NLCC Annual Report: 2013 In Review

In 2013 we celebrated 20 years of great stuff God has done through New Life.

Today we encourage you to take a few extra minutes to celebrate with us a few of the things God has done over the past 12 months. We’re excited to report we’re growing and people are taking next steps toward loving more like Christ. We’ve got the “Visual Annual Report” and then much more detail below for those wanting to read more and learn some really fun facts along the way. Thanks for being a part of New Life and helping make it a safe place where people discover God.

Click here and here see larger versions and then read on and find out more.

Chantilly Campus

Happy New Year, New Life Chantilly! Hard to believe another year has passed. And what an exciting one it was. We celebrated our 20th anniversary this year and I my fourth year on staff. I am continually humbled by the generosity of this church and more so how God uses broken messed up people like us to accomplish His mission. I wish I had the space and time to share with you the multitude of stories of healing and redemption people are experiencing through this place. Countless numbers of people are returning to church or finding their way to church for the very first time. At risk youth in our community struggling to stay out of gangs and say no to drugs are finding safety at the nZone. Lives are being changed for eternity. Ultimately, God deserves all the glory and praise for every changed life. But without your contributions, sacrifices, and obedience to follow His leading, many people may have never experienced the love and grace that comes from a life changed through Jesus. So, THANK YOU! I am so blessed to be your Campus Pastor and part of the NLCC family.

I firmly believe in the promise God gave the Exiles in Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” God has plans for this church and each of us. The question is will you join Him in His plan? I am so excited to see and experience ALL that God has in store for the Chantilly Campus & NLCC in 2014.

Mike Fewster

Chantilly Campus Pastor

Haymarket Campus

God has done some amazing things at the Haymarket Campus in 2013. We themed our year, “All In,” and made that our challenge throughout the year. For us to join God in His mission for our campus, we needed people to go “All In,” and that they did. Let me tell you about a few of the highlights from 2013 in Haymarket.

We started the year with multiple Baptism Sundays. We challenged and prayed for people to make the decision to give their lives to Christ. Over the course of the year, our campus saw 12 decisions for Christ made. We celebrate with each and every person who made that decision this year! For Easter we reached into our communities and neighborhoods through Random Acts of Kindness. We prepared snacks, cookies, etc and delivered them to people we knew along with an invite to our Easter service. It was a really fun time of year. The beginning of To Be Continued landed near the start of summer. TBC provided an opportunity for current New Lifers as well as new families to join God in His work through New Life in our community. It was great to see new people jump in and get involved through their generosity. As Fall approached, we partnered with World Vision to provide backpacks full of school supplies for under-resourced children in Western Prince William County schools. We packed and delivered 100 backpacks to children across WPWC. This event was made possible by our favorite event of the year, Just Glo 5K. We hosted our first annual, glow in the dark 5K event. We surpassed our goal of 100 runners with a total of 107 registered runners. Families came and ran in our 400 meter fun run for kids and many others ran in our glow in the dark 5K. The proceeds from the registrations went directly to purchase a backpack for the kids in WPWC schools. We can’t wait for October to roll around in 2014 for this great event again. Grab Your Gobbler was our Thanksgiving Outreach. This year, we grew to our largest meal donation outreach to date. 97 Thanksgiving meals went to under-resourced families in PWC while 43 meals went to families and shelters in Fairfax County. Thanksgiving has become one of our favorite outreach opportunities of the year. God has really done special things with that event. We topped off 2013 by hosting the Art of Marriage Conference at the nZone and Tailgate Sunday at Battlefield High School.

Stan Rodda

Haymarket Campus Pastor

Student Ministry

2013 was a very exciting year for the Student Ministry at New Life. Each week we have been averaging 157 students in our weekly Discover, Develop and Deploy opportunities. Between baptizing 7 students this past year, having more students coming out to the Friday Night Hangout, launching 2 new Home Groups (for a total of 4), and having more students serving and Deploying over the summer, the Student Ministry has been very busy.

As we look to continue to minister to these teens, it becomes increasingly clear to me that God is using these times as opportunities for them to discover God and for adults to deploy into their lives by being an adult role model that some of them may never have.

God is doing some great and exciting things and we are just beginning to scratch the surface. Want to be a part? We are looking for adults who have a caring heart and who have a desire to share the love of Christ with students who really need a positive, godly influence in their lives.

Tom Pounder

Student Minister

KidZone

God is on the move in KidZone bringing an average of two new families each week to experience Christ at New Life. We are partnering with parents to help them raise children who have a heart for Jesus, a desire to love others, and to honor our Lord not just on Sunday mornings but throughout the week and in every area of their lives. We launched a family Bible study for families of Kindergarten children and older called, “What’s In The Bible.” Each week during this year-long study, we learn about each book of the Bible through fun games, silly songs, videos, and activities. Our newest addition to the children’s ministry team, Sean Cronin, leads this fun family study and is the guy you’re most likely to see in a wig and Elvis outfit on Sunday mornings leading elementary worship and our large group Bible teaching at 8:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. services.

We’ve made a special effort to try and connect KidZone with the adult sermon series where appropriate. During our NL movie series, we showed kid-friendly movies on Saturday nights with the same message as the adult movie complete with a take-home page for kids to share with their families and discuss throughout the week. From tithing to baptism, we are inviting parents to engage in important faith-based conversations with their children through our KidZone quarterly family challenges, outreach opportunities, lessons, and activities.

KidZone Chantilly expanded this year to include 6th grade. Our 5th and 6th graders meet at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday mornings in a large group and the last Sunday of each month we gather for a fun, social outing like ice skating, laser tag, and bowling. In 2014, we’re adding small group home meetings during the week to help these tweeners dig deeper into their faith, ask questions, and develop strong relationships with each other and with Christ.

The growth and discovery among children and families wouldn’t be possible without the amazing support of our KidZone volunteer leaders who serve faithfully each week. Whether holding babies, playing with toddlers, singing praises with preschoolers, or teaching football and Bible stories, our volunteers share God’s love through their gifts and talents. We are so excited to see what God has in store for New Life kids and families in 2014 and honored to be part of the story He is writing.

Elinor Kinnier

Family Minister

Arts

​2013 was a wonderful year for the Worship and Creative Arts Ministry at New Life Christian Church. Not only did we see growth in our church as a whole, but we saw a lot of growth in our worship band, stage design, and volunteer base as well. We are excited to have hired Dan Eno, a part time Worship Leader at our Haymarket Campus (soon to move locations and be the New Life Linton Hall Campus). Dan and his wife Megan are also helping with the Youth and Young Adults at the Linton Hall campus. As a part of growth we also identified Aubrey Thomas as a super-talented and willing volunteer to head up our Stage Design team. We are so grateful for your prayers and support for our teams and can’t wait to see what God does at New Life in 2014!

Brennan Loveless

Arts Minister

nZone

The nZone is growing!

In 2013 the nZone grew in every department: Fitness, Partnerships, Rentals, Leagues, Programs, Events, and so much more. We have 1,500 members who use the Fitness Center, Fitness Classes, fields and/or courts on a monthly basis. Our Partnerships offer a great value to the community with programs such as: speed and agility training, Karate, 2 styles of boot camps, All Summer Sport Camps, basketball training/camps/tournaments, strength training, soccer leagues/clinics/camps, special needs sports leagues, and so much more. We have several year around rentals for all ages who play basketball, volleyball, soccer, and lax in a fun, safe environment. We are developing more nZone run programs such as Kids Fitness Classes, Flag Football Leagues, Preschool Playtime, Preschool Camps, Parents Night Out, and sports training. With events such as Consignment Sales, MMA, Table Tennis Tournament, Basketball Tournaments, Bondo Events we reached over 400,000 people in 2013.

Requests for events to be hosted at the nZone are at an all time high. We are writing up proposals weekly and hosting baby showers, corporate Christmas parties, health fairs, MMA events and more. The nZone has become the go to place for every child’s birthday party. Parent’s are reserving their spots earlier and earlier, knowing their kids will have a blast. Our 7 summer camps left our hallways echoing with shrieks of whistles and children’s laughs for months after. We filled every surface throughout the summer with kids and watched as they learned the fundamentals of different sports and spent time in community with friends and counselors. Our summer camp coordinator wrote in, saying that she couldn’t wait to come back and that all of her high school friends had so many great things to say about the place. Operationally, we have made A LOT of changes but all for the better. We have changed our soccer and adult league coordinators and have seen over 16 teams per session for Tuesday night basketball alone. Our soccer leagues are guaranteed to fill up this winter and our hope is to top the 52 teams that we had registered last year at this time. We continue blossoming in the area of programming and are adding more monthly. Future Famers launched for the first time this September with Cheerleading and Football and we head into the new year with soccer. Risks have been taken, tough staffing and programming decisions have been made and we still continue to learn what’s best for the nZone from a ministry perspective and a business perspective day in and day out!

The nZone Fitness Center has boomed over the last year! We are currently offering group exercise classes early in the mornings and well into the evening hours. We have caring, dynamic instructors that teach everything from Yoga, Pilates, Fit for the Ages and Boot Camps to Zumba and Cardio + Strength classes. Our monthly group exercise class attendance is over 1200! People are having fun and seeing great results. On any given night you can see someone from our Personal Training team coaching individuals, reviewing form and motivating clients! The feedback I hear is that we have such great equipment and space at such an affordable price.

What a great place to work or just have fun!

To Be Continued

In 2013 we kicked off a third capital campaign. These campaigns have provided individuals and families the opportunity to join in God’s work and become a tangible part of creating safe places where people discover God. It’s not just about converting a Budweiser warehouse into a sports center. It’s about being in the community, for the community.

As you read above, thousands of people come through the nZone on a weekly basis. These people are being prayed for, and are rubbing shoulders with our staff and New Lifer’s who use the nZone. Conversations are happening that begin relationships that often lead to more conversations that move toward the spiritual and eternal.

Your prayers and financial contributions to TBC have made this our reality. But the work isn’t done. We still need to build the cafe. We still need better exterior signage. We still need a place to call home and reach the community around our relaunched Linton Hall Campus. God has done great things, but He’s not done yet.

So while we did not hit our financial goals for 2013 with TBC, we anxiously look ahead to see what God does next. He builds the church. He leads according to His timing. We are simply along for the ride and privileged to be part of His plan to make all of Northern Virginia a safe place for people to discover Him and His love for them.

Passion for Planting

Passion for Planting (P4P) had a very productive 2013 starting with the hiring of Dale Spaulding to take point in our church planting activities. We give God the credit for rekindling our hands on support of church planting across the US! We have so much to celebrate including the launch of The Foundry on the inner harbor of Baltimore, MD on September 29th.

P4P 2013 Facts and Data

• Provided project management services to three church plants: Foundry (Baltimore, MD), Shift Church (Gainesville, FL), and North Boulevard Church of Christ (Murfreesboro, TN)
• Provided $53,334 in financial support to five church plants (Virginia, Maryland, North Dakota, Georgia and Delaware)
• Sent two New Life mission teams to support local church plants in Maryland
• Supported two Exponential Conferences for church planters with 7,000 attending in person and 80,000 participating online from all over the world
• Hosted five Planter Coaching Groups at the nZone with an average of 18 church planters attending each gathering
• Developed plans for a Church Planter Residency program that will rolled out in the Summer of 2014

Dale Spaulding

Director of Passion for Planting

Passion for Community

This has been another great year for Passion 4 Community. Serving the community is our number one priority. Our volunteers have demonstrated that commitment to serve with compassion and being the true servants God has called them to be.

Since January, Passion 4 Community has served over 60 families in the Centreville and Chantilly area with furniture and clothing. The P4C food pantry has provided food for five families in the community and meals every two weeks to the Battered Women’s shelter in the area. Through these two food outreaches, we encourage 2o families every time we deliver! The volunteers make sure we provide a personal touch every time we see the families. They may sit and talk with the family, or even pray for them.

For the Holidays, P4C teamed up with the Haymarket campus and JK Moving to provide over 140 turkey meals for families that would not have had Thanksgiving dinner otherwise. During Christmas, we provided gifts for families in a shelter that would not have had presents for their children otherwise, thanks to many generous New Lifer’s who brought in over 70 gifts. Then New Life MOPS group wrapped ALL the gifts for us. A huge thank you as well for Time Warner Cable for delivering the gifts to all the shelters. Nearly all of the volunteers from Time Warner do not attend NL, so this was a huge opportunity for them to see what we do for the community.

Thank you for your support of those in need in the community!

Heather Smith

Director of P4C