Dear New Life Family,
We are praying for you and hope that you are walking with Jesus in this most unique time. We sure miss seeing all of you, worshipping and serving together. Along with this update we send our best wishes to you, hoping you had some refreshing times this summer, and encourage you to press on with faithfulness to God.
Since our June update not a lot has changed with the pandemic conditions. We continue to follow the health authority guidelines and we will adjust if and when guidelines change. A guiding principle in all of this is to love our neighbor and ensure the health and safety of our church family. We are also committed to praying daily for the church as we love and care for each other. Daily prayers are offered through the New Life smart phone app so you can join us in prayer. It’s a great way to bless the congregation.
VIRTUAL WORSHIP SERVICES
Through the end of the 2020 year we will worship together by way of pre-recorded worship services online. That will be re-evaluated at the beginning of January 2021. This fall we will upgrade our YouTube channel (through which you view the online services) to increase opportunity for online interaction. Our stage lighting upgrade is progressing and will be finished by the end of this month. This upgrade will improve the viewing quality of our online services in addition to improving the over-all function of our auditorium. Our main goals are to be faithful to the Word of God, engage the congregation in worship, and reach more people. Producing virtual worship services has introduced quite a new task within our ministry. We are thankful to staff for working hard each week to produce the weekly videos.
FALL EVENTS
In addition to virtual worship services, we plan once a month to host churchwide events for this fall. Sunday, September 20 is the date for our fall kick-off service and we are busy making plans for that to be an outdoor event in the church parking lot. With multiple services, we expect be able to host everyone. Registration for the event will open soon. Watch for it. In October we’ll host another event on Thanksgiving Day in lieu of a worship gathering that will feature a food drive (for Abbotsford Food Bank) and opportunity for testimonies of thanks. Plans for a November event and for some great Christmas specials are also in the works. It’s going to be an exciting fall after all!
CONNECTION
One of our endeavors throughout this pandemic is to provide ways to connect to God and to one another. We hope to develop some kind of online opportunities this fall by which we can grow in faith and encourage one another to follow hard after Jesus. Life Groups continue to be a key component for connection as well. Some groups are meeting together for the virtual worship services as well as other occasions. Pastor Justin and the Life Group elders are available to assist your group in gathering appropriately, or in helping you get involved in a group. Make sure you stay connected. And as always, contact a pastor or drop by the church, we’d love to encourage you and bless you.
For Christ and His Church,
Pastor Nathan and Pastor Mike