New Life exists to connect people to the life and love of Jesus by loving others the way Jesus loves us all.
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about us
We exist to...connect people to the life and love of Jesus...
“I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” - John 10:10
By loving others the way Jesus loves us all.
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” - John 13:34-35
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” - Mark 12:30-32
We love because he first loved us. - 1 John 4:19
Creating large group environments that help people encounter Jesus and catalyze our ongoing spiritual growth through practical teaching and powerful worship.
Creating an intentional small group culture in our church so we can personally connect with, equip and encourage each other to chase after all that Jesus has for us as we follow Him together.
Creating spaces and relationships that invest in the coming generation in order to empower them in age-appropriate ways to learn and grow their own personal faith in Jesus.
Creating service opportunities through our Partner Causes that enable us to impact our community and world by serving others with the touch of Jesus.
Every church has its own heartbeat, some deeply held set of values or perspectives, that undergirds all it does…and New Life is no exception. Because we are a deeply Jesus-centered church, our heartbeat statements are based on three values Jesus clearly held as He worked with people.
Everybody’s loved…This is always where we start. Each of us is made in the image of God. God considers each of us His child. And so at New Life we love everybody, regardless of what they’ve done, what values they hold, what gender, what sexual orientation, what age, what ethnicity, etc. Everybody’s loved…no qualifications needed, no caveats, no exceptions. Our love for every human being is unconditional.
Nobody’s Perfect — We live in a very broken world, and each of us carries with us our own share of this brokenness. This is an inescapable reality, so we make no attempt to hide our own brokenness or attach any shame to it or anyone else’s brokenness. It’s a normal part of being human. But, it also gives us great opportunities to extend grace to each other. To Jesus, grace was the natural outgrowth of love, so He extended grace to all the imperfect people in His world, and we find great joy in doing the same.
Anything’s Possible — Put God in the equation, and the solutions are unlimited. God can make anything out of anybody. He’s a miracle worker. It’s His specialty. So, we look at each person as a child of God through whom He can do anything. This is the envisioned outcome of the good news of Jesus, and we love watching it happen right before our eyes.
In mid-1997 God moved our founding pastor Ron Hunt and his wife Monica from Honolulu to start New Life here in Petaluma in collaboration with Petaluma Christian Church and the Northern California Evangelistic Association. At first, we were a portable church but God had big plans for New Life, and in 2008 we were able to purchase our current campus.
We love being a Jesus-centered church that consistently endeavors to walk with Him as He leads us. We’re excited that in addition to helping people experience the life Jesus offers, He’s enabled us to build several church buildings in India and Mexico, take hundreds of people on short term trips to both of these countries, and in our local congregation to baptize nearly a thousand people since our launch. While recognizing all of that, our focus and vision is really on the future God has for us and hope that you will join us.
Our staff
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our stewards
As our spiritual Board of Directors, the Stewards are responsible for the overall health and wellbeing of our church and making sure we are faithful to and making progress on our mission -- helping people discover and experience life in Jesus by loving others the way Jesus loves us all.
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bill butler
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Melinda Bower
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CATHERINE SIKES
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Carla Kruger
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jonathan flaming
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our statements
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God’s Love and Jesus’ Mission
We believe that God loves everyone deeply and is for us. His love is so great that He sent Jesus into our story to heal us from brokenness and lead us into a new life with Him. The Bible reveals this amazing truth, and Jesus Himself is the most precise reflection of who God is and what He is like. That’s why we center everything on Jesus—He is the world’s hope!
God
There is one God who exists in a perfect relationship of three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God created us to be in relationship with Him. By knowing and becoming more like Him, we reflect His goodness and beauty.
Jesus
Jesus is the Son of God, sent to lead us out of the brokenness caused by sin and into the hope of new life. He is entirely God and fully human, giving us a clear view of God’s character and an example of how to live our lives. Placing our faith in Jesus means following Him as our ultimate hope for salvation now and for eternity.
Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is given to all who embrace the new life Jesus offers. This divine presence guides, teaches, and empowers us to live the life Jesus has made possible for us. The Holy Spirit leads us into God’s will and transforms us into the people we were created to be.
Salvation
Salvation is a free gift offered to everyone through Jesus. Through His life, death, and resurrection, we are ultimately rescued from the brokenness and evil that entangles the world. This salvation is made possible by God’s grace, and we receive it by placing our faith in Jesus and in what He has done for us.
The Bible
The Bible is inspired by God and given to us to reveal the truth about life—who God is, who we are, how we can experience salvation, and how to live our best lives. The Bible is trustworthy and, along with the Holy Spirit, serves as our primary source of truth, guiding us in faith and showing us how to live fully.
The Church
The Church, both global and local, is a community of people who have embraced new life in Jesus. As followers of Jesus, we are called to share His good news with others by bringing hope to the world, loving God with all our hearts, and loving others.
New Life is a church for everyone - all are invited, welcomed, accepted, and fully loved by the people of New Life. No caveats. No exceptions. No qualifications required. This means New Life is a safe place for everyone to seek and find their way to Jesus, grow in their understanding and application of what following Jesus means, and serve as He has gifted them.
We believe that men and women are created by God and equally bear His image (Genesis 1:27). God’s intention is for them to share oneness and community (Genesis 2:23-24), however human oneness was shattered when they chose to sin. The struggle for power and the desire to ‘rule over’ one another is one of the sad results of their sin.
We also believe God has acted in Christ to redeem the entire human race, and to offer to all people the opportunity to be part of the New Community - His church. It is God’s intention for His children to experience the oneness that exists between Father and Son (John 17:11, 20-23). This means that old divisions and hierarchies between genders, races, et al. are not to be tolerated in the church where we are all ‘one in Christ Jesus’ (Galatians 3:28). We believe that when the Bible is interpreted holistically it teaches the full equality of men and women in status, giftedness, and opportunity for ministry.
In support of our beliefs we offer the following basic evidence from scripture:
In God’s original instructions to the human race, no hierarchy or division of roles was made (Genesis 1:26-28).
In guiding the nation of Israel, He placed a woman in the highest role of leadership. (Judges 4:1-4).
Jesus chose a group of women as the first witnesses of His resurrection. (John 20:11-17, Luke 24:1-10)
In the formation of the church at Pentecost the Holy Spirit was poured out on women and men alike, as had been predicted long before the coming of Christ. (Joel 2:28, Acts 2:18)
In the New Testament, women as well as men were exercising prophetic and priestly functions. (Acts 2:17-18, Acts 21:8-9, 1 Corinthians 11:4-5, 1 Peter 2:9-10)
The Spirit imparts gifts (even the leadership gifts) on all members of the New Community sovereignly across lines of gender, race, age, etc. (Acts 2:1-21, 1 Corinthians 12:7-11)
Every believer is to exercise his or her gifts for the benefit of the body of Christ (Romans 12:4-8, 1 Peter 4:10-11)
Preventing or limiting believers from fully exercising their spiritual gifts is to quench the work of the Spirit in them. (1 Corinthians 12:4-11)
Therefore, in our attempts to live and work together as a biblically functioning community, we are committed to the following values:
To provide opportunity for ministry based on giftedness and character without regard to gender
To pursue the kind of purity and loyalty in relationships between the genders that led New Testament writers to describe them in the family terms ‘brother’ and ‘sister’
To use language that reflects the honor and value God desires for maleness and femaleness, and emphasize the strengths of each
To offer encouragement to women, especially in areas where their giftedness has been traditionally discouraged and limited
To teach and model these values to members of our community, to the church, and to the world at large
New Life is a church for everyone - all are invited, welcomed, accepted, and fully loved by the people of New Life. No caveats. No exceptions. No qualifications required. This means New Life is a safe place for everyone to seek and find their way to Jesus, grow in their understanding and application of what following Jesus means, and serve as He has gifted them.
As a church that belongs to Jesus, New Life is part of the multi-ethnic, multi-racial, multi-national, multi-gendered, multi-generational Kingdom of Jesus. New Life exists to usher in the Kingdom of Jesus on this earth. We intentionally value unity, diversity, equity, and inclusion. We celebrate and highlight the vast array of all people groups that God has created, believing each is a pure and beautiful reflection of God’s own personality.
We are committed to ongoing listening and learning. We hold our hearts and minds with a posture of openness to increase our understanding of every form of bias, discrimination, exclusion, suppression, and oppression. Our hearts are saddened and we're deeply grieved by the tribalism, cancel-culture, racism, and other forms of exclusion that polarize and divide our world. And, we are working tirelessly to foster and build unity, diversity, equity, and inclusion for all people, both in our church and in our community. At New Life, Everybody’s Loved, Nobody’s Perfect, and Anything’s Possible.
For further teaching from our church on this topic please see this message on YouTube.