New Life Downtown

In the third week of Advent, Pastor Glenn preaches from Isaiah 40, calling us to see how God's coming is our comfort. We often feel beyond help because of the choices we've made, or have even experienced what psychologists call 'learned helplessness', because we've stopped believing that our choices matter. Yet into this shame and despair, God comes to us as our warrior and as our shepherd.

Preaching from Isaiah 35, Pastor Glenn Packiam calls us to make room in our theology and in our lives for God to do the unexpected. Healing is a sign of God's arrival and a foretaste of the future 'shalom' that God is bringing. The truth is, asking God to heal is not asking for an exception or an aberration or a suspension of the rules; rather, it is asking to God to do what is consistent with His nature and actions.

Preaching from Isaiah 9, Pastor Daniel Grothe helps us stand in wonder of the God who meets the moment.

On this first Sunday of Advent, Pastor Glenn Packiam invites us to keep time around the life of Christ as a way of keeping company with Jesus. After unpacking the our waiting for the return of Christ as a waiting in the light, Glenn invites his wife Holly and congregants Ian and Bre Speir to discuss why and how Advent can be meaningful practice for individuals and families. Traditions, books, music, serving projects and more are discussed.

Is there any room in the blessed life for sorrow? Teaching from the story of Sarah's death in Genesis 23, Pastor Glenn Packiam helps us learn what it means to grieve well.

Preaching on the familiar text of Abraham's near sacrifice of Isaac, Pastor Glenn Packiam helps us to see what is often missed in the story. God meets Abraham where he is, asking devotion of him in the only way he knew to express absolute surrender. But the test is not so much one of faith, but one of sight: Will Abraham see God as the one who requires sacrifice, or as the one who provides it?

Laughter can be the sound of joy or the threat of scorn. In Genesis 21, it is both. In the story of Isaac and Ishmael, Pastor Glenn Packiam shows how the joy of answered prayer can quickly turn to jealousy when we fail to trust God's faithfulness to us, or when we resent His mercy to others.

In Genesis 20, Abraham is called a prophet-- the first person in the Bible to be called one. Yet his fear leads him to rationalize a lie and jeopardize someone else's future. Pastor Glenn Packiam challenges us to think how often we shrink back in self-preservation and rob others of the blessing we could speak over them by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The story of Sodom and Gomorrah contains a graphic depiction of God's judgment. But what if the story is more about God's mercy and deliverance? Visiting pastor, Jason Jackson, explores how the story reveals God extending mercy without ignoring injustice, and God keeping his promises by delivering people. This is good news for us because we need both mercy and justice, and because God never forgets his covenant.

How does God respond to the mess of our broken world? Does He stay away or demand that we clean it up? Pastor Glenn Packiam teaches on the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, calling us to see how God meets us in the mess and leads us out. Moreover, the final act of the Story is not judgment but new creation. God is putting the world back together, and He wants to start with you.