A Word from Pastor Joel

What an invigorating time to be alive and ministering in Jesus name! Many are the challenges to the gospel and our resolve to carry on the mission that God has given us. Will we preach, teach, counsel, and "one-another" in the truth? Will we turn to the doctrine of the day, seeking approval by the world and its systems?

The cultural soup in which our young people swim stirs us to see the Mission of New Life—a gospel community joyfully loving God and others by gracious means, generous mercy, and global mission—truly become who we are and what we do. With nothing new under the sun, the loudness of our culture is demanding we intentionally take the  gospel’s light into the darkness of La Mesa and San Diego County. 

The “Outward to 60” Vision is our opportunity to reach out to our neighborhood in Jesus’ Name, while seeking to draw men and women, young and old, to Him. We are not a perfect church, but we carry with us a perfect gospel, equipped and empowered by the living Triune God. 

To some, this Vision may seem not enough. To others, too much. In the end, if pursued diligently, it will take us to places we cannot even see from here. The Lord will lead us, having already given small confirmations that He is already doing these things in our midst. Truly, “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps” (Proverbs 16:9, ESV).

Your elders & pastors humbly lay this Vision before you. So, pray with us, walk with us, serve with us, believe with us, and let us see, together, what the Lord might do in us and through us, as we follow His leading.

 

Advancing Our Mission into Our Neighborhood as We Near 60 Years

And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges
and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. 
Luke 14:23 (ESV)

The Lord has carried us through immense challenges from 2019 to 2021. We want to honor our God for all He has done by energizing our outreach efforts and refueling our discipleship ministries. 

“Outward to 60” is a 5-year vision that prayerfully seeks to take our Mission of being “a gospel community joyfully loving God & others by gracious means, generous mercy, & global mission” into our neighborhood. We desire to cultivate connections with local and regional PCA ministries and other gospel-minded associations. 

We will aim to fulfill our call to disciple the nations and the next generations surrounding us, particularly in the SDSU and Grossmont College communities, and zealously laboring in evangelism, outreach, spiritual care, and inviting our neighbors into these ministries for spiritual growth. 

We will labor in the “Outward to 60” Vision by praying, training, networking, evangelizing, staffing, and funding. We praise our God that in 2015 the Lord through the generosity in life and in death of George Mitchell led him to endow New Life with a significant financial gift that will be a blessed enabler and multiplier for many of the efforts envisioned over the next five years. 

We will celebrate, together, all the Lord will be doing at New Life’s 60th Anniversary celebration on Sunday, November 22, 2026.

Shaping Our Gospel Community 
for the Next Era of Ministry

If the iron is blunt, and one does not sharpen the edge,
he must use more strength, but wisdom helps one to succeed. 
Ecclesiastes 10:10 (ESV)
  1. Charter, recruit, train, and fund a H.O.M.E. Committee (Home Missions, Outreach, Mercy, & Evangelism) with guidance from our (Foreign) Missions Committee.
  2. Call an Assistant Pastor to develop and oversee well-rounded, effective University ministry and Next Generation ministries.
  3. Develop internships with WSCal students to initiate or encourage facets of “Outward to 60.”
  4. Recruit and train five New Life members to pursue counseling certification through the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors.

Communicating Our Joyful Love

Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt,
so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. 
Colossians 4:6 (ESV)
  1. Host 3 conferences on the New Life campus that address needs in the community.
  2. Leverage social media, communications, & campus presence, to evangelize students at SDSU & assimilate Christian students into New Life.
  3. Open a well-staffed counseling center on New Life’s campus with trained Biblical Counselors.

Deepening Our participation in
God’s Gracious Means,
Generous Mercy, & Global Mission

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship,
to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
Acts 2:42 (ESV)
  1. Reawaken our Discipleship Ministries, strengthening the heart of our gospel community, through L.I.F.T. (Living in Fellowship Together) Groups, a multi-track adult Sunday school with a core curriculum for membership development, a weeknight ministry night with an emphasis on children’s ministry, Bible study, and small group opportunities, and training and encouraging our leaders to help them succeed in their volunteer ministry.
  2. Empower the H.O.M.E. Committee to launch ministries from within our own gospel community or identify, vet, and establish networking for ongoing spiritual, financial, and human-power support for “Partner Ministries” in La Mesa and throughout San Diego County for church planting and areas of need such as abortion intervention, incarceration, disabilities, homelessness, and refugees.

Investing as Faithful Servants
in Our Mission

His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.
You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much.
Enter into the joy of your master.’ 
Matthew 25:23 (ESV)
  1. Launch & motivate the Outward to 60 Vision by matching New Life’s 2021 Foreign Missions giving over the initial three years, by investing a total of $150,000 from New Life’s reserves [$25,000 in 2022, $50,000 in 2023, and $75,000 in 2024] in the H.O.M.E. Committee’s budget and New Life’s expanded ministry & staffing, as a thank-offering to God for his provision and care, with the prayerful desire that H.O.M.E. and General Fund giving carry the vision forward into 2025, 2026, and beyond, ultimately seeing these ministries enfolded into New Life’s ministry culture.