New Life Downtown

After a week of devastating fires that ravaged hundreds of homes and forced thousands to evacuate, this week's text seemed providential. Acts 8 is about the Church being scattered, preaching the Good News along the way, and bringing joy to the city they find themselves in as a result. Pastor Glenn Packiam explores how we are a scattered people- by crisis or by choice- and how we can learn to see it as the Spirit sending us out into the world to seek the "Shalom" of our city and preach the Good News along the way.

In Acts 7, Stephen gives a stunning re-telling of Israel's story, revealing how they have repeatedly rejected God. As Pastor Glenn unpacks Stephen's sermon, we see that though we, too, have bee notoriously unfaithful, God is gloriously faithful. In Jesus, God culminates the single story of salvation He began in Abraham. Discover the beauty and mystery of our salvation story as we remember that God never scraps His projects, or forgets His promises, or abandons His people.

Acts 6 seems to be about the ordinary matters of administration. But in this story we find a remarkable picture of how servant leaders arise and are established. We also see how the apostles became "fathers" in the Church instead of business managers because they devoted themselves to prayer and the Word of God. With a little "Biblical imagination", Pastor Glenn Packiam helps us see a parallel message here for fathers on Fathers' Day, and calls us to see Jesus as our Servant Leader who brings us to the Table where we meet our Faithful Father God.

Most of us have come to understand that worship is much more than what happens on a Sunday morning. But in the midst of making "everything worship", we've lost a sense of why corporate worship matters. Pastor Glenn Packiam unpacks the three "stanzas" of Psalm 95 as we explore why- and how- we gather together for worship each week.

Acts 5 shows the young church facing trouble from within and opposition from without. Yet in the midst of it, God gives them signs of His continuing work. As we enter the story, Pastor Glenn challenges us to think how we may be tempted to, like Ananias and Sapphire, undermine the honesty and trust within the community of God's people, or, like, the Saduccees, cling to control and miss God's work. In the end, the message for us is clear: when we move in the opposite direction of the world, we will suffer shame for the name of Jesus; but we can trust that God is still at work and that we are in good company.

Pastor Glenn Packiam explores the fledgling Church's first brush with opposition. Examining Acts 4, we see just how subversive the announcement that there is no other name but the name of Jesus is to the power-brokers of this world.

What does it mean to speak in the name of Jesus? As we explore the story of Peter and John brining dignity and wholeness to man who had been an outcast since birth, we discover that prayer gives us eyes to see the world, to truly see the ones that pain keeps in a prison. Then, taking a closer look at how we pray for healing, Pastor Glenn Packiam invites us to embrace the tension of living in a Kingdom that is both now and not yet, helping us understand the difference between magic and miracles along the way.

The followers of Jesus have received the Holy Spirit- God's empowering presence- and have heard Peter proclaim Jesus as both the "Sovereign One" (LORD) and "Saving One" (Messiah). Now we want to know if there is more to being the Church than presence and proclamation. In this sermon, Pastor Glenn Packiam examines four core strands of the Church's DNA: the Apostles' Doctrine, Fellowship, the Breaking of Bread, and Prayer. Along the way, we discover the importance of becoming disillusioned with our own ideals of community and learn to become grateful recipients and participants in the community Christ has formed at His Table.

Part of being a follower of Jesus means proclaiming Him to the world. But what exactly are we to say about Him? We often hear people talk about Jesus as their "personal Lord and Savior," but the sermons in Acts don't talk about Jesus that way. They say something much larger- and much more confrontational- than that. In Part 3 of this series on the Book of Acts, Pastor Glenn Packiam takes a closer look at Peter's sermon to examine how the first followers of Jesus "preached the Gospel" and what that might mean for us today.

Continuing our series through the Book of Acts, Pastor Glenn Packiam explores the pouring out of the Holy Spirit on the first followers of Jesus. Luke describes the Holy Spirit in a disruptive and untamable way, difficult to dismiss and resistant to our desire for formulas. And yet, what happened at Pentecost was not a private ?ecstatic experience? but rather God?s empowering presence giving the early Church the power to proclaim Christ, even amidst persecution and opposition.