News & Views Mar 4

MARCH MEMORY VERSES
Psalm 23:1-4
“The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need. He lets me rest in green meadows;
he leads me beside peaceful streams. He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths,  bringing honor to his name. Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid,
for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me.”

MARCH 7th WORSHIP  - CHANGING TO 10 A.M.
ONLINE - now LIVE STREAMING 10:00 a.m. on multiple platforms
INDOORS - 10:00 a.m. in the Family Center Gym -COMMUNION
Pastor Mark, preaching  -  Bruce Smith, music
Your Home Can Change the World
Read ahead: Colossians 3:22-4:1

It has been 16 months since we changed our church name from Dinuba Mennonite Brethren Church to New Life Community. It seems to have caught on, though from time to time the old name pops back up like it did recently.

Anthony came by a couple of Sundays ago saying that "word on the street is the Mennonites are helping the homeless". He is currently homeless and was referring to the outreaches we did in November and December. It seems he's also been hearing how some families that used to be homeless have been helped to find housing and a fresh start through the Open Gate shelter and our church. We confirmed what he'd heard and Cece exchanged contact information with him so we can stay in touch and help him and others he lives near.

I thought it was a telling exchange. We "Mennonites" are becoming known for the ways we're offering new life to our community. At the same time, new life is coming to us "Mennonites". We are becoming a new life community in Jesus! That's about the best definition of a Mennonite I can think of!

Mennonites started as Catholics, mostly; 500 years ago. Menno Simons was a Dutch priest who was transformed by Jesus through reading his Bible. He admitted that his life had been self-serving, even as a priest, but that his faith in Jesus now had to be lived each day through serving others. "True evangelical faith...cannot lie dormant, but spreads itself out in all kinds of righteousness and fruits of love...," he wrote, and continued on to list the things Jesus instructed about clothing the naked, feeding the poor, and visiting prisoners (see Matthew 25). It was transformative!

Others from the parish gave their lives to Jesus in the same way and soon a new community of faith was formed to share and welcome others to new life in Jesus. They entered this new community as adults through public baptism and soon faced extreme persecution from the Church for doing so. That's because the Church and the State were united in Europe then. Baptism of infants in the Church was the State's only kind of birth certificate, and the State collected its taxes through the tithes to the Church. Mennonite disrupted all of that and more!

For the next few centuries Mennonites fled to avoid persecution, establishing their own villages in places like Poland and Russia and then Paraguay, Canada, and the United States. It wasn't until World War II that Mennonites worshiped in English even though many had been living in the United States for 50 years already. Our church made that same switch, too.

By changing our name from "Mennonite Brethren" to "New Life Community" we are reclaiming our heritage of transformed lives through Jesus Christ and proclaiming it to our city. Becoming New Life Community means living for Jesus as Menno Simons encouraged from the Bible--turning ourselves outward to serve in Jesus' name and welcoming others in by his name, too.

Becoming New Life Community didn't happen all at once when we changed our church's name. It happens every day as we each let Jesus continuously transform our lives through his. The more that happens, the more the people of Dinuba will come to know us as a community of new life for themselves, as well.

As you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your life in him.
Here are some next steps to grow in your relationship with Jesus
and other members of his body as well as to serve others in Jesus' name:

SUNDAYS 
Early / 9:00 a.m. 
ADULT Life Lesson Classes (see chart)
10:00 a.m. 
Worship in the gym  -  NLC KIDS on the Patio  -  Live Stream
11:00 a.m.
- ACE Overcomers (see chart)
6:00 p.m.
- Young Adult Life Group, Bruce & Laurel Smith's backyard
TUESDAYS
- MEN'S Bible Study, 6 a.m., Dining Hall
 - WOMEN'S L.I.F.T. Bible Study, every other week, Room 114-115, Mar. 9th, 10 a.m.
WEDNESDAYS
- Prayer Team, 6:30-7:30 p.m., Dining Hall
- FAITH & FINANCES, 7:00 p.m. Zoom, Ron & Norma Froese facilitating
THURSDAYS
- LIFE SKILLS, 7:00 p.m. Zoom, Cece Olea teaching

Received Last Week (2/28/21): ............ $3,874.85
Received this year to date:................ $236,555.77
Budget Goal: ....................................... $521,591.00
Budget to Date: .................................. $255,874.83
Needed Weekly to Meet Budget: ...... $10,556.86

COVID-19 precautions: The church facility is open for meetings at 25% capacity. Please contact the office to reserve a room. For your safety and others' on our church campus,
please maintain 6' of distance and wear a face covering at all times when indoors.
Thank you.

NLC has installed ionization generators for air sanitization in the gym.

Questions? Call 559-591-1176 or office@newlifedinuba.org