New Life Downtown

Declaration is a powerful strategy that helps bring into focus our knowledge of the goodness of God. Pastor Joey Jimenez shows us how the language of declaration can be used to help Remind, Reinforce, and Release that knowledge into our present and future circumstances.

In this new series that surveys major themes of the Psalms, Pastor Glenn Packiam begins with a look at how the psalmists bring their petitions and even their protests before the Lord. We discover that petition and protest are ways of affirming God?s sovereignty, faithfulness, and goodness. But above all, these aspect of prayer are simply pathways into intimacy with God.

In the conclusion to the series on Ecclesiastes, Pastor Glenn Packiam helps us understand why the Teacher sums things up the way he does. When good things become gods, they became like demons that destroy life. It takes faith - in God alone - to enjoy finite things. When we learn this, all the good gifts in life are no longer idols but icons, which radiate with God's glory and love.

Pete Greig-- leader of the international 24-7 prayer movement, director of prayer for Alpha International, and pastor of Emmaus Road church in Guildford, England-- continues his look at the Lord's Prayer by unpacking what it means to participate with the Kingdom's arrival on earth. In prayer, we do not look for God to give His yes to what we're doing, but rather look to add our Amen to what God is doing.

Drawing on the quote from St. Augustine that God puts salt on our lips to awaken our thirst for Him, Pete Greig-- leader of the international 24-7 prayer movement, director of prayer for Alpha International, and pastor of Emmaus Road church in Guildford, England-- unpacks The Lord's Prayer as the why, what and how to prayer. In this first sermon, he awakens our thirst for God by helping us see the Father's delight in us when we pray.

Pastor Andrew Arndt continues the series through the book of Ecclesiastes. We look and wrestle with text that says, "And the spirit returns to God who gave it" (Eccl 12:7). What is the point of life "under the sun"? Is it just to accumulate wealth and power, or to live a life of uninterrupted pleasure? Or is it something else? As the journey through Ecclesiastes begins to near its end, an answer to that question begins to come into focus.

If there are limits to life under the sun, how should we live here? Should we play it safe and put life on hold until we get to heaven? Pastor Glenn Packiam walks us through Ecclesiastes 11, showing the risks of both investment and non-investment. Yet the life the Christian is called to is one that takes on the posture of open hands, freely receiving and freely giving.

We all know we need wisdom, but what keeps us from asking others for it? Moreover, how do we know the right people to ask? Pastor Glenn Packiam helps us navigate these questions from Ecclesiastes 9, and then challenges us to let the wisdom of God as revealed in the cross of Christ challenge our notions of wisdom today.

We have an aversion to negativity and sadness. Yet the Teacher in Ecclesiastes 7 tells us there is more benefit from sorrow than from joy. Pastor Glenn Packiam helps us understand how sorrow proves our love, purifies our love, and ultimately points us to the only Love that can make us whole.

What we do when we are confronted with our limitations, the boundaries of our power and perspective? Ecclesiastes reminds us that God is in heaven and we are on earth. Under the open sky at Church in the Park, Pastor Glenn Packiam calls us to let mystery lead us to humility and humility lead to worship.