New Life Downtown

Pastor Glenn Packiam lays the foundation for a new series on learning to listen to God. From speaking the world into existence to calling out to Adam in the garden and Abraham from his father's house, the God of Scripture is a speaking God. In Jesus, the Word became flesh. And now, the Spirit has been given so that Jesus might be revealed and His mission might continue through us.

The Fall is a beautiful season, and also a beautiful reminder of change. Pastor Evan walks us through the tougher side of change, and the discipline opportunities that comes through hardship.

As humans, we have to live with hope, with a sense of expectation. But what is Christian hope? For many in the Church, hope is simply a vision of heaven that represents evacuation and compensation; and for those outside the church, heaven is just a screen onto which we project our fantasies and wishes. But hope, as confessed in the Nicene Creed, is richer and more robust than we have imagined. Pas...

In a world where the notion of sin seems archaic and irrelevant, the sacrament of baptism can appear rather strange. Pastor Glenn Packiam unpacks three powerful Biblical metaphors that each shed a particular light on the meaning of baptism as a passing from death to life. Through the process, we come to grips with the power of what it means to be really and truly forgiven of our sins.

For most Christians, it is not a challenge to confess faith in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But to say that we believe in the Church? That seems like a stretch. Pastor Glenn Packiam gives voice to four common objections to the Church, and shows how each word in this sentence of the Creed invites us to confess a different "now but not yet" reality of the Church.

If we had stopped earlier in our series, we may be tempted to think of the Christian faith as an intellectual achievement. But professing faith in the Holy Spirit reminds us that faith is not about becoming better people; it's about sharing in God's life. Pastor Glenn Packiam helps us embrace the Holy Spirit as God's personal and empowering presence in our lives.

If the deep human questions are if there is more to this life, if we have purpose, and if we have hope for the future, then the answers according to the world's unofficial creed is that this life is all there is so live it up, purpose is based on achievement, and the future is either progress or inevitable doom. Yet this stanza of the Nicene Creed offers us the counter-narrative of the Gospel and...

On this family Sunday, Pastor Evan Reedall takes us into what it means that we are made in the image of God. We get to share in his attributes by our creation. Surprisingly, we also have opportunity to share in certain attributes by our fall. For when sin abounds, grace abounds all the more!

As our series on the Nicene Creed continues, we explore the full humanity of Jesus. Pastor Glenn Packiam helps us see what it means to say that because Jesus took on the frailty of our humanity we can become whole. In this most personal section of the Creed, we move from our action of believing to our reception of the miraculous salvation of God.

Our series on the Nicene Creed continues as we begin the first part of learning to confess rightly who Jesus is. Pastor Glenn Packiam unpacks each phrase in this section of the Creed, helping us understand how the early Christians came to believe in the divinity of Christ and why it matters for us.

In this series on the Nicene Creed, Pastor Glenn Packiam helps us see how the Creed is an instrument of unity, an outline of Christian theology, and a guide in uncertainty. This first sermon in the series also lays the groundwork for the rest of the series by distinguishing 'we believe in' from 'I know that'. Then, walking through the first stanza of the Creed phrase by phrase, we come to stand in...

In the conclusion to this brief survey of the Psalms, Pastor Glenn Packiam unpacks Psalm 95 as a hymn which includes both an invitation to praise and reasons for praise. The reasons for praise are clear: God is a great God, and God is our God. Praise has the power to break our habit of self-reliance. But more than that: it is the only way to complete our joy.

A thanksgiving psalm is one that reframes a lament in past tense and fulfills the vow to praise. In this special sermon, Pastor Glenn Packiam interviews Pastor Evan and Karen Reedall about the traumatic birth of their firstborn child and his miraculous road to recovery. Even in weakness, our trust in God opens a door to thanksgiving.

Declaration is a powerful strategy that helps bring into focus our knowledge of the goodness of God. Pastor Joey Jimenez shows us how the language of declaration can be used to help Remind, Reinforce, and Release that knowledge into our present and future circumstances.

In this new series that surveys major themes of the Psalms, Pastor Glenn Packiam begins with a look at how the psalmists bring their petitions and even their protests before the Lord. We discover that petition and protest are ways of affirming God?s sovereignty, faithfulness, and goodness. But above all, these aspect of prayer are simply pathways into intimacy with God.

In the conclusion to the series on Ecclesiastes, Pastor Glenn Packiam helps us understand why the Teacher sums things up the way he does. When good things become gods, they became like demons that destroy life. It takes faith - in God alone - to enjoy finite things. When we learn this, all the good gifts in life are no longer idols but icons, which radiate with God's glory and love.

Pete Greig-- leader of the international 24-7 prayer movement, director of prayer for Alpha International, and pastor of Emmaus Road church in Guildford, England-- continues his look at the Lord's Prayer by unpacking what it means to participate with the Kingdom's arrival on earth. In prayer, we do not look for God to give His yes to what we're doing, but rather look to add our Amen to what God is...

Drawing on the quote from St. Augustine that God puts salt on our lips to awaken our thirst for Him, Pete Greig-- leader of the international 24-7 prayer movement, director of prayer for Alpha International, and pastor of Emmaus Road church in Guildford, England-- unpacks The Lord's Prayer as the why, what and how to prayer. In this first sermon, he awakens our thirst for God by helping us see the...

Pastor Andrew Arndt continues the series through the book of Ecclesiastes. We look and wrestle with text that says, "And the spirit returns to God who gave it" (Eccl 12:7). What is the point of life "under the sun"? Is it just to accumulate wealth and power, or to live a life of uninterrupted pleasure? Or is it something else? As the journey through Ecclesiastes begins to near its end, an answer t...

If there are limits to life under the sun, how should we live here? Should we play it safe and put life on hold until we get to heaven? Pastor Glenn Packiam walks us through Ecclesiastes 11, showing the risks of both investment and non-investment. Yet the life the Christian is called to is one that takes on the posture of open hands, freely receiving and freely giving.

We all know we need wisdom, but what keeps us from asking others for it? Moreover, how do we know the right people to ask? Pastor Glenn Packiam helps us navigate these questions from Ecclesiastes 9, and then challenges us to let the wisdom of God as revealed in the cross of Christ challenge our notions of wisdom today.

We have an aversion to negativity and sadness. Yet the Teacher in Ecclesiastes 7 tells us there is more benefit from sorrow than from joy. Pastor Glenn Packiam helps us understand how sorrow proves our love, purifies our love, and ultimately points us to the only Love that can make us whole.

What we do when we are confronted with our limitations, the boundaries of our power and perspective? Ecclesiastes reminds us that God is in heaven and we are on earth. Under the open sky at Church in the Park, Pastor Glenn Packiam calls us to let mystery lead us to humility and humility lead to worship.

Companionship is one of the great gifts of life 'under the sun'. Ecclesiastes 4 shows how companions increase joys, multiply possibilities, and share sorrows. Yet even the best of friendships has its limits. Friends may fail, and friends may be just as stuck as we are. Pastor Glenn Packiam helps us see what it might look like to see the Holy Spirit as the truest companion, and the bond in all our...

We may try to delay death, or to minimize its severity, or avoid thinking about it at all, but death is as inevitable as it is problematic. Pastor Glenn Packiam outlines how death reminds us of the fragility of life, of the finality of life's ending, and of the futility of our attempts to transcend life. All this the Teacher in Ecclesiastes can help us see. But it is the Gospel that shows us more....