A Response to tragedy...

February 16th, 2024

This past week has been tough. The Chiefs won the Super Bowl and about a million of our closest friends squeezed together for a celebratory parade.

We enjoyed plenty of cheering and revisiting our favorite plays…especially the game-winner in the end zone.

The Kingdom of the world was pretty evident on the stage….and then tragedy struck.

If you watched it live as I did, you were probably glued to the TV waiting for answers to questions such as how many are injured? Did anyone die? Who did this? And probably many more…

As the chaos began to calm down and answers began coming in, I was hit with a sinking feeling…a reminder of our depravity and the brokenness of this world.

A day intended for celebration turned into tragedy.

As a church, we want to respond appropriately

As pastors, we are here to pray with you, listen to you, and share hope from the Scriptures. Send us a quick email to info@newlifekc.org and one of us will get in touch with you.

We have also decided to use our New Life Development Academy tomorrow to respond to this tragedy. Pastor Jeff, Don, Lee and I will share some thoughts about this shooting and then we will open up the time for a discussion. Our objective is to process this tragedy together. Anyone is invited. We will have extra chairs and coffee.

In addition, we are joining with many other churches in Kansas City to pray for our city to turn toward the Lord at this time. In addition, we are encouraging those who want to give to support a fund called, “The Church Loves Kansas City” which will be used to help with funeral expenses for Lisa Lopez who was killed, medical expenses for victims, counseling to help process the tragedy, and any proceeds after this will be held to help with any future crisis.

On Sunday, I look forward to sharing a sermon from Matthew 4:1-11 entitled “A Fighting Messiah.” This is the passage about the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. We will discover together that our temptations may be severe…but no matter what we have a Messiah, Jesus…who fights our battles and allows us to live in victory.

This is a part of our new sermon series from the Gospel of Matthew that will take us into Easter. In the meantime, I hope you can join us in the morning to discuss this tragedy, if you prefer you can also send us a prayer request.

I look forward to sharing much more on Sunday. I look forward to seeing you at 8:00, 9:15 (Full KidCity available), or 10:45 am (Full KidCity available), or you can watch the Livestream on YouTube (Like and Subscribe) or Facebook at 9:15 am. Additionally, we are also publishing our sermons on Spotify.

In the name of Jesus,

Troy