greater love. Pastor Raegan connects temptation to idolatry, the moment a good thing becomes the ultimate thing, and invites us to treat God Himself as the prize. Dr. Wanda Walborn, a guest teacher, reclaims obedience from its associations with control, describing it as the way we learn to trust a good Father and build a foundation of integrity, consistency, and grit before the storms arrive.
Hearts That Love, Worship, and Come Clean
The series then turns to the shape of a heart that belongs to Jesus. Pastor Tim Brown teaches on loving God and neighbor, tracing love from the hidden places where faith is either strengthened or quietly worn away to the ordinary people we pass every day in a city without really seeing them. A message on confronting turns the lens on ourselves, using Jesus' words to the Pharisees to ask where God wants to confront us, and why honesty before Him, rather than a polished exterior, is the doorway to freedom. Pastor Raegan's message on worship argues that devotion begins with attention, deepens as we admit our need, and overflows into prayer, generosity, and mission.
Carrying Jesus' Life Outward
Finally, apprenticeship becomes outward-facing. Pastor Keithen's message on servanthood sets Jesus' words "Not so with you" against the city's instinct to climb, and asks whether we came to New York to build a life or to lay one down for others. Dr. Ron Walborn, newly joined to the pastoral staff, teaches on healing and holds up Jesus' compassion as the pattern for how the church ministers to those in pain, while acknowledging the Kingdom's tension between the now and the not yet. Pastor Billy closes the series with the Great Commission and a simple reframe: making disciples is not reserved for the gifted or the especially mature. It is an ordinary, faithful response from people who were themselves shaped by someone else's obedience, and the people already in our workplaces, families, and friendships are where it begins.
An Invitation
Across ten messages, FOLLOW holds one conviction. Following Jesus is more than admiring Him from a distance. It is a path that runs from the call to follow, through the reordering of our desires and the shaping of our character, and out into a life poured out for the people and places God has entrusted to us. The series invites each of us to stay close enough to Jesus that His life becomes evident in ours.