New Story Church meets Sunday mornings at 110 Valley Park Road, Phoenixville, PA. For more information, please visit our website: https://newstorychurch.life
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Conversations on governance with leading social scientists around the world. Run by the Centre for the Study of Governance and Society at King’s College London.
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Four Marks of a Follower of Jesus. Luke 5:1-11
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The invitation of Jesus is (& has always been): "Follow Me." But what exactly does it mean to follow Jesus? In this message, we'll attempt to piece together the broader Jewish context of 1st Century rabbis and disciples in order to makes sense of what it means for Rabbi Jesus to invite you and me to follow Him.…
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Does it ever feel like there's just too much going on in your life to ever find some peace & quiet? I would venture say to say that you're not the only one! Psalm 131 gives us beautiful imagery to begin to understand what it means to find peace with God.By Henry Hutchinson
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The Danger of Growing Up With Jesus. Luke 4:14-30
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In Luke 4, Jesus goes to his hometown. These are the people who should know Him the best. These are the people who grew up with Jesus. But, when He announces who He is and why God has sent Him, it doesn't go so well. That's putting it mildly. (They try to throw Him off a cliff.) Luke leaves us wondering: Why is it that those who are far from God se…
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The Subtle Temptation to Make It About Me. Luke 4:1-13
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To be tempted is to be human. Since Adam & Eve, temptation has been part of the human story. In Luke 4, Jesus, "the son of Adam," is getting ready to step into the mission to which God has sent Him. But first, God leads Him into the wilderness. There He must confront a series of subtle temptations, temptations that are truly tempting because they s…
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Podcast - The Dispersion of Power: A Critical Realist Theory of Democracy
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About the Talk In this episode of the Governance Podcast, CSGS Director Mark Pennington speaks with Dr Samuel Bagg about his recent book - The Dispersal of Power: A Critical Realist Theory of Democracy, published by Oxford University Press. The book presents an in depth consideration of the problem of 'elite capture' and the possible strategies to …
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Julian was raised Christian. He grew up going to church, was baptized, went to a Christian school and then, in his early 20s, he walked away from the faith. This is how the Roman Emperor Julian became known as Julian the Apostate. This is also how Julian has become a kind of patron saint to the millions who grew up in church, knew Christianity from…
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Francis of Assisi was a simple man who changed the world by living like Jesus. That's it. He sought to literally do what Jesus did: embrace lepers, serve the poor, love his enemies, own nothing, and trust God for everything. To this day, Francis's joy-filled life stands as a convicting and inspiring reminder that the life and teaching of Jesus is n…
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Knowing God & Knowing Yourself: Bernard of Clairvaux
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If you are looking for a spiritual guide, you will be hard pressed to find one better than Bernard of Clairvaux. He is famous for his historical and political exploits. (After all, he was involved in untangling a Church schism and starting the Knights Templar!) But his theological and devotional works are worth savoring. He was a student of the lov…
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A Handbook for Combating Demons Evagrius of Pontus
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In the 4th century, after the Roman Empire was officially declared "Christian," thousands of men and women fled to the deserts of Egypt. They were literally following Jesus's example of going into the wilderness to face their demons. This week, we'll explore the story of one such "Desert Father" named Evagrius. In the wilderness, Evagrius faced his…
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A Sinner After God's Own Heart. 1 Samuel 1:1-2:11
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When God chooses young David to be his anointed King, he describes him as 'a man after my own heart'. But as the story plays out, David is also shown to be Israel's greatest sinner (on more than one occasion). How does this work? How can one be a sinner after God's own heart and what does that mean for your life? This will be the question we ask on…
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Walking Humbly with Your God. Micah 6:6-8
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What does it mean to know God? What does that look like? How does it play out in my everyday life? The Bible contains some wonderful summaries in answer to these questions and the passage before us describes its answer to these questions using the language of "walking'. To know God is to walk daily with him, talking with him (prayer), hearing from …
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From the Garden of Eden to the final pages of scripture in the new heaven and new earth, we read God’s extraordinary autobiography. The author and the finisher of our faith has designed humanity to be the living and breathing embodiment of his image, right at the heart of his creation. Now, because of Jesus’ entrance into, and redemption of, our pa…
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The Spiritual Practice of Remembering. Psalm 103
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In Scriptures, we are commanded, urged, and warned to remember/do not forget... more than 100 times. The Psalms repeatedly teach us to "remember" in our prayers. One gets the sense that how we remember is critical. According to the Prophets and Apostles, remembering appears to be a spiritual practice that is essential to knowing God and ourselves m…
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Thousands have gathered for the worship concert. Asaph, one of the greatest singer-songwriters of all time, steps ups to the mic: "My name is Asaph... and this song… is about how I almost lost my faith.” That's how Psalm 73 begins. For thousands of years, believers have been using this psalm as a guide to praying our doubts.…
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Profound wholeness demands profound honesty. The Psalms invite us to be brutally honest with God and with ourselves, drawing things out of us that we rather not think about.. much less pray. This week, we'll explore a horrifying, but helpful, psalm that invites us to trust God with "our most precious hatreds."…
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How do I pray when I feel like I have ruined my relationship with God? Psalm 130 is the prayer of someone headed to a worship service. On the way, he realizes that his relationship with God is completely broken, and it's all all his fault. This Psalm shows you how to pray when you find yourself there: in depths of your own brokenness, stuck inside …
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Waiting for the End of the Story. Psalm 13
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This Sunday, professor, speaker, and author, Dr. Duffy Robbins, will introduce us to a Biblical way to lament what is wrong in our world and in us. Using Psalm 13 as a guide, Duffy will show us how to pray our laments and even write our own psalm of lament.By Duffy Robbins
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It's through hearing about what God has done in your life that others can begin to know the goodness of God. In Psalm 40, we find David standing at the Temple. He’s come to offer a thank offering to God, but, when he listens to God, he discovers that what God desires more than a sacrifice is for David to tell others what He has done for him. Then, …
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Am I safe? Who am I? Who are you? Who am I to you? These are the questions that give our lives shape and meaning. This is where we begin to figure out what it means to be human. And yet, these are questions that you cannot answer on our own. Modern Psychology and ancient Hebrew wisdom agree: if you are ever going to answer these questions, you need…
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When You're Wrecked by the Love of God. Psalm 84
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In Psalm 84, we stumble into a prayer that reads more like a juicy love letter than what we usually think of as prayer. These are the words of someone who has been wrecked by the love of God. He is sick with love. At times, he almost sounds insane. His voice cracks. He can hardly breathe. And, by praying this prayer, we learn to open up our hearts …
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In Psalm 8, David helps us get oriented to reality. If all you've ever known is the observable universe, this might be a bit hard to imagine. The universe David takes us into is much more vast. But he doesn't take us there to get lost. Rather that is the only place we can truly find ourselves. David guides us into this incomprehensibly vast "kingdo…
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If you think that life is a problem that you can solve, you're in trouble. In Psalm 2, we're faced with the reality that if it's up to us to fix ourselves or save our world, we are hopeless. But we're not hopeless. It's not all up to us. The hope of God's people is that the God's King would do what we cannot do. In this Psalm, we explore how surren…
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The editors of the Psalms knew how hard it is to pray. They felt it too. So, when we open up the Book of Psalms, we find that they don’t force us to jump right into prayer as though that’s an easy leap to make. Instead, they give us two Psalms to help us enter into prayer: Psalm 1 & 2. These two Psalms do not shy away from the difficulties we will …
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The Psalms: An (Unexpected) Guide to Life with God
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If you ask Christians down through the ages: "How do I move forward in my walk with God?" They will say (over & over & over again): "The Psalms. You need to pray the Psalms." And this feels like a reasonable answer... until you start praying those Psalms about hating people or about the coronation of a king or the one about smashing the teeth of mi…
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An Easter Story about Doubt. John 20:24-31
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Today, we celebrate the greatest day in history, Resurrection Sunday! Today's Message: An Easter Story about Doubt. John 20:24-31 We’re not the type of church to have a patron saint, but, if we were, ours would have to be "Doubting Thomas." We live in an age of unrelenting doubt. It infects and affects us all. This Easter, we will look at the story…
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Adventures in Missing the Point. Luke 9:51-62
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Sometimes you can get it all right, and still get it all wrong. One of the occupational hazards of discipleship is doing the right things for the wrong reasons. In this second Lenten meditation from the Gospel of Luke, guest speaker, Duffy Robbins helps us to consider how easy it is to completely miss the point of the discipleship relationship with…
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What does it mean to be Jesus' disciple? Is it about church membership? Sunday attendance? Being in a small group? Wearing Christian shirts and bracelets? In a special two-week Lenten study from the Gospel of Luke, guest preacher, Duffy Robbins will help us "define the relationship".By Duffy Robbins
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Steak: The Taste of God's Lavish Goodness. Leviticus 3
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Consuming red meat is not just a dietary choice. It is (and has always been) fraught with moral, political, economic, social, environmental, religious, and health implications. It's almost like eating the flesh of another creature has some unseen, but significant, effect on our world. In this message, we'll explore the spiritual significance of eat…
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Podcast: Liberal vs Paternalist Approaches to Economic Development Policy with Prof William Easterly
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About the Talk In this episode of the Governance podcast, our Director Mark Pennington speaks to Prof. William Easterly from New York University on liberal vs paternalist approaches to economic development policy. The Guest William Easterly is Professor of Economics at New York University and Co-director of the NYU Development Research Institute, w…
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When God's People experience the Presence of God, they start pouring oil on things. From oil covered pillars to beards dripping with oil to a woman pouring precious oil over the feet of Jesus, oil is everywhere in the Scriptures. Why? What did oil mean to them? And how might oil help us experientially know - maybe even smell - the Presence of God? …
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You Are the Salt of the Earth. Matthew 5:13
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When we ask Jesus: "Who am I?" He says: “You’re salt.” That's who you are. It's not the answer that most of us would expect. Nor is likely to be the first way most of us would self-identify. But, if we were to take this seriously, what might it mean? What does "salt" say about how Jesus sees you? And how might “salt” help us experientially know who…
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Podcast - Estonia and Socialist Reality with Matthew D. Mitchell
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About the Talk In this episode of the Governance podcast, our Director Mark Pennington interviews Dr. Matthew Mitchell on the socialist reality in Estonia’s history. This episode is part of Matthew’s co-authored publication as part of the Realities of Socialism series run by the Fraser Institute. The Guest Matthew D. Mitchell is a Senior Fellow in …
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Water: Hearing the Invitation of Jesus. John 7
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If we ever hope to experientially know God the way that the saints of old knew Him, then we are going to need some help. We need a guide. This week, we are going to look to the Apostle John to give us some advice on how to experience the life-giving invitation of Jesus... through water. If it sounds a bit crazy that's because this is a wholly (& ho…
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Bread: Clinging to What Gives Us Life. Exodus 16
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According to the Scriptures, you can’t just know about God. You have to experientially know God. You have to “taste & see” for yourself. In this series, we’re exploring what it might look like for us to taste & see God in the stuff of life. And this is bread week, the week in which we ask: How can we experientially know God through our daily bread?…
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For millions of Americans, God no longer feels real. Collectively, we seem to be losing the capacity to know & experience God in a way that was common in the Scriptures and in the Church down through the ages. In this series, we're going to explore what it might look like for us to "taste & see" God in a way that is deeply personal, strangely sensu…
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Forgiveness is a community affair. Our extending it or withholding it, doesn't just impact us; it impacts everyone around us. Jesus gives us a pattern to follow that helps us experience the freedom that comes from a life of extending grace toward those that hurt us.By Mike Harder
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The (Often Overlooked) Benefits of Suffering With Others.
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Both biologically and Biblically, we have reason to believe that humans need to suffer. Not horrifically, but some. Stress, hardship, trials. These are necessary for your growth and development. If you want to fully become who you are created to be, you have to suffer, and you shouldn't do this alone. You need to suffer with other people. In this m…
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From Panmure House to State Capitalism: Adam Dixon on the relevance of Adam Smith
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About the Talk In this episode of the podcast, Prof. Mark Pennington interviews Prof. Adam Dixon on the contemporary relevance of the Scottish philosopher and political economist Adam Smith. The Guest Adam D. Dixon holds the Adam Smith Chair in Sustainable Capitalism at Adam Smith’s Panmure House, the last and final home of moral philosopher and fa…
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3 years. When someone shows up at our church, that's how long we expect them to stay before a new job, a new house, or some life transition moves them away. 219 hours. According to a 2019 study from the University of Kansas, that's about how long it takes to develop a close friendship. Our vision to be a church where life transformation is normal s…
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Neuroscientists, Moses, and the Apostle Paul agree: Other people are the problem... and the solution. Both. If you let other people see you for who you really are, they might hurt you. (They probably will.) But it's also true that other people are the solution. The only way to undo what has been done to you is with the help of other people. They mu…
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“New Year’s Resolutions,” you say? Hmmm, don’t they always seem to run out of gas before we hit February? No real changes. How about a different approach? This Sunday we’re going to let Jesus work us over a bit, just like he did Peter in Luke 5:1-11. Peter’s life was busy, calibrated…and predictable. Jesus had something else in mind for Peter and h…
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Looking for God in a Godless World. Matthew 2
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If you are looking for a guide to help you find God in a world where he seems oddly absent, you can hardly do better than Matthew. This tax collector-turned-disciple helps us see how God shows up in a world of mass killings, refugees, & crazy leaders; a world like ours. He helps us see how God is still at work in our lives today.…
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The Life and Times of F.A. Hayek: A Conversation with Bruce Caldwell
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About the Talk In this episode of the podcast, Prof. Mark Pennington interviews Prof. Bruce Caldwell, one of the co-authors of this recently published book Hayek: A Life. Few twentieth-century figures have been lionized and vilified in such equal measure as Friedrich Hayek—economist, social theorist, leader of the Austrian school of economics, and …
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When God Asks You to Make an Unthinkable Sacrifice. Genesis 22
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In Genesis 22, God politely asks Abraham to sacrifice his beloved son, and Abraham does it. This is a story that has been called absurd, abusive, and immoral... and yet, it remains a story that we cannot shake off or just ignore. There's a reason for this: We need it. We cannot come to peace with God, ourselves, or the journey of faith without this…
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In the spring of 2018, Leah's life looked perfect. She had written books, trained 1000s of leaders, and was married to a "celebrity" among Christians of SE Asia. But then, that August, his secret sin was discovered, and Leah's world crumbled. Since that time Leah has been on a journey of discovery and grief; brokenness and healing; pain and beauty.…
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Fear Threatens Everything You Love. Genesis 20-21
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In Genesis 20 and 21, we come to what should be the climax of Abraham’s story. The long-awaited promise of a son is going to be fulfilled! And yet, at the very moment when Sarah & Abraham receive the miracle they’ve waited for their whole lives, they both become gripped with fear. A terrible fear. The kind of fear that makes you selfish, defensive,…
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Dragged Kicking & Screaming to Salvation. Genesis 19
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In Genesis 19, the story of how God judges Sodom and saves Lot... and we aren't sure which is more shocking. The only thing more shocking than God's judgement is His mercy. At least, the destruction of Sodom was just and justified. But, why would God save Lot? He does not appear to be a particularly upstanding person. His moral judgement is suspect…
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At first glance, Genesis 18 appears to be a random story about three men who unexpectedly show up at Abraham's tent for a late lunch so that they can tell Sarah something. But then, about half way into the chapter, we pick up that these aren't just men... and this isn't just a meal. This is a picture of what it means to be a "friend of God." If we …
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The DTR (Define the Relationship) Talk. Genesis 17
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In Genesis 17, God stops everything. The storyline comes to a screeching halt. God wants to have a DTR (define the relationship) talk with Abraham. This chapter is a foundational text. It gives us language for what it means to have a personal relationship with God. As such, it will not only shape & define Abraham's relationship with God, it will gi…
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What do you do when you are gripped by fear and powerless to change things? When we pick up the story in Genesis 16, Abram and Sarai are beyond desperate. They have been waiting more than a decade for God to fulfill His promise, so Sarai decides that God needs her help. She tells Abram to sleep with her servant, Hagar, and what follows is a tragedy…
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