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New Life Church News
Web Site:
http://www.newlifechurchct.com
350 High Hill Road,
Wallingford, CT 06492
- 4734
Tel: (203) 630-3012
Fax: (203) 238-3263
New Life Church exists to help guide people to new life in God and to develop them into passionate followers of Jesus Christ.
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In February 1999, the Rev. Will Marotti met with f ...
January 18, 2005
In February 1999, the Rev. Will Marotti met with four other people in the kitchen of his home to pray about the best path to form a new evangelical Christian community called New Life Church. The church's first worship service, held on Easter of that year, hosted 17 people. Now, with the congregation having grown to more than 400 people, Marotti is ready to take the next step in the Main Street, South Meriden, church's community outreach mission. Marotti announced Sunday an ambitious 20-year expansion plan that includes the creation of a K-12 school.The Christian heritage school, to be called the Carver Academy after the scientist George Washington Carver, would be a state-of-the-art facility with a focus on math and science. The school would be staffed with degree-holding teachers and would feature extensive arts and athletic programs. Ideally, the school would open for the 2007-08 school year.
In addition, New Life Church plans to set up additional churches on the east side of Meriden, with the goal to expand to the surrounding communities. He hopes to have this aspect of the plan under way by the end of this year.
"The most effective means of evangelism is planting new churches," Marotti said. "Most American churches grow by stealing other churches' members. It's called swapping saints. We are not doing that. We are reaching out to the non-churchgoing population. That is who we are going after."
Over the long term, Marotti also wants to open a youth center, an adolescent drug rehabilitation facility, a 24-hour prayer center, a training institute for pastors and administrators, a teen pregnancy center and a Christian bookstore. One aspect of his plan has, by necessity, a more secular bent. Marotti hopes to establish a community development corporation called "Connecticut Community Builders." The corporation would be separate from the auspices of the church in order to qualify for federal and state grant dollars. The mission of this organization would be to help provide assisted housing and help with the reentry of prisoners into the overall population. It would also work with the city to help solve urban problems such as blight and poverty.
At this point, there is no specific timeline or dollar figure attached to the project, Marotti said. However, he is confident that land could possibly be donated as a site for the school and that benefactors will come forward to help facilitate the other programs. "The state of our church is very strong. We have never been in a stronger position than we are now. We have never been in a place where we can launch and minister and help our community the way we are now," he said. "One church alone can't do all of this. It will take a collaboration of churches and a synergy of generosity throughout the entire community," Marotti said.
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