• Why do you not have your own building?
• How long do you plan on stay­ing in Liv­ing Hope’s building?
• What is New Life’s Rela­tion­ship to other churches in the area?
• How do I join New Life?
• You seem to han­dle chil­dren dif­fer­ently than other churches I’ve been to.  Why is that?

Why do you not have your own building?

First of all, we are care­ful to note that bib­li­cally, the church is not a build­ing — it is thee peo­ple of God bought by the blood of Jesus.   Sec­ond, for a new church, buy­ing, build­ing, or rent­ing a facil­ity that would accom­mo­date our needs is very, very expen­sive.   When Liv­ing Hope gra­ciously offered to allow us to use their facil­i­ties for cor­po­rate wor­ship and other events, we gladly accepted their offer.  They have even made changes to their sched­ule and the build­ing to accom­mo­date us.

How long do you plan on stay­ing in Liv­ing Hope’s building?

Cur­rently, we are rais­ing funds to buy, build, or rent our own facil­ity.  God owns every­thing, and He has already amazed us with His pro­vi­sion.  How­ever, we are a young church, and we do not want to limit min­istry or reduce our giv­ing to impor­tant areas such as mis­sions and church plant­ing just so that we can have our own facil­ity.  We are grate­ful to part­ner with Liv­ing Hope, and will con­tinue to do so until our cir­cum­stances or Liv­ing Hope’s cir­cum­stances change.

What is New Life’s Rela­tion­ship to other churches in the area?

New Life is most closely con­nected with our mother church, Liv­ing Hope, and our sis­ter church, Liv­ing Hope Bryan.  How­ever, we have good rela­tion­ships with staff mem­bers and believ­ers in churches all across the com­mu­nity.  It is our desire to part­ner with other like-minded churches in efforts to fur­ther the Gospel and the glory of God in our com­mu­nity, nation, and world.

How do I join New Life?

We hold Mem­ber­ship Classes roughly three times each year.  Our mem­ber­ship process con­sists of two manda­tory classes which are taught on Tues­day evenings from 6:15 to 8:30 p.m. and a per­sonal meet­ing with one of our elders.  To join New Life, one must attend each class, par­tic­i­pate in a per­sonal meet­ing with one of our elders, and sign the State­ment of Faith and Church Covenant.  After com­plet­ing these steps, the exist­ing mem­bers affirm our new mem­bers at a busi­ness meet­ing the fol­low­ing month.  Mem­ber­ship at New Life includes many priv­i­leges and respon­si­bil­i­ties, and should not be approached lightly.  If you have more ques­tions about mem­ber­ship, speak to one of our elders after our weekly wor­ship ser­vice or con­tact us by phone or email.

You seem to han­dle chil­dren dif­fer­ently than other churches I’ve been to.  Why is that?

We believe God has given par­ents the won­der­ful priv­i­lege and respon­si­bil­ity of being the pri­mary source of bib­li­cal train­ing for their chil­dren.  As a result, we avoid seg­re­gat­ing our church body by age and stage as much as pos­si­ble and encour­age fam­i­lies to wor­ship together.  How­ever, train­ing young chil­dren is hard work, which is why we have set up our weekly wor­ship ser­vice the way we have.  We give fam­i­lies the oppor­tu­nity to sing together and invite all chil­dren to be a part of our children’s chat at the begin­ning of our ser­vice.  Then we pro­vide child­care for preschool-aged kids for the rest of the ser­vice so that par­ents can learn and grow and con­tinue to train their chil­dren at home.  For chil­dren 5 and older, we cre­ate a spe­cial children’s wor­ship guide to encour­age them to be active lis­ten­ers dur­ing the ser­vice. After our weekly meal, we also offer Truth and Grace from 7 to 7:45 p.m. for kids around 3 and up. We see these as valu­able ways we can sup­ple­ment what par­ents are doing at home to teach their chil­dren to love and obey God. For a fuller treat­ment on this sub­ject, read John Piper’s excel­lent arti­cle enti­tled, “The Fam­ily: Together in God’s Pres­ence.”