Special guest Mike Larson joins us to share his experience with “regenerative agriculture” in order to illustrate how embracing God’s design in creation brings fruitfulness and joy. In part 1 of this interview, we will reflect on the problems with our culture of consumption, learn about regenerative agriculture, and understand the ways a regenerative model of farming displays the glory of God.
Episode 37 - Consuming to Stewarding - Part 1
Paul and Pastor Brent dive into another transformational outcome: consuming to stewarding. This stems from Genesis 1-2 as we are created to be fruitful and to “work and keep” God’s creation. We glorify God by stewarding the fruitfulness of ourselves, our families, our friendships, our vocations, our material things, and every aspect of our lives. Listen to discover how our culture’s false promise of “more, bigger, better” cannot satisfy.
Episode 36 - Fragmented to Integrated
Paul and Pastor Brent discuss another transformational outcome: fragmented to integrated. We live in a culture that tends to compartmentalize, divide, and distort our understanding of God’s good design for us and his creation. Yet the gospel of Jesus Christ brings all things under the Lordship of Jesus, causing us to come to see our lives as whole-life discipleship. This episode will challenge you to change your approach and fight against the fragmentation of our culture to see God’s transforming work to make us whole in Christ.
Episode 35 - Goal Setting - Part 2
Paul Arneberg hosts part two of his solo podcast on goal setting. Paul helps us think through ways to set godly goals for the coming year, centered in the gospel, and saturated in the grace of God. Let this episode inspire you to have goals that honor the Lord and help you take steps forward in maturity and fruitfulness for God’s glory.
Episode 34 - Goal Setting - Part 1
Paul Arneberg starts a new year with a discussion on goal setting from a biblical perspective. Many of us are overwhelmed when we begin a new year because we feel pressure to set lofty goals or pursue major life achievements. How can we put goals into a proper perspective? How can we pursue spiritual growth and maturity in a healthy way? Paul provides some ideas for setting goals for 2024 in a Christ-honoring way.
Episode 33 - Entitled to Selfless - Part 2
Paul and Pastor Brent continue with part two of Entitled to Selfless. Here we focus on the biblical calling to selflessness, servanthood, and humility. Namely, we look to the example of Jesus and discover how His earthly ministry reveals a gospel-centered and transformational approach to our entitlement and self-focus. There is much to ponder as we apply this transformational outcome to various aspects of our lives.
Episode 32 - Entitled to Selfless - Part 1
Paul and Pastor Brent begin discussing a new transformational outcome: moving from Entitled to Selfless. The issue of entitlement runs deep in our culture. We are self-focused and self-asserting in most contexts, and this even takes on a moral dimension of feeling offended when our selfhood is violated. This episode explains post-modernity’s roots in Romanticism, and highlights the ways our view of self is cursed by sin.
Episode 31 - Anxious to Peaceful - Part 2
The dramatic conclusion of our transformational outcome: anxious to peaceful. In this episode, Paul and Pastor Brent dive deeply into the biblical vision of “shalom” and the gospel-centered approach we must have to know the peace of God. This anxious age requires us to be intentional about being a non-anxious presence in every aspect of our lives.
Episode 30 - Anxious to Peaceful - Part 1
Paul and Pastor Brent tackle another transformational outcome: anxious to peaceful. We live in an anxious age. How do we decipher our anxious culture? How can we find peace with all the anxious thoughts and anxiety-producing things thrown our way? In this episode, Paul and Brent reflect on how we can be a “non-anxious presence” in our world.
Episode 29 - Intentional Discipleship
Paul and Pastor Brent talk about how we can be intentional to pursue discipleship through modeling a gospel-centered life, spending quantity and quality time with others, capitalizing on moments to have discipling conversations, and setting milestones along the path of spiritual growth. This episode will encourage you to seek a whole-life discipleship, side-by-side with the family of God, as we pass along our faith to the next generation.
Episode 28 - Defining Disciple-by-Doing
Paul and Pastor Brent sit down to define “Disciple-by-Doing” and help us understand more about the unique ministry vision of New Life. This creative approach will shape the development of our indoor and outdoor spaces as we seek to embed the truths of Scripture into hands-on discipleship. We aim to develop a training center to form ambassadors of Jesus Christ by inspiring awe through creation. Listen to learn more!
Episode 27 - Celebration Sunday Recap
Paul and Pastor Brent look back on Celebration Sunday to recap this significant event in the life of our church. Our theme was: celebrate the past, joyful in the present, hopeful for the future. We talked specifically about the proposed building project and property development, and how every one of us can be involved in the vision God has given us to invest in the future of our church.
Episode 26 - Busy to Restful - Part 2
Paul and Pastor Brent tackle part two of our transformational outcome “busy to restful”. We dive deeper into the biblical vision of abiding in Christ and being restful in the truth of the gospel. We don’t have to try to be enough for God through our works, nor do we need to impress others with our busy schedules! Find freedom, rest, and joy as we take the yoke of Christ upon us.
Episode 25 - Busy to Restful - Part 1
Paul and Pastor Brent introduce a new topic that is probably very convicting for many of us: busyness. Our lives are full of activity, movement, obligations, and tasks. How do we understand the busyness of our culture? Why do we often have a fear of stillness or quiet? How can we examine ourselves and move toward restfulness in the gospel? These issues and more in this new episode!
Episode 24 - Lonely to Belonging - Bonus Interview
Pastor Brent sits down with Mark Revell to learn more about “belonging” in the local church. Mark is the Director of Training at ReachGlobal and a PhD student studying the ways Christians find belonging in churches in the country of Hungary. He has a wealth of experience as a missionary and his research helps us gain a better understanding of how the local church beautifully displays the reality of the family of God.
Episode 23 - Lonely to Belonging - Part 2
Paul and Pastor Brent describe how the church is the God-ordained family of faith in which we find belonging. True belonging begins with being fully known by God, fully loved by God, and fully redeemed by God through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Then we find meaningful belonging in Christ’s Body, the local church, as we gather face-to-face and engage in worship, discipleship, and mission alongside one another.
Episode 22 - Lonely to Belonging - Part 1
We explore a new transformational outcome: moving from lonely to belonging. We are bombarded with superficial relationships in our culture. Paul and Pastor Brent consider the epidemic of loneliness that affects so many people today. We need to think critically about what it means to truly connect and belong, starting with our relationship with God, then extending to our relationships with others. The gospel redeems us to be in the presence of a Holy God, connected to the True Vine, Jesus Christ, and to belong to the Family of God in a local church.
Episode 21 - Relative Truth to Biblical Truth - Part 2
Paul and Pastor Brent sit down again to explain why it is so important that we embrace objective truth. We develop a theology of special revelation, specifically through the Scriptures that reveal Jesus Christ. Paul and Brent define “inspiration” and help us learn why the Bible is foundational for the Christian faith. Our prayer is that you would crave to know God through his Word!
Episode 20 - Relative Truth to Biblical Truth - Part 1
Paul and Pastor Brent launch into a new transformational outcome: relative truth to biblical truth. We begin by defining "subjective” and “objective” truth. Then turn to the Bible to understand how we can know God through general revelation. Our discussion ends with an intro to special revelation and a challenge to desire God’s self-disclosure through his Word.
Episode 19 - My Design to God's Design - Part 3
We pick up the final installment of our conversation with Pastor Brent and Stephen Jelks about moving from my design to God’s design. We dig deeper into the importance of having a solid foundation in Christ. He is the only secure and solid Cornerstone. The church is the visible edifice of God’s glory, a signpost and foretaste to the coming Kingdom of God. We end this episode with a summary of our disciple-making vision at New Life.