New City Church | Teachings

Weeds in My Garden | Burnout

We need to be honest about mental health. A whole lot of us are struggling. We may be showing roses, but we all have weeds in our garden. We’re going to talk about loneliness, depression, anxiety, burnout, and the heavy emotional stuff we feel in our chests. Everybody is either struggling with mental health or knows someone who is. Jesus cares and gets us. By turning to Jesus, we will open a door to getting help and hope. There is Help & Hope wherever you are.

Weeds in My Garden | Loneliness

We need to be honest about mental health. A whole lot of us are struggling. We may be showing roses, but we all have weeds in our garden. We’re going to talk about loneliness, depression, anxiety, burnout, and the heavy emotional stuff we feel in our chests. Everybody is either struggling with mental health or knows someone who is. Jesus cares and gets us. By turning to Jesus, we will open a door to getting help and hope. There is Help & Hope wherever you are.

Loneliness: A Deeper Dive

There is Help & Hope wherever you are.

Anxiety: A Deeper Dive

There is Help & Hope wherever you are.

Weeds in My Garden | Anxiety

We need to be honest about mental health. A whole lot of us are struggling. We may be showing roses, but we all have weeds in our garden. We’re going to talk about loneliness, depression, anxiety, burnout, and the heavy emotional stuff we feel in our chests. Everybody is either struggling with mental health or knows someone who is. Jesus cares and gets us. By turning to Jesus, we will open a door to getting help and hope. There is Help & Hope wherever you are.

Welcome to Weeds in My Garden

Coming soon, a podcast about deeper conversations on help and hope with Mental Health.

Summer of Ascent | Week 11

As the pilgrimage and journey come to a close, we are sent back into the world to bless and praise God. But what does it mean to bless? And what does it look like to return home?

Summer of Ascent | Week 10

Summer of Ascent | Week 9

Summer of Ascent | Week 8

Summer of Ascent | Week 7

Summer of Ascent | Week 6

Summer of Ascent | Week 5

The pilgrimage is not just a grind, but a journey of joy. On the journey, we are invited to choose the path of happiness, reform our systems to embrace happiness, and center our world on God. And in doing so, we are invited to enter into God’s road to happiness. 

Summer of Ascent | Week 4

Psalm 127 breaks into our regularly scheduled programming to do something new. It functions as a transition point on the pilgrimage home, moving us from navigating our context to embracing God’s joy in our everyday, including our work.

Summer of Ascent | Week 3

In Psalm 122, the pilgrimage and our home come into view, and we begin to worship. Worship in the pilgrimage is a communal experience. We come to share the most beautiful truth we have ever experienced. We gather to expect God to work in only the ways God can. We come to be sent out by God’s power on mission. But all of this begins with worshiping God in glad and joyful being as his people. 

Summer of Ascent | Week 2

As our pilgrimage begins, we start by observing the landscape. As we look around, we can see the dangers and temptations of the hills. But the good news is that we have help. We have overwhelming help from the God of the cosmos, who promises to keep watch over us through all of life for forever.

Summer of Ascent | Week 1

In order to start the journey home, we need to first understand where we are. We must understand the world's pains and hard things and cry out to God. And as we do so, we are reminded of the God who leads us from the places of pain and sorrow to our true home.

Gospel Habits | Week 5

In our final week in James, we discuss prayer's power. How prayer helps us to orient our eyes not on the things of the world, but rather to trust God and his work in all of life. It helps us to lift our eyes up to see what God is doing in the world, and to trust him with our plans and our pains.

Gospel Habits | Week 4

James notes that words have incredible power, the tongue has massive potential, and we need practices to help us embrace wisdom. Because the tongue is difficult to tame, but bears consequences on the direction of our lives. It is an outpouring of the lives we have built. That is why we need the presence of God to help us tame the tongue. 

Gospel Habits | Week 3

Our rhythms are not just for ourselves or our own betterment but also affect those around us. How do we think about our neighbors and those who are "other" than us when it comes to habits? James takes this question and challenges our perspective and questions what we should be boasting about as we follow Jesus.

Gospel Habits | Week 2

When it comes to building new rhythms, it starts with asking what we want. What are the small things that will transform us? James shows us the rhythms that God invites us into, and what that means for our heads, hearts, and hands.

Gospel Habits | Week 1

Over the next few weeks, we want to talk about building habits that help us follow Jesus. But what does building a rhythm or a rule of life mean for us? Why should we do it? As followers of Jesus, we build a rule of life, filled with disciplines and practices, to become more like our King.

Nothing Can Separate | Week 6

Our new life is here and not yet. There is a war between the flesh and the Spirit and wages inside of us. But we trust in Jesus to overcome even in our frailty.

Nothing Can Separate | Week 5

When we receive Jesus by faith, our lives change. Our sins die with him and we are given new life with him. Jesus totally transforms our lives through his life, death, and resurrection.

Nothing Can Separate | Week 4

Peace in our world is tenuous at best, typically defined as a cessation of hostility. It is often an insecure, temporary, or conditional practice. But peace with God is different. It is holistic peace, restoring our world. It is relational, restoring our relationship with God. God’s peace is far different from any other peace in the world. It is secure, active, and unconditionally extended to all of us. Peace is anchored in the love of God which is extended to all of us. 

Nothing Can Separate | Week 3

What is it that you boast in? We all boast about something, looking to find our worth and approval. But the Gospel invites us to embrace the gift of grace. That we are not able to save ourselves, but rather we are saved by faith. Faith is the only way to receive the righteousness of God.

Nothing Can Separate | Week 2

We are in need of an internal transformation, not merely an external modification. We are all in need of saving from our sins. The gospel is not good news about how God makes bad people good, but rather good news about how God makes dead people alive.

Nothing Can Separate | Week 1

In Romans 8, Paul proclaims that "nothing can separate us from the love of God." Yet, we often feel like the world is trying to separate us from God. See, all of us are under a power, the power of sin. We need the power of the gospel to save us from the power of sin. We need the power of the Holy Spirit-empowered message of grace.

Ash Wednesday

As we begin our journey through Romans and through Lent, we start by remembering the truth that we are mortal. That from dust we came, and to dust, we shall return. But while that is true, we also remember that while we are more sinful than we ever dared believe, we are more loved and rescued by Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.

For the City | Week 6

For the City | Week 5

For the City | Week 4

For the City | Week 3

For the City | Week 2

For the City | Week 1

Work Under The Work | Week 2

Work Under The Work | Week 1

Christmas Day Devotion

Christmas Eve

Colors of Christmas | Week 4

Colors of Christmas | Week 3

Colors of Christmas | Week 2

Colors of Christmas | Week 1

Acts | Week 11

Acts | Week 10

Acts | Week 9

Acts | Week 8

Acts | Week 7

Acts | Week 6

Acts | Week 5