NewChurch Live

Grace and Mercy – two beautiful words. While they may conjure up images of church-gone-by, they are every bit as important to rediscover for our lives today.

“All creation groans” is a well-known quote. It points to the idea that there are two types of time – chronological time and pregnant time. Join us as we look at what might be getting born into our lives!

We are often tempted to place the problems of life “out there” versus starting with the challenges “in here.” Yet there is great beauty when we both see and share the at times humorous imperfections of what it means to be truly human.

How do we place ourselves in a new story? That is the core invitation of Christianity. The plot will surprise you! To understand how that "new story" might work, we are thrilled to have Brian Henderson join Pastor Chuck. Brian will share with us his journey from being told he would never walk again, to the small triumphs that led him back to the life he shares with friends and family today.

What would it look like in our daily lives to declare independence in our hearts, minds, and spirits? Did Jesus lay out a surprising declaration of independence in the Sermon on the Mount?

God’s work is around opening doors, not closing them. Let's take a look together into the open doors God places before us, and the beauty we can step into.

A Tribute to a Big Heart August 22, 1986 - Mat 23, 2021

Join us for an inspiring conversation with Paul West of West Memorials. Paul and his wife Missy work closely with families moving through the loss of a loved one. The lessons there are myriad about love and about living fully, right here, right now.

As we celebrate the birthday of our denomination, join us as we look at one of the keys around which we are organized ... that first things must always be recognizably first. This service will help demonstrate some of the priorities needed to stay peaceful and happy.

Balancing It All: A Look Back And A Look Forward - Part 2 There is a world filled with light and dark, both inside and outside of us. How do we come to balance it all at a granular level? How can we hold it all? Join us as we look at a new, fresh view of a faith that can do just that!

6/6/21 Balancing It All Part 1: A Look Back And A Look Forward Join us both online and in-person as we pull everyone together for this special service.  We want to reflect on this past season of COVID, and all the experiences we were forced as a global community to navigate – the blessed and the broken.  God’s singular vison is forever one of unwavering love, a love that seeks to open the eyes of...

5/30/21 Is pursuit of the good life about going backward or forward? Jesus tells us that we have to become like a little child to enter the kingdom of heaven, and this Sunday join Curtis Childs as we are going to look at how we can combine a state of childlike innocence with the wisdom of a full life lived.

5/23/21 The Gospel of John begins with an almost annoying repetition of the word “grace.” Part of the good life is undeniably filled with grace-full moments. When God arrives in our lives, no matter how broken we are, apparently so does grace.

5/16/21 There are many paths to “the best life,” and only one that ultimately becomes ours. Along the way we have to balance the demands of that individual pursuit with our connections to our families, communities, churches and the world. The path becomes clearer if we can learn to listen for “the sound of the genuine” in ourselves and others, which we all have the capacity to recognize from God.

5/9/21 It should bring a knowing smile to recognize that we can make ourselves miserable any time, any place.  Much of that unhappiness grows when we fail to differentiate between living A good life, as God defines it, and living THE good life, as culture defines it. When we focus on attaining THE good life, experience shows that we may never be satisfied because the rules change over time, along...

5/2/21 While it may not sound that exciting, humility actually has immense potential. It's the key to allowing God to bring us into heaven, and is the only truly accurate way to see life. Join Curtis Childs for a discussion about the benefits of bringing humility into our daily routine.

4/25/21 We can often fall into extremes in our relationships with other people where we either put them on a pedestal to be worshiped, or on the stand to be judged. Neither of these options is good for either them or us, but looking for the wider vistas in the space between these extremes expands the territory of our kindness. To move into that space, we need to choose community over anger as we r...

4/18/21 Sin is not exclusively about weak people who give in, but far more about strong people who refuse to be bothered. How do we allow ourselves to be “bothered” by a chance to do good?

4/11/21 Our lives can be guided either by our phobias or our philias; our fears or our connections. People hunger for connection, and this week we will take a look at where God is guiding us in that very direction.

4/4/21 Join in as we celebrate Easter Sunday with a highly interactive, family service to inspire us to move the joy we feel into the lives we live. In this way, life can begin again right here!

3/28/21 In the face of impending crisis and violence, Jesus remained throughout the Easter story both saddened and at peace, aware of what was occurring, yet consistently choosing a higher path that leads to a “calm, quiet sea.”

3/21/21 One author beautifully noted how we will all experience “the grace of exhaustion,” or “the sacrament of stuck.” Those are, paradoxically, the places of exhaustion or feeling stuck where miracles often happen. The experience entails a journey through a truth telling that leads to the hope that is core to the Easter message. Bring your “stuckness” with you and we’ll try to appreciate it toge...

3/14/21 Blessing it all is NOT easy. The Easter story is filled with very human stories of both blessing and betrayal, of light and dark, of heaven and hell. As we launch our four-part Easter series, we will explore how to hold those extremes in more life-giving ways. Winter gives way to spring....

3/7/21 How the Darkest Times in Our Lives Bring Us Closer to God As we begin emerging from a time when nearly all of us have struggled in one way or another, it brings up the question: why does God allow us to struggle at all? We’ll explore a mechanism that uses our times of powerlessness to strengthen our connection to our creator.

Forrest Keys Memorial Service 2/27/21