Salvation

Expressing Your Faith in a Secular World (Dr. Mark Gordon Fee – 9/13/19 – NCS New Canaan)

September 13, 2019 by NCS New Canaan Leave a Comment

Kicking off our 2019-2020 NCS New Canaan season, Mark Fee powerfully and emotionally walks through a new way to think about sharing the good news of the Gospel of Jesus. Instead of being “obnoxious for Jesus” or merely sharing our personal faith testimony, he urges us to begin loving people and to become so much like Jesus in the way we love people that they want to learn more.

Fee emphasizes that people–not worship bands or elaborate programs–are meant to be the attraction of Christianity. He explains the self-absorbed failings of “performance” Christianity and contrasts it with a Christianity that is all about loving people as Jesus first loved us. Fee also helps reframe “sin” in terms of its harm to others (being unloving) rather than as “rule-breaking”. He gives examples of how the little things–seeing people, noticing them, asking their name and caring–can have a huge impact on lives.

Oh, The Places You’ll Go! (Terry Wilcox – 6/7/19 – NCS New Canaan)

June 7, 2019 by NCS New Canaan Leave a Comment

Although he generally hates talking about himself or his past, Terry Wilcox humbly and transparently shares the amazing journey of his life with Jesus. Terry explains the decisions that set the course for his life–accepting Jesus, surrendering his life to the Holy Spirit and telling God he would embrace any opportunity God provided to talk about Him–and he reveals the incredible adventures that were in God’s plan for a “farm boy from Western Pennsylvania who barely got through college”. Terry also shares the conclusions of a life lived fully with Jesus–God is faithful and His grace is sufficient.

Getting Serious About the Kingdom of God (Kalim Andraos – 5/10/19 – NCS New Canaan)

May 10, 2019 by NCS New Canaan Leave a Comment

Kalim Andraos challenges his audience with the question “Where is the Kingdom of God in your life?”

After sharing his own incredible story of growing up in war-torn Lebanon and coming to the United States as a refugee of the civil war in Beirut, Kalim tells about his introduction to the love of Jesus through a retired missionary in Winston-Salem, NC. Andraos recounts how this missionary visited gas stations talking about Jesus to the employees. Kalim also explains not only the struggle he went through surrendering his life to Jesus (because he feared how much he might lose) but also the amazing vision in a dream that finally brought him to submission. He also describes how he has continually experienced God as kind and loving despite his sinful behavior.

Finally, Kalim shares how he and his wife now try to spread the love of Jesus through extending radical hospitality in their home and by leading mission trips throughout the world to help refugees and encourage those who support refugees. He also recounts some extraordinary experiences and people from his travels.

Kalim leaves his audience with the questions: Do you really trust God when He says to seek His Kingdom and all else will follow? Are you “all-in” for Jesus? Will you hear “well done”? How does the Kingdom of God rank in your life’s priorities?

Hope in the Midst of Suffering (Peter Scalzo – 2/22/19 – NCS New Canaan)

February 22, 2019 by NCS New Canaan 1 Comment

Peter Scalzo shares, with great vulnerability, how his 14-year cancer journey (which has included 15 surgeries, being told 6 times he has cancer, being told twice that he should make “end of life” preparations, and being told by the world’s top oncologists that he should not be alive) has been used by God as a tool of transformation and how it has been more of a spiritual and emotional trial than a physical one. Scalzo reveals that it was the reflections of a cancer widow that led him to consider the legacy he was leaving his children–she told him that her husband “didn’t leave enough of himself behind”.

After considering his legacy, Scalzo wanted to leave his six children with the two key ingredients that have allowed him to find hope in his suffering–“surrender and trust”. In explaining what “surrender” and “trust” have come to mean to him, Scalzo reveals his conclusions that we are unable to control anything other than how we respond to our circumstances and that pain is an invitation to change.

Scalzo also shares, with incredible transparency, a “dark night of the soul” experience in 2015 when he spent four days in an ICU. He tells about the depths of his depression, fear, anger and sadness and, more importantly, how God showed up to reveal 23 truths that brought back hope and continue to allow him to face extraordinary circumstances with unimaginable peace.

The Journey to God (Dr. Skip Moen – 11/2/18 – NCS New Canaan)

November 2, 2018 by NCS New Canaan Leave a Comment

With great transparency, Dr. Skip Moen shares what he believes are the stages in a journey to finding God. Skip’s belief is based on his own journey of spiritual transformation that occurred as a result of a crisis. His experience led to the cathartic writing of a daily devotional for over 7,000 consecutive days exploring Scripture. www.skipmoen.com

Skip explains how money and a desire for independence had displaced God in his life, until God allowed it all to be taken away. Skip discusses how, through that experience, he came to discover a world of dependency that made life worthwhile.
Skip walks us through the stages of faith that begin with the joy of discovering God’s forgiveness and end with finally finding God.

He also shares why he believes, based on traveling the world, that the common language of human beings is pain and the common antidote is to “be heard” by someone who does not try to fix you and cares enough not to walk away. Healing comes through community.

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