New Life Downtown

In a world of anxiety and fear, is it really possible to "be of good cheer"? While we may be tempted to achieve a kind of "cheerfulness" but ignoring grief or numbing our anxiety, Pastor Glenn shows how Paul exhorts the sailors in Acts 27 to have faith in God, even when all hope is lost. It is when we come to end of ourselves, overwhelmed by the surging waves of Chaos and Evil that we find our God...

Pastor Glenn talks from the song of the angels in Luke 2, explaining that the peace God brings is not a generic peace, but a particular saving peace to the ones whom God favors--the unlikely and unworthy ones now favored because of Christ. It is peace with God and peace in a troubled world. As we remember the tragic shooting that happened at our church 5 years ago, we see the unshakable peace that...

Pastor Gregg preaches on the shaping of our stories, based on Acts 26. Paul shared his testimony, for the third time, to a king whose family has been intertwined with the story of Jesus for generations.

Contentment can feel like a moving target. How do we know when enough is enough? Yet until we are content in our hearts, we will struggle to live at peace with others. As we follow Paul's trial before Jewish and Roman authorities as it progresses this week in Acts 25, we take a closer look at how Paul was able to live at peace with others because he had learned the secret of being content. Pastor...

Pastor Daniel Grothe unpacks the phrases in the Lord's Prayer, helping us find the theology and the power behind these familiar words.

When everything seems lost, what gives us hope that God will sort things out and set things right? Pastor Glenn Packiam teaches from Paul's speech to Felix in Acts 24, highlighting Paul's emphatic claim that he worships the same God and has the same hope as the Jews. In other words, Paul saw Jesus not as a "Plan B" but as the culmination of the story of Israel and the fulfillment of God's covenant...

How should we, as followers of Jesus, think about government? Some may be turned off by an overly politicized faith and dismiss political engagement as irrelevant; others may insist that government is a key to the Kingdom advancing. Pastor Glenn Packiam unpacks Paul's interactions with two rulers in Acts 23--one Jewish and the other Roman-- to show how we must respect authorities while reminding t...

Is it possible for God to use you right where you are to speak of His grace? What if every part of your story- your strengths and your brokenness- can be woven together for 'such a time as this'? As we explore Acts 22, Pastor Glenn Packiam challenges us to see Christ as the one who calls us, prepares us and sends us out into the world each day. Even in the midst of the ordinary or the difficult mo...

We have been called to participate in the "Jesus Life" by imitating- re-tracing- the life of Christ with our own life. This "Christ shape" can be seen as an "even when" kind of obedience: an obedience "even when" God warns of opposition, loved ones try to discourage us, and people misjudge us. Pastor Glenn Packiam shows how Paul embraced obedience to the Lord's will for his life even when it meant...

Is there a difference between being "drained" and being "spent"? Is the difference related to people "taking" from us versus when we "lay our lives down" for others? In Paul's farewell speech to the Ephesian elders- leaders of the church where Paul spent the longest amount of time- he urges them to follow his example in caring for God's people. Pastor Glenn Packiam calls us to drink deeply of the...

Many of us know that communion is important, but we're not always sure why. In fact, if we're honest, we tend to be so afraid of being superstitious (like the Medieval Church?) about it, that we tend to downplay it and emphasize "purely spiritual" ways of encountering God. Using Scripture, Church history, and compelling examples of our own need for physical "focal practices", Dr. Steven Todd expla...

What does it mean to announce Jesus as the King? What difference does it make to make the focus of our Gospel-proclamation and demonstration the person of Christ instead of the "plan of salvation"? As Pastor Glenn Packiam teaches from Acts 19, he explores three things that result from the Kingdom arriving in Ephesus through Paul's ministry there. We see the Church being formed there as a sign of t...

In a culture that idealizes the "self-made individual", many of us feel stuck when we run out of strength. Rather then telling us to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps or quit altogether, Pastor Glenn explains from Acts 18 how the Gospel challenges us to allow God to bring us strength through friendships, through His presence, and through a large and diverse community of faith. With Christ formin...

We know we need to engage our culture with the Gospel, but what is the core of the Gospel announcement? Moreover, how do the claims of the Gospel confront the specific "idols" and "religions" of our day? Pastor Glenn Packiam explores how Paul, in Acts 17, moves outward for the core Gospel announcement-- that Jesus is the Messiah!-- to engage and challenge both the moralists and the pleasure-seeker...

Cities are often places where people from many different so-called strata of society collide. The question that Luke seems to address in Acts 16 and onward is whether or not the Gospel has anything to say to these different people. Often, we wonder the same thing: Is the message of Jesus just for the simple-minded country folk, or does it speak to all of humanity? As Pastor Glenn Packiam unpacks A...

Want to know what new life DOWNTOWN is all about? Pastor Glenn Packiam explains that bonding around activity may connect us quickly but loosely, but bonding around a shared identity is a slower yet more binding work. He shares three words from the Eucharist-- "blessed," "broken," "given"-- that form our identity as the people of God. Hear the power of the Gospel, learn what it means to live in Chr...

In Acts 15, the early church faced the biggest challenge of its young existence: What were they going to require of the Gentiles in order for them to be part of the family of God? The question rings true even today: What does it take for others to come in, to join the people of God? Pastor Glenn Packiam explores three aspects of what it means to be a "Gospel-Shaped Community", and why it truly is...

What gives meaning to our struggle--our toil and hardship-- in life? While some insist that there is no "framing story" that makes sense of our life, we often find ourselves inadvertently living as if "success" or "self-fulfillment" were our meaning-giving narrative. As Pastor Glenn explores Acts 14, we see Paul and Barnabas go from being treated like gods to being stoned like criminals. Success i...

Acts 13 is kind of like "Episode 1" of "Season 2" in the Book of Acts. Paul takes over the lead role as Peter ducks out of the limelight. But Paul's gospel preaching is true to the core of what Peter- and others- had been preaching, with the same key phrase repeating throughout his first sermon: 'But God raised Jesus from the dead.' To many of us, Jesus' resurrection seems like icing on the cake;...

Some of us are uneasy at the thought of an Enemy of God, actively opposing God's work in the world. Others of us are all to quick to name the Enemy as a person they know! The truth is, there is Evil in God's good world, seen in both systemic and individual ways. But, as Pastor Glenn Packiam reveals from Acts 12, we do not oppose this Enemy with his ways. The people of God do not follow the Way of...

Chances are, the word 'repentance' has negative connotations for you. It evokes memories of angry preachers and the feeling of shame. Yet Acts 11 calls repentance something that leads to Life. Pastor Glenn Packiam unpacks what it means to "turn away from" sin and "turn toward Christ", and why we do so. We find that as our faces behold the grace of God in the face of Christ, we can then turn toward...

Have you ever felt like you were on the outside looking in? Or perhaps there are people that you've become convinced are not part of your "tribe"? Pastor Glenn Packiam unpacks Acts 10 as the story of how the Spirit of God carries the Gospel beyond the social and cultural barriers we often construct between "us" and "them." Jesus, the One who stands at the center of the Bible's salvation narrative,...

In our busy, fast-paced world, we are well acquainted with interruptions. Most of these interruptions, though, are distractions and not interventions. As Pastor Glenn Packiam unpacks the well-known story of Saul's conversion in Acts 9, we discover that when God interrupts us, it is to commission us for a new way of living, a way that ends up being our salvation-- and sometimes, it leads to someone...

After a week of devastating fires that ravaged hundreds of homes and forced thousands to evacuate, this week's text seemed providential. Acts 8 is about the Church being scattered, preaching the Good News along the way, and bringing joy to the city they find themselves in as a result. Pastor Glenn Packiam explores how we are a scattered people- by crisis or by choice- and how we can learn to see i...

In Acts 7, Stephen gives a stunning re-telling of Israel's story, revealing how they have repeatedly rejected God. As Pastor Glenn unpacks Stephen's sermon, we see that though we, too, have bee notoriously unfaithful, God is gloriously faithful. In Jesus, God culminates the single story of salvation He began in Abraham. Discover the beauty and mystery of our salvation story as we remember that God...