To say that the early Believers we read about in Acts faced difficult circumstances would be putting it mildly. As their numbers grew, so did the hostility against them. They carried a message that disrupted the systems in play – and they paid for it dearly. Against that backdrop, it would be understandable if their prayers revolved around rescue, protection, safety, but that's not what we find. In this podcast, Blake dives deeper into the themes that flavoured the prayers of their community, and the challenge they give us as we continue to develop a practice of prayer together.

The heart behind Same Spirit/New City is that as we trek through the book of Acts, we can catch clues of how to apply the spirit of the Early Church to Auckland in 2018. The story of the Anglican mission in New Zealand began with an amazing vision, but it’s a broken story too. In this podcast, we're very excited to hear from Lyndon Drake, from the Te Tai Tokerau diocese of the Anglican Church, to help us unpack the history of the church in this country and join in its ongoing renewal. Lyndon's life has taken him from banking with Barclays to PhD studies in the UK in both Artificial Intelligence and Theology – but he's now home in New Zealand and based in Mangere Bridge.

The Book of Acts tells the story of the Jesus movement – God's plan to transform our world through the presence of the Spirit. It is God's nature to involve humanity and human leadership in this transformation, so all of us are invited and challenged to be woven more deeply into this plan. In this podcast, Steve Graham, principal of Equippers College and a great friend of Saint Augustine's, will explore the critical role leadership plays in God's world, and not least in the Church for the renewal of the city.

Jesus rewrote all the rules when it came to interacting with people: he wasn't boxed in by cultural norms, social status or religious rules. Acts 16 tells us the story of three transformations as three very different people encountered the message of Jesus: one from the top of society, one from the bottom, and one from the middle. These three couldn't have been more different from each other – in class, age, background and gender. And yet, the Gospel meets and transforms each of them. In this podcast, Blake will be looking at the way Jesus draws us in to know him, and the fundamental shifts that these encounters can make to our lives.

In the book of Acts, we get a glimpse at the life of the early church and what a spirit-filled community looks like. We see the values of the early church but also the pragmatic – like how they organised themselves and where and when they met together. In this podcast, Matt Maslin looks at what we can learn from this early Christian community and how it might affect how we do Church together at Saint Augustine's in the city of Auckland. Matt joined the staff team recently to support the development of a new youth ministry and to help develop our community life.

The early believers we meet in the book of Acts not only shared the Gospel across the known world, they also lived it. New communities emerged as believers began to realise that following Christ asked for more than lip service, it required them to serve their cities and work together to reform the world. This had such an impact that in the 4th century, the last of the pagan Roman Emperors, Julian, lamented that Christianity had spread because, “the godless Galileans care not only for their own poor but for ours as well.”

In this podcast, Roshan Allpress joins us to explore how this same spirit and care for their communities has animated followers of Jesus across the centuries. We'll be looking specifically at a more recent example – the Clapham Sect of eighteenth-century British reformers – as we ask how we too might seek to live out of a Gospel that is not only about personal transformation, but social and cultural change.

Roshan is a brilliant scholar and thinker whose studies have taken him from Canterbury to Oxford and now to Auckland, where he is Principal of Laidlaw College. He and his wife Lottie are the parents of two young daughters, Esther and Zoe.

The early Christian movement was radical to be sure – but to understand it well and translate it to our context, we need to explore where it fits in the bigger picture of history, because Acts tells the story of ancient prophecies fulfilled. In this podcast, Steve Graham returns to help us understand the trajectory of those promises, and locate ourselves in their continuing unfolding as we participate with God’s work in the world.

Andrew Shamy kicks off our new series with a look into the early years of the church – which weren’t easy. And yet, in the face of impossible circumstances, Acts tells us a story of joy, hope and courage. To understand how and what we can learn from those early believers, we’ll explore the critical importance of the Ascension together. Andrew is an old friend of many of us and serves as Curriculum Director and Senior Teaching Fellow at the Venn Foundation, where he is committed to helping people live out their faith creatively and authentically in a complex world. Andrew and his wife Rachel live in Auckland and are the parents of three young children.

Worry is like breathing – something we do without really stopping to think about it. In this world of ours, there’s a lot to worry about, and thanks to social media, we have an instant point of comparison between our lives and those of others. When we’re worried, often the best comfort is just knowing that we’re not facing our lives alone. In this podcast, Blake explores how Jesus stayed connected to God’s presence in his life, what that means for how we deal with our worries, and the power of looking worry in the eyes without blinking.

You can’t share something you don’t have. It goes without saying that in order to share the message of Jesus with those around us, we have to stay connected to Him – evangelism is a fruit that grows naturally when we feed the tree. In this podcast, #newsworthy continues as Katie Wivel joins us with a challenge to stick close to Jesus and in so doing, become light-bearers to others.