New Story Church

At some point, God is going to drop an opportunity at your feet. It will be an opportunity to take on new levels of responsibility, to really make a difference in someone else's life. But it will be costly. It will require you to commit. And, it might impact your lifestyle. It might take away your freedom. It might hurt you financially. What are you going to do? What story are you going to li...

Ruth doesn't fit our mold for greatness. She's an impoverished, powerless, voiceless, immigrant widow. But, somehow this woman finds her way into the very heart of God's story. Her little story becomes part of God's epic story. Her name will forever be spoken with names like Moses and David... and Jesus. How? How do normal people Ruth (like you & me) get in on this vast, ep...

How do I find my place in the story of God? In the Book of Ruth, an impoverished, hurting, broken old widow named Naomi shows us an unlikely way to get in on God's Story: by bitterly complaining. If you've ever felt like God has disappointed you or like God is against you, Naomi might help you find your way into God's Story too.

Your life is a story. With every day, every decision, every relationship, with every thing you do, you are writing the next line. Which is to say: Your life has a plot. It has meaning. It is headed somewhere. The question is not: Is your life a story? (Of course, it is.) The question is: What story are you living? In Colossians 2, the Apostle Paul gives us a vivid picture of how Jesus takes your o...

Here we examine the only Biblical passage that exposes us to the life of Jesus between the end of his birth events and the beginning of his public ministry as see what it has to say to us in as we begin 2023. www.gvf.church

God is with us. Here. Right now. But how do you experience a God that you cannot see? In this message, we'll explore how God's love breaks through the boundaries of space and time, shame and guilt, anxiety and fear so that we might live in His transforming presence. www.gvf.church

118 views  Streamed live on Dec 11, 2022 How do you face an unknown future? When you consider the upcoming week, year, or season of life how do you feel? Fear, anxiety, and the need to control outcomes: this is how we usually respond to the unknown. The Apostle Paul invites us to consider a new possibility: hope. This week, we'll explore how a 2,000 year old event - the arrival of "God w...

In this series, we'll explore how the Advent (literally "Arrival") of God into our world redeems and transforms time itself. Jesus is "God with Us" in our past, present, and future. It's mind-bending, heart-twisting stuff. In this unconventional sermon, we explore everything from Swiss theologians and the neuroscience of memory formation to Robert De Niro and what it...

You know the feeling. It's like you can't keep your head above water. As soon as you make it through one crisis, the next wave crashes over you. This is increasingly "normal" in our world. Chronic stress, anxiety, fear, outrage, and hypervigilance: these words increasingly describe us. We all know that this is an awful way to live. We know that this is not the way of Jesus. But...

We live in a divided world. It really feels like the social fabric of our nation is tearing apart. While social critics ponder political polarization, we just try to make it through Thanksgiving without our family members tearing each other apart over politics. But none of this is new. In Ephesians 2:11 -22, Paul shows us a way forward. The social divisions keeping us apart are destroyed by Christ...

How is God forming you? How is your life being shaped & reworked by the grace of God? This week, the Apostle Paul gives us a picture to better understand the way in which God works His grace into our lives. God is like a craftsman, a poet, a sculptor, a potter. And we are God's workmanship.  www.gvf.church

Only when you know the depth of a valley can you fully appreciate the height of a mountain. This week, as we continue our Ephesians series and focus on Ephesians 2:1-10, we will see apostle Paul remind first century Christians, and Christians of all times, of the depths of the dark valley out of which God saved, us by his grace, and the heights of the glorious spiritual position to which he has br...

"People lose their WAY when they lose their WHY!" (Michael Hyatt). God, through the apostle Paul, has no problem telling 1st Century (and 21st Century) Christians how to live. But before he does that, apostle Paul continues to lay his foundation for Christians of why God is different than they think, and Christians are different than they feel. Once their eyes are wide open to the truth...

The Apostle Paul and psychotherapists seem to agree on at least one thing: how you think shapes your whole life. Your patterns of automatic and habitual thoughts shape your life more than you can imagine. In Ephesians 1:3-14, Paul invites us to let God reshape our minds by receiving seven good words from Him the way soil receives seeds from a farmer. www.gvf.church

Does my life have meaning? Is history headed somewhere or are things just careening off a cliff of chaos? Where is God at work in this world? In Ephesians 1:3-6, the Apostle Paul offers us three words from God that will challenge, confound, and comfort. He scatters words from God the way a farmer scatters seeds, praying that they might take root in our lives. This Sunday, he tosses out the first t...

Is the Bible sexist? Does it treat women as second class? This Sunday, author and pastor, Dr. Sam Andreades, explores questions about the Bible and gender through the story of Hannah in the Book of 1 Samuel. Dr. Andreades is the author of a book entitled, "enGendered," & has very much done his homework on how to thoughtfully love people, listen to God's Word, and speak into this...

If you could sit in on your own funeral and listen as people talk about you, what do you think would be said? What will be spoken over you as you lie there lifeless, unable to respond or change how others think of you? In Ephesians 1, the Apostle Paul invites us to sit in & listen to as God reads His eulogy over all who are "in Christ."

What scales do you use to measure your life? Is your life good... or bad? How do you even know? In this message we'll explore the many broken ways in which we seek to make our lives weighty, substantial, worthwhile... Then, we'll see how the Apostle Paul cuts through all of this with a word. One word. This word might just be the key to unlocking Ephesians... and our own brokenness. www.g...

If you only read Paul's Letter to the Ephesians, you might think that their lives were charmed. They probably were but not in the way you're thinking. Acts 19 gives us the earthy, honest, beautiful, and magical (in the worst possible way) story behind this letter and this church. That’s what today is. It’s the story of the men and women, Jews and Gentiles, sinners and saints, who were ca...

Something is rotten in the state of the American church. Our kids are walking away from the faith. Our families are imploding. Our leaders are failing. Our lives become just as anxious and busy and addicted and joyless and restless as those who do not know Jesus. In this message, we explore what we can do - indeed must do - if we hope to break the norms of today and become a church where life tran...

The Apostle Paul says: "You are God's Temple." Of course, the only problem with this is that you & I have precisely zero experience with temples. How can we possibly be God’s Temple, if we have no idea what a temple is or does? In this message, we're going to try to fix this problem. We're going to explore what God's Temple is and was so that we can begin to becom...

Committed, self-giving relationships are the stuff of life. They are the soil in which we are designed to flourish & bear much fruit. But, they can also be the worst. They can feel like death. In this message, we're going to explore how God uses committed, self-giving relationships in this place called church to grow you and fulfill His mission. 1 John 4 & Romans 12. www.gvf.church

Psalm 92 is a song "for the Sabbath." God's People have been singing it for 1000s of years. It's a song that invites us to step out of slavery, out of chronic busyness, and out of this world of anxiety and into a place called Sabbath. This week, we are going to listen carefully to this song and explore what it might look like for this place called church to become a Sabbath Hou...

We're in a series called, A Place Called Church. For the next month, we'll be seeding our minds with Biblical stories  so that they might take root in us and give us God's vision for what this place called "church" could be. This week, we'll ask the question that many have been asking: Why go to church at all? Why do we gather? Is it really necessary to have a place c...