Every first Wednesday of the month, a miracle happens at New Life. And it happens at New Life Next Worship.
It’s not because of the food, and the picture taking, and the mingling that takes place at 6:30pm; though the food is awesome (the cheese dip and bacon club spirals are legendary) and the fellowship with pastor’s and leaders at NLC is actually why we’re encouraged to be there. New New Lifer’s and longtime attendees come together and we get a chance to know their faces, their stories... their names. But around 6:50 or so the gathering shifts in tone and everyone comes into the chapel so Pastor Brady can begin communicating the vision, the story, and the heart of New Life Church.
Because of other obligations that often tie up my Wednesdays, there have been several times I can’t make it over to that chapel until around 7pm or so. By this time, our staff is often seated outside, finally getting to eat their own plates and catch up with peers. As others duck out I like to sneak in and grab a seat on the back row. I’ve heard the bullet points, the stories, and the mission at least half a dozen times. But every time, every. single. time I fall in love with New Life all over again as I hear Pastor Brady talk.
I guess it’s good that I love my church. I consider it my greatest joy to serve the kids and families of our fellowship through worship. But I know that’s because my love for New Life goes far deeper than the institution from which I receive a paycheck, or the church that I would attend even if I didn’t.
New Life is my family. That happened at a New Life Next a couple years ago. See, after the food, the fellowship and the vision comes the invitation... this is when the tears start rolling for me. Every first Wednesday of the month we invite people to join our family. We invite people into our worship, our brokenness, our tears, our triumph. In Psalm 68 it says that God “sets the lonely in families.” There is a multitude hurting, broken people in this world... a fact we all know. But Heaven breaks open a bit on the first Wednesday of the month and some of those hurting, broken people are set in family. It’s not a decision that we encourage people to make lightly. It’s the stuff of the kingdom.
And it’s real. I know because there have been Wednesdays when I have come to New Life just to hear it all again. Like a child coming to the dinner table to be reminded that she belongs, to hear the same old family story that has been told 100 times over, to be reminded that she’s a part of it all. I didn’t really have that foundation before I came here, so I treasure the miracle, I’m amazed by it, and I’m thankful for it.
This week I am learning a lot about my New Life family: about how they pray for me, and walk with me through the moments when I need them the most. I am continually overwhelmed by the people God has put in my life... It’s a miracle. A miracle that began on the first Wednesday of the month at New Life Next.
