New Life Downtown

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says he didn't come to abolish the "law and the prophets," but to fulfill them. But what does that fulfillment look like? How are we supposed to understand the Old Testament and how Jesus is a continuation of Israel's story? And why does it matter to our own stories and the story of our church? Guest speaker Dr. Patton Dodd examines the implications of Jesus' word...

What does it mean to be salt and light in this world? As the series on the Sermon on the Mount continues, Pastor Glenn Packiam explains how Jesus once again deals with our identity before addressing our behavior. Because He is salt and light, we--together as the people of God--have become a preserving presence and a visible witness in the world. We are challenged not to withdraw from the world but...

In this special Mother's Day message, Pastor Glenn Packiam "interviews" his wife, Holly about her journey as a mother. Through her vulnerability and wisdom, we find a reminder for all of us--in every season and stage of life--that we cannot live well and love well on our own. Glenn wraps up the talk by showing us how women reflect the image of God into our world, and by calling us again to the Fou...

Who's got it made? Who's living the good life? Jesus turns our notion of success and "blessedness" on its head. The Beatitudes are a stunning reversal of fortunes made possible because of God's arriving Kingdom. Pastor Glenn Packiam helps us see that Jesus lived this kind of upside-down life, and it resulted in His death. Yet God vindicated Jesus by raising Him from the dead, showing that this kin...

Our deepest hope is for the God who created the world to come & be King in it. The stunning announcement of the Gospels is that He has. Moreover, this King inaugurates His Kingdom by founding a new people. The Sermon on the Mount is our Magna Carta, our constitution. In the first installment if this series, Pastor Glenn Packiam helps us understand what the sermon is, and how it can only be und...

Having framed the conversation of who Church is by broadening our understanding of Jesus and salvation, Pastor Glenn Packiam explores what it means to say that the Church has been sent into the world to bear witness that Jesus is King. We find that the New Testament joins proclamation of the Gospel with demonstration of the Gospel, so that our announcement of Jesus' reign and our actions in Jesus'...

What comes to mind when you hear the word, "church"? This question strikes at our deep desire to belong, to know our place within the world. Yet, when our hopes are the highest, the hurt can be the deepest, and so for many, "church" conjures memories of hurt and pain. In order to deal well with the question of who 'Church' is, Pastor Glenn Packiam helps us to zoom out and ask who Jesus is and what...

Lent is 6 Sundays long; Easter, however, is 7 Sundays. Why? Because the Feast outlasts the Fast. With God, joy and victory and generosity, not sorrow and suffering and stinginess, get the last word. In this shortened homily (because of a potluck!), Pastor Glenn Packiam explains how the Feast helps us to see what God is truly like, to learn how to be a Family, and to proclaim the Future that has al...

On Easter Sunday, we conclude the Conversations Series by looking at the story of Jesus and the disciples on the Emmaus Road. With downcast faces, dashed hopes, and dull hearts, they were walking away from the cross; yet Jesus drew near to them and joined them on their journey. Preaching the sermon in two segments, with a time of worship in between, Pastor Glenn Packiam calls us to see that Jesus...

Good Friday is one of the most important dates on the Christian Church's calendar. Join pastor Daniel Grothe for a church-wide candlelight service to remember the sacrifice, suffering and death of our Lord Jesus Christ, who bore sin and death in his body for the life of the world.

On Palm Sunday, we turn our hearts to the God who has come to save. But the nagging question is, "Whom does He save?" Is it possible to have done too much or be too late? Pastor Glenn Packiam teaches from Luke 23 about Jesus' conversation with the criminal on the cross, a man who is literally on the outside--left outside the city to be killed--and nearly out of time. Yet the beauty of the Gospel i...

Speaking from Luke 8, Pastor Daniel Grothe helps us to see a Jesus who asks our name and comes to us across a great chasm, restoring us and setting us right. Not only are we the ones restored, but we are invited into this story, calling others to this Jesus as well.

What's it like to be stuck? Whether wrestling with a habitual sin or simply living with a sin nature, we are often reminded that without Christ we lack the desire and the ability to be different. Like the man laying by the pool, we need Jesus to see us and speak words of life to us, "creative" words that call us to get up, pick up our "mats" and walk. Pastor Glenn Packiam leads us to a spiritual r...

As we continue to "journey with Jesus to the cross" during Lent, we take a closer look at the Samaritan woman that Jesus stopped to talk with at the well. Glenn Packiam helps us see how Jesus restored her dignity, rescued her destiny, and re-centered her identity on Him. Jesus calls us to lay down our water jars - the things of the world that we look to for satisfaction - and the come to Him as th...

With whom do you eat and drink? Often, it's with people who are just like us. Meals-- table fellowship--had very special significance in the world of the Gospel-writers, which is what made Jesus's choice to eat and drink with "sinners" controversial. Yet part of following Jesus is learning to invite and include others in to a Great Banquet, at which Jesus is both the Host and the Feast. Teaching f...

There are two ways to live: as an orphan or as a slave, as a relativist or a moralist. Each way deeply affects the way we experience the two great themes in life - the pursuit of virtue and the pain of suffering. But Jesus offers us a different way. Because God has come to us, because Jesus has done for us what we could not do for ourselves, we don't have to live as orphans or slaves; we can be so...

What makes marriage glorious? In a word, intimacy-- the joy of being fully known and fully loved. Yet, as Pastor Glenn Packiam explains, even when we learn to turn our desires into requests, there are times when our spouse will fail us. Sin is at work, bending us into selfishness, and pulling our relationship apart. Only in Christ do we truly begin to come together. When Jesus becomes our source a...

Friendship builds on commonness, exclusiveness, and multiplied joy and virtue. Yet all three can get distorted and relationships become ugly. The uncomfortable truth is that we do not truly have the friends we wish we could have, and we cannot be the kind of friend we wish we could be. Pastor Glenn Packiam shows how these unfulfilled longings point us to Christ, the true Friend who laid down His l...

In the third and final part of this series from Romans 12, we explore what it means to be the one who shares, with simplicity, generosity and intentionality; what it means to be the one who oversees, with commitment and concern for others; and what it means to be the one who shows mercy, with cheerfulness, wholeheartedness, and graciousness. Pastor Glenn also explains how we discover our gifts not...

Spiritual gifts are how God's grace come to a visible expression in us. But in week two of this series, Pastor Glenn reminds us that what God creates, He invites us to cultivate. Spiritual gifts, then, are not just to be discovered; they are to be developed. Continuing through Paul's list of spiritual gifts in Romans 12, we learn how serving, teaching, and exhorting reveal Jesus and express God's...

When we think of a person being "gifted", we either see it as a reason to exclude ourselves or as an opportunity to improve ourselves. But neither is close to what the Bible has to say about spiritual gifts. Pastor Glenn Packiam explains that because the church is a community formed by grace and gifted by God's grace, spiritual gifts are given to us as a way to express God's grace to others. First...

Spiritual practices, like prayer, are not about impressing God but inviting God to work in our lives. Yet, if we're honest, we struggle with prayer because we're not sure what to pray, or if God cares, or what prayer accomplishes. Pastor Glenn draws from Jesus' teaching on prayer to show us how prayer is a learned language, a personal encounter, and a powerful invitation for God to bring His savin...

As we conclude our journey through the Book of Acts, Pastor Glenn recaps Luke's message that the Gospel cannot be stopped. Jesus- the Saving and Victorious King- invites us to join His Story, a Story that will make our world larger and us altogether different. As we do, we discover that with God even what we think is the end is not really the end. In Acts 28, Paul ends up in prison, not the ending...

Preaching from the Song of Simeon- the "Nunc Dimittis"--Pastor Glenn Packiam shows how Jesus is the great culmination of all our deepest hopes, the fulfillment of our truest longing. It turns out that what we need most is exactly what God has been preparing from the beginning, and what He has promised: salvation. Salvation is the coming back together of God's world, beginning with our hearts being...

What is God like? Though we may know the right answer, we easily slip back into a tribal view of God as punitive and retributive. Like Adam and Eve hiding in the garden, we cower in fear. But God has always been, in His essence, Love. Preaching from the Magnifcat, Pastor Glenn Packiam shows that God makes His mercy arrive wave after wave, reaching its fullness in Christ.