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. It was a small budget project with only $50k available spread over the first two years, and that had to include all start-up costs and Pastor Ron’s salary. But God had big plans for New Life, and in spite of those significant challenges, we not only launched, but began to thrive.

At first, we were a portable church. The cost of property was so prohibitive, for the first 10 years we held church services wherever we could. As we grew, we kept having to find rental facilities with greater capacities. As we would soon find out, two additional challenges awaited us. 1) Petaluma sits in the heart of the least churched (and in some ways, the most anti-church) area in our country. Churches don’t usually thrive here. They struggle and often don’t even survive. And 2) Combine that with the exorbitant cost of property, and it was understandable why no church in the prior 75 years had been able to buy any property inside the city limits of our town.

But God still had big plans for our church, and in 2008 we were able to purchase our current campus — 3 acres inside our city limits with a 35,000 sq. ft. corporate building on it. It’s no surprise that buying our campus, converting it from a warehouse to a combination church/community center/emergency shelter posed another huge challenge. But God enabled us to get that all done, and done legally, in just 11 months! So, in July of 2009 we held our first church service in our new campus, the 15th different place we had met as a church over those first 11 years.

Along the way, we have had three different lead pastors — Ron Hunt, Kevin Finkbiner, and Joel Enyart. After a 4 ½ year season as our lead pastor, God moved Kevin to southern California where he continues to work in church leadership. And after 2 ½ years as our lead pastor, God also moved Joel to southern California where he continues to work in church leadership. Our church has also had two interim lead pastors. Angela Lam led our church between Kevin and Joel, and Ron Hunt now serves as our interim lead pastor.

There have been huge challenges, seasons of deep pain, and times of fantastic victory along the way. Our experiences have pretty much mirrored the experiences the Apostles of Jesus experienced as they traversed the globe establishing churches wherever they went. 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 thousands of 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 in early 1998.

While we’re excited about all of that, our focus and vision is really on the future God has for us. We anticipate calling a new lead pastor in the next few months, and we believe God will use them to continue our great journey in reaching the wonderful people in our community with the good news of Jesus!

We exist to...Help people discover and experience life in Jesus... 

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” - Matthew 28:18-20

“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.