In the year 2000, the Miles Park Presbyterian Church and Glenville New Life Community Church P.C.U.S.A. had some discussions around the possibility of the churches working together to provide outreach to the immediate community.  After meeting together, the churches did not feel led to continue with the meetings.  Glenville turned its full attention to the New Life Center campaign at it’s church and Miles Park considered the future of its ministry.

Miles Park decided the church would close in January of 2001 with the retirement of its pastor.  The Presbytery of the Western Reserve wanted to maintain a ministry in the Miles Park area, and the Church Development and Redevelopment Committee again approached Glenville about entering into a partnership to do ministry in the Miles Park Church building.  At this point Glenville had increased the number of Lay Pastors at its church in anticipation of some future ministries.  The Glenville congregation itself had been mobilized in a new way as part of its New Life Campaign.  There was a new sense of mission and excitement at Glenville.

The idea of starting a new ministry at the Miles Park location was discussed in Session and Lay Pastors meetings.  Both groups felt it was God’s leading to go forward with discussions with Presbytery.  Presbytery was in the midst of a Capital Campaign for Ministry.  One of the goals of the campaign was to do urban ministry with the vision of planting urban churches.  Presbytery approved a grant of $50,000 for a one year probe to assess the possibility of a new church.  Covenant Presbyterian Church made a grant to the Presbytery’s Campaign and designated that $25,000 of that be designated for the new ministry at Miles Park.  The other half of the $50,000 came from other churches that had made donations to Presbytery’s Campaign including funds from Glenville New Life.

Presbytery officially voted at its January meeting in 2001 to close Miles Park Presbyterian Church, and to approve the money for Glenville to launch a new ministry in the building.  The Presbytery meeting was held at Miles Park Presbyterian Church and was co hosted by the members of Miles Park Presbyterian Church and Glenville New Life Community Church.  The outgoing Pastor Rev. William Keene presented Pastor Rick Gillespie-Mobley and Pastor Toby Gillespie-Mobley with the church’s cross and his blessing for the new ministry.  The Presbytery meeting was closed in prayer by Tony Britt, who was to become the outreach worker for the new ministry.  Presbytery entrusted Glenville with the vision as to the way ministry would be carried out at the new site.

The appearance of the sanctuary in the building changed when the organ was removed between the closing of Miles Park Presbyterian Church and the start of New Life Fellowship. Tony Britt & Pastor Rick were responsible for the painting, wall papering, and fixtures to prepare the sanctuary.  Pastor Toby was responsible for the interior design in the various rooms.

Meanwhile at Glenville, the saints began to be organized in waves of spiritual troops.  Men, women, boys and girls were ask to enlist by signing up for four week periods in groups of 30 to 40 people to attend New Life Fellowship.  They did so willingly to be a part of the vision.  Others were asked to consider the possibility of making New Life Fellowship their home church.  It was a more difficult sacrifice, but some felt the leading of the Spirit to do just that.  The name New Life Fellowship was chosen in part because it represented the “New Life” that was coming out of Glenville and the “New Life” which was going into the old church building. Launching the new ministry was truly a church commitment.

Tony Britt was hired as the Outreach Worker who was to follow up on all visitors to the church and was to be the primary evangelist to go into the community to reach people for Christ with the goal of bringing them into the life of the church.  The coming of the new church was advertised on Glenville’s TV and radio broadcast for weeks.  Hundreds of flyers were distributed throughout the neighborhood to let people know of the opening of the new church.

On February 18th, 2001, New Life Fellowship had its first service at 12:00 noon.  Pastor Rick preached the first sermon entitled “A New Life Touch”.  The new children’s choir was called “God’s Choice Choir”.  There were members from Glenville and from the community in that first worship service.  New Life’s purpose was to bring people into a right relationship with God and to equip them for the ministry of Jesus Christ by teaching the Word and by providing opportunities to worship, fellowship, and serve God in a loving and caring community.

Glenville’s Session provided the leadership for the new ministry.  The Ushers board provided ushers for New Life.  The Men’s Choir, The Women’s Choir, and God’s Chosen Generation, and soloist all came from Glenville on a rotating basis to invest in the new ministry.  Pastor Rick, Pastor Toby, and the Lay Pastors alternated with preaching the sermons.  The office functions and financial keeping were done by Glenville’s staff as a part of its investment into the new ministry.

In June of 2001, New Life Fellowship entered into an agreement with The Academy of Cleveland Charter School to rent classroom space in the building.  This was a great blessing to the church because it represented:

 1) An increase in its financial base.  2) Greater exposure in the community.  3) And a new opportunity for ministry for people coming through the doors.  It also meant obtaining building upgrades at no cost to the congregation.

By September of 2001, New Life was strong enough from the new people who attended the church along with members from Glenville who had committed themselves to the new ministry that it was no longer necessary for Glenville to send choirs and groups over.  The time of the service was changed to 11:15am. New Life had developed ushers and added the New Life Sisters choir.  New Life would later add the choir GANG (God’s Anointed New Generation).

Glenville continued to add all the support staff for New Life Fellowship.  Until New Life Fellowship was chartered as a congregation, Glenville was responsible for its leadership.  Elders and Deacons were elected at Glenville specifically for the purpose of providing the future session and deacons of New Life Fellowship.  By September of 2004, Glenville will release its members to New Life Fellowship which prayerfully will be chartered as a church. Until that time, the offerings from Glenville’s members at New Life still support both ministries, whereas the offerings from people who join New Life Fellowship go to support New Life Fellowship only.  New Life Fellowship, as a way of saying thank you to its Mother Church, donates $300 each month from its rental income to the Glenville New Life Center Campaign.  The partnership between the two churches crosses numerous areas of ministries.

In its brief two year history, New Life has given birth to a number of ministries inside the church and the community.  In addition to the choirs and ushers already mentioned, there are also coffee hour workers, music leaders, and TV staff.  New Life Fellowship has youth liturgical dancers, adult liturgical dancers, Youth Worship, Pioneers, Life-Sharing, and Woman to Woman ministries.  For the community there is a coat ministry, can food ministry, summer outreach program, Hoops for Life basketball program, and summer lunch feeding program.  The church has sponsored community days, a costume Party, family night, youth overnight, and a number of youth activities.  The church has hosted community meetings.

New Life has a weekly TV broadcast “Living For Today” which is shown in Cleveland and the eastern suburbs. The program airs in Cleveland on Channel 25 on Thursdays at 3pm and airs in the suburbs on Fridays at 7pm. New Life’s website is at www.newlifefellowship2.com.  The church shares the radio broadcast with Glenville on Fridays at 7:30 WJMO AM.  New Life Fellowship also shares some of its ministries with Glenville, sending over singers and dancers to be a blessing during Glenville’s service.

New Life’s ministry has been so blessed by God that the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA voted to approve funding it as a new church development.  This means a five year partnership between the General Assembly, The Synod of the Covenant, and the Presbytery of The Western Reserve to support the church financially and with other assistance as needed.  Each year the funding from each partner decreases, with the expectation that the church will grow to match the decreasing funds from the tithes and offerings of the members.  At the end of the five year period, the church is expected to fully take care of itself financially.

New Life reached its first 100 attendance on January 19th with 25 guests from Solon Presbyterian Church present for the Martin Luther King Jr. Sunday.  It was a special day of celebration for all involved.  We praise God for what the Lord is going to do in the coming years.  Today’s service is a joint celebration with Glenville New Life Community Church and New Life Fellowship