New Life Church Vicenza

19/04/2026

12/10/2025

We apologize for only being able to share the audio from this week’s message but we hope you will continue to join us as we study the book of Ecclesiastes.

The fleeting joy of happiness (Ecclesiastes 2:1-11)
https://www.newlifevicenza.org/sermons

15/09/2025

Earlier this year, I wrote a longform essay called Zoe Life in a Bios World, which I published on my blog.

While building the research packet for this week’s sermon on Acts 20:17–38 — my final sermon at New Life Vicenza — I was surprised to learn that the word for “life” in Acts 20:24 was neither zoe nor bios, but psyche. All the major English translations use the word “life,” though the Greek psyche is more often translated as “soul” when it carries over from the Old Testament.

That discovery led to a new thread of research that I didn’t have time to share last Sunday. I finished the work while flying back to Nashville from Venice, and I’ve published the essay here:

— by Michael A. Graham “I Do Not Count My Psyche as Precious” —Zoe, Psyche, and Bios in the Life and Ministry We Receive from Jesus —By Michael A. Graham Section 1: Introduction This essay began du…

14/09/2025

A message from Maggie, one of my students in A New Life class at New Life Vicenza. This is especially meaningful to me because I’ve so enjoyed teaching the kids for the past year. Maggie and Marion professed faith in Christ today and came to the Lord’s Table for the first time.

09/09/2025

After three and a half years of serving in Italy and Croatia, Vicki and I are returning to the U.S. This week marks my final Sunday at New Life Vicenza. We’ve written a final update reflecting on this chapter of ministry — full of gratitude, gospel fruit, and love for the people we’ve lived among.

If you’d like to read it, you can find the full post at

Grazie Mille! Our Final Update from Italy and Croatia “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” — Romans 5:5 Grazie mille (a thousand thanks). T…

08/09/2025

Baptisms at NLV this Sunday. Such a beautiful expression of God’s presence, love, and grace.

In our Presbyterian tradition, baptism happens in two ways: either when someone professes faith in Christ, or when a child of believing parents receives what we call covenant baptism. This is sometimes misunderstood. It’s not the same as infant baptism in every tradition, and it’s more than a simple baby dedication. Covenant baptism is a sign that God deals with us not just as individuals, but as families and as a community. Just as Abraham’s children were marked with the covenant, so our children are marked as belonging to God’s people.

Baptism doesn’t save—only Christ does. But baptism is a sign and seal of God’s promise. For the believer, it confirms the faith they profess. For the child, it marks them as set apart in the covenant family, to be raised in the gospel until, by God’s grace, they make that faith their own.

And for the church, every baptism is a reminder of God’s covenant faithfulness. We are not just witnesses—we take vows ourselves, promising to walk alongside this person or child, to encourage them, to pray for them, and to help nurture their faith. In every case, baptism points us away from ourselves and toward Christ, the One who cleanses and saves.

08/09/2025

A Word of Caution About How We Use “The Whole Counsel of God”

I’m preaching my final sermon at New Life Vicenza this week from Acts 20:17–38. I came across a quote by Jack Miller that really helped me that I will share at the end of this post.

What does Paul mean in Acts 20:27 when he refers to “the whole counsel of God”?

Let’s lay out the four key phrases in Acts 20:17–27:

1. “The gospel of the grace of God” (v.24)

“…the ministry I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.”

2. “The kingdom of God” (v.25)

“…among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom.”

3. “All the counsel of God” (v.27)

“For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.”

4. “Repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ” (v.21)

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Do These All Refer to the Same Thing?

Short Answer: Yes, with a strong but important qualification.

They’re not exact synonyms, but they are different angles on the same unified reality — what is correctly identified as the gospel ministry given to Paul by Christ.

Paul is describing:
• The content: the grace of God, the kingdom of God
• The scope: all the counsel of God
• The effect: repentance and faith
• The commission: a ministry received from Jesus

These phrases are functionally interdependent. In Paul’s theology, you can’t proclaim the kingdom of God without proclaiming the gospel of grace, and you haven’t declared the whole counsel of God if you’ve left either of those out.

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What Does Paul Mean by “the Whole Counsel of God”?

The Reformed tradition often interprets this phrase as:

“Preach every text, book by book, with equal weight — balance law and gospel, justification and sanctification, etc.”

But this is, frankly, a later systematic framework being read backward into the text.

Paul is not:
• Talking about canonical coverage (since the NT wasn’t written yet)
• Talking about a method of expository preaching
• Talking about a balance between doctrinal loci

He’s talking about his apostolic ministry — specifically, the totality of what God has revealed in Christ, which he has faithfully and openly proclaimed.

This is consistent with:

— Ephesians 1:9–10 – “the mystery of his will… to unite all things in Christ”

— 2 Corinthians 4:1–6 – “we do not tamper with God’s word… we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord”

— Colossians 1:25–28 – “to make the word of God fully known… Christ in you, the hope of glory”

In other words: “the whole counsel of God” is shorthand for the redemptive plan of God now made manifest in Christ and declared through Paul’s apostolic ministry.

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So How Should We Use the Phrase Today?

If we want to be faithful to Paul:
— “The whole counsel of God” is not just Bible coverage. It’s gospel clarity and fullness — showing how all of God’s self-revelation centers in Jesus Christ.

— Preaching the whole counsel of God means unfolding the unity of God’s plan — from creation to covenant, from promise to fulfillment — and declaring how that plan is accomplished in Christ.

— So yes, it includes the Old Testament. Yes, it includes justification and sanctification. But it is not a balanced diet of theological categories — it is the declaration of the whole story centered in Christ, which reshapes every category.

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A Word of Caution About How We Use “The Whole Counsel of God.”

It is right to be suspicious of how “whole counsel of God” gets co-opted:

— As a way to justify method: “We preach verse by verse, so we preach the whole counsel.”

— As a coded standard: “If you’re not hammering law/gospel balance every sermon, you’re not doing it.”

— As a weaponized corrective: “You preach too much grace / too much mission / too much narrative / not enough systematics.”

That’s not how Paul uses it. It’s not a methodological boast. It’s a ministerial self-offering: I gave you everything Christ gave me to give.

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Final Answer

Paul uses phrases like “the gospel of the grace of God,” “the kingdom of God,” and “the whole counsel of God” not as separate doctrines, but as different angles on the same ministry Christ entrusted to him — the full sweep of God’s redemptive plan revealed in Jesus.”

Much of our contemporary usage of “whole counsel of God” is at best anachronistic and at worst a theological fig leaf for imbalance.

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Relevant Quote by Jack Miller:

“Doctrinal soundness includes more than formal adherence to a right system of doctrine. It also must include wholeness, clear focus, and balance. It means the major doctrines are to be given their due as major doctrines, with secondary issues related to them in a way that shows the derivative character of these secondary matters. You might even say that balance means having the whole sweep of major doctrine in the foreground of one’s thinking. Seen in this light, then, theological error is in part at least permitting major Biblical truths to slip into the background of one’s thinking and practice.”

— C. John Miller, “Reflections on Faculty Discussion” (1977)

This is what I’ve tried to do here — not to cover every doctrine, but to keep the major things in the foreground: Christ crucified, the grace of God, and the unsearchable riches of His kingdom.