Sermon Podcast

Rev. Dannison is the Senior Minister of the First Congregational Church and is a fierce advocate of social justice and benevolent localism.

Director of Religious Education Diane Melvin will share how the daily religious practice of meditation and Lojong has been transformative in her life.

Let us celebrate and bless the animals in our lives and in our world.

Rev. Rachel will share the story of Arjuna from The Bhagavad Gita, a sacred Hindu text.

What wisdom does Hinduism hold for us about aging?

Please bring a small container of water to join together in this intergenerational service.

Please bring a flower to share at this intergenerational service.

People’s Church youth will reflect on their spiritual journeys and what People’s Church has meant to them.

In our annual Memorial Day observance, we remember those who we have lost.

What might the practice of democracy in our congregation have to teach us about democratic process in our wider society?

What does it means to belong to a religious community in an era when ‘none’ is the fastest growing religious affiliation?

We join with 500 UU congregations in answering the call to talk about white supremacist culture.

We will experience music in new ways and reflect on how making music together helps us create community.

As we celebrate Earth Day, we will explore what it might mean to live with ‘just enough.’

In this intergenerational service, we will celebrate the rhythms of the agricultural year.

On this Palm Sunday, Rev. Rachel will tell Michael Servetus’s story—and the story of the prophet Jesus who also gave his life for the truth as he understood it.

Why do we covenant?

How can we find ways to build and sustain courage and commitment in these politically charged times?

How can white people participate in movements led by people of color?

What has People’s Church done to advance pure and practical religion in the community? What lies ahead?

How might The Book of Esther in the Hebrew Scriptures inspire us to act with courage today?

Rev. Rachel will share the story of how the modern Gay Pride movement began.

On this Sunday, Rev. Rachel will answer your submitted questions.

Rev. Rachel will reflect on Sabbath practices, how holy rest is different than sloth, and what she has learned from her own Sabbath practice.

What wisdom does the virtue of ‘Prudence’ hold for us today?

We will explore the cause and effect relationship between life and its varied, mysterious, healing and poetic expression.

Rev. Rachel will explore the topic of envy.

On this Martin Luther King Jr. Weekend we will look back at the tidal wave of justice of the Civil Rights Movement.

What is life calling People’s Church to be?

At this service, there will be dancing, music, and ritual to rid ourselves of what we don’t want to carry with us into 2017.

Join us for a simple, intergenerational service where we will celebrate and share the joys of the holidays in story and music.

“Miss Jayne” is a one act play about how we might honor someone who has made a profound difference in our life.

In this intergenerational service, members and friends of our community will be acting out the fictional story of Duke Dwayne’s attempts to outlaw jellybeans (and other things).

At the First Council of Nicaea, Saint Nicholas slapped a Unitarian Christian priest. What might this story teach us today?

Rev. Dennis McCarty will explore with us “A Kinder, Gentler Atheism.”

Rev. Rachel will explore the sin of gluttony and the complicated relationships we have with our food.

With the election over, how do we look forward? Who is the world calling us to be?

As UUs, how do we show our commitment to respect the inherent worth and dignity of every person, no matter what, no exceptions?

How could we become as comfortable talking about money as we are talking about sex?

Rev. Rachel, members of the People’s Church Social Justice Coordinating Committee, and other church members will explore the virtue of justice.

As we mark Indigenous People’s Day, Rev. Rachel will tell the story of a little-known piece of our denominational history.

Let us celebrate and bless the animals in our lives and in our world! Please bring your well-behaved pets, pictures of beloved animals (living or dead), and/or your favorite stuffed animals.

Anger can eat us alive or fuel us to do good and important work in the world. How do we harness this powerful force?

As Unitarian Universalists, how do we hold answers lightly and live a faith without certainty?

At this service we will dwell in that tension between saving and savoring this world. Please bring a small container of water from somewhere that is meaningful to you.

At this intergenerational service, we will celebrate the beauty and impermanence of flowers—and each of us. Please bring a flower to share.

At this service incoming freshman will be bridged into the youth group while seniors will share some reflections on their experiences growing up at People’s Church.

On this Memorial Day Weekend, we remember those we have lost—in war and not in war, in our congregation and in the wider world.

We’ll explore how we might imbue our everyday tasks with spiritual grounding.

Rev. Rachel’s official installation as People’s Church’s minister will happen on Saturday, May 21 at 3 p.m. At this special service, we will celebrate our call to Rev. Rachel to be People’s Church’s minister.  There will be special music, preaching, and rituals.  Installations are a rare occurrence in the life of the church–this is […]

Come enjoy the sound of People’s own voices as we share heartfelt poetry together.

Why does our church include comprehensive sexuality as a core part of religious education?

We’ll reflect upon reverence and where and how we come to know our highest values.

We will mark the holidays of Earth Day and Passover while we reflect on the idea of ‘promised land.’

This Sunday, we will explore the importance of living together in community through story, song—and a dance party.

This political primary season has brought into view a variety of prejudices that persist in our culture. As UUs, how are we called to respond?

This Sunday we will hold a conversation between Rev. Rachel and Mr. Palmer on the nature of truth by using excerpts from a sermon made 61 years ago.

How might we practice resurrection?

What has People’s Church accomplished, and what lies ahead?

Can Unitarian Universalists believe anything?

Why do we need superheroes?

What opportunities does grief offer us?

What steps can People’s Church take to become an antiracist organization?

On this Valentine’s Day, how might we learn to love better and bring more love to our relationships and our world?

What can an 18th century religious revival teach us about the Super Bowl?

How do you heal a broken heart?

We will explore a vision of our shared covenant today, a vision that faces the risk, the fear, the uncertainty of life, and offers a path for all of us to return home.

We will explore how Unitarian Universalists have been allies for racial justice in the Civil Rights era of the 1960s and the #BlackLivesMatter movement of today.

We will trace the history of the flaming chalice from its origins in the radical reformation through today as the official logo of our faith.

We will host our co-religionists from the Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Southwest Michigan, to remember the stories of a 1914 truce and the stories of the first Christmas.

During this contemplative service we will mark the longest night of the year.

Join us for this all-ages intergenerational service.

Come, enjoy a special service filled with seasonal songs and old favorites.

We will gather to ponder family and charity.

How might we be receivers and creators of grace in this world?

Why do we tell the stories we tell and how might we harness the power of our stories to create a more promising future?

We will hear the story of New Jersey farmer, Thomas Potter in what has been called a Unitarian Universalist miracle story.

How do we live in times of impending crisis, without being in despair or in denial?

What does the declaration of “the end of religion” mean for spiritual communities in the 21st century?

Submit questions to Rev. Rachel, who will answer as many as she can during the time usually set aside for the sermon.

We will explore our obligations to the children within our community and in the the wider world.

Why do bad things happen to good people, particularly us?

Rev. Rachel will share a story about her time in Syria, and reflect on how we might engage the spiritual practice of hospitality in our lives and in our congregation.

We’ll explore an address Ralph Waldo Emerson made to Harvard Divinity School in 1838 and what challenge it might hold for contemporary Unitarian Universalists.

All are invited to bring water from a special place. We’ll join our waters together in a common bowl, as we all join together to form this church community.

With Rev. Dave Johnson
On Rev. Dave’s final Sunday in the pulpit at People’s Church, he’ll offer a personal spin on salvation. Please bring a flower.

With Diane Melvin, Ben Miller and Religious Education Youth
This service, planned and led by our youth, is designed to honor and acknowledge important transitions.

With Rev. Dave Johnson
The spandrels of the San Marco cathedral (in Venice) will serve as the iconography for some reflections on waste, and grace.

With the Green Sanctuary Committee
The Green Sanctuary Committee will describe projects that have been undertaken to help the church be more environmentally sustainable.

With Diane Melvin and Religious Education Youth
Join us as we affirm and celebrate our youth and their annual rite of passage.

With Rev. Dave Johnson
On Mother’s Day we shall re-claim the “L-word” at its best: As the encourager of the human heart.

With Rev. Rachel Lonberg
Rev. Rachel will share a vision of how People’s Church might be known and experienced by members and friends, our children, visitors, and the wider Kalamazoo community.

With Rev. Rachel Lonberg
The Ministerial Search Committee, in close collaboration with Rev. Rachel Lonberg, will plan and lead all elements of this service.

With Diane Melvin and Youth
Our children and youth will share their perspectives during this annual inter-generational celebration.

With Rev. Dave Johnson
What decisive actions have you taken to leave behind places of deadness, and move into the light?

This service will celebrate the art of expressing ourselves poetically.

With Lynetta Carnes
Together we will consider why shamanism is considered one of the fastest-growing spiritual practices today.

With Rev. Dave Johnson
We’ll consider selections from the Harry Potter stories as telling signposts on our human journeys of faith development.

With Rev. Dave Johnson
We’ll explore implications of Lord Moulton’s model for our opportunities and challenges in strengthening “Right Relations” in our church and community.