Pastor Joel talks about the role of the pastor in the local church based on Jeremiah 23:1-8; Ezekiel 34; and John 10:22-30.   Ephesians 4:9-13 (The Message) "But that doesn’t mean you should all look and speak and act the same. Out of the generosity of Christ, each of us is given his own gift. The text for this is, Is it not true that the One who climbed up also climbed down, down to the valley of earth? And the One who climbed down is the One who climbed back up, up to highest heaven. He handed out gifts above and below, filled heaven with his gifts, filled earth with his gifts. He handed out gifts of apostle, prophet, evangelist, and pastor-teacher to train Christ’s followers in skilled servant work, working within Christ’s body, the church, until we’re all moving rhythmically and easily with each other, efficient and graceful in response to God’s Son, fully mature adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive like Christ."

Baptism is a family event at New Life!  With 9 people signed up to be Baptized this quarter, Pastor Joel wanted to make sure people understood what Baptism was and give an opportunity for any last minute decisions to die to the "old self" and rise up into the "new creation" that God has for us to be through Christ Jesus!

  As we continue our Stewardship Series, Pastor Joel explains the foundation of Faith; the difference between our own efforts and the free gift that God gives us through faith.

Pastor Joel starts looking into Habakkuk 2 and follows up on last week's message: Reclaiming Sunday.  Instead of continuing the message he had prepared, Pastor spoke the prophetic word that God had laid on his heart during worship about breaking the spirit of rejection that's oppressed God's Church.