Kick Off to Summer-Visioning Party!

Tuesday, May 26 at 6pm
at Hope.Gate.Way

All LIFE groups will meet on Tuesday this week for an evening of summer fun and visioning. We will meet at 6pm at Hope.Gate.Way. for a potluck dinner-bring your favorite summer food, lemonade and watermelon will be provided.

Following dinner we will play some fun summer games and spend some time visioning as a community. This is an important time in the life of New Light, as we think together about what our hopes and dreams for our community are. Every one's voice will be heard, and we hope to leave with some goals for the next 12 months. Do you have some cool idea's for New Light? Bring them along...if not, we'll have some prompts to help you think about what you want your community to look like!

Everyone is encouraged to attend, rather you're a new comer or an old timer or you haven't come in months.

We welcome Paul Nixon

Gathering this Thursday, September 11
6:00 pm
Allen & Sara's house: 31 Sheffield Street, Portland

We are so glad to welcome Paul Nixon to Portland and to our New Light community! Paul is the coach with whom we are working as we develop this new community of faith. After his July visit was postponed due to severe thunderstorms in the D.C. area that interfered with air travel, at long last he's with us this week, Wednesday evening through Friday afternoon.

Paul is the pastor of Epicenter Church, a new United Methodist community of faith focused on serving the people who live in the urban expanse of greater Washington DC. Formerly the Director of Congregational Development for the Alabama-West Florida Conference of The United Methodist Church, Paul is the author of several books: Fling Open the Doors: Giving the Church Away to the Community (2002); Healing Spiritual Amnesia (2004); I Refuse to Lead a Dying Church (2007); and a fourth focusing on urban ministry, now in the works.

Prior to his move to D.C., Paul and his son lived for several years on the coast of northwest Florida, where Paul served first on the leadership team of the 4000-member Gulf Breeze United Methodist Church, and then as the founding pastor of Gulf Breeze Church’s east campus, the Community Life Center.

Here's what Paul says about his current ministry with Epicenter, an exciting new church start in the D.C. area: "We are a multi-site church with locations in Arlington, Washington and Silver Spring. We will be launching weekly worship services in Arlington and in Downtown DC beginning in the fall of 2008. We anticipate eventually joining the people from our various sites together monthly for a high-energy Epicenter Celebration, with an eclectic blend of music, other art forms, and faith sharing -- a spiritual Earthquake event, where God shakes us up and sends us out to live out God's dreams for the city."

Be sure to join us for a gathering of the New Light community this Thursday, September 11, at 6:00 pm, at Allen & Sara's house (31 Sheffield Street) where Paul will help us work through some questions and challenges as we continue to develop the ministry of New Light here in Portland. We'll have take-out food, great fellowship, good conversation, and plenty of laughter.

Our Mission and Vision

Our Mission:
The New Light community exists as a safe place to explore the way of Jesus and to express God’s love in our neighborhood and world.

Our Vision:
New Light envisions a world that embraces community, celebrates inclusivity, expresses creativity, seeks transformation, and practices simplicity.

Our Core Values:

• Community: Faith is a journey best traveled with others who share common values and a common commitment to life together. We strive to be formed as a community steeped in God’s love, expressed in loving relationships with one another, and engaged in the larger community in which we live.
  
  
• Inclusivity: No one is outside the bounds of God’s grace. We strive to practice generous hospitality, welcoming and embracing everyone with the same love we have received from God. We affirm the sacred worth of every human being – no exceptions.
  
  
• Creativity: At the foundation of our faith is the story of a God we call Creator – a God who is continually in the process of creating, who gifts us with creativity and invites us to create. We strive to incorporate music, drama, visual arts, dance, and other creative elements in all that we do.
  
  
• Transformation: As we journey inward, we strive for transformed lives that better reflect the love of Christ; as we journey outward, we strive for a transformed world that better reflects God’s vision of peace and justice.
  
  
• Simplicity: In a world preoccupied with materialism, consumption, and greed, we long for a simpler way. We strive to live simply, both individually and in our life together; to generously share our resources and practice faithful stewardship of God’s Creation.

Our Mission and Vision

Our New Light Leadership Community had an opportunity to spend a full day together this week on a little leadership retreat. We shared morning prayer and worship together, had lunch together, and broke for prayer several times over the course of the morning and afternoon. In the midst of this prayerful setting, our primary task was to consider some larger-picture issues of leadership and vision as we continue to develop this exciting new faith community in Portland.

Here are some of the fruits of our prayer and discussion:

A new mission statement for New Light:

• The New Light community exists as a safe place to explore the way of Jesus and to express God’s love in our neighborhood and world.

A new vision statement for New Light:

• New Light envisions a world that embraces community, celebrates inclusivity, expresses creativity, seeks transformation, and practices simplicity.

And then further exploration of the core values identified in the vision statement:

• Community: Faith is a journey best traveled with others who share common values and a common commitment to life together. We strive to be formed as a community steeped in God’s love, expressed in loving relationships with one another, and engaged in the larger community in which we live.
  
• Inclusivity: No one is outside the bounds of God’s grace. We strive to practice generous hospitality, welcoming and embracing everyone with the same love we have received from God. We affirm the sacred worth of every human being – no exceptions.
  
• Creativity: At the foundation of our faith is the story of a God we call Creator – a God who is continually in the process of creating, who gifts us with creativity and invites us to create. We strive to incorporate music, drama, visual arts, dance, and other creative elements in all that we do.
  
• Transformation: As we journey inward, we strive for transformed lives that better reflect the love of Christ; as we journey outward, we strive for a transformed world that better reflects God’s vision of peace and justice.
  
• Simplicity: In a world preoccupied with materialism, consumption, and greed, we long for a simpler way. We strive to live simply, both individually and in our life together; to generously share our resources and practice faithful stewardship of God’s Creation.

What do you think? Do these faithfully represent your experience of the New Light community? Are they statements that express your vision for our community and for God's kingdom?