New Life Downtown

Our work in a fallen world is full of toil-- hardship and sweat. The Teacher in Ecclesiastes points to the futility of our toil, but also provides a hint that toil is connected to time. Pastor Glenn Packiam helps us see our work as something that must match our season, as something to be received as a gift from God, and as something that will ultimately be made beautiful in His time.

Ecc. 2:12-17 seems on the surface to be a depressing, fatalist look at life. Dr. Steven Todd explores this passage with its NT counterpart in 1 Cor.1:18-25 and considers how confession, absolution, and the table of the Lord allows us to lean into God even when things don't make sense.

What does it mean to be "spiritual"? What is the purpose of the spiritual gifts? All to often we see certain spiritual gifts put on display and we are left to question the validity of our own Christian experience in light of other people's experience. Throughout Scripture we see that there are a variety of spiritual gifts, but there is one Spirit that empowers them all. Pastor Joey Jimenez reminds...

What should we make of pleasure? If we were to follow the ancients, we would either abstain from pleasure, indulge it, or enjoy it moderately. But does the Gospel have more to say? After outlining three types of pleasures found in Ecclesiastes 2, Pastor Glenn Packiam helps us to see how Jesus calls us to receive pleasure as a gift, to reshape how we enjoy each pleasure, and to redirect pleasure so...

We don't always want to admit it, but sometimes even the best things in life let us down. Ecclesiastes gives us to permission to say it, and even offers a prophetic challenge to our optimism. Pastor Glenn Packiam helps us see how recognizing the emptiness of all things can wake us to the longing for more. While Solomon can only lead us to confess this emptiness and weariness, Jesus calls us to Him...

In this Easter message, Pastor Glenn Packiam uses the familiar story of the Prodigal Son to show the human tendency toward religion (the attempt to reach God on our own) or rebellion (the attempt to live without God). Yet both paths lead to death. Building on our desire to escape death and attain life, we are called to escape the real death and to attain the true life, a Life possible because of t...

In this short Palm Sunday reflection, Pastor Glenn Packiam helps us to recognize that our thirst for glory comes from God, though we often look for fill it with the glory that comes from men and women. The astonishing news of the Gospel is that the Lord of glory emptied himself that we might be filled...with the glory of God.

There are times when we don't know how to pray, when the questions of whether we're going to make it or if our lives are going to matter cloud our hearts. In those times, we can take comfort in knowing that Jesus, our Great High Priest, is praying for us. Pastor Glenn Packiam examines John 17, helping us see what Jesus is praying for, and how our prayer - at it?s best - is simply an 'Amen' to Jesu...

What will Jesus do about all that is wrong with the world? Pastor Glenn Packiam unpacks how Jesus doesn't just deal with the trouble in the world but with the very power of evil itself. In order to deal with the evil, Jesus must deal with our sin. The Lamb of God, by absorbing the full force of evil and by taking the punishment for our sin, overcomes the world. Best yet, we can share in this victo...

As we continue the One Last Thing series, we find ourselves in John 15 of the upper room discourse between Jesus and his disciples. Pastor Evan Reedall sets up the relational context of John's Gospel, as well as the overarching theme of unity that Jesus exemplifies. With that foundation, we can understand Jesus' heart when he dynamically invites us to abide in him, as well as the humility and God...

How can Jesus tell us how our heart should feel? Drawing on a Christian psychology of emotions, Pastor Glenn Packiam explains that emotions are like the eyes of our heart; what we set our hearts on shapes how our hearts sees. While we feel lost, like no one hears us, and all alone, Jesus calls us to perceive a deeper and truer reality: that He is the Way, that the Father hears us, and that the Spi...

Pastor Brady and Glenn Packiam begins our new series "One Last Thing" by sharing that what the world needs today are more people who serve like Jesus.

What makes Christian community different from all other relationships is not that we're nicer or 'better' people, but that a Christ-like forgiveness lies at the heart of our relationships. Pastor Glenn Packiam helps us see what forgiveness is not- neither a diminishing of the wrong nor a restoration of trust. The Gospel radically reshapes our understanding of forgiveness by moving us beyond 'balan...

Psychologists tell us that kindness involves turning toward one another, being generous about one another's intentions, and sharing one another's joys. But what if people don't appreciate our kindness? What if they don't reciprocate it? Or, worse yet, what if they really don't deserve it? Drawing from the story of David and Mephibosheth and from the English Reformer Thomas Cranmer's 'Comfortable W...

Meals can be a place of tension or a surprising display of unity. Preaching on the party at Levi's house, Pastor Glenn Packiam helps us see how we tend to draw circles around ourselves that only include "people just like us". But the Gospel compels us to make room for others, even those we'd rather exclude. Just as Levi's house became Jesus' party, so our open homes can become places where God is...

Why do we center our weekly worship gathering's around the Lord's table? Pastor Evan, in this 1st week of the 3 week Worship. Connect. Serve. series takes us Genesis to Revelation to see how we center our worship around the Table because in scripture God centers His story around the same. We gather around the meal because Christ has undone the original meal of sin by becoming the redeemed meal of...

The first Sunday of Christmas can feel like a letdown. We find ourselves wishing we lived in the days of angels and of Christ's presence on earth. But in this surprising conclusion to the series, Pastor Glenn Packiam shows us how Luke's story opens with angels but concludes with disciples. The Kingdom of God, inaugurated by the Son of God, continues through the people of God- us!- by the power of...

Herod could have been remembered through the ages as the king who prepared the way for the true King of Jews. Instead, news of Jesus' arrival made Herod fall apart. By contrast, signs of Jesus' birth made pagan astrologers fall to their knees. Pastor Glenn Packiam helps us to see that when life reminds us that we are not in control, we can perceive it as a threat or receive it as an invitation to...

How do we bring hope to someone who is not looking for it? Pastor Glenn Packiam describes the the 'closed roof' for those who are not looking for God. But moments of joy-from art, from the story of reconciliation and forgiveness- are always surprising and can make us look up. The 'seams' in the closed heavens are hints that there is more, and can help us find that places where we have come to the...

Pastor Brady Boyd asks if we are willing to wait for God to do what He promised, and if we?re willing to be surprised by the way God does it. If hope is believing that God is at work, then joy is about seeing that God is at work. While the evidence of God at work may be dim at times, we can look to Jesus as the ultimate demonstration that joy has come and that joy will come in fullness.

Our peace is secure when our hope is sure. So, how can our hope be sure? Teaching from the story of Simeon seeing Jesus for the first time, Pastor Glenn Packiam helps us believe that God is working even when we can't see it. But when we look at Jesus, we see God's salvation. And when we believe in the God who saves, we can live with peace.

In Advent, the Church stands between two proclamations: "God has come!" and "Come, Lord Jesus, come!" On this first Sunday of Advent, we examine what it means to live with hope in the in-between. Preaching from the lectionary texts, Pastor Glenn Packiam calls us to work for justice and reconciliation, to watch for signs of God at work, and to wait for the great 'Shalom' that only God can bring. In...

Using humor about the upcoming Thanksgiving Holiday, Dr. Steven Todd then takes us through a look at Psalm 136, a "Thanksgiving Psalm," where the repeated anthem, "His steadfast love endures forever" is found in every verse. The Hebrew word, "hesed," translated 'steadfast love' means so much more! God's 'fierce,' unwavering loyalty to us through all of life's challenges is examined in the three 'm...

Prayer can often be the place where we feel least like the beloved; unanswered prayer can leave us feeling confused and discouraged. So why would John wrap up his letter with a call to prayer? Pastor Glenn Packiam helps us see where our confidence in prayer comes from, and how prayer can turn us outward to our brothers and sisters. In prayer, we rehearse the gospel, living out both our belovedness...

What motivates fear? Pastor Joey Jimenez helps us see that our paradigm of fear is built upon by an incomplete picture of who God really is. Fear is also the result seeing ourselves differently than how God sees us. While we can approach God in love and reverence simultaneously, it is impossible to approach Him in love and hide from Him in fear at the same time. In order to see and to know the per...