New Church Berkeley started at Easter 1995, when two families and a number of single people moved to Berkeley for the sake of being a church in the city. For the first two years, the church struggled to hang on, sometimes with no more than 20 in attendance and financial resources that were stretched to the limit. But we had a sense of calling that we couldn't give up. During that period, a number of individuals came to throw their strength into the work, and at the same time engage in training for ministry. Several of these completed training and were accepted as candidates for the pastorate.
In 1998, the church really began to take off, with more people coming for worship than could fit into the chapel. This necessitated the change to two services Sunday mornings during the year. By that time, the sense of joy and excitement was strong, and the church continued to grow.
New forms in worship have been an important part of what we are. We realize that most people in our city are utterly unfamiliar with the forms, especially the musical forms, that American churches have tended to use. So New Church has trimmed back to the very essentials, with music that is fresh and new, accompanied by the NC Praise Band, and teaching that is tied as closely as possible to the teachings of Jesus. There are a few other things, but mainly we keep our worship as simple and heartfelt as possible. It's a joyful thing! It's loud, too! So if that's a problem for you, you might want to find a seat some distance from the band, at least at first.
New Church has tried to find new forms for ministry as well as worship. One result of this has been the formation of our Cross Cultural Outreach Grid, which provides a means of matching overseas opportunities with our identity as a church. The church has sent two teams into Northern India to support Indian believers in Jesus and to strengthen the work of Jesus in that area. The church has developed a relationship with a Christian school in the dump of the city of Dehra Dun, where we sponsor a high proportion of the students who are enrolled there. The church has also developed a relationship with a sister church in a colonia outside Ensenada, Mexico. We feel that our assignment is to bring the love of Jesus to bear on the area of South Berkeley where we are based, caring for people in People's Park, along Telegraph, and further into the Berkeley community. But we continue to be a sending church, with almost 10% of our total community going out into short term trips in a normal summer, for example, and many committing more and more of their lives to service for Jesus either in a secular profession or some kind of specifically Christian ministry.
Small groups were important from the beginning for New Church, and most of the membership is involved in one small group or another during the week, for prayer, study, support, sharing, and developing loving relationships with others.
New Church has begun to sponsor a series called "Worship - Berkeley", worship concerts provided for believers of all different churches and organizations to come several times a semester just to open our hearts to the Lord together. These are held in a neutral site (a place not specifically identified with New Church) such as the Julia Morgan Center on College Avenue.
We feel we are part of a new movement by the Holy Spirit. We sense that there is a new form of church sprouting across the world, one where the old forms of worship are being displaced by new forms. There is a fresh perspective on things like prayer and relationships with others, too. The new churches, by whatever names, generally attempt to take their beliefs and direction not so much from Christian cultural patterns, as from a careful reading of the teachings of Jesus and of the Bible generally. It seems to us that one of the great strengths of this church form is that it is accessible to people without any background in church culture. We have sensed that there are many people who either have no interest in being part of American cultural Christianity, or who are simply unable to enter into such a culture but who do have a serious interest, or at least openness, to Jesus personally. So our goal is just this: to be a place where you can come into contact with Jesus, where you can get reliable teaching about Him, and where we do things to make it possible for you to open up your heart to Him, without asking you to adopt a culture that feels strange to you.
We keep thinking about how accepting Jesus was of all those who came to Him back in 1st Century Palestine. We think He wants His church today to be just as accepting. So you can come to New Church as is, and make your own effort to come into contact with Jesus. (We are pretty sure that you will find, when you try to contact Him, that He is actively reaching out to you!) Of course, you probably will also find, as most of us have, that when you become one of His followers, He has serious demands on the way we live our lives. But that too is a matter mainly between you and Him. We think you will also find that He continues to be amazingly gracious and patient as we develop in our spiritual lives.