Feilding New Life started over 30 years ago. From humble beginnings, it quickly became a church whose heart is for helping and growing the local community.
Over a decade ago the opportunity arose to purchase a building right in town that had formerly been used as a gym, and the church took the leap of faith to move to a more modern, centrally-located building. Over the years, some work has been completed in the building to cater for its expanded use, but the vision to develop the site and create a multi-use facility has been in sight for many years. “It has been a challenging process with many obstacles in the way, but when God is building the house, He will accomplish what He intends,” says Pastor Paul Ballard.
On top of Sunday church services, Feilding New Life runs a Saturday Morning Breakfast Ministry and a very “outwardly focused” ladies’ craft group. It has dreams to offer budgeting services, counselling services and a new regular activity for parents with young children. “We strongly believe in connecting with other churches in our town, to ensure we are complementing and not competing with them, so that the community experiences the love of God in a united way,” explains Pastor Ballard.
Early in 2018 the church made an application to their local bank for the funds and received every indication it would be approved. After over 12 months working with their bank and an unusual delay for final confirmation, Craig Gudsell, the church’s Insurance Broker, asked if the church had considered Christian Savings. Paul discussed the idea with the Trust Board who agreed to pursue this as a back-up option. “To the complete surprise and disappointment of our local bank manager, the lending manager turned down our application at the last minute. We knew at that moment that God had, once again, stepped in and guided our steps. Man makes his plans, but God has His way,” says Pastor Ballard.
Shortly after, Christian Savings approved the application,and renovations quickly began. “We are very excited now to be working towards having a building that will serve all the generations of our church family well, but also caters for community outreach activities.”
“We have really appreciated the professional and yet down-to-earth manner in which our application has been managed,” says Ps Ballard. “Knowing that Christian Savings inherently understands and values our mission to serve God has been so helpful.”
The church’s mission statement is “Empowered to Influence—the church is the place where we connect, learn and grow so that we can fully embrace our unique, God-given purpose in growing the kingdom of God in our community.”
