Dear New Life Members,

In light of the announcement made today by Dr. Bonnie Henry and Adrian Dix we are writing to inform you of how this will affect New Life Church moving forward and what you need to know.

In her briefing this afternoon she communicated that seeing as our numbers in B.C. have continued to rise, they have made the decision to implement more restrictions. What this means for us as a religious organization is that all our in-person gatherings, both mid-week ministries and Sunday services, are put on hold until December 7. They will revisit their decision in the next two weeks. Our Marriage Night set for Friday November 20 will be postponed to a date in the new year.

During these 2 weeks of added restrictions, we want to encourage you to stay connected to New Life Church and community through our virtual Sunday worship services, our virtual Sunday kids’ services, our prayer wall on our New Life app, through your Life Groups virtually, and by reaching out to one another via phone or text.

We encourage New Life members to abide by the restrictions laid out for us by our government and do our part to ensure the safety of everyone in our community. We know that this is not ideal and not how we would desire for our community to move forward at this time, but we are living in the reality of a worldwide pandemic. Let us be the examples of Christ by our lifestyles, our actions, and our attitudes in these difficult times.

Lastly, we ask that you would reach out to us to let us know of your situation. We want to know how your family is doing, what life is like for you, what does work look like for you in light of these new restrictions, how are you growing your faith, and how can we serve you and your family? Connect with us via, phone, email, social media.

God bless you and keep you,
New Life Staff

New Life Family,

Please be advised that recent health regulations restrict all social gatherings, however Dr. Bonny Henry said the restrictions don’t apply to churches and other religious centres.

We will proceed with the worship service as planned for tomorrow (Sunday, November 8), and further assess our activities in the week to come.

Please stay safe and observe the recommendations that have been made.

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  

Dear New Life Congregation:

We are all coming to grips with the challenge that the Covid-19 pandemic has introduced a new reality to us.  Now we have to find our way around in that new reality.  In addition, the work of ministry goes on; in fact we are past the stage of acquainting ourselves with how to carry on and now we must adapt our vision and ministry plans to this new reality.

USE OF THE CHURCH FACILITY

The big question for everyone is when and how we will meet together in person again.  While we are fortunate here in BC to have relatively low infection rates the Covid-19 virus is not gone.  So we will remain diligent in keeping everyone safe and take necessary pre-cautions in accommodating people.  Here are some basic guidelines that will likely be in place for the foreseeable future (that is, into 2021):

• We can have in-person gatherings of 50 people, and we are allowed to have multiple groups of fifty, provided there are separate exits and entrances and no cross-flow of the groups.
• We must maintain social distancing of two (2) meters for all in-person gatherings, and provide sanitizing stations, and keep all surfaces sanitized at all times.
• Singing during in-person gatherings will be restricted if allowed at all.
• A registration of people in attendance will be mandatory for tracking purposes.

We are working on plans that will eventually allow us to extend our ministry beyond the current levels and limitations of doing things solely by electronic means.  Given the above guidelines we are currently looking at:

• how to offer weekly worship services with in-person gatherings concurrent with our virtual services, likely some form of “multi-site” worship services, with attendance registration,
• how to allow ministries during the week to function in our facilities, especially in the fall

– currently there will be no in-person pre-school ministries;

– ministry teams can meet at church for committee meetings, but with social distancing and confined to the foyer,

– ministries with open invitations must submit a plan that incorporates public health guidelines to host in-person gatherings at the church facility or, as a church function, anywhere else.

• how to allow outside groups to use our facility, e.g. weddings, funerals, rentals (currently addressed on a case by case basis and following public health guidelines).

STAFFING

We extend a huge welcome to Janessa Gritter, the newly hired worship pastor intern.  She will begin work in July.  We are excited to introduce her to the congregation and will do so through the course of the summer.  Also, we congratulate her upon her graduation from The King’s University earlier this spring.  We are thankful to God for Janessa coming on staff.  She had been hired on staff already back in February, 2020, before all the concerns and restrictions around the pandemic.

We also extend grateful thanks to Pastor Koenraad Beugelink who is wrapping up in his official role as Pastor of Faith Formation in the month of June.  Koen’s credentials as a commissioned pastor will remain with New Life Church and he and his family will remain a part of the New Life congregation.  There will be an opportunity to thank Koen at an upcoming event, and you are encouraged to send Koen a note of thanks for his 16 years of faithful service to New Life Church.

BOARD ACTIVITY

The Board of Elders requires a member to replace Stuart Bakker.  Stu has served a three-year term faithfully, and also was the board representative on the Finance Team.  We are grateful for his service, his wisdom and his humble discernment.  You are welcome to send Stu a note of thanks for serving the board so faithfully.

Bernie Huizing has agreed to let his name stand as the nominee to replace Stu.  Bernie has previously served as a board member for New Life Church.  He will be appointed by the board to serve until we have an opportunity to take a congregational vote at an official New Life LIVE meeting (bylaw 4.9).

CONGREGATIONAL CELEBRATION & CARE

Sunday, June 28, 2020 is our Year-end Ministry Celebration.  We are planning to have a reverse parade where you will be invited to drive through the church parking lot and greet and thank people in the various ministries of New Life Church.  Watch for Instructions, procedures, and more details that will be given closer to the date.   We are excited to celebrate the ministry that we have accomplished in this past year and to provide a way for you to participate in that.  Perhaps it is difficult to think of anything that happened before March, but we had a very good fall season.  Let’s give thanks to God for his faithfulness, and to all the ministry leaders and volunteers.

If you have any questions or concerns about our path forward through the COVID19 pandemic, please feel free to contact us anytime. As mentioned before, we are happy to receive prayer needs and offer spiritual and emotional support in this difficult time.

On behalf of the board and staff we extend God’s grace and peace to the congregation of New Life Church.  Together we press forward, seeking to be a witness to the gospel power of redemption and renewal.  To God be praise and glory.

Sincerely,

Eric Hoogenraad (Board Chair)

Nathan Elgersma (Lead Pastor)

Mike VanderKwaak (Executive Pastor)

Our office hours have been adjusted to protect you and our staff. The office is open and the times are Monday-Thursday 9am-2pm and Friday 9am-12pm. You are welcome to come by anytime within these hours. We will keep the doors locked during this time, but ring the doorbell and someone will come open the door for you. 

In a time like this, especially with the realization that the Covid-19 reality may last for some time I want to urge you to keep on keeping on.  Here are some “keeps” to keep in mind:

Keep faith — this includes gathering for worship with our online services (see our website), but it also includes maintaining or starting ways to stay spiritually healthy (the spiritual disciplines we have been talking about in our current message series). 

Keep your schedule – so many things are up in the air, or discontinued, and your own daily routines are probably quite different; try to keep a schedule, including bedtimes, wake times, meal times; and don’t overdue your screen time, stay creative with your activities.

Keep your distance – please observe all public health recommendations; that’s part of loving your neighbour!  There are no physical gatherings at New Life Church, the facility is essentially closed to the public.

Keep praying – we have initiated a virtual prayer wall on the New Life App (go to the menu at the bottom of the screen), we’ll keep reminding you to be in prayer and we’ll keep praying for you and your loved ones, just send us your prayer requests. 

Keep reaching out – we have to stay connected by whatever means; we have redesigned our website for this purpose, check it out; the deacons are ready to help if you need any kind of physical or financial assistance; the elders of the church are making contact with members in the congregation just to reach out, enjoy the conversation when they call; and make sure that your Life Group stays in touch with each other.

Here at New Life we remain diligent in following guidelines and stipulations for dealing with the outbreak of the novel virus. At this point the church remains open, though we have cancelled all gatherings and meetings at church for the rest of the month. Some of the staff are working at the church. Because of recent travels Pastor Nathan will remain in isolation until March 31, as will Pastor Mike. Pastor Koen will remain in isolation until April 2. All staff are healthy at this point and are eager to stay in contact with you and assist where ever it is needed.  Thanks to everyone for their cooperation and patience, please continue to exercise social distancing and hand washing. Keep encouraging each other and helping each other. There are opportunities for community engagement. The Abbotsford Food Bank is in need of volunteers to help with food distribution. The New Life deacons have initiated a donation from our Benevolence fund for the Food Bank. The staff and worship teams are working hard to produce a weekly virtual worship service. We also keep working at developing our online format to be engaging for everyone. I want to encourage you to continue to participate in these services, even though it might at times seem inadequate or awkward. Don’t give up worshipping together, even if we can’t physically meet together.

Ephesians 3
“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”

This week the world health organization declared the covid-19 a pandemic and just yesterday the province of BC asks that larger gatherings of people no longer meet.

What that means for us is that we are suspending our Sunday worship services and mid week on campus ministries until further notice.  We want to be a part of flattening the growth of this pandemic.

Our prayer is that you will keep connected one another. We will be changing and adapting as we are called to changed lives, to be a diverse community and to have a radical impact.

This Sunday, March 15 we will have a very timely message that will be available on our website at 10am.  We invite all of the New Life family to gather and hear God’s word for us during this time.

Live stream and discipleship content such as the New Life Link will be available midweek. We continue to encourage our life groups to meet as Christ center communities as you are able.

Thank you for your understanding in this, and let me leave you with a question. What does it look like for us as members of the body of Christ to reflect Jesus in these times? Let’s continue to serve and worship Him.

Psalm 91:1-2 says:

Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”

Click here for New Life’s Covid-19 response video. 

We value the time we have on Sunday mornings at 10am to worship Jesus.  It’s an important time for us to connect with one another and experience life change. Due to the recent outbreaks worldwide of the coronavirus we want to be diligent.

We care about the safety and well-being of each person and we are taking appropriate measures to ensure the health and safety of everyone that comes to New Life. We are taking extra precautions so starting this Sunday, things might look a little different.

We are actively monitoring the advisories from the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) as well as the BC Centre for Disease Control.

WHILE WORSHIPING AT NEW LIFE

New Life has made some minor changes to our Sunday worship service for the safety of all.

1. We are working towards live streaming our services.
2. We are exercising extra diligence by wiping down and cleaning surfaces regularly.
3. We will be discontinuing our coffee and tea service until further notice.
4. Greeters will open doors but will not make physical contact when you enter the building.
5. Offering basket will not be passed around the church but you will still be able to give in an offering basket that will be placed at the auditorium exits.
6. No handshakes or hugs will be encouraged during fellowship time.
7. All sermon audios will be uploaded Monday at 10am for those unable to attend.
8. We are maintaining inventory of hand sanitizer, toilet paper and soap.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.