Prayer for the 21st Century

"American culture is probably the hardest place in the world to learn to pray. We are so busy that when we slow down to pray, we find it uncomfortable. We prize accomplishments, production. But prayer is nothing but talking to God. It feels useless, as if we are wasting time. Every bone in our bodies screams, 'Get to work.'" A Praying Life, Paul E. Miller

Moving to Swallow Hill for Worship Gatherings

After 2 great years meeting in the movie theatre for our worship gathering, we are moving to Swallow Hill Music Association's building (a cool renovated older church) on October 10th. We know church is not where you meet but it is who we are becoming in Jesus and what we are doing in the city for His name. This location is a first class music venue in the city of Denver and we are excited for what God has in store in this next chapter of New City's mission. Much to be done and we could use your help! Email us at info@newcitydenver.org.

If you want to check out Swallow Hill you can visit their website at www.swallowhill.com. You can find out about the World's Largest Yukelele lesson in Ruby Park! Cool group of people and we can't wait to start meeting there on Sundays at 10 AM.

Don't Just Go To Church...Be the Church

We are going to finish a preaching series this next Sunday about what it means to be the church and not just go to church. "Church" means a lot of things to a lot of people and sadly, it get's misdefined and misrepresented all the time. Someone recently told me they were leaving "traditional church" because the traditional church (whatever that means) wasn't "being" the church. I was intrigued and asked several questions but as with most people what started as a hopeful conversation about what the church should be according to the Bible ended with this person referencing some strange book they had just read which basically said the church should help poor people and meet in a house church type situation with as few people as possible all day on Sunday and share a meal together. On the contrary, the Bible paints a more complete picture of what the church is to be and we need to look there for the whole picture and not just pick and choose what we want the church to be.

Many ideas of church sound good and of course these things can and should be part of the church but this is not all the church is called to be biblically. There are some more credible books on the subject and the best ones are Vintage Church by Mark Driscoll and Total Church by Steve Timmis. If you could only read one, read Vintage Church. It is a great read and a thorough explanation of how the Bible defines "church".

Denver Music Scene

I love the Denver Music Scene and we are starting to get a rep in the country for producing some great music. We are an eclectic community in regards to musical tastes and we are well represented in everything from hip hop to acoustic folk. Lately, I came across a great band here in Denver called Meese (www.meesemusic.com). Their sound is alternative and rich vocally and musically and I enjoyed their online music video "Next in Line". Check them out and support our local Denver area artists.

Churches on the Brink...Part Two

Churches are dying and are unhealthy in America. Our response to this problem usually is to bring in a "consultant", pay them thousands of dollars to tell us how to put on a better show on Sundays (laser lights, fog machines, and a really cool skit!). Paul approaches broken churches differently and says to fix a broken church you have to start with the pastors/elders. They need to repent of unsound (or absent) doctrine and unsound practice.

Once the pastors/elders are squared away Paul tells Titus to deal with false teaching that has always been and is to this day a major problem in the church. Paul says to rebuke false teachers sharply and to "silence them". This is almost impossible for American Christians to conceive of because we are so "nice". We tolerate almost anything even when Scripture says some things (like false teaching) can't be tolerated in a church. Pastors are challenged by Paul to be able to discern false teaching and deal with it so it doesn't ruin the lives of the people he is instructed by God to protect.

Churches on the Brink

Not a month goes by that I don't hear about another church on the verge of collapse. Somewhere between 3000-4500 churches die every year and many more are struggling and not very healthy. Most interesting to me is that when churches arrive at crisis they go to many sources for a fix and very rarely will go to the Bible first.

In the book of Titus, Paul instructs Titus how to fix a broken church. First, deal with the leadership or what scripture calls the elders/pastors of the church. Paul doesn't say to find the sharpest businessmen to come in and administrate the church, he says that the elders/pastors (those who really should be leading the church) should be doctrinally sound and above reproach. In other words they need to know their Bible and live their Bible. It is a both/and not either/or. Many pastors don't know their Bible and many pastors don't live their Bible. This is the main reason why churches and the American church at large is on the brink. Fixing a broken church starts with the elders/pastors repenting of their sins of unsound doctrine and unsound practice. It does not start by hiring a consultant for thousands of dollars to tell you everything is alright. More on what Titus says it takes to have a healthy church later...

Collision in Minneapolis

This looks really good and will be worth a viewing: http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/. You can see the trailer below in an earlier post.