On April 24, 2011, God saw fit to have us launch New City Church at Palmer Elementary. On April 25, 2021 we will celebrate ten years of God’s faithfulness to our church. We are really excited for the many great things God has done and each one of New City’s Elders is excited for what God is currently doing. It is simply incredible to see that God has grown our church over the last year—yes, in 2020.

After the service on April 25 we are planning a celebration meal. We’re hoping to have it outdoors, though that will be weather permitting. Details will be forthcoming as they are available.

After this celebration Sunday we will begin a new topical series for the Spring / Summer, focusing on the ancient roots of our faith that is lived out in the 21st century. We will focus on what all Christians in all places at all times have believed, and then we will look at certain distinctives for New City. This will not be a series of lectures in systematic theology. Instead we will see how God in Christ through his Spirit blesses us with the incredible truth of who he is and what he has done. When it comes to theology, we’re only really doing it well when the result is praise and worship for who God is. God is not a subject to be studied, but a Person to be worshiped and adored, and this series will emphasize what this means for our lives.

Then beginning in September, we will begin a study in the book of Joshua that will take us through the Spring of 2022. We first looked at Genesis and then Exodus in the Old Testament. Genesis shows how Israel came to be in Egypt as the people of God and Exodus shows how God got his people out of Egypt—but it ends with them still in the wilderness. Joshua is the story of how they received the land God promised Abraham. There are a number of difficult passages with various ethical problems that we will tackle, but even in these difficult passages we will see the wonder and grandeur of God, and we will see that the “God of the Old Testament” is none other than the God who is revealed in the New Testament in the face of Jesus Christ.

Please be in prayer for both of these series. On a related note, if you have a question about Scripture or what we believe or why we do things the way we do them, please let me know. I could either answer it quickly with an emailed reply, or I could write about it for our website for all to read (keeping you anonymous, of course).

I’m excited to be back in John for the fiftieth sermon in the series this coming Sunday. I’m also sad that this means we will have just one more week in this amazing Gospel.