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Raleigh Mennonite Church

As a Christian community, called to peacemaking and reconciliation, we affirm that people of any race, ethnic identity, gender, who are gay or straight, of any ability, age, or economic status, are welcome to full participation in our congregation.

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Stitching Stories from Prison – May 8, 2022

May 12, 2022

Cindy Locklear shares at RMC with crocheted prison awareness quilt in the background.

Scripture: Matthew 25:31-45 We were honored to have Sarah Jobe and Cindy Locklear share in today’s service. Melissa introduced chaplain Sarah Jobe from the Interfaith Prison Ministry for Women who shared about the prison awareness quilt crocheted by women incarcerated at North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women as they survived COVID in prison. Cindy shared […]

Stitching Stories from Prison – May 8, 2022

Tagged With: Gospel of Matthew, prison, testimonies, women's prison

Come and have breakfast – May 1, 2022

May 2, 2022

Melissa preaching at RMC on May 1, 2022

Scripture: John 21:1-19 Jesus visits the disciples a third time after his resurrection, this time as some of them have been fishing. “Where is Melissa going with this sermon?” That’s what many were thinking as she started her sermon, telling us that our bodies are “an island of creatures.” The real body of Jesus joins […]

Come and have breakfast – May 1, 2022

Tagged With: communion, community, Gospel of John, Melissa Florer-Bixler, microbiomes, resurrection

Being Tricksters – April 24, 2022

April 25, 2022

Melissa sitting on the floor telling a story to children who have their hands raised.

Melissa starts out with a story of Brer Rabbit for the children on this Holy Humor Sunday. She then recounts how those who had been enslaved in our country knew how to quietly and secretly assert their resistance, trickery, and humor. They would use ordinary means to confront power they could not fight openly. When […]

Being Tricksters – April 24, 2022

Tagged With: enslaved, holy humor, Jesus, Melissa Florer-Bixler, Psalms, trickery

Creation is reborn – April 17, 2022

April 17, 2022

Congregation facing forward, while Melissa preaches, Zoom screen in the background. Easter Sunday, 2022

On this Easter Sunday we celebrate that creation is reborn, and we with it. The tomb opens and life is born from it. You can’t thwart it or destroy it. You can’t even unbelieve it, or overpower it. Because all that’s left to do here is to bear witness.

Creation is reborn – April 17, 2022

Tagged With: Creation, Easter, Gospel of John, Melissa Florer-Bixler

Creation cries out – April 10, 2022

April 10, 2022

Melissa preaching at RMC on April 10, 2022

We’re brought up in a system that divides people from commodities. All that other stuff–oceans, animals, trees–all of it is neutral material used to benefit people to make us happier or richer, or to give us more space or more stuff. But we can’t separate ourselves from other creatures because over and over in the […]

Creation cries out – April 10, 2022

Tagged With: colt, Creation, donkey, Gospel of Luke, Melissa Florer-Bixler, Palm Sunday, stones

Pouring out Scarcity – April 3, 2022

April 3, 2022

Melissa preaching at RMC on April 3, 2022

In this continuing series during Lent, today’s story is about Mary pouring out expensive perfume, washing Jesus’ feet with it and drying his feet with her hair. Rather than agreeing with Judas’ chastisement for wasting money on such extravagance, Jesus says, “She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my […]

Pouring out Scarcity – April 3, 2022

Tagged With: Gospel of John, Lent, Melissa Florer-Bixler, Pouring out, scarcity, trust

The Angry son – March 26, 2022

March 28, 2022

The parable is The Prodigal Son but Melissa’s sermon focused on the older brother. The brother that stayed behind, served his father, tended the fields and flock and waited for his inheritance. He’s working in the field when his brother returns having squandered the inheritance he demanded while his father was still alive. Facing starvation […]

The Angry son – March 26, 2022

Tagged With: Gospel of Luke, Lent, Melissa Florer-Bixler, Pouring out, prodigal son, sermon

Pouring out Despair – March 20, 2022

March 21, 2022

Continuing the series during Lent, Melissa preached from Luke 13:1-9. Despair is that intractable boulder that won’t move. Despair is the feeling of weariness after prying and pushing and pulling with all your might. From the passage, Jesus doesn’t provide pat answers when folks come to him in despair. “No, I tell you, but unless […]

Pouring out Despair – March 20, 2022

Tagged With: compost, despair, Gospel of Luke, Lent, Melissa Florer-Bixler, new life, Pouring out, resurrection

Pouring out Expectations – March 13, 2022

March 13, 2022

Brian Recker preaching at Raleigh Mennonite on March 13, 2022

On this second Sunday of Lent, Brian Recker provided our sermon based on the passage from Luke 9:28-36. The last two years have been tough. During that time we’ve had lots of expectations that have been thwarted. Whether they were expectations in our personal lives or in the world around us, the last few years […]

Pouring out Expectations – March 13, 2022

Tagged With: Brian Recker, Expectations, Gospel of Luke, hope, Lent, Pouring out, transfiguration

Pouring out Control – March 6, 2022

March 6, 2022

Melissa preaching at RMC on March 6, 2022

On this first Sunday of Lent, Melissa preached from Luke 4:1-13, the story of Jesus’ temptation. The last two years of the pandemic have held untold losses. We are entering Lent brimming with trauma and fear of these past two years. We each have been holding in so much. It’s hard to know what the […]

Pouring out Control – March 6, 2022

Tagged With: Control, Gospel of Luke, Lent, Melissa Florer-Bixler, pandeminc, Pouring out

It may seem impossible to you – Feb. 27, 2022

February 27, 2022

Melissa preaching at RMC on Feb. 27, 2022.

Melissa preached from Zechariah 8:1-8. The passage begins with Zechariah prophesying of God’s jealousy. We tend to use the words jealousy, envy and coveting all interchangeably, but in the Bible there are important subtleties. Envy comes from emptiness. Jealousy comes from being full. God doesn’t want other things. God wants you. God’s jealous love is […]

It may seem impossible to you – Feb. 27, 2022

Tagged With: envy, jealousy, Melissa Florer-Bixler, Zechariah

The Wayfaring Stranger – Feb. 20, 2022

February 20, 2022

Chrys playing a Navaho flute and Pam playing guitar.erform on

Following the message this Sunday, Chrys and Pam performed a moving instrumental rendition of The Wayfaring Stranger.

The Wayfaring Stranger – Feb. 20, 2022

Tagged With: Chrys Browne, instrumental, Pam Bruns, song, The Wayfaring Stranger

Delighting in our Love, Understanding our Loneliness – Feb. 20, 2022

February 20, 2022

Susan Scott preaching at RMC on Feb. 20, 2022

Hearing a sermon from the sensuous passages found in the Song of Songs is pretty uncommon. Susan Scott provided an eloquent, humorous and insightful message on just that. What do the words in the Song of Songs teach us about God? For one, that God is not a prude. God is not squeamish or embarrassed […]

Delighting in our Love, Understanding our Loneliness – Feb. 20, 2022

Tagged With: Gospel of John, loneliness, longing, love, Song of Songs, Susan Scott

Yes, Look Up! – Feb. 13, 2022

February 13, 2022

Melissa preaching at RMC on Feb. 13, 2022

Today’s reading from Isaiah 16:1-5 opens us to a moment of a refugee crisis; we are reading about this massive disruption that happens across the Near East. Isaiah says “Like fluttering birds, like scattered nestlings, so are the daughters of Moab at the fords of the Arnon.” Due in large part to climate change, so […]

Yes, Look Up! – Feb. 13, 2022

Tagged With: climate change, Don't Look Up, Isaiah, Melissa Florer-Bixler, Tuvalu

Everything God Created is Good – Feb. 6, 2022

February 6, 2022

Melissa preaching at RMC on Feb. 6, 2022

1 Timothy 4:4-5 For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5 because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer. We love family heirlooms not because they are wood or steel or gold but because they are given in love and carry love within them. Your body […]

Everything God Created is Good – Feb. 6, 2022

Tagged With: I Timothy, Melissa Florer-Bixler, Zephanaiah

Bringing relevance to Leviticus – Jan. 30, 2022

January 31, 2022

Rachel preaching at RMC on Jan. 30, 2022

Rachel preached from a passage not often preached about, Leviticus 12:1-8. Leviticus is sometimes a book of the Bible that we need to read multiple times and keep wrestling with. The book spells out in a very nuts and bolts sort of way what it meant for the ancient Israelites to love your neighbor as […]

Bringing relevance to Leviticus – Jan. 30, 2022

Tagged With: gender equity, Gospel of Luke, Leviticus, parental support, Rachel Taylor

The Work of Healing – Jan. 23, 2022

January 24, 2022

Melissa preaching via Zoom on Jan. 23, 2022

Melissa recounts stories of Mennonites in Java–doing harm and learning to do better–as we reflect on what it means to be part of the larger global Christian church on World Anabaptist Sunday. Healing and restoration is always ongoing. We engage in repentance, over and over again, recognizing that this is how the reign of God […]

The Work of Healing – Jan. 23, 2022

Tagged With: Anabaptism, communion, Gospel of Matthew, healing, Indonesia, Isaiah, Melissa Florer-Bixler

A Gift in my Father’s House – January 16, 2022

January 16, 2022

We are facing disagreements that are deep, so deep because they’re conflicts about the most important questions facing us, the most significant questions of our faith. And some of us have come to learn that the people we love, who raised us in care and gentleness, are not only absent from the fight against dehumanization […]

A Gift in my Father’s House – January 16, 2022

Christ through the eyes of a child and the poor – Jan 2, 2022

January 2, 2022

Micah decries prophets who cry peace when they have something to eat and declare war against those who put nothing in their mouth. Micah looks out at the justice system and announces his disgust: its rulers give judgments for a bribe, its priests teach for a price, its prophets give oracles for money. The mystery […]

Christ through the eyes of a child and the poor – Jan 2, 2022

Tagged With: Christmas, Melissa Florer-Bixler, Micah

Common Things are Made Holy – Dec 26, 2021

December 26, 2021

Melissa spoke of St Ephrem who lived at the start of the fourth century. He was the son of poor farmers, falsely accused and imprisoned. When exonerated he makes his way to a monastery seeking solitude and a life devoted to writing poetry. But during a devastating famine he feels God calling him back to […]

Common Things are Made Holy – Dec 26, 2021

Tagged With: Ephrem, Jesus, Melissa Florer-Bixler

Redeemed from sexism – Dec. 19, 2021

December 22, 2021

Melissa Florer-Bixler preaching Dec. 19, 2021 at RMC.

On this fourth Sunday of Advent, Melissa spoke from 1 Samuel 1:19-28 and Matthew 1:18-25. Both Hannah and Mary faced incredible oppression and ridicule given their situations. But Elkanah and Joseph bear that shame along their wives. Elkanah and Joseph must both transgress the boundaries of their culture. These men recognize the power vested in […]

Redeemed from sexism – Dec. 19, 2021

Tagged With: feminism, Gospel of Matthew, I Samuel, Melissa Florer-Bixler, men, patriarchy, sexism

Giving Voice to the Voiceless – Dec. 12, 2021

December 12, 2021

Brian Recker speaking at RMC on Dec. 12, 2021

Brian Recker provided the sermon on this third Sunday of Advent based on the scripture passages in Judges 13:2-7 and Luke 1:46-56. The writer of Luke doesn’t keep Mary in the margins. Not only do we hear her voice in this passage, this is actually the longest set of words spoken by a woman in […]

Giving Voice to the Voiceless – Dec. 12, 2021

Tagged With: Brian Recker, Gospel of Luke, Judges, marginalized, Mary, women in the Bible

Joyful Resistance – Dec. 5, 2021

December 5, 2021

Melissa exclaiming with a broad smile when preaching at Raleigh Mennonite on Dec. 5, 2021

Elizabeth, herself pregnant, welcomes Mary and offers Mary a blessing. A blessing of resistance to the powers that be. … Read More →

Joyful Resistance – Dec. 5, 2021

Tagged With: Genesis, Gospel of Luke, Holy Spirit, Joy, Melissa Florer-Bixler, resistance, women in the Bible, women's prison

The Gift of the Spirit through Baptism – Nov. 21, 2021

November 21, 2021

Melissa preaching at RMC on Nov. 21, 2021

In this final sermon in the fall series on gifts, Melissa preached from Matthew 3:13-17 and Acts 2:1-13. The holy spirit is somehow both a gift and a giver of gifts. One of the awkward parts about Jesus’ baptism is that Jesus does not need to be baptized. Jesus does not need to receive the […]

The Gift of the Spirit through Baptism – Nov. 21, 2021

Tagged With: Acts, baptism, gifts, Gospel of Matthew, Holy Spirit, Melissa Florer-Bixler, water

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Mailing Address
& Meeting Location

Meeting Location
121 Hillsborough St.
Raleigh, NC 27603

Phone: 919-831-2969

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COVID-19 Update

We have begun worshipping in person at our downtown Raleigh location at Church of the Good Shepherd. We ask everyone to wear a mask and to be considerate of others’ COVID-related boundaries. We are continuing to provide the service via Zoom for those who are not able to join us in person. Please contact us if you'd like the Zoom connection information.

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