Ruth: A Story of Redemption | Week 3 — The Threshing Floor
Chapter two was about staying in the field. Chapter three is about going further than that.
This week Pastor Mike Lyle preaches Ruth 3, where Naomi tells Ruth to go down to the threshing floor at night, uncover the feet of Boaz, and lie down. It is one of the boldest moments in Scripture — a foreign widow asking a landowner to do what only a redeemer can do. Don’t just glean near the Redeemer. Lie down at His feet and ask.
And Mike takes us into the threshing floor itself. It’s where the grain gets beaten, where the stalk is broken open and the chaff is driven off by the wind. It sounds like judgment. It isn’t. The threshing floor doesn’t destroy the grain — it frees it. Scripture keeps returning to that ground: the place where God said He would meet with His people above the mercy seat, where judgment is turned into mercy and a hiding place becomes a meeting place.
Ruth asks Boaz to spread the corner of his garment over her — the same image God uses in Ezekiel when He describes covenant love, I covered you, and you became mine. Boaz doesn’t just agree. He sends her home with six measures of barley before anything is settled, because the Redeemer never sends you home empty.
Then comes the hardest part of the chapter: wait. Wait and see how the matter turns out. Come to Him who gives rest to the weary, draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, and then wait for the Lord — they who wait on Him renew their strength.
“Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace.” — Hebrews 4:16
Ruth: Week 2
November 1, 2026 • Mike Lyle
Ruth: A Story of Redemption | Week 2 — Stay in His Field
Ruth shows up in Bethlehem as a widow, a foreigner, and a nobody — and goes out to glean. Chapter two tells us she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz. The Bible says it casually, almost like a coincidence. It isn’t one. Nothing in His field is an accident.
This week Pastor Mike Lyle preaches the field: the gleaning laws God wrote into Israel’s life so that the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow would never go hungry; the landowner who notices a gleaner nobody else would have looked at; and the simple instruction Boaz gives her — stay in my field.
Because here’s the thing. Every other field in Moab and Bethlehem promises a harvest. Only His field offers protection. The most dangerous fields are the ones with no owner watching over you. God never separates His provision from His people, and He doesn’t just give Ruth grain — He gives her a place under His wings.
And then Mike turns it around on us. Boaz was a man who made his land a safe place for the vulnerable to gather what they needed. That’s the invitation to the church: let’s be the field where the gleaners are safe.
“The Lord repay you... under whose wings you have come to take refuge.” — Ruth 2:12
Ruth: Week 1
October 25, 2026 • Mike Lyle
Pastor Mike Lyle opens our new series in the book of Ruth — and it starts in a season when everyone did what was right in their own eyes (Judges 21:25).
There's a famine in Bethlehem. The name means house of bread, and there's no bread in it. So Elimelech takes his family to Moab, and he goes for a little while. That's always how it starts. But temporary compromises have a way of becoming permanent addresses — and ten years later, Naomi has buried a husband and two sons in a country that was never supposed to be home.
This week Mike walks us through the hard mercy of chapter one: that there is a way that seems right to us whose end is death, and that when there's no bread in Bethlehem the answer was never Moab. It was always God. He also shows us the fork in the road where two women make opposite choices — Orpah kisses her mother-in-law goodbye and goes back, and Ruth clings to her and won't let go. One leaves. One says, where you go I will go.
Naomi comes home telling everyone to call her bitter, convinced she left full and returned empty. But she arrives at the beginning of the barley harvest. Your story may say empty. God's timing says harvest.
"Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy!" — Psalm 126:5
The Art of Neighboring | Week 6
October 18, 2026 • Mike Lyle
The Art of Neighboring | Week 6 — Better Together
We close the series where it was always headed: we were never meant to do this alone.
This week, Pastor Mike Lyle wraps up The Art of Neighboring with a look at what happens when a neighborhood stops being a collection of separate households and starts becoming something shared. Not a program the church runs, but people who have learned to actually see one another — and to let themselves be seen in return.
That kind of mutual awareness changes things. When you know what your neighbor is carrying, you can't un-know it. When they know what you're carrying, you stop pretending you have it handled. That's where real community starts, and it's where the Kingdom of God tends to show up: not in the big event, but in people who have become genuinely perceptive of one another's lives.
We're better together — not as a slogan, but as the design. God put us near each other on purpose.
"Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ." — Galatians 6:2
The Art of Neighboring | Week 5
October 11, 2026 • Kim Strondak, Larry Strondak
The Art of Neighboring | Week 5 — Larry & Kim Strondak
This week the series gets personal, as Larry and Kim Strondak share what neighboring has actually looked like in their lives.
Larry tells the story of a neighbor who freely admitted to being a "bad neighbor" — and what happened when Larry stayed in relationship with him anyway. He also shares about the friendships that have quietly grown across his neighborhood over time, and a conviction the Lord brought him to along the way: that he had been putting the Great Commission ahead of the Greatest Commandment. Going out into all the world is a lot easier than loving the people on your own street.
Kim shares how the Lord met her in her corporate job and asked her to do something that made no business sense — love her competition instead of being driven by fear of them. Encouraged by her boss to build a "War Board," Kim made a Friendship Board instead. God used it not only to grow her business, but to teach her what it means to love her neighbors in the marketplace.
Two stories, one lesson: the command to love your neighbor doesn't stop at your property line, and it doesn't pause when you clock in.
"Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these." — Mark 12:31
The Art of Neighboring | Week 4
October 4, 2026 • Mike Lyle
The Art of Neighboring | Week 4 — Relationship: Moving from Stranger to Friend
Learning a name is a start. It isn't a friendship.
Most of us have neighbors we'd call by name if we passed them in the driveway — and still couldn't tell you one real thing about their lives. That's not a failure of character. It's just what happens when nothing intentional ever interrupts the default.
This week, Pastor Mike Lyle walks us through the move from stranger to acquaintance to genuine relationship, and why that progression almost never happens by accident. It requires time we'd rather spend elsewhere, conversations that go a layer deeper than the weather, and a willingness to be known ourselves — which is usually the part that scares us most.
Jesus didn't love people from a safe distance. He ate with them, stayed in their homes, and let Himself be interrupted. If we're going to love our neighbors the way He did, it's going to cost us some of the same things.
"We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well." — 1 Thessalonians 2:8
The Art of Neighboring: Week 1
September 13, 2026 • Mike Lyle
The Art of Neighboring | Week 1 — Who Is My Neighbor?
It's the question that started it all. A man who knew the law asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" — and he asked it hoping for a boundary line. Something manageable. Something that would let him off the hook for everyone outside it.
Jesus answered with a story instead.
This week, Pastor Mike Lyle opens our new series with the question underneath the question: not who counts as my neighbor, but am I willing to be one? We'll look at how quickly the call to love our neighbor gets abstracted into something safely distant, and what happens when we bring it back down to the street we actually live on.
The hard part isn't understanding this command. It's that most of us can't name the people who live closest to us. That's where the series begins.
"Who is my neighbor?" — Luke 10:29
Beautiful Things: Week 6
September 6, 2026 • Jess Ray, Mike Lyle
This week, Jess Ray shares the story of a marriage that had reached the brink — the point where divorce felt less like a decision and more like an inevitability. But God had another plan, and it started in a way Jess didn't see coming: with her husband Todd giving his life to the Lord.
What followed wasn't instant. Jess talks about the steady, patient work of God in the years that came after — the slow healing of broken things, the trust that had to be rebuilt piece by piece, and what it looks like when the Lord restores something that both people had nearly given up on.
If your marriage feels like it's past saving, or you're waiting on God to move in someone you love, this conversation is for you.
"He has made everything beautiful in its time." — Ecclesiastes 3:11
Beautiful Things: Week 5
August 30, 2026 • Bill Filbeck, Mike Lyle
Some seasons take everything at once.
This week, Bill Filbeck sits down with Pastor Mike Lyle to talk about a stretch of life marked by loss on nearly every side — the death of his father, other close relatives gone in a short span of time, and the ending of a romantic relationship. It was the kind of season where the ground doesn't stop shifting long enough to catch your breath.
Bill shares how God reached toward him in that desperation, not with easy answers, but through profound encounters that met him exactly where he was. And he talks about what came after: the slow, deliberate work of God rebuilding a life from the ground up.
Beauty from ashes. If you're in a season of grief, or wondering whether God is present in the losses you didn't choose, this conversation is for you.
"He has made everything beautiful in its time." — Ecclesiastes 3:11
Beautiful Things: Week 4
August 23, 2026 • Kristin Elie, Mike Lyle • Ecclesiastes 3:11
Beautiful Things | Week 4 — Kristin Elie
Sometimes the beautiful thing God is making doesn't look beautiful while He's making it.
This week, Pastor Mike Lyle sits down with Kristin Elie as she shares the story of a complicated childbirth, the complications that followed, and what it was like to walk through it as a family. Kristin talks openly about how the Lord met her and her husband Brandon in their marriage during that season, and how the birth of their son James became a place where God showed up in ways she could never have imagined.
She also speaks honestly about the parts of the journey we don't always say out loud — the pain, the fear, and the anger. Kristin shares how God didn't wait for her to have it all together before He met her. He came into the middle of it.
If you're carrying something hard right now, or wondering if God can handle your honest questions, this conversation is for you.
"He has made everything beautiful in its time." — Ecclesiastes 3:11
Beautiful Things: Week 3
August 16, 2026 • Dick Ray, Todd Ray
God doesn't only save souls. He restores marriages, redeems ordinary Mondays, and shows up in the places we'd never think to look for Him — including a dental office.
This week, Dick Ray sits down with Todd Ray to hear the story of how Jesus found him, what it looked like when the Lord stepped into a marriage that needed rescuing, and how Todd began intentionally inviting the Kingdom of God into the rhythms of his week rather than reserving Him for Sunday mornings.
Todd, who owns and operates his own dental practice, also shares about a moment when the Kingdom of God broke into his workplace in a way he could never have planned, predicted, or engineered — the kind of story that reminds us God is very much at work in the middle of our normal, unglamorous weeks.
If you've ever wondered whether your job, your marriage, or your ordinary Tuesday could be a place where God does something beautiful, this conversation is for you.
"He has made everything beautiful in its time." — Ecclesiastes 3:11
Beautiful Things: Week 2
August 9, 2026 • Alexis Madore, Mike Lyle • Ecclesiastes 3:11
Beautiful Things — Week 2: Alexis Madore's Story
Some of us come to God with our lives already in pieces. This week, Pastor Mike Lyle sits down with Alexis Madore, one of the Youth Leaders at Mechanic Falls Vineyard, as she shares her testimony of how God found her in the middle of brokenness and rescued her.
Scripture never promises us a life without breaking. What it promises is a God who doesn't discard broken things. He gathers the pieces — the shame, the wreckage, the years we thought were wasted — and He makes something new. Not patched. Not repaired. New. The very places we've hidden become the places His beauty shows most clearly, and the story we were most afraid to tell becomes the one that sets someone else free.
Alexis's story is a living picture of that promise. If you've ever wondered whether God could do anything with your past, this conversation is for you.
"He has made everything beautiful in its time." — Ecclesiastes 3:11
The Sacred Ordinary
July 5, 2026 • Josh Ray
We tend to expect God to show up in the spectacular — the mountaintop, the miracle, the moment we finally have it all figured out. But most of the Kingdom of God happens in the dirt. In the school drop-off. In the bedside prayers. In the lawn we mow and the meals we cook and the tired conversations at the end of a long day.
In this continuation of our Kingdom of God series, Josh invites us out of the 30,000-foot view of faith and into something far more personal: the specific, everyday places where God is already at work. Not just "God has a plan for your life," but "God has a vision for my marriage. For my kids. For my health. For this one thing I keep bringing to Him."
Drawing from his own story — building a home on family land, praying boldly over his children, and battling the quiet lies we all learn to agree with — Josh gently makes the case that outward appearances are no substitute for the real thing. The sacred work of Jesus doesn't happen on the surface; it happens as we let Him restore, one thing at a time, the parts of us we'd rather keep looking neat.
Whether you're in a spectacular season or a deeply ordinary one, this message is an invitation to notice where the sacred is already meeting you in the ordinary — and to say yes to God's vision for the small, specific things.
Join us at Mechanic Falls Vineyard Church as we keep discovering life in His Kingdom.
The Heart Of A Father
June 14, 2026
Pastor Mike Lyle invites us into one of the most tender and transformative truths of our faith: God is not a distant ruler issuing decrees from a throne we'll never approach. He is a Father. And His heart toward you is closer, kinder, and more relentlessly good than you've probably let yourself believe.
So much of how we live — how we pray, how we serve, how we respond to failure — flows directly from how we picture the face of God when we close our eyes. If we see a Father who is disappointed, distant, or hard to please, we'll live small, anxious lives. But if we see Him as He really is — running toward us, arms open, delighting in our return — everything changes.
Whether you grew up with a beautiful picture of fatherhood or a painful one, this message is an invitation to come home to the Father whose heart has been turned toward you all along.
Join us at Mechanic Falls Vineyard Church as we keep exploring life in His Kingdom.
Knowing God
June 7, 2026 • Ryan Burnham
Knowing God | Kingdom of God Series | Ryan Burnham
In John 10, Jesus says, "I am the gate" — and in the very same breath, "I am the Good Shepherd." Two pictures. One Savior. In this continuation of our Kingdom of God series, Ryan Burnham walks us through one of the most quietly challenging invitations in all of Scripture. Many of us, Ryan explains, stop at the gate. We hear that Jesus is the way in, we walk through, and we settle there — content that we've been saved, certain there's nothing more required. But the gate was never the destination. It was the doorway.
Jesus doesn't just save us; He shepherds us. He knows His sheep by name. He leads them to still waters. He calls them out into pastures they could never find on their own. To know God — really know Him — is to keep walking past the entrance and into the life He's prepared on the other side.
If you've ever wondered whether there's more to following Jesus than the moment you said yes, this message is for you. Join us at Mechanic Falls Vineyard Church as we keep discovering what it means to live deeply in His Kingdom.
Find Your Place
May 24, 2026
What if the Kingdom of God is less like a crowd and more like a puzzle — with a specific, shaped space that only you can fill?
In this continuation of our Kingdom of God series, Pastor Mike Lyle unpacks what it means to discover your unique role in the body of Christ. Drawing from the imagery of a puzzle, Pastor Mike reminds us that every piece matters: no gift is too small, no calling is insignificant, and no one else can fit quite where you're meant to be. When even one piece is missing, the picture is incomplete.
Whether you're still searching for where you belong, second-guessing the gifts God has given you, or ready to step more fully into your calling, this message is an invitation to start embracing who God designed you to be.
Join us at Mechanic Falls Vineyard Church as we keep exploring what it means to live as citizens of His Kingdom!
A Willingness To Serve
May 17, 2026 • Mike Lyle
The Kingdom of God: A Willingness to Serve
In this week's episode of our ongoing series on the Kingdom of God, Pastor Mike Lyle of Mechanic Falls Vineyard explores what it means to live with a posture of servanthood. Drawing from the wedding at Cana, Mike turns our attention to an often-overlooked group in the story: the servants. Their quiet obedience to Jesus' instructions—filling jars with water without knowing what would come next—becomes a powerful picture of faithful service in God's Kingdom.
Mike also reflects on the legacy of John Wimber, founder of the Vineyard movement, whose vision of servant leadership continues to shape how we follow Jesus together. Wimber's conviction that "everybody gets to play" was rooted in a deeper truth—that the Kingdom advances through humble hearts willing to do whatever the Master asks.
Join us as we consider what it looks like to say yes to serving, even in the small and hidden moments.
Reorientated By The Resurrection
May 10, 2026 • Mitsie McKellick
The resurrection of Jesus isn't just a historical event to believe in—it's a reality that reshapes how we see everything. In this message, Mitsie McKellick invites us to consider how the risen Christ reorients our priorities, our hopes, and our daily lives. Join us as we explore what it means to live as people transformed by the power of the empty tomb.
Planted On Purpose
April 26, 2026 • Mike Lyle
You weren't placed here by accident. The job you have, the neighborhood you live in, the people around your dinner table, the season you're walking through right now — none of it is random. God is a deliberate gardener, and where He plants you, He intends to grow something for His Kingdom.
In this message, we'll explore what it means to live with the awareness that you are positioned, not just present. Scripture is full of people who discovered their ordinary circumstances were actually divine assignments — Esther in a palace, Joseph in a prison, the Samaritan woman at a well. Each one was planted on purpose, for a purpose.
If you've ever wondered whether your life matters, whether your story counts, or whether God can really use someone like you — this one is for you.
The Awkward In-Between
April 12, 2026 • Larry Strondak
We all know the feeling — God has spoken a promise over your life, the kingdom feels close, and yet you find yourself waiting. In this episode, we explore the tension between the expectation of God’s kingdom and the reality of waiting for His promises to be fulfilled. These in-between spaces can feel unsettling, even easy to dismiss. But what if they’re not wasted time? What if God is doing some of His most profound work in the very places that feel the most unfinished? Join us as Larry Strondak helps us discover how God meets us in the middle — in the transitions, the not-yets, and the almost-theres — and why the awkward in between might be exactly where He wants us!
Easter Sunday
April 5, 2026 • Mike Lyle
He was dead. The stone was sealed. The soldiers stood guard. And then… everything changed.
This Easter Sunday, we’re diving into the most electrifying, jaw-dropping, history-splitting moment the world has ever seen — the resurrection of Jesus Christ! This isn’t just an ancient story gathering dust in a history book. This is a living, breathing, right-now reality that has the power to transform your life today.
In this special Easter message, we’ll explore:
✨ Why the empty tomb is the best news you’ll ever hear
🎉 What the resurrection means for your story — right where you are
💪 How the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is available to you today
Whether you’re a longtime believer who needs a fresh spark of wonder, someone who just wandered in curious, or a skeptic willing to give it a shot — this episode is for YOU. Grab your coffee, bring a friend, and get ready to celebrate.
Because the grave couldn’t hold Him. Darkness didn’t win. And that changes everything.
He is risen — and that’s worth celebrating! 🙌
