New City will celebrate its eleventh birthday next month! This means we’re still a fairly young church and we have growing pains as we lack some of the long-established structure of older churches. That’s also an advantage, by the way. One of the great things about starting a new church is whenever anyone says, “We’ve…

Lent is not a time of celebration. This is because fasting is not a time of celebration, but of lament and of seeking the Lord. Because Lent is a season of fasting, it cannot be a season of celebration. The celebration comes at the end of Lent when we assemble together to celebrate the Lord’s…

We don’t like to give up, well, anything. We live in a prosperous world and while some may have less than others, the reality is we all have more than most of the world. The fact that you are reading this demonstrates the prosperity we all have, whether you’re reading this in a web browser…

When my children were little one of them discovered what appeared to be a get-out-of-jail-free card for saying something offensive: just say the words “No offense”! “Mom, this food is yucky—no offense!” “Dad, your breath stinks—no offense!” After one particularly offensive declaration my wife asked said child what, exactly, does this child think “no offense”…

A couple weeks ago I said in my sermon, “Sometimes the best we can do is simply endure.” Life can be difficult and painful. There are times in which the pain we encounter overwhelms us and all that seems to be in our grasp is endurance. We grin and bear it. This quality is often…