Allendale, Michigan USA
New Life
Bible Chapel
Allendale, Michigan
USA
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New Life Bible Chapel
consists of a group of people who have placed their faith and trust in
the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone for salvation. We pattern our meeting as
close as possible to the early Church as set forth in the New Testament to the
best of our understanding. We are an independent non-denominational assembly
with no world or national headquarters overseeing us.
We affirm that the Lord Jesus Christ is the head of the Church (Eph. 1:22, 5:23, Col. 1:18) and has given clear instruction in His Word on how the Church should be governed. No where in the Scriptures do we see a world or national headquarters ruling over local assemblies of believers. What we do see in the Scriptures is each local assembly submitting to the Lord Jesus as the head of the Church and obeying those in rule over them referred to as elders, bishops, and overseers (Acts 20:28, 1 Thess. 5:12-13, 1 Tim. 3:1-7, 5:17, Titus 1:5-16, Heb. 13:7,17).
We affirm that those in leadership should lead by example and never lord over the flock. They are charged with caring, feeding and protecting the flock of God. An elders motivation is love for the Lord and for those that belong to Him (Jn. 21:15-17, 1 Pet. 5:1-5).
Our doctrinal statement is the Word of God. In it God reveals everything we need to know in order to live a life that is pleasing to Him (2 Tim. 3:16, 2 Peter 1:1-4). Our mission as a local assembly is three fold.
1. Presenting the gospel to a lost and dying world.
The world we live in consists of billions of people, most of which are lost and dead in their sins. The wrath of God abides on them and unless they repent and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ for the salvation of their souls, they will perish (Jn. 3:16-18, 36, Matt. 7:13-14). As children of God, our citizenship is no longer of this world, but of heaven. As a citizen of heaven, a child of God becomes an ambassador for the Lord Jesus Christ, representing His interest to the lost and dying of this world (2 Cor. 5:17-21, Rom. 10:13-15). There are two types of lost people, those who are non-religious, and those who are religious; those who are unchurched and those who are churched. The apostle Paul presented the gospel to the heathen as well as to the religious lost of his day, and we intend to do the same.
2. The Equipping of the saints.
A false assumption is that the church meeting is a place to which we invite the unsaved, so that they can hear the gospel and get saved. Although we thank the Lord for every soul that received salvation by the preaching of the Word in a church meeting, that is not the purpose of the church meetings. The proper purpose of the church meeting is outlined in Acts 2:42, where it says that the believers continued in the “apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.” Also in Ephesians 4:11-16 we learn that God gave the church certain gifted men for the perfecting of the saints.
11 “And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; 12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: 13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: 14 That we [henceforth] be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, [and] cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;”
The purpose of the church meeting, then, is for the training and equipping of the saints so that they will be sound in the faith, and able to go into their own communities, preaching the gospel to the lost, as ambassadors for the Lord Jesus Christ.
3. The worship and praise of God.
Another important aspect and function of the local church is the corporate worship of the Lord by the saints. At the breaking of bread (which we do every Sunday) we remember the Lord as He told us to do (Lk. 22:13-20). As we remember the Lord we offer Him the praises of our lips, by speaking forth the meditations of our hearts and by singing songs of praise. Our goal as individuals and as an assembly of believers is to glorify the Lord in all that we do.
For more information on how we function as a local assembly, see the article written by Mark Frees “What I have found” in the articles section.
At the present time we are a small home Church, meeting in the home of one of the saints (Rom. 16:3-5, Col. 4:5, Phle. 1:2). If you are interested in visiting the meeting, or are looking for a place for worship and fellowship, feel free to give us a call or send us e-mail so that we can give you directions to where the meeting will be held for the week that you plan on attending.
Visit our web site for more articles and information at http://www.nlbchapel.org
New Life Bible Chapel
Time
of meetings
Sunday Meeting 10:30 A.M.
Wednesday Prayer Meeting 7:00 P.M.
Steve (616) 604-0462
E-mail
steve_@nlbchapel.org