In The News

Some of the work of New Life Church was in the news yesterday, both in print and on television. I don't think I know of a day when two different media commented on the work of our church. Some neighbors expressed concern to KPTV12 about the transition houses the church owns in a segment called, West Linn halfway homes concern some neighbors, that ran last night on the news.

And the West Linn Tidings ran an article on the Neighbors Helping Neighbors program that happened last week.

Since those both happened the same day it made me reflect on several things:

• I could have, and should have, communicated with the neighbors and lowered their stress levels considerably, but I didn't think about it.
• When the church begins serving outside the four walls of the church building, the constituency and the number of people affected changes, as does the way they are affected. I didn't account for that.
• I continue to be proud of the men and women in those houses and the changes they are making in their lives.
• There was a day when the church used to fight about so much stupid stuff amongst themselves that they never got outside the walls to make any kind of difference. Those days are long gone and I am thankful for the change in the church.
• The output of the church in service for Jesus' sake is the measure of a church, not the number of people sit in a service on Sunday mornings.
• Neighbors helping Neighbors needs to be a regular activity of the church. Thanks to all of you who made West Linn a better place.
• The outcome Jesus envisions for the church is for people to see the good works of the church and draw conclusions about Jesus from them [1 Peter 2:12; 1 Peter 3:15-16; Matthew 5:16] These good activities indicate that followers of Christ have received genuine grace [Ephesians 2:8-10; Titus 3:4-8].

All this to say, I am very proud of New Life Church. I pray that God will bless the church and pray the city will be glad we are here.