2008 focus

The Kingdom Where Life Matters—Your Life, Every Life, All of Life”

“The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him” (Revelation 22:3)
If 2007 was “The Year of the Peacemaker”, 2008 is “The Year of the Kingdom”. We will continue to build upon our identity and mission in Christ as peacemaking children of God. We will focus on our “Sonship Service” — children of God as Kingdom servants in this world. God’s Kingdom has been planted, is growing, and touches everything about our lives. There is no life and nothing in life that does not come under the Lordship of Jesus. We are to be Kingdom servants in every area of our lives.

God has built a strong foundation for effective ministry through New Life. We hope to build on that foundation by connecting God’s adults, teens and kids. We will hold quarterly dinners called “Celebrations of Service” where we will share the stories of what the King is doing through us.

Hearts for the King—Your Life Matters
While faith without works is dead, works without faith are empty. Our service must flow from hearts shaped by the King. We will look at the Ten Commandments: God’s Laws for our Hearts. Love for God and love for neighbor are to be the driving force for why we serve, hence our desire to work with our neighborhood in planning a “Service Sunday” this year.

Good News of the Kingdom—All of Life Matters
Through the lens of a priest, a king, and a prophet we will see what God’s Kingdom looks like as we serve under His rule. We will ponder how to “pray into practice” the Bible’s Jubilee vision. We will see how all of life matters for the servants of the King—all you do in all your callings is Kingdom service.

Stories of the Kingdom—Every Life Matters
Studying some of Jesus’ parables, we will hear and act on the King’s “master-teaching” about His Kingdom. Looking in our adult Sunday School at Jesus’ Kingdom announcement to all sorts of people, we will see how every life matters in the Kingdom. Reaching out in mercy to every life is moved by present need and eternal destiny.

We will need to devote ourselves to Kingdom Prayer as we focus on Kingdom Service in 2008—A Kingdom where life matters — your life, every life, all of life.

While there are many ways the kingdom impacts our lives, we hope the following benchmarks will help us see how we have begun to embrace the gospel of the Kingdom. Lord, for the sake of Your name, we ask that…
We are praying expectantly and depending on God to move mountains in our lives and community.
Every New Life member can describe specifically their place of serving the King (identifying their callings).
Every home group is a vital blessing to their local community.
Every New Life member is consistently inviting neighbors, family, and friends to fellowship with us on Sundays, in home groups, in youth group, and in every ministry of our church.

Three other significant things that will happen in our church during 2008 are:

1. New Life Northeast (our daughter church planted in 1995) will worship with us, as they revert to “mission church” status and seek the help of our Presbytery in finding a new church planter and launching with a new vision later in 2008.

2. Lance Cobb, our Director of Youth & Family Ministries, will take a sabbatical during the summer. Please pray for the Cobb family and for all the youth in our church.

3. We will celebrate our 25th Anniversary as a church (we started in October 1983). We are planning to make this a very memorable event, as we look not only back to where we’ve been but forward to where God is leading us.