Sunday, Sep 13, 2026 | Still Here When the Wound Is Old

Pastor Eric continues the sermon series, Still Here: When Holding On Is Holy Enough, a four-week journey through the Hebrew Bible with people who had reached the end of themselves. In this service, we revisit the story of Joseph.

In Genesis 50, Joseph's brothers are terrified now that their father has died, and expect the revenge they have earned. Instead, Joseph weeps and says to them, "You intended to do harm to me, but God intended it for good."

For anyone carrying an old wound that has not fully closed, this is not the false comfort of "everything happens for a reason." It is something more sturdy: permission to name the harm, grieve its reality, and set down the exhausting work of keeping score.

In this service, we also welcome back our Chancel Choir, and gather together at the Lord's Table to celebrate Communion, a fitting act for a Sunday about reconciliation.

Accompanying scriptures are Romans 14:1-12 and Matthew 18:21-35.

Sunday, Sep 6, 2026 | Still Here When It’s Too Much

This Sunday Pastor Eric continues our sermon series, Still Here: When Holding On is Holy Enough, our four-week journey through the Hebrew Bible with people who had reached the end of themselves. Last week we sat with Jeremiah's burn out and honest complaint. This week we meet Ezekiel, handed a responsibility almost too heavy to carry.

God appoints Ezekiel a sentinel, a watchman responsible for warning others of danger. Anyone who has felt responsible for another person's wellbeing knows the weight of it: the parent, the caregiver, the friend who sees trouble coming, and any of us tired of watching the world get used to things we never agreed to. But, God interrupts Ezekiel's assignment with something that sounds almost like heartbreak: "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked... turn back, turn back." The responsibility God gave Ezekiel was never a cold demand. It flowed from a God who does not want to lose anyone, and who carries the weight with us.

Accompanying scriptures are Romans 13:8-14 and Matthew 18:15-20.

Sunday, Aug 30, 2026 | Still Here When You’re Burned Out

"Still Here: When Holding On is Holy Enough" is a new sermon series from Pastor Eric. Together, we will take a four-week journey through the Hebrew Bible with people who had reached the end of themselves. Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Joseph, and Jonah. These are not tidy people, and Scripture does not look away from them. In fact, it hands them the microphone. The series does not promise that everything is fine. It promises something better and harder—that holding on, barely and by a thread, turns out to be holy enough, because we are not the ones finally doing the holding.

In this first message of the series, we'll encounter Jeremiah who found himself where many people actually live: doing the faithful thing and quietly wondering if it is worth it. Jeremiah makes one of the most raw complaints in all of Scripture, and God does not strike him down for it. Honesty with God, it turns out, is not the opposite of faith. It may be its deepest form.

Accompanying scriptures are Romans 12:9-21 and Matthew 16:21-28.

Sunday, Aug 23, 2026 | Say It with Your Life

"Who do you say that I am?" Jesus puts the question to Peter, who answers correctly—only to discover that saying the words is just the beginning. A confession like this one isn't something you recite…it’s something you live. Join us this Sunday as Pastor Julie brings our summer series Tell Us a Story to a close with "Say It with Your Life" from Matthew 16:13-20.
 

Accompanying scriptures are Psalm 124 and Romans 12:1-8 (The Message)

Sunday, Aug 16, 2026 | Crumbs and Categories

In this service Pastor Julie preaches the message, "Crumbs and Categories," from Matthew 15:21-28. A Canaanite woman refuses to stop shouting for her daughter's life, even after Jesus tries to wave her off. She persists past the silence, past the dismissal, past every category that says she doesn't belong. This week we watch her change Jesus' mind. And we ask what that says about who gets a place at the table.

Accompanying scriptures are Psalm 133 and Romans 11:1-2a, 29-36.

Sunday, Aug 9, 2026 | Little Faith, Big Water

In this service, Pastor Julie preaches the message "Little Faith, Big Water" from Matthew 14:22-33. The disciples are alone on the sea, straining against the wind in the dark hours before dawn. The wind is against them. The waves are climbing into the boat when a figure appears walking toward them across the water. And then there's Peter, who starts to sink before he starts to believe. This story reminds us that faith isn't the absence of fear or doubt. Sometimes it's simply reaching for the hand that is already reaching for us.

Accompanying scriptures are Psalm 105:1-6 and Romans 10:5-15.

Sunday, Aug 2, 2026 | Five Loaves, Two Fish, No Math

The story doesn't add up—five loaves and two fish shouldn't feed thousands, but when offered to God in trust and thanksgiving, they become part of an unlimited treasury of blessing. Abundance that outruns arithmetic.

In this service, Pastor Julie preaches from Matthew 14:13-21, with accompanying texts from Psalm 17:1-7, 15 and Romans 9:1-5. We are invited to Christ's table for communion.

Sunday, Jul 26, 2026 | Hidden and Holy

Pastor Julie preaches in this service on Matthew 13:31–33, 44–51, accompanied by Psalm 119:129–136 and Romans 8:31–39.

A mustard seed. A pinch of yeast. A coin, a pearl, a net. In this service, we turn to five small stories about the reign of God—and how it keeps showing up in the most ordinary places. In these brief parables, Jesus points to a kindom that grows quietly, hides in plain sight, and turns up where we least expect it. Come and consider how the holy might be tucked into the ordinary corners of your own life.

Sunday, Jul 19, 2026 | Weeds, Wheat, and a God Who Waits

In this service, Pastor Julie leads worship with the sermon "Weeds, Wheat, and a God Who Waits," based on Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43. The message lingers in the discomfort of the not-yet-sorted, the not-yet-resolved space where wheat and weeds grow together in a field, and no one can yet tell which is which. This is the second stop in Tell Us a Story, the summer series on the parables of Matthew, each one stubbornly refusing to hand us a tidy answer. What does it mean to trust a God who waits for harvest instead of rushing to judgment? The accompanying scriptures are Psalm 86:11-17 and Romans 8:12-25.

Sunday, Jul 12, 2026 | Ground Work

NO VIDEO THIS WEEK - AUDIO ONLY

Pastor Eric preaches in this service on the Gospel text from Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23, accompanied by Isaiah 55:10–13 and Romans 8:1–6, 11. We know the story: a farmer scatters seed, and it lands on four kinds of ground. Most of us learned to hear it as a test—which soil are you? In a sermon titled "Ground Work," Pastor Eric asks a different question. What if the point isn't the soil at all, but the sower, who flings seed everywhere with reckless generosity, on rocky ground and good alike? God's word, Isaiah says, falls like rain that waters the earth whether or not it has earned it. The invitation isn't to improve ourselves; it's to notice the Spirit already at work in us.

This summer, Jesus tells stories in his typical way—sideways, unresolved, full of dirt and weeds and yeast. Small things turn holy. Bread multiplies. Peter sinks, then rises. A mother won't back down. A question won't let go. In this seven-week, ongoing conversation, we explore what it means to trust a God who grows what's good in the middle of a tangled, hungry, stormy world.

Sunday, Jul 5, 2026 | Two Parades

In this service, Pastor Julie preaches on "Two Parades." The Fourth of July has its parade. Zechariah 9 has another one. This Sunday brings a vision of a ruler who arrives not on a warhorse but on a donkey—and good news for anyone who's tired of the other parade.

Accompanying texts are Romans 7:15–25a and Matthew 11:16–19, 25–30.

Communion will be observed together in worship.

Sunday, June 28, 2026 | Eyes Up | Guest Preacher Rev. Brooke Holloway Blake

This Sunday we welcome guest preacher Rev. Brooke Holloway Blake to the pulpit. Her sermon “Eyes Up” is based on Philippians 3:4b-14, and additional readings are John 20:11–18 and Isaiah 43:18–19.

Brooke lives in Mount Rainier, Maryland, with her husband Jason and their lively four-year-old son, Makai. She is currently serving as the Suzii Paynter March Fellow with Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Advocacy, working with CBF churches on efforts to engage civic life through nonpartisan “Love Your Neighbor to the Voting Booth” initiatives. She is also building a photography business while navigating a season of vocational transition.

Brooke earned her M.Div. from Baylor University’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary in Waco, Texas, where she was formed for ministry and built lasting friendships with fellow pastors and leaders, including Pastor Julie, Tim, and Taylor, and Pastor Eric, who now serve at FBCDC.

Originally from Texas, she has lived in the DMV for 13 years. What began as a call to ministry in Arlington, Virginia, has become a long-term home shaped by community, formation, and a love for changing seasons.

Brooke delights in exploring the parks of the DMV with Makai, though in the height of summer, you are more likely to find them seeking out splash pads, shade, or any place with air-conditioning. Welcome, Brooke!

Sunday, Jun 21, 2026 | What If I'm Mad at God?

Honest, unvarnished, straight-from-the-gut prayer is everywhere in Scripture. Which raises a question worth sitting with: Why do so many of us think it's off-limits?

Moses didn't. In this Sunday's text, he tells God he's done—overwhelmed, furious, ready to quit. It is not a polite prayer. And yet it's the prayer God answers.

This Sunday, Pastor Julie closes the Honest to God series with an invitation to stop editing yourself before you come to God. Bring the anger. Bring the exhaustion. Bring the prayer you've been too careful to say.

Sermon text: Numbers 11:1-15. Accompanying scriptures are: Romans 6:1b-11 and Matthew 27:32-46.

Sunday, Jun 14, 2026 | What If I Can’t Forgive?

Our apologies for the sound. Thre were technical difficulties.

In this service, Pastor Julie takes a focused look at what forgiveness actually is, and what it isn't, and who, in the end, forgiveness is mostly for. Jesus said it plainly in the Lord's Prayer: forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. It may be the hardest thing he ever asked.

The sermon text is Matthew 6:5–15: the Lord's Prayer in its original context, tucked inside the Sermon on the Mount. Paul's words in Romans 5 add unexpected company: while we were still sinners. Forgiveness rarely waits for the other person to deserve it—which is what makes it so costly, and so freeing. Accompanying scriptures are Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19 and Romans 5:1-8.

Sunday, Jun 7, 2026 | What If I Can't Believe?

In this service, Pastor Julie begins a new series, Honest to God — three sermons for anyone who's tired of pretending when it comes to faith. The first is called What If I Can't Believe?

The philosopher Paul Tillich once wrote that doubt is not the opposite of faith — it is an element of it. The father in Mark 9 could have told him so. His son has suffered for years. The disciples couldn't help. And when Jesus finally comes down the mountain, this man says something that is less a confession than a cry: I believe; help my unbelief. He does not pretend. He does not perform certainty he doesn't have. He just stays — and says the truest thing he knows.

The accompanying text from Colossians 3:12–17 adds a surprising counterweight: a community clothed in compassion, bearing with one another, letting peace rule. Faith, it turns out, is rarely a solo act. We hold it together when none of us can hold it alone.

In this service, we will also share communion and receive a collection for our benevolence fund.

Sunday, May 31, 2026 | Aware and Amazed

The poet Mary Oliver believed that paying attention was a form of prayer. The writer of Psalm 8 would have agreed. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. The psalm begins and ends in wonder — but in between, the poet looks up at the moon and stars and asks something that sounds almost like despair: What are human beings, that you are mindful of them? It is the question of someone genuinely astonished by the scale of things, unsure where they fit.

In this service, Pastor Julie preaches the recovery of a posture from Psalm 8. Head back. Eyes open. Breath caught. The accompanying texts set the frame: Genesis, where God steps back again and again to call creation good; and Matthew, where the risen Jesus sends his followers into the world in the name of the one who is somehow Father, Son, and Spirit at once.

We live in an age of more information and less awe than almost any before us. Something has gone numb. Wonder, it turns out, is less about what we know than how we attend — and together we'll ask what it might take to get it back. The accompanying scriptures are Genesis 1:1–2:4 and Matthew 28:16–20.

Sunday, May 24, 2026 | Where the Breath Goes | Eric Mathis

In this service, Pastor Eric preaches on Pentecost Sunday with a message titled "Where the Breath Goes," drawn from John 20:19-23.

Kossowski, Adam. Veni Sancti Spiritus, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. [retrieved May 19, 2026]. Used with permission.

Most of us come to Pentecost through Acts 2 — the violent rush of wind, the divided tongues of fire, the city bewildered and Peter preaching to thousands. It is a loud, public, unmistakable arrival.

But John gives us a different Pentecost entirely, and it may be the one our moment most needs. The doors are locked — not as a failure of courage, but as an honest account of what fear does to people after the world has come apart. Into that room, Jesus comes. He speaks peace before he speaks commission. He shows his wounds before they rejoice. And then he breathes — the same word John's Greek shares with Genesis, when God breathed life into the dust of the earth.

This is new creation happening in a locked room. The Spirit, it turns out, doesn't wait for open doors or ready hearts. It goes where the breath goes — into the closed places, the wounded ones, the rooms we've sealed against the world. Accompanying scripture passages are Acts 2:1-21 and Psalm 104:24-34, 35b.

Sunday, May 17, 2026 | Joyful, Anyway | Pastor Eric

In this service, Pastor Eric preaches on Ascension Sunday with a message titled "Joyful, Anyway," drawn from Luke 24:44–53 (and yes, the title is borrowed from Kate Bowler's latest book). What do you do with the ache of absence? Most of us know it well — the moment something precious disappears, something we couldn't imagine living without, and the world shifts under our feet.

The disciples knew it too. They had just watched Jesus ascend into the sky, and what they were left with was space — wide, uncharted, a little terrifying. But here's what's strange: Luke says they returned to Jerusalem with great joy. Not grim determination. Not making the best of things. Joy. It may be that the absence created something — room for purpose, space to become who they had been made to be, an opening for the work only they could now do.

Kate Bowler has taught us that joy doesn't wait for circumstances to improve. Luke teaches us that joy comes from comprehension — minds opened, purpose clarified, blessing received. It was the kind of joy that ache, strangely, makes possible. Durable, grounded joy. The kind that lasts. Accompanying scripture passages are Psalm 47 and Ephesians 1:15–23.

Sunday, May 10, 2026 | Still Singing

In this service, Pastor Julie completes the Easter series, Still — The Ongoing Life of Resurrection, with a message titled "Still Singing," drawn from Acts 16:16-34.

Beaten, chained, and locked in the deepest part of the prison — Paul and Silas sang. There is a resurrection song in us that the world cannot silence. Fear is a powerful jailer. The Spirit is a better locksmith.

Accompanying scripture passages are Psalm 66:8-20 and Luke 8:26-39.

Sunday, May 3, 2026 | Still Listening

In this service, Pastor Julie continues the Easter series, Still — The Ongoing Life of Resurrection, with a message titled "Still Listening," drawn from Acts 16:9-15.

There was no blueprint. No strategic plan. Just a vision in the night and a group of believers learning to follow the Spirit's lead. What if that's still how it works? A reflection on discernment, obedience, and the surprising places the Spirit leads us.

Accompanying scripture passages are Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16 and Mark 10:46-52. We also partake in communion together, and collect our first Sunday benevolence offering.