Four12 news image for 'New Name, New Life' about New Life Church in East London

New Name, New Life

Things have been truly amazing at New Life Church this past year, and we would love to share some of our highlights with you, our Partners.

We are a small church growing steadily, filled with an amazing hunger for the presence of the Lord. I am consistently getting feedback from people of how loved they feel and how they are encountering the Lord in tangible ways. In the space of a year, we have grown from about 40 regular attendees to over 100!

In the space of a year, we have grown from about 40 regular attendees to over 100!

‘One plants a seed another waters but the Lord gives the increase.’ (1 Corinthians 3:6) We, as a church, have much to thank God for this year:

• It has been just over 1 year now that we have officially taken on our new name as ‘New Life Church’. The Lord has blessed us much from that time.

• At the end of February, one of our members Donovan Richter, pursued a ministry calling to raise up prayer and intercession in the city – he left his job to give all his time to that; such faith. We have seen a great increase amongst our church family in our devotion to pray in both numbers and heart for the city and the lost.

We had our first Eastern Cape Four12 Regional Equip here in March. This has had a real impact on us as a church and further accelerated our focus to be an authentic expression of a New Testament Church.

Andrew Selley came for a week of apostolic input. It had a HUGE impact on us and further aligned our hearts with the Four12 partnership and pursuing the Kingdom.

We had our first visit by a TMT (Timothy Ministry Team) – powerful. It ultimately resulted in a process which led Janco Vermuelen (TMT intern at Edgemead AM with Kim) to join us in ‘full time’ service in the area of young adults and worship.

We established Tuesday evenings (5pm-6pm) as a prayer time at the church building and have often had as many as 20 people coming through. We have included practical things like prayer walks through Beacon Bay and surrounds as we put our feet on the territory that the Lord has promised us.

Ignite Group: We have established a consistent youth and young adults meeting on Friday evenings. We have seen consistent growth with up to 20 youth and young adults attending weekly, this is hugely exciting for us.

Our men started meeting on Saturday mornings, 6am – 7:30am. The group has grown to over 20 men (often many more) who consistently meet, seeking the Lord’s face and desiring to walk as sons with purity and clean hands. We have also recently started (and finished) the Conquer series. The outcome of that is ongoing, but it has had a massive impact and we are literally seeing a mini-revival among our men.

Some of our men have led initiatives of evangelism, teaching and encouraging into the area of Nompumelo, which has seen salvations, baptisms and discipleship.

Our Sunday School has seen growth. We have had many new teacher volunteers in the last month, with our men really stepping up to help.

Communities have been established and seen growth. We regularly have around 50 people meeting in homes in and around our community of East London, South Africa. We are believing God for great multiplication in the year ahead. We have seen two new communities in Beacon Bay, plus one in Nompumalelo, and one in Amalinda will kick off in January 2017.

We have celebrated over 30 people coming through the waters of baptism in the few months.

New Life Church membership has grown by over 25 people in 2016, which is a 50% growth over the past year. Yes, the Lord gives the increase.

We have also seen many people come to salvation, including my best friend from my youth and my sister. For me as the lead elder of New Life, these have been massive personal highlights.

We have a sense that things are really accelerating and that the increase for 2017 won’t just be a doubling in numbers, but a revival beginning to touch and impact East London!

Steve is the lead elder of JoshGen Upstate in Spartanburg, South Carolina, USA. He is married to Lyn.

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