OUR CHURCH
We are a church who is focussed on our King, Jesus. We believe He should be at the center of everything we do, and everything each believer does. It is all for Him, and for His Kingdom.
We want to see every believer trained, equipped, resourced and released into what God has called them to. He has a specific purpose and inheritance for each person.
We are a church who does our best to live out the mandate given in Acts 1:8, to go into our city, region, nation and beyond, advancing His Kingdom. We believe in planting churches as a way of advancing His Kingdom, and will do what we can to help make this possible by resourcing church plants with finances and people to the best of our ability.
We also believe in the Great Commission given in Matt 28:18-19, that we are to go make disciples of all nations. We want to see His Kingdom advanced in our city, in our nation, and beyond our borders.
We work in strong partnership with the New Covenant Ministeries International team, who are a trans-local team that minster into many countries across the world.
More information about NCMI can be found at www.ncmi.net, or click on link below.
How We Do Church
The Church Model
Our church is led by a Team of elders who oversee the different ministries in the life of the church. We believe that there is an opportunity for everyone to be involved in what God has called us to do. We believe that the local church should be:
1 Autonomous and Self Governed yet accountable to an outside team, in our case NCMI.
2 Self financed by the tithes and offerings of the local believers.
3 Eldership Governed – not authoritarian, but led by a Team of elders who, together with the lead elder, help set the Vision, Direction and Doctrine of the church.
4 A Dynamic model which allows for feedback and participation of everyone in the church with Jesus Christ as the Vision.
Church Government
As stated, we believe that Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church. We believe in the New Testament model of church Government where we see Apostles planting, establishing and working into Local Churches, raising up an Eldership Team who would then lead and govern the local church working together with a team of Deacons. (Titus 1:5. Acts 14:21-28.)
1 Tim 5:17 The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honour, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching.
Leadership at all levels is always in plurality ~ Church Acts 15:22. Elders Acts 20:17-31.
1 Pet 5:1. Deacons Acts 6:1-7. Translocal Eph 4:11-16.
Biblical Leadership is one of shepherding, going ahead of the sheep, leading them to green pastures and still waters Ps 23 and protecting the sheep against savage wolves, Acts 20:29. Leadership starts at Home 1 Tim 3:5, “If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church ?” The Greek word here is -proistemi- which means to stand before. Our leadership style should therefore not simply be one of management or rulership but one of standing in front – of a shepherd – leading by example – inspiring – protecting – caring.
We have put together a series of short videos showing what we believe on some topics and why. We have called it the 'What and Why Series'. They are only about 10 minutes on each topic, so just give a general overview. You can access that series on our Youtube channel, or just click the link below.
HISTORY
We are a church plant that began in the spring of 2000. New Beginnings began from a vision birthed in the hearts of two couples, Kirby & Olivia Friesen and John & Jackie Fuller. In this vision, wounded and hurting people from both religious and non-religious backgrounds found a new beginning in Christ Jesus their Saviour. The name New Beginnings is intended to meaningfully relate to our purpose as a church family.
In April 2013 Brenden and Judith Ferreira moved from South Africa to Penticton to transition the leadership of the church from Kirby and Olivia. They have continued in similar vein, with Isaiah 61 being strong on their hearts, and clearly still God's plan with the church.