New Life Downtown welcomes pastor Andrew Arndt of Bloom Church in Denver, CO. Pastor Andrew brought us a timely and encouraging message on Psalm 23, and what it looks like to trust God in the midst of life's circumstances.

We look at the last 'Table story' in Luke's gospel, the meal with the disciples on the road to Emmaus. Pastor Glenn Packiam shows how Jesus focuses on a few and takes his time with time, letting them give voice to their pain. This is a model for our engagement in the city, partnering with a few ministries for long-term impact. Yet, we are more often like the disappointed disciples given an opportunity to welcome in a Stranger. Maybe it's in showing the hospitality of Jesus to another that our own eyes are opened to see Christ anew.

We long for meaning in our lives, yet we insist on a guarded existence. The result is that we only give ourselves to things within our reach. But the Kingdom awakens us to a greater Story and invites us to surrender our lives to Jesus. As Pastor Glenn Packiam shares New Life Downtown's story and identity through the Eucharistic words, "blessed, broken, given", he calls us to take responsibility for the people Jesus is welcoming into our church.

Why do we so often hate our jobs and what can we do about it? Pastor Glenn explains how, because of the Fall, our work now involves 'toil' and is tainted by motivations of shame and fame. Yet the joy we do find in our work is a clue that the world will not always be this way. Moreover, when we move from working in the realm of self to working 'in the Lord', we can take heart that it will never ultimately be in vain.

Pastor Glenn Packiam takes us back to Genesis to help us see work as a pre-Fall call, a way we bear the image of God. In fact, work is collaborating with God to cultivate His world. While this call originated in Eden, it can be lived out anywhere-- even in Babylon-- because God is at work in us.

So much of our angst towards work is a failure to see our most important role within the workplace as "image-bearers" of God. Whether our work context takes us into the corporate world or keeps us close to home, God has given us the privilege of showing others what he is like. Sure earning money and striving for excellence in our professions have their place but we can't lose sight of JOB 1; helping others discover what God is like.

Surveys reveal that 80% of us are dissatisfied with our job. It's fair to say that we've lost some, if not all, of what God intended when he created us to work. Work is often just a means to an end and all joy and sense of meaning is gone from the 9-5 of our days. Pastor Brad Baker argues that God longs to restore the joy, satisfaction and sense of sacredness that he infused into work; into us! This 4 part series offers a fresh look our vocation and occupation.

As Christ followers we rest assured that it is Christ and Christ alone who builds and sustains us. We are HIS people; the Church only through his great love, power and glory. However, he invites us to participate with him in becoming what he declares that we already are. But what exactly is our role? Some of us have wrongfully concluded that are job is simply to be present and observe. In this final installment of our series on the first book of Corinthians Pastor Brad Baker wrestles with the question of our role in helping our spiritual family flourish. Brad argues that Christ invites us to offer him our minds, our hearts and our hands in the great endeavor of strengthening his beloved people.

As we explore 1 Corinthians 15, we discover that Paul began his letter with the preaching of Christ crucified and closes his letter with the proclamation that Christ has been raised from the dead. Pastor Glenn Packiam shows what the resurrection means for our faith and for our future. Free from the Enlightenment burden of 'proving' our faith, we can meet our doubts not with certainty but with humility, and believe 'that which we have received' from the witness of the saints and apostles. And we can be free from the pressure of securing our own future, relieving our fears not by mere 'optimism' but by the grounded hope of resurrection.

In a day when love is often confused with tolerance or sentimentality, we need 1 Corinthians 13 to show us what the Jesus-kind-of love looks like. Pastor Glenn Packiam casts a fresh light on the text to show how love orients us to the future that God is bringing and transforms our human relationships. We no longer love because the other is lovely or will love us in return; we love because Christ has loved us.