Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Take the Plunge!

It's Vacation Bible School week!! And the church is bustling with activity in the evenings. Here's a few snapshots of Tuesday night's fun. It's not too late to bring your kids and their friends out! It will run Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday nights from 6:30-8:30p.m., and parents are welcome to join the fun on Friday night! There will be goodies for all that night. And one last note - money is being collected for Living Water Internation, who restores old wells and digs new ones to provide clean water for communities. Each dollar donated allows one person to have clean water for an entire year. Donations will be accepted through July 31st.



Sunday, June 29, 2008

Children and Youth Sunday!

Our children and youth did an extraordinary job leading our worship today! They covered nearly every corner of the morning service, from handing out the bulletins, to giving the announcements and to leading the music. Our youth intern and previous youth member, Ashley Fletcher gave the message and challenged us all to find and define our true identity in Christ. Thank you Ashley!


Here's a small taste of the high-energy worship we had this morning.



After service we all went outdoors for our annual block party. Praise God, the rain held off and the wind didn't keep us from having a great time. Thank you so much to all of the hard work so many of you put forth to bring this together. The smiling, happy faces prove it was worth it.




Two more areas highlighted today were the upcoming vacation bible school! Registration began and it's not too late to register your children. See our website for more information, http://www.nlcc.to/.

Also, volunteer sign-ups have begun for the fall children's ministry. Think Orange! http://www.nlcckidscity.blogspot.com/ is a new blog that explains more, please take a look! As I heard someone say earlier this week, our children are not the church of the future, they are the church of today. Join us in worshipping and learning with and through them.















Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Think Orange; Are You Ready?


Think ORANGE: ARE YOU READY?

It’s summer time and while we enjoy cookouts, vacations, swimming pools and lemonade, it is also time to launch our FALL 2008 campaign for our children’s ministry! Exciting things will be happening in the life of our children’s ministry this fall and none of it can happen without YOU!

Thinking Orange is simple. The Church (YELLOW) and the Family (RED) combined gives us a vibrant shade of ORANGE! As a whole, the church spends 40 hours a year with children and the family spends over 3,000 hours with their children. Who has the most influence? It is our hope as a Church Family to give parents the resources and tools to influence their child’s spiritual growth!

To begin, new theme names for each of the classrooms will be introduced this fall, to give the kids ownership of their specific age group!

NEW LIFE’S KID’S CITY

Nursery/Toddlers (ages 0-3 years) WIGGLE WAY
Pre-K (ages 4-5): JUMP STREET

K-2nd graders: UP TOWN

3rd-4th graders: RoutE 34

We are so excited about our Sunday morning curriculum this year. Our Leadership Team has chosen to go with One Vine, an online curriculum company that allows us access to a website full of different choices and ideas for each week’s specific lesson! One Vine is broken into two parts, the main story will be told in a large group setting, so we have done some reconstruction on how our Sunday Mornings will run to accommodate.

The large group worship will consist of kids in K-4th grade, (FOR NOW, at least.) and the message will be told by a team and this time will be known as BIBLE BLVD, the kids will be greeted in their designated classes and escorted to BIBLE BLVD by their small group leaders (CROSS GUARDS) and after BIBLE BLVD, CROSS GUARDS will go back to class and dive into the message with those in their small group!

The MAIN role of a Cross Guards is to challenge the kids in their group to dig deeper in the story that was covered through prayer and scripture. We know that as a church we cannot compete with culture, but we also know that culture cannot compete with community that is built in these small group settings! We encourage our CROSS GUARDS to have fun with the kids and build relationships with them while also influencing their spiritual growth! If your talent is music, sing with them. If your talent is crafts, then craft with them! Allow them to see what JOY it brings YOU to use your talents to serve GOD! Through the One Vine website, you will be given a world of ideas from crafts to discussion topics that fit with each week’s lesson.
***BIBLE BLVD. (Story Theatre)

We are hoping to have a team of STORYTELLER’S whose MAIN role is to explore each week’s Bible story and tell it in a way that the kids will enjoy! Through the One Vine website, you will become acquainted with each week’s story/message and be provided with numerous ideas! As a storyteller you have complete control of your time with the kids (25 minutes). You can sing with them, you can do puppets, skits, dress up as characters or play games. We want these kids to be excited about God’s Word and enjoy being at Church!

A GLIMPSE AT SUNDAY MORNINGS:

Wiggle way and Jump Street
will stay in the traditional classroom format while also covering the same stories as uptown and route 34 in an age appropriate way!

UPTOWN and ROUTE 34

10:15-10:45 Greet Kids

10:45-11:15 BIBLE BLVD

11:15-12:00 Small Groups in Classrooms (with Cross Guards_

WEDNESDAY NIGHTS-FAMILY NIGHTS
We know what a Wednesday Night might look like for a kid, especially during the school year. A typical Wednesday, starts by waking up early in the morning and heading straight to school where they use most of the time and energy in a classroom. We also recognize that after school there is usually a rush of things to do before church, homework, dinner, extra curricular activities and so forth.
This fall and winter our Kids Under Construction (KUC) will explore 1 spiritual virtue a month and will be encouraged to participate in talk back sessions with their COACHES (Teachers)
Our goal is that each week’s virtue, will be carried over to AT HOME conversations, setting the stage for parents to engage their kids in further discussion! We plan to provide information on our new children’s ministry blog coming this fall!
Examples of Spiritual Virtues are: Joy, Patience, Humility, and Courage
We also will be experimenting with fun projects on Wednesdays-science projects, cool crafts, music sign language and other kid friendly activities-our goal for Wednesday Nights is to not only enhance their spiritual lives and build character, but also make it an environment that kids WANT to invite their friends to!
In Discovery zone, our Preschoolers will discover God’s amazing world along side Boz the Bear! Boz, and his friends, Drew and Gracie love to explore God’s world through:
Numbers
Matching
Counting
Sequencing
And
Colors and Shapes
These lessons involve the whole family, with take home resources to explore and investigate new concepts in faith and learning!

Nursery will also be offered on Wednesday Nights for children ages 0-2 years. This will be a time for a child to feel loved and safe while their parents are in a class!
Obviously NONE of this can be made possible without volunteers. We ask that you pray about how God can use you to make a difference in the lives of our kids here at New Life!
It is our goal to build a community within the children’s ministry volunteer team-as they say on Disney’s HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL, “WE’RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER!”


Please let me know if you have any questions!


LESLIE GALEMA
INTERN, Children's Ministry Coordinator
galemas@yahoo.com

***Keep in mind, that the Cross Guard positions every week accept for the LAST SUNDAY of the month (when kids will be in service with their families)…go ahead, say it… “THAT’S A LOT!” The purpose of Cross Guards are to BUILD RELATIONSHIPS and MENTOR these kids-we can’t do that once a month or every other Sunday. Those of you with small children at home, please know that it is my goal to secure a class for your kids 0-5 years EVERY SINGLE SUNDAY during the 8:30 service, so that you can be apart of a service each week! Also, know there will be subs available for those Sundays that you aren’t able to make it! This will be a huge commitment—I just ask that you are prayerful in your consideration.







SUNDAY MORNINGS:

8:30 Service (kids 0-5 years)
***Rotation***
1.
2.
3.
4.

10:30 Service

Kid’s city

WIGGLE WAY (TODDLERS)
(Every other week)

1. (Lead Teacher)

___________________________
2. (Assistant)

____________________________

3.(Lead Teacher)

____________________________
4.(Assistant)




Jump Street (Pre K ages 4-5):
(Every other week)
1. Teacher

_____________________________

2. Assistant

______________________________

1.Teacher

_______________________________


2. Assistant


______________________________


Up Town (K-2nd grades):
(Every week)

1.(cross guard)

______________________________
2. (cross guard)

______________________________


Route 34 (3rd-4th grades):
(Every Week)

1. (cross guard)

______________________________
2. (cross guard)

_______________________________

**bible blvd. (Story theatre)
1.
2
3.
4.



WEDNESDAY NIGHTS:
(Every Week per Quarter)

Nursery (0-2)
1.

2.


Discovery Zone (Pre-K 3-5)
1.
2.

Kids Under Construction (K-4th)
1 Dianne White
2.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Todd Braschler Guest Artist Coming Sunday, June 22

On Sunday, June 22 we will be led in our morning worship times by guest worship artist Todd Braschler. Todd has been involved in various worship ministry roles for over 20 years and has served on staff at different churches as a Pastor of Worship and is the founder of Todd Braschler Ministries. Todd's ministry provides teaching and consultive support through the Building the Church of God's Dreams Conference, hosting the Worship Ministry Conference & Retreat, and through men's conferences and retreats.

You'll find Todd to be an inspiring and very competent worship leader. A Love Offering will be received during both worship services. You won't want to miss this particular Sunday at New Life.

Monday, June 9, 2008

WGYWB May/June


Wow! We had a record number of birthday peeps and their families at our house last night. It was so much fun to be together. Here's a picture of the May and June birthday people that were there. I know there were some that weren't able to come so we wish them a blessed, Happy Birthday, too.

We love our New Life family,
Mimi & Pastor John

Monday, June 2, 2008

Wednesday Nights for the Summer

This Wednesday, June 4th, we will begin a five week summer ministry series. Each week we will meet at the church at 6:30 and then go to a new location to serve. This week we will be visiting Maple Park Village in Westfield, to spend time singing songs, visiting, and possibly playing some games. If you have games to bring, please do. And for the future visits, please let Donna Watson know if you have a special music selection you'd be able to offer (ensemble, solo, etc.).
All ages are welcome and I'm certain the faces of our children would bring smiles to their faces. Let's have a big group to go this Wednesday! And please mark down the other four weeks, June 18th, July 2nd, 16th, and 30th.

Monday, May 12, 2008

Tithing Appeal

Dear New Life Family,

We hope that this Spring season has been a time of refreshing and the start of new things for you. It’s always a welcome sight to see things turning green with life again after the barrenness of winter.

We want to update you on the financial status of our church. Essentially, we are not receiving enough in our weekly offerings to pay our financial obligations. The way we have been meeting those obligations has been through our cash reserves. We need approximately $8,500 each week to meet our budget and pay our expenses. We are averaging about $5,400 in giving each week. As you can see we are over $3,000 short of what we need and are quickly depleting our savings to make up for the shortfall.

We have made spending cuts wherever possible. The majority of our expenses are in fixed expenditures such as the mortgage ($11,272/mo.), maintenance, utilities, staff and office expenses. This month we have cancelled our advertising in the local paper ($585/yr.) and the cleaning service ($485/mo.). We are looking into using a less expensive security alarm service (currently $314/mo.). These spending cuts will only slow the drain on our cash reserves not correct it. Beyond these minimal cuts in expenses, if monthly giving does not increase we may have to look at possibly closing our New Life Children’s Center day care and cutting pastoral staff.

The reality of our situation is the monthly mortgage payment is overburdening our expenses. We need each person that attends New Life to help in this burden. If you are a regular giver, we appreciate your generosity and only ask that you keep giving faithfully. Pray and ask if God would have you increase your weekly/monthly tithe or possibly give a one-time sacrificial gift to help us through our financial hardship. If you have not been giving to New Life, begin giving in accordance to your income. We are not asking you to match those who are able to give more but to give what you can. We need equal sacrifice in your church giving, not equal amounts. If you love New Life, if you have been blessed and benefitted from its ministry and programs, then please help us to meet our expenses so that more crucial cuts in staff and ministries do not have to be made.

Please do not despair. God is great and He promises to supply what we need. He will see us through this time if we continually seek Him and submit to His will for our lives. One of the core principles of discipleship is giving. Jesus expects us to give just as He fully gave Himself to accomplishing God’s plan of salvation for our world. By working together we have no doubt that God will see us through and get us beyond our financial hardship.

Beyond your giving please pray for our church. Pray for God to supply what we need. Pray for God to help us be good stewards of what He provides for us. Pray for our ministry volunteers who give so much of their time and talent in serving God and others. Pray for the pastors and leaders of New Life. This is a stressful time for them as they work hard at finding a solution to our financial need.

Please don’t hesitate to talk with our pastors or Steering Committee members. If you have helpful ideas or solutions, they want to hear from you.

May God greatly bless you.

New Life's 2008 Steering Committee:

Kelli Brooks
Bryan Hunt
Gary Murray
Ed Spear
Donna Watson
Pastor John Crump
Pastor John Klotz