Why we chose “New Life” as the name of our church . . .

We chose the name New Life because of the New Testament’s emphasis on the necessity of the new birth for spiritual life.

Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3:3 that “No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” In the next four verses Jesus speaks four more times about the necessity of the new birth for our salvation. To put it simply, salvation cannot be obtained by trying to be a better person or by earning our way into God’s presence, but only by being born again into the family of God. As lost people, separated from God, we don’t need to just ‘get a life’ but we need to get a new life!

Do you want to know even more about this?

Peter wrote in his first letter that we who have believed the message about Jesus’ death for us, and about His resurrection “have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God” (1 Peter 1:23 NIV). Further, Paul wrote in Romans 6:3-4 that “all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life” (NIV). Now, it is not that baptism saves us, but baptism is a public identification with the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ; baptism is the place where we publicly acknowledge that we have put our trust in Jesus Christ for our eternal salvation. In both of these passages it should be noted that this “new life” the apostles wrote about is the result of being born again, which Jesus clearly taught the necessity of in John 3.

Why do we make such a big deal about this?

It is this new life through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that we have been called to proclaim. In Acts 5 the apostles had been put in jail for speaking in the name of Jesus, “But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out. ‘Go, stand in the temple courts,’ he said, ‘and tell the people the full message of this new life’” (Acts 5:19-20 NIV). This is the Great Commission, the standing order for Jesus’ church, to tell the world about what he has done for those who will stop trusting in their own righteousness and put their trust in Him.

A final word about this . . .

This concept of new life is more fully explained in Paul’s letter to Titus, chapter 3 and verses 4-8 where Paul wrote, “‘When God our Savior revealed his kindness and love, he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit. He generously poured out the Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior. Because of his grace he declared us righteous and gave us confidence that we will inherit eternal life.’ This is a trustworthy saying, and I want you to insist on these teachings so that all who trust in God will devote themselves to doing good. These teachings are good and beneficial for everyone” (NLT).

Do you want to have new life?

If you are convinced that you are separated from God because of your sins and that Jesus Christ, the righteous Son of God, died for you and was raised from the dead you only need to confess to God in prayer that you are a sinner, but that you believe Jesus Christ died for you and was resurrected from the dead; and that you are now putting your full trust in Him for your salvation. If you do this, the Bible promises that you will be saved; you will be born again. Romans 10:9-11 says, “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, ‘Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame’” (NIV).

If you have prayed, confessing your sins to God and seeking forgiveness and new life through Jesus Christ, or if you would like to talk to our pastor about your relationship with God, please go to our contact page to find out how to contact us by phone or email.

About our logo:

Our logo is meant to depict five important truths:

First: The Cross as Central - We believe that new life only comes out of the basis of what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross when he offered up his life as a sacrifice for us. Therefore, our logo has the cross clearly at the center because we believe that the cross of Christ is at the center of the true Christian faith.

Second: New Life as Necessary - Because we believe that new life only grows out of the cross of Christ we have chosen to depict this new life through the biblical metaphor of a young plant springing up from the base of the cross.

Third: Continuing in Christ as Crucial - We also believe that new life must always stay connected to and live in the shadow of the cross of Christ or it will die, so we have depicted the vine as continuing to grow out of the base of the cross. Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned” (John 15:5-6 NIV). We mean to communicate by this image that our lives must be lived in continued connection to Christ and in the shadow of what He did for us.

Fourth: Giving Glory to God - 1 John 4:10 says, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (NIV). John goes on to say, “We love Him because he first loved us” (NKJV). Because Scripture teaches that we love God because he first loved us and gave himself for us, we have made the top of the new life plant to look like a person with their hands and head lifted up in worship to God for what he has done for us. We have done this because we are convinced that authentic worship is the natural outflow of a person who has been born again and has realized what God has done for them through Jesus Christ. Now that we have been born again we believe that God intends us to live our lives in a way that brings glory to Him, declaring all that he has done for us.

Fifth: Witnessing to the World – We have chosen to depict our logo in relief, with the cross and the new life plant in the light and background in darkness because we believe that Jesus is the Light of the World (John 9:5); a world that is in darkness without the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and now he has made his church to be the light of the world (Matthew 5:14), a witness to the truth of the gospel in the earth.