February 21, 2023
by Eric Stillman
In Philippians 2, Paul exhorts the Philippian church to strive for loving unity by putting the interests of others above their own and following Jesus’ example of sacrificial service. While this mindset translates to every possible situation in which we might find ourselves, let me share eight practical ways that you can put your neighbor’s interests above your own on Sunday morning at NewLife, or at whatever church you attend:...Keep Reading
Posted in: Church life Tags: Discipleship, Love, Church life
November 15, 2022
by Eric Stillman
In September of 1997, I found myself in the Homer Babbidge Library at UConn, reading an article in Christianity Today on trends they were seeing in youth and young adult ministry. I was a senior at UConn, thinking about where I would end up when I graduated. It had been quite a journey at UConn. On the second day of college, I had committed my life to Jesus. Since then, I had gotten involved in a Christian fellowship group called InterVarsity, joined the staff of a parachurch ministry called Musicon, and served two summers as the Youth Program Director at South United Methodist Church in Manchester, making many wonderful friends along the way. As I entered my senior year, I knew that I wanted to keep following Jesus wherever He might lead....Keep Reading
Posted in: Church life Tags: NewLife, Church life, God's leading
January 24, 2017
by Eric Stillman
One of the many descriptions of the church in the New Testament is the family of God. In Matthew 12:46-50, Jesus responds to someone’s words that his family is outside waiting to speak to him by replying that “whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother” (Matthew 12:50). Coming from the man who upheld the commandment to honor your father and mother, this is a shocking statement. To Jesus, and consequently to the New Testament church, all who believe in Jesus have been adopted into God’s family.
With this in mind, I want to challenge you to consider the children and teenagers in our church as your relatives...Keep Reading
Posted in: Church life Tags: Church life, Family
July 1, 2014
by Eric Stillman
This summer, beginning after the morning service on July 13th, we are offering a four-week community group based on the book ‘œCreature of the Word‘ by Matt Chandler. As I‘™ve been reading through the book, I was struck particularly by the chapter ‘œJesus-centered culture.‘ The gist of the chapter is that the culture of a church trumps the vision of the church almost every time. By culture, Chandler means that each church has a certain personality, a character, a set of deeply held values that may be openly declared or merely understood, which guides the church‘™s ongoing actions. And often, a church may state that something is important to them, part of their mission and vision, but their culture is strongly communicating something completely different.
For example (and these examples may or may not be true about our particular church):...Keep Reading
Posted in: Church life Tags: Church life, vision
