The Neighborhood Podcast
This is a podcast of Guilford Park Presbyterian Church in Greensboro, North Carolina featuring guests from both inside the church and the surrounding community. Hosted by Rev. Dr. Stephen M. Fearing, Head of Staff.
Episodes
108 episodes
"Loss and Gain" (May 10, 2026 Sermon)
Preaching: Rev. Dr. Stephen M. FearingText: Philippians 3If you’ve ever felt like you’re doing everything right and still falling behind, you’re not alone and you’re not broken. We’re talking about the hidden “ledger” so many of u...
Mission Sunday And The Gift Of Service
Guest Speaker: Joe Thompson, Interfaith Housing InitiativeAffordable housing isn’t a buzzword when you’re short 14,000 units, and it’s not solved by good intentions alone. We take Mission Sunday seriously by linking Scripture’s call to s...
"Jesus Shows Us the Way Down" (April 26, 2026 Sermon)
Text: Philippians 2Preaching: Rev. Dr. Stephen M. FearingWe spend so much of our lives trying to get to the top and we’re taught to call that “success.” More followers, more money, more influence, more control. But Philippians 2 c...
"Saving Eutychus" (April 19, 2026 Sermon)
Preaching: Rev. Dr. Stephen M. FearingText: Acts 20:7-12Someone really does fall asleep during a sermon in the Bible, and it’s not just a quirky story. We start with Eutychus in Acts 20 and sit with the uncomfortable truth behind ...
"Joy That Can't Be Chained" (April 12, 2026 Sermon)
Preaching: Rev. Dr. Stephen M. FearingText: Philippians 1Joy is easy to talk about when life is calm. It’s harder to trust when the bills stack up, the news cycle stays violent, and your own energy feels gone. We turn to Philippia...
"The Good News Is...Alive in the World" (April 5, 2026 Sermon)
Preaching: Rev. Dr. Stephen M. FearingText: Matthew 28:1-10Easter starts at a tomb, but it doesn’t stay there. We open with prayer and Matthew’s resurrection story, then sit with a line from Mary Oliver that changes the frame: Eas...
"The Good News Is...Revealed Through Nonviolence" (April 3, 2026 Sermon)
Preaching: Rev. Dr. Kathryn G. N. CampbellText: Luke 22:47-53; 23:33-38, 44-46Good Friday is the day we want to fast-forward and we’re convinced that’s exactly why we shouldn’t. We start with prayer and Luke’s Passion narrative, t...
"The Good News Is...Even Judas Gets His Feet Washed" (April 2, 2026 Sermon)
Preaching: Rev. Dr. Stephen M. FearingText: John 13:1-35Judas at the table is hard enough. Judas with clean feet is worse. We start with an honest confession: we don’t naturally know how to live in a world where the betrayer recei...
"The Good News Is...Inspiring Us to Act" (March 29, 2026 Sermon)
Text: Mark 11:1-11Preaching: Rev. Dr. Stephen M. FearingPower rarely looks the way we expect it to. We start with prayer and Mark 11’s Palm Sunday scene, then sit with an uncomfortable truth: we often fail to recognize what we mos...
"The Good News Is...Rooted in Justice, Mercy, and Faithfulness" (March 22, 2026 Sermon)
Preaching: Rev. Dr. Stephen M. FearingTexts: Matthew 23:23 & John 8:2-11Nuance didn’t disappear by accident; we traded it for speed, certainty, and the rush of being right. We feel the fallout everywhere: online arguments that...
Mark’s Abrupt Ending (March 18, 2026 Wednesday Nigh Sunday School)
Mark ends his Gospel with an empty tomb, a breathtaking claim, and then one of the strangest final lines in the Bible: the women run away and say nothing because they are afraid. That’s it. No closing appearance of Jesus. No tidy wrap-up. If yo...
"The Good News Is...Protection and Care for the Vulnerable" (March 15, 2026 Sermon)
The simplest commands can be the hardest to hear: make room, share what you have, protect the overlooked, welcome the ones society treats as interruptions. We start with a prayer for open space in our hearts, then let Deuteronomy 24 and Matthew...
A Crash Course On Eucharist Theology Through Hymns
Communion can feel familiar until you stop and ask what it actually means and what it demands. We run a tight, 28-minute crash course on the theology of the Eucharist using the 1982 Lima Document, a landmark ecumenical statement from Catholic, ...
"The Good News Is...Together, the Impossible Is Possible" (March 8, 2026 Sermon)
Preaching: Rev. Dr. Stephen M. FearingTexts: Ephesians 3:20-21 & Mark 6:32-44What if the miracle isn’t only in the multiplying, but in the mobilizing? We open with breath and blessing, then step into Ephesians 3 and the feedin...
"The Good News Is...Great Love for God and Neighbor" (March 1, 2026 Sermon)
Preaching: Rev. Dr. Stephen M. FearingTexts: Matthew 25:35-40 & Luke 7:36-50A quiet act can carry a whole sermon. We open Matthew 25 and step into Luke 7 to watch a nameless woman kneel with an alabaster jar, turning tears int...
Honoring Black History Month: a GPPC Hymn Sing
A hymn sing can be a history lesson, a prayer meeting, and a freedom school all at once. We gathered to honor Black History Month by lifting African American spirituals out of the margins and into the center, pairing each song with the stories ...
"The Good News Is...So Good it Catches Us by Surprise" (February 22, 2026 Sermon)
Texts: John 2:1-11 & Matthew 13:31-32Preaching: Rev. Dr. Stephen M. FearingWhat if Lent began with laughter, a full dance floor, and a secret only a few people notice? We kick off a different kind of season by walking through ...
"The Good News Is...All Are Invited" (February 18, 2026 Sermon)
Text: Luke 14:15-24Preaching: Rev. Dr. Stephen M. FearingWhat if Lent felt like an RSVP instead of a diet for the soul? We open the season by stepping into Jesus’s parable of the Great Banquet in Luke 14, where the first invitees ...
"You Were Built for the Road" (Sunday 15, 2026 Sermon)
Preaching: Owen BealeWhat if the clearest map for your calling looks a lot like a dashboard? We open Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12 and trace a living metaphor: you are designed like a car, uniquely engineered for a purpose, meant to mov...
Wilmington's Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy (February 15, 2026 Sunday School)
A city was thriving, a lie took hold, and democracy was overturned. We gather to unpack Wilmington’s Lie and trace how a coordinated white supremacy campaign in 1898 used fear, newspapers, and even pulpits to justify a violent coup—then rewrote...
"So Glad You Could Make It" (February 8, 2026 Sermon)
Preaching: Dylan LewellynWhat if “so glad you made it” isn’t the finish line, but the starting bell? We open with Genesis 2 and Revelation 21, then move through a seminary walk, a well-timed lyric, and a fragile cat to uncover a deeper t...
"Pay Attention. Be Astonished. Tell About It." (February 1, 2026 Sermon)
Preaching: Rev. Dr. Stephen M. FearingTexts: Proverbs 4:25-27 & Philippians 4:6-9What happens when Scripture sits on the bench and your phone takes the stand? We put social media and AI through a playful mock trial, using Phil...
From Doomscrolling To Discernment (February 1, 2026 Worship Service)
What happens when you put social media and AI on trial using Scripture as the judge? We invite you into a creative, candid journey through anxiety, attention, and the spiritual disciplines that help us live with peace in a noisy world. Grounded...
Finding Faith And Calm Through Mary Oliver’s Poetry
A winter storm closed our doors, but not our hearts. We met from living rooms and kitchen tables, lit by lamps and laptop screens, to breathe, pray, and remember what steadies us when the world feels heavy. Guided by Mary Oliver’s poetry and th...
"Rest for Your Soul: Embracing God’s Invitation" (January 18, 2026 Sermon)
Preacher: Rev. Dr. Stephen M. FearingTexts: Jeremiah 6:16 & Matthew 11:28-30 When the world shouts from every screen, how do we stay awake to suffering without burning out our souls? We open with Jeremiah’s call to “stand...