New Life Downtown

We know we need to engage our culture with the Gospel, but what is the core of the Gospel announcement? Moreover, how do the claims of the Gospel confront the specific "idols" and "religions" of our day? Pastor Glenn Packiam explores how Paul, in Acts 17, moves outward for the core Gospel announcement-- that Jesus is the Messiah!-- to engage and challenge both the moralists and the pleasure-seekers of his day. In the end, this talk is not simply about how we will talk about the Gospel, but about what we will do with the Good News that we hear.

Cities are often places where people from many different so-called strata of society collide. The question that Luke seems to address in Acts 16 and onward is whether or not the Gospel has anything to say to these different people. Often, we wonder the same thing: Is the message of Jesus just for the simple-minded country folk, or does it speak to all of humanity? As Pastor Glenn Packiam unpacks Acts 16, he shows how the Gospel is indeed for the powerful, the powerless, and the hopeless...and why it remains good news today.

Want to know what new life DOWNTOWN is all about? Pastor Glenn Packiam explains that bonding around activity may connect us quickly but loosely, but bonding around a shared identity is a slower yet more binding work. He shares three words from the Eucharist-- "blessed," "broken," "given"-- that form our identity as the people of God. Hear the power of the Gospel, learn what it means to live in Christian Community, and find out how we as a congregation will engage in Mission together in our city. (The final section on mission includes a brief interview with New Life Local Ministries Pastor, Bobby Mikulas.)

In Acts 15, the early church faced the biggest challenge of its young existence: What were they going to require of the Gentiles in order for them to be part of the family of God? The question rings true even today: What does it take for others to come in, to join the people of God? Pastor Glenn Packiam explores three aspects of what it means to be a "Gospel-Shaped Community", and why it truly is good news for the world.

What gives meaning to our struggle--our toil and hardship-- in life? While some insist that there is no "framing story" that makes sense of our life, we often find ourselves inadvertently living as if "success" or "self-fulfillment" were our meaning-giving narrative. As Pastor Glenn explores Acts 14, we see Paul and Barnabas go from being treated like gods to being stoned like criminals. Success is fleeting, and self-fulfillment is too flimsy to help us in moments like that. How does Paul, beaten and bruised and bloodied, find the strength to get up, walk to a nearby town, and keep preaching the good news? Discover the only Story large enough to give meaning to our stories, and how we are reminded of that Story by the faithful community around us.

Acts 13 is kind of like "Episode 1" of "Season 2" in the Book of Acts. Paul takes over the lead role as Peter ducks out of the limelight. But Paul's gospel preaching is true to the core of what Peter- and others- had been preaching, with the same key phrase repeating throughout his first sermon: 'But God raised Jesus from the dead.' To many of us, Jesus' resurrection seems like icing on the cake; but to the first apostles, it was the very heart of the Gospel. Pastor Glenn Packiam preaches this sermon in three movements with worship interludes (songs not on podcast), helping us see the cosmic, social, and personal ramifications of Jesus' resurrection.

Some of us are uneasy at the thought of an Enemy of God, actively opposing God's work in the world. Others of us are all to quick to name the Enemy as a person they know! The truth is, there is Evil in God's good world, seen in both systemic and individual ways. But, as Pastor Glenn Packiam reveals from Acts 12, we do not oppose this Enemy with his ways. The people of God do not follow the Way of King Herod- the way of violence and power. Instead, we participate in Jesus' never-ending, unstoppable Kingdom through prayer. Herod's kingdom decomposes, while the word of Christ and of His rule flourishes forever.

Chances are, the word 'repentance' has negative connotations for you. It evokes memories of angry preachers and the feeling of shame. Yet Acts 11 calls repentance something that leads to Life. Pastor Glenn Packiam unpacks what it means to "turn away from" sin and "turn toward Christ", and why we do so. We find that as our faces behold the grace of God in the face of Christ, we can then turn toward the world, shining with this same grace.

Have you ever felt like you were on the outside looking in? Or perhaps there are people that you've become convinced are not part of your "tribe"? Pastor Glenn Packiam unpacks Acts 10 as the story of how the Spirit of God carries the Gospel beyond the social and cultural barriers we often construct between "us" and "them." Jesus, the One who stands at the center of the Bible's salvation narrative, makes outsiders insiders. He is the Lord of a great feast. In Him, all are welcome and no one is unclean.

In our busy, fast-paced world, we are well acquainted with interruptions. Most of these interruptions, though, are distractions and not interventions. As Pastor Glenn Packiam unpacks the well-known story of Saul's conversion in Acts 9, we discover that when God interrupts us, it is to commission us for a new way of living, a way that ends up being our salvation-- and sometimes, it leads to someone else's salvation as well.