Renewed
NEW LIFE 2010 is a vision
for American Baptists
to reach 1,000,010 new disciples,
plant 1,010 new churches,
vitalize a multitude of caring ministries,
and so transform our congregations
by the year 2010.
NEW LIFE 2010 builds on the faithful witness and service of American Baptists from our beginnings. This vision calls us to continue our most cherished traditions of reaching across personal, social and economic barriers to create healthy communities to share the Gospel at home and abroad.
God began showing the vision for NEW LIFE 2010 at a five-day summit meeting in Las Vegas in 1998. 150 American Baptist leaders, including 75 new church planters, prayed to see God’s will for our denomination in the next millennium. At that time, the goal for new church plants was reached. Following that meeting, evangelism and caring ministries goals were added. The vision statement shows the hoped for outcome – transformed congregations that can share the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Deans and presidents of American Baptist-related seminaries voiced their support of NEW LIFE 2010 early in the process of its development. Leaders of the program boards of ABCUSA announced program initiatives that would further the goals. One year after the initial meeting, the American Baptist Task Force on Prayer for Evangelism launched Prayer Summits around the country to undergird this vital emphasis. American Baptist Women’s Ministries contributed to the support of new church planters. Regions adopted goals that complemented NEW LIFE 2010.
The Church Planters Institute has been a centerpiece of our denominational effort to plant churches that have staying power. Planters and those considering this ministry have gathered semi-annually at Green Lake, Wisconsin, for training that has provided skills for this difficult ministry.
New Life Florida was launched in 2000 to reach 8.5 million Floridians unconnected to any church. This cooperative effort of American Baptist Home Mission Societies, the American Baptist Churches of the South and American Baptist congregations in Florida provided the channel for reaching transplants from the North as well as Haitians, Cubans and many others coming from other nations.
Congregational transformation efforts have included various region institutes and training events, a 9-church pilot project for small churches and Rekindle!, American Baptist Home Mission Societies’ distance learning opportunity. The New Life Youth Media project began in 2001 as youth at Curtis Park Community Center in Denver learn about digital story-telling and new media to tell the NEW LIFE 2010 story. The project has since expanded to numerous sites around the country.
Dr. Aidsand F. Wright-Riggins, executive director of American Baptist Home Mission Societies, notes that “NEW LIFE 2010 is about a denomination that realizes it is vitalized to fulfill its vocation – to embody the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18), the Great Commandment (Matthew 22:37-40) and the Great Criteria (Matthew 25:31-46).”
