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In light of Pastor Josh's Good Samaritan sermon on Sunday, many of you have come up to me to ask about best practices when helping people in certain situations. Some of you understand the tricky balance between the desire to help others and the fear to cause more harm with our assistance.

It’s helpful to read the Gospel of Luke as a travel narrative: something like Kerouac’s On the Road or Steinbeck’s Travels with Charlie, except Jesus wasn’t seeking adventure or spiritual enlightenment. Jesus was on the road to die. All of Luke points toward this end -- his entry into Jerusalem and his eventual death and resurrection. This is the point of the story, and the closer we get to Jerusalem, the more clearly we see Jesus.

During the Psalm 69 sermon last Sunday we came across an example of an imprecatory prayer. Imprecatory prayers are those that call out for justice and the condemnation of evil, and they are pervasive in the Psalter. If you just flip through the first ten psalms, you'll notice that more than half include warnings about God's judgment, prayers for judgment, or promises of judgment (Psalm 2:10-12; 3:7-8; 5:8-10; 6:10; 7:6-16; 9:19-20; 10:2, 15).

Gratitude was one of the things we talked about last weekend. Psalm 67 is a harvest psalm, praising God for his provision and reasoning from that to confident hope in his ongoing care in the future. I suggested one practical application would be to find regular and intentional ways of giving thanks.

The Leaders Collective exists to help pastors and church planters sustain healthy, fruitful ministry so they - through Jesus' Church - can advance the gospel throughout the world. In 2018 I joined a two year, eight retreat cohort through the Leaders Collective. It was a tremendously helpful experience for me, and I continue to meet with my same cohort of pastors now 5 years after our offical program ended. Pastor Brian just began with a new cohort. And New City as a church has partnered with Leaders Collective to train church planters.

With all apologies to REM, when we think of "the end of the world as we know it," most people don't feel fine. This was certainly true for the church at Thessalonica. Paul had written a previous letter trying to encourage them and calm their fears. But as time passed, the situation grew worse. So Paul writes again to offer clarity about the return of Christ. What he tells them (and us) is meant to create hope, not despair; provoke preparation, not speculation; and embolden engagement, not apathy. We hope you'll join us this spring as study this short letter together.

One of the most vivid images in the whole New Testament is that of a man running. Jesus tells a story in Luke 15, about a son who can’t wait to get out of dodge. He gets his share of the family wealth, tells his father, "I want my money; I don’t want you,” and he leaves. After awhile, things go poorly. He squanders the money and he comes back home. He expects to grovel -- maybe he can be an employee somewhere on his dad’s land.

Ours will be a Tenebrae service -- Tenebrae meaning “darkness” or “shadows.” Once a service for the monastic community, Tenebrae later became an important part of the worship of the common folk during Holy Week. We join Christians of many generations throughout the world in using the liturgy of Tenebrae.

When the church worships on Maundy Thursday, it remembers the last evening that Christ spent with his disciples in the upper room. Three major events make up this evening: he washed the disciple's feet, he instituted the Lord's Supper, and he gave them the "new" commandment to love one another.

"Solomon the preacher is giving me a hard time, as though he begrudged anyone lecturing on him. But he must yield."

How to prepare for worship on Sunday Feb 25, 2024

We're just about at the midway point of our Making Room project. Throughout the month of November we'll be taking stock of where we're at and reminding ourselves of where we're going. We'll do this by studying the book of Ruth.

Congregational Meeting Recap

Making Room, who's afraid of deconstruction, and getting ready for sunday

This happy convergence got me thinking about Paul's emphasis in the second half of Romans 2 on the dangers of an empty spiritual life. Paul gives a few signs to help us diagnose this kind of "dead orthodoxy" in ourselves.

This weekend Pastor Mike walked us through the story of David bringing the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem. There's a lot going on in this episode: Uzzah's death, David's dance, Michal's mockery. But this week I was thinking mostly about what the ark of the covenant represented to the people of Israel.

Amazing Grace was written by John Newton as a New Year's song. It's original title, which I like quite a bit better, was "Faith's Review and Expectation." The idea was to sing out the previous year by looking back at all that God had led you through (that's faith's review); and to look ahead to the next year with hope for more of God's grace (that's faith's expectation). It's a wonderful idea, and we have made it our practice at New City to have it be our last song to close the year, and first song of the new year -- bookending the year signing about his grace.

None of our ministries have been altered more significantly during covid19 than New City Kids. I'm so proud of our New City Kids staff, for all the content they created for children in weekly home church lessons, virtual VBS, and Youtube stories and songs. This is definitely not what they had in mind when thinking about our spring and summer ministry, but they've adapted wonderfully and continue to do so as we look ahead to the fall.

I go under the knife again this week for my sixth eye surgery. At least, I think it's the sixth; to be honest, I've kind of lost count. Truth be told, I'm not too worried about it -- I am an old pro, after all. But those first few surgeries were "moments of deep unrest" for me, to borrow a phrase from the 19th century song writer, George Matheson. Matheson was well acquainted with moments of deep unrest, and I find myself returning to a prayer of his when I can't quite figure out what to pray

I was reading a book recently that makes that case that traditional cultures have always believed that too high a view of yourself is the real root cause of most evil in the world. Crime, violence and abuse all stem from people having too high a view of themselves. So what is the remedy? You clamp down. You modify external behavior. You tell people they’re bad.

My dad turns 81 today. Sadly, Parkinson’s Disease has robbed much of his latter years of what he and my mom hoped they would be. And yet, my dad has described this terrible disease as a kind of “severe mercy” for him. For the first 55 years of his life, my dad saw little need for God, at least not a personal God. We were connected to a church community, but that was more tied to our Italian and Irish heritage than a personal faith in Jesus. My dad saw himself as a self-made man: business owner, happily married (on the second try), a good father, a marine. This poor kid from Boston had carved out for himself a piece of suburbia in the Midwest. He had the life he wanted.

In 1 Corinthians 4:6 Paul says, I don't want you to be "puffed up." Some translations say, “I don’t want you to be proud. I don’t want you to be arrogant.” But here Paul doesn’t use the normal for hubris, or pride. The Greek word is physioo. It’s an unusual word. Paul uses it 6 times here in 1 Corinthians, and then once in Colossians; and then it’s not found anywhere else in the Bible, which leads the commentators to think this is a special theme of Paul.

On Sunday we continued our Love series, meditating on Paul's phrase, "Love is kind" (1 Corinthians 13:4). We may tend to think of kindness as a slender virtue (nice and all, but not that big a deal). However, not only does Paul mention kindness as an attribute of love, it is also a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22). This means that kindness is not an optional add-on to our lives, but rather is essential to Christian maturity. What follows below is not so much a coherent essay as much as mashup of a few extra thoughts on kindness.

Way back in March (which seems like a decade ago), Paige and I packed up the kids and made the long 12 hour trek to see my parents. I would not describe my family as particularly "good travelers." Potty stops abound (and seemingly never in any syncronized fashion); we bicker constantly about food stops; and the litany of "I'm bored" registering from the backseat rivals any Gregorian chant both in repetition and volume. But none of those things are my chief concern as we set out on the journey. Paige and I always begin the time by talking to the kids about patience. Particularly being patient with one another.

New weekly newsletter from Pastor Josh.

This summer we’re going to walk through 1 Corinthians 13 phrase by phrase, considering both the nature of love, and how to embody it. It’ll be ugly at times, because none of us are touching the way of life in this chapter. But it will be hopeful, because we can see real growth in love, individually and as a community.

Judges—a new sermon series beginning June 2, 2019

There is something special about the people of God coming together for worship (Hebrews 10:24-25). Thus, we hope Sundays at New City are a highlight of your week. In an effort to help you get more out of it, we'reposting a short preview of this Sunday's gathering.

There is something special about the people of God coming together for worship (Hebrews 10:24-25). Thus, we hope Sundays at New City are a highlight of your week. In an effort to help you get more out of it, we're posting a short preview of this Sunday's gathering.

Preview of our Lessons and Carols Service

Hope you all are having a good end to the week. Here's the best of what we saw online this week. :: Christopher Hitchens has died: Outspoken atheist writer and public intellectual Christopher Hitchens died on Thursday night. Doug Wilson, his old debate partner, has written a fantastic obituary you really must read. Seriously, go read it right now. Justin Taylor also has a good blog post, including a video highlighting a scene with Hitchens talking to Wilson in a car, discussing what he thinks are the strengths of the Theistic worldview and why he wouldn't exactly wish for a world completely free from religion.

There is something special about the people of God coming together for worship (Hebrews 10:24-25). Thus, we hope Sundays at New City are a highlight of your week. In an effort to help you get more out of it, we're posting a short preview of this Sunday's gathering. This is the fourth week of Advent. We'll mark the season with the lighting of advent candles and special readings. The theme for this week is Hope (Romans 15:13).

Each week we’re trying to give one option for “working out your faith” in a practical way. Think about the C.S. Lewis quote, “We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade the presence of God. The world is crowded with him… The real labor is to remember, to attend. In fact, to come away. Still more, to remain awake” (C.S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm).

Some Christmas and holiday events in the area, bad stats, and a great ebook deal.

This is the second week in our Advent series called Songs for Christmas (click here for past sermons and Study Guides). This week we'll look at Simeon's Song (Luke 2:21-35)

There is something special about the people of God coming together for worship (Hebrews 10:24-25). Thus, we hope Sundays at New City are a highlight of your week. In an effort to help you get more out of it, we're posting a short preview of this Sunday's gathering.

There is something special about the people of God coming together for worship (Hebrews 10:24-25). Thus, we hope Sundays at New City are a highlight of your week. In an effort to help you get more out of it, we're posting a short preview of this Sunday's gathering.

There is something special about the people of God coming together for worship (Hebrews 10:24-25). Thus, we hope Sundays at New City are a highlight of your week. In an effort to help you get more out of it, we're posting a short preview of the upcoming Sunday gathering.

This is the last week in our Origins series (click here for past sermons and study guides). The teaching will be from Genesis 11:1-9 "The Tower of Babel." To prepare for Sunday, read the text and think about the contrast made between the people of Babel and the God of the universe.

There is something special about the people of God coming together for worship (Hebrews 10:24-25). Thus, we hope Sundays at New City are a highlight of your week. In an effort to help you get more out of it, we're posting a short preview of the upcoming Sunday gathering.

We continue in our Origins series this week (click here for past sermons and study guides). The teaching will be from Genesis 6:1-22 - "Horror Story." This is the first of 3 weeks we'll spend reflecting on the story of Noah and the flood. To prepare for Sunday, read chapter 6 and think about what you learn about humanity and what you learn about God from this story.

We're back to our Origins series this week (click here for past sermons and study guides). Dave Dupee will be teaching from Genesis 3:14-24 - "Paradise Lost." Read the text to prepare for worship, and particularly think about what the Bible says about the curse on the world because of sin, and how you see some of those effects today.

This is the prayer I prayed in worship on Sunday. It's fairly reflective of what I have been praying for New City generally, and for all of you in particular. Perhaps you could join me in praying this for our church? It's based on Galatians 5:22-23.

We take a little break from our Origins series this week (click here for past sermons and study guides). Guest Speaker Marc Champagne will be speaking from John 16:5-15, "The Difference a Counselor Makes."

Questions for reflection based on Isaiah 55:1-13

This Sunday marks the beginning of the Advent season. If you want to read more about the Advent season, check out this blog post from last year. Below are some resources to help you celebrate the Advent season.

This Sunday we conclude our series in the Gospel of Mark. We'll be focusing on the resurrection of Jesus from Mark 16:1-8. To prepare for worship, read this passage and ask: What difference does the resurrection make? How is my life different because Jesus rose from the dead?

Last Sunday we talked about a very confusing passage - Mark 13. I think it's confusing because Jesus is talking to the disciples about two events - the destruction of the temple (which came to pass in 70 AD), and the final end of the world. My interpretation can be called a "two level" reading of the passage. Some verses refer to the destruction of the temple (a mini-end of the world), and some refer to Judgment Day (a final end to the world). And some verses seem to be referring to both events at once (v.28-30 for example).

On Sunday we looked at Mark 13, which is often called "The Olivet Discourse." It's one of the hardest passages in Mark to understand, and I'm pretty sure you won't find a passage in Mark with a greater variety of interpretations. Commentators disagree about the meaning of this chapter, even when they agree about almost everything else.

Lots of interesting things from around the web - reading lists for kids, Challies blasts McLaren, Derek Webb's releasing a worship album, and more.

We continue this week in our series "The King and His Kingdom" from the Gospel of Mark. The text on which the teaching is based comes from Mark 10:13-31. In preparation for worship, you might ask the following questions:

We continue this week in our series "The King and His Kingdom" from the Gospel of Mark. The text on which the teaching is based comes from Mark 10:13-31. In preparation for worship, you might ask the following questions:

Corporate worship is a great thing. Of course,we can worship God on our own and with our families - and we should. But there is something special about the people of God coming together for worship (Hebrews 10:24-25). Thus, we hope that corporate worship is the highlight of your week. In an effort to help you get more out of worship, we're posting a short preview of the upcoming worship service each week. Hopefully you'll find this helpful and encouraging.

Reason for God DVD, Dreher on future of American Christianity, dealing with grief after a miscarriage, marriage checkup

The sermon this week comes from Mark 12:28-34 - "The Great Commandment." It's easy to pass over this passage because it's so familiar to those who grew up in the church. And even for those who don't know the Bible well have probably heard these verses before. In preparation for worship, ask yourself what is so revolutionary about Jesus' statement that causes his original hearers to go silent with shock. "No one dared to ask him any more questions" (v.34). And pray for God to give you fresh eyes to see this text and apply it to your life.

Corporate worship is a great thing. We, of course, can worship God on our own and with our families. And we should. But there is something special about the people of God coming together for worship (Hebrews 10:24-25). Thus, we hope that corporate worship is the highlight of your week. In an effort to help you get more out of worship, we're posting a short preview of the upcoming worship service each week.

Here's a very brief log of books I that came across my desk this summer. At the bottom I list the top 3 books of the summer for me.

Employer/employee relationships provide many opportunities for glorifying God. On both sides of the transaction, we can imitate God, and he will take pleasure in us when he sees us showing honesty, fairness, trustworthiness, kindness, wisdom and skill, and keeping our word regarding how much we promised to pay or what work we agreed to do.

Since all our sound and A/V equipment is packed away for the move to Parker, we'll have a scaled back, unplugged worship service. We're privileged to have Brian Ferry come and lead us in worship. Brian and his wife Cheryl have been in ministry in Cincinnati for the last decade, and Brian has led worship at churches, conferences, mission trips for children, youth, college students, and adults. We're excited to have him with us for our last Sunday night service.

Switchfoot, Andrew Peterson on money, Russell Moore on Glenn Beck, & a man crisis in the church.

Starting September 12, 2010, New City will have a new time and a new location. Our new worship time will be 10:00am. And we'll be worshipping at John P Parker School.

Since we are starting the process of packing up in order to move to our new location on September 12, we'll be having a simple "unplugged" worship service this week and next.

Using a clip from Tim Keller’s talk at the 2007 The Gospel Coalition conference, Heath McPherson created this short clip using the art of Gustave Doré (1832-1883). What is the Bible basically about? Answer: Jesus.

Indelible Grace, Joey Votto, and Whiz Kids

If you're looking for something to do in the neighborhood this weekend, check out the Madisonville Street Festival.

This week we'll conclude our series Summer Psalms by looking at Psalm 150:1-6. Psalms 146-150 are generally classified as "hallelujah psalms." And it's easy to see why - in six short verses there are 13 calls to "praise the Lord" in Psalm 150. To prepare for worship...

This week we continue in our series Summer Psalms with Psalm 137. To prepare for worship, read Psalm 137:1-9.

Mark Drisoll has some wise things to say about being discerning when it comes to popular culture. Too many of us turn off any kind of discernment with popular media, saying "It's just entertainment." Driscoll says, "Movies are just sermons with pictures."

Several folks from New City have been involved with the Garden Project at Parker Elementary School. New City was able to purchase materials to build a tool shed for the garden. And on Saturday 08/07, several of us got together to build it.

This week we continue in our series "Summer Psalms" with Psalm 104. Psalm 104 is a hymn of praise, focusing especially on the works of God in creating and sustaining the universe.

In an effort to help you get more out of worship, we're going to start posting a little preview of the upcoming worship service each week. Hopefully you'll find this helpful and encouraging.

The simplest description of the five books of Psalms is that they were the inspired prayer-and-praise book of Israel. They are revelations of truth, not abstractly, but in terms of human experience. The truth revealed is wrought into the emotions, desires, and sufferings of the people of God by the circumstances through which they pass.

Since we're spending a couple of months in the Psalms this summer, I thought I'd share with you a few resources I have found helpful in understanding and applying the psalms to daily life.

I thought this was a very interesting presentation on the way we view and orient ourselves around time. Or as Tim Challies says, the way time shapes us.

Josh's final summary of PCA General Assembly

Josh's summary of Day 2 of the PCA General Assembly

Paige, Lucy and I are at General Assembly this week in Nashville. Here's a summary of Day 1.

For some inexplicable reason I woke up at 3:30am this morning. I couldn't go back to sleep, and I wasn't quite awake enough to read, or get any really solid work done. So I decided to take 90 minutes and watch Matt Chandler's (Village Church) seminar on homosexuality.

Training kids to manage money, the gospel and reformed theology, and Luther on prayer

Good questions in thinking through how far the gospel has penetrated into your relationships with other people.

Jesus is our defense lawyer. When we sin, Jesus speaks to the Father on our behalf. He defends us, saying that we should not be punished for our sins because he has already atoned for us.

In John Piper's absence, Desiring God did a 2 hour Q&A with Paul Tripp - pastor, writer, and biblical counselor.

Since Father's Day is right around the corner, I thought this very cool rendition of Andrew Peterson's "Family Man" is encouraging:

If you don't know that you are a sheep, then you will never feel the need for a shepherd. And thus, the gospel is lost on you.

Oakley, underground Cincinnati, summer reading, the future of the PCA, Keller on preaching

Since we didn't have audio (or power) for this week's sermon, here's a short summary of the message from Mark 6:33-44.

"We live in an economy and society that are simply demanding too much from people." -- Juliet Schor, The Overworked American. Schor reports that work hours in America are without precedent...

Deep in human hearts is an engine of self-justification. We all desperately want to reassure ourselves that we are all right. We do this by destroying anything that reminds us of the absolute standards of God’s righteousness.

How many people’s consciences have been awakened to eternal things and their own sinful plight, and yet they have buried it all because of what they feared their friends or family or fiance or spouse or fellow-students would think

I heard this was the one passage in The Lord of the Rings that made Tolkein cry when he re-read it (though I haven't verified this). It depicts Gollum's wrestling over whether or not to betray Frodo to the giant spider, Shelob. Ultimately, it describes the point of no return for Gollum's soul...

How to read the Bible, tips for family time, Olasky on Tim Keller, Steve Jobs on porn, Keller on Proverbs, and a prayer about gospel cover-up.

Links to good posts about guilt, thinking about the oil spill in the Gulf, why you might not see spiritual growth, and intimacy with your spouse

A Puritan prayer of repentance from the Valley of Vision...

Edwards, resources for women, and the death of a (former) atheist...

Book review of The Trellis and the Vine and links to newoldhymns...

The following guide is designed for discussion in community groups, or reflection and journaling on your own. It is based on Mark 5:21-43 (the sermon text for May 2, 2010).

A talk about manhood, book about womanhood, and an article on leading your family spiritually.

Around the web - a new biography of Bonhoeffer, a new adventure book by a patristics scholar, and NPR does a story on teens and texting.

This Sunday Marc Champagne spoke on The Missional Mindset from John 20:19-22 and Acts 1:8. The following guide is designed for discussion in community groups, or for journalling and reflection on your own...

The following is based on last week's sermon text, Mark 4:35-41. The following questions may help in further discussing the text with others, or in your own personal reflection and application...

As an aid to understanding and applying the text from which the sermon this week was based, you can use the following questions to talk with others, or to reflect and journal on your own...

We talked a little bit on Sunday about how belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ gives us the resources to live a big and significant life. This is because the resurrection signals to us that God is not done with the world...

I can't think of a better way to spend 3 1/2 minutes on Good Friday, than listening to this.

I never get tired of hearing this guy preach...

Bono is the lead singer of the rock band, U2. A few years ago he did a long interview with Rolling Stone, which was later turned into a book. Bono and the interviewer got onto the subject of Jesus...

I came across this story last week of the seeds of the gospel being planted in Korea. I spoke to Young Bok Kim about the story and he filled in some of the details...

There are some things about the calling of the apostles that apply to all disciples of Christ (all those who follow Him). One of these is the notion that we are chosen by grace...

The British writer Dorothy Sayers talks about the tendency of the modern church to "tame" Jesus, which in effect, makes Him seem boring. For Sayers, this is an outrage, because that's something Jesus was never accused of in His own day...

Jesus calls Levi/Matthew to follow Him (Mark 2:13-17). And later he becomes one of Jesus' top men. What an absolutely bizarre choice on Jesus' part. After all, Levi was a tax collector...

This week our sermon "The Healing of the Paralytic" was based on Mark 2:1-12. We encourage you to continue to read, think, pray about, and apply themes from this passage throughout the week. Below are some sample questions you can journal about and pray through...

If you've been coming around to New City, you know that we have been sending our first wave of financial support through the ministry of World Vision International. In a few months, we'll take another special offering to support the work of Mission to North America in Haiti (MNA is our denomination's north American mission arm). See the message below from Arklie Hooten, the head of MNA's disaster response. This will give you an idea of where our next wave of support will be going...

I commend to you this excellent piece by Sally Jenkins on the controversial ad Tim Tebow and his mother will star in during the Super Bowl. The ad is a pro-life piece and tells the story of Tebow's mother choosing NOT to have an abortion, though advised to because of complications with the pregnancy...

Jan 22 marks 37 years since the Roe v. Wade decision came down, effectively legalizing abortion in the United States. I thought I'd point you to two posts by Kevin DeYoung that I found helpful....

As you know, this week Haiti was struck with a devastating earthquake, the effects of which we are only beginning to learn. Haiti already was an extremely poor country with many problems, and perhaps the least equipped nation in the world to deal with a disaster of this magnitude. Naturally, people are asking questions as to why this happened and what should we being doing in the wake of the earthquake...

Chris Armstrong (an editor at Christian History magazine) has written a good little history of the Advent season. He writes about how, for many evangelicals, Advent is the one real taste of liturgy they get every year. Perhaps our enjoyment of Advent traditions can inform the way we worship through...

John 1:1-5, 14-18 was our text for the first Sunday in Advent. If you'd like to do some more reading, reflecting...

Last month I read Michael Williams' book Far as the Curse is Found: The Covenant Story of Redemption. It's really good, and...

Abraham Lincoln instituted the holiday of Thanksgiving as we know it in 1863. You can read it here. A couple of observations:

God always follows His calling with blessing. I wonder if we believe that. What I mean to say, is that when God calls us to something (some task, some ministry, some profession, some place), He doesn't just give us marching orders and then depart...

In Acts 2, we learn that God saves us not only out of our sins, but he saves us into community. In Jesus, we are connected not only to God, but to a group of people. That's why, when people come to faith as Peter preaches, they are immediately baptized and then it says they were "added." The church, then, isn't an optional "extra" or the Christian, but rather a fundamental part of what God is doing. He isn't just saving individuals, but creating a people for Himself. All followers of Christ ought to be committed to a body of believers somewhere.

On Sunday we talked a bit about the challenges to community in contemporary American culture. Some sociologists are asking the question, "Is real community even possible?" or has life been altered so much that real connection is something from a bygone age.