It’s official; we’re going to call our fellowship, New Life Vineyard.

We had quickly discarded the option to have a geographic description in the name, like Vineyard in the East Coast, or the Katong Vineyard as we believe that our fellowship will become city-wide; Singapore is a very small city state, fully traversable by car in less than one hour, at its widest points (East to West). From a practical point of view, the location of our worship services, the place which, the public will associate with the church, is likely to change as we grow from chruch plant to an established church! (That’s a faith statement, in case you don’t realize it. So we don’t want to be as confusing as our electoral boundaries. It’s plain confusing to have a church called, say the Bedok Vineyard, found in say, a down-town location, or in Marine Parade!

New Life, hmmm. It seemed good to us!

Of course after independently deciding on what to call the new “baby”, I found out that at least two Vineyard in North America are called… New Life Vineyards. There are also three to four Christian organizations here (including churches) that call themselves “New Life”.

The Bible makes several references to the new life.

For instance, Ezra 9:9 He has granted us new lives to build the house of our God, and repairs its ruins.

Wow… this verse spoke to us about worship and prayer.

So New life, for intimacy with our Father.

Incredibly aligned, since worship is one of Vineyard’s highest priorities.

Then Acts 5:20 says, Tell the people the full message of this new life.

Sounded to us that the message was proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. And the “full message” includes speaking of the kingdom, and doing the works of the kingdom!

New life to obey Jesus and do everything that He has done!

Saving lives, delivering the oppressed and healing in the power of the Holy Spirit. Yaaay, again it’s so tied up to what Vineyard is all about!

Finally, Romans 5:17, which speaks of God’s abundant provision of grace and the gift of righteousness, which came to reign in our (new) lives. If by the sin of Adam, death reigned through that one man, how much more the “goodness” of God, will reign in our lives through the obedience of Jesus!

And as grace abounds to us, we shall continue to abound in good works, especially works of mercy.

New life to demonstrate that God is good!

May our fellowship live up to its name and heritage!