Pastor Rob Tanner, Pastor Donovan Jasper, Kerry Schroder, Janene Davenport and founding member Paul Bachelor at the 20th anniversary celebration.
Photo by
PHILL MORRIS
New Life Baptist Church recently hit an important milestone, with the group marking 20 years since its inception in 2004.
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More than 130 people were in attendance for the church’s 20th anniversary celebratory service, including a number of special guests.
Reverend Mark Wilkinson from the Baptist Union of Victoria, founding members Pastor Geoff Leslie and wife Deb, and Dr David Jones and wife Sue, as well as representatives from a number of community organisations which have partnered with the church over the past two decades were all in attendance.
Founding members Deb and Geoff Leslie and Sue and David Jones joined the celebrations. Photo: Supplied
Starting out as the Echuca-Moama Baptist Church — the first church to be jointly planted by Victoria and NSW — New Life initially began as a small gathering of people in homes, with the first undersigning of establishing the church occurring in June 2004.
The church was soon established with help from the Pastor of Koondrook-Barham Baptist Church, Geoff Leslie, and the Pastor of Deniliquin Baptist Church, Pastor Paul Manning, with the first official opening service held on June 19, 2005, at the Moama Senior Citizens Hall.
The church’s first pastor, Earle Prentice, was welcomed in 2006, along with his wife, Liz.
It was in 2012 that the church adopted its current name of New Life, a fitting name under the guidance of Pastor Jono Schroder, with the continual expansion of the church eventually forcing Sunday gatherings to the Moama Sporting Complex in 2017.
With Pastor Schroder taking up a call to ministry in Queensland in 2019, the church welcomed a new associate pastor, Donovan Jasper, while Rob Tanner was appointed Senior Pastor in 2021.
More than 130 people gathered for the 20th anniversary service.
The 20th anniversary also represents a time of change for the church, with the leadership team introducing the new mission model of loving and living in three directions — upward, inward and outward.
Over the past two decades New Life has partnered with a number of organisations to serve the community.
Whether it be providing a monthly service for aged care residents through its work with BUPA, supporting the Foodbank at Echuca Neighbourhood House, or various other projects through Anglicare, Salvation Army and Echuca Regional Health, New Life has blessed the community throughout its 20 years of existence.
The church has also partnered with Samaritan’s Purse, an organisation that provides Australia with disaster relief, and assisted Echuca and Rochester with flood recovery efforts.
Younger members of the church community Matilda Leslie, Madeleine Jasper and Gabrielle Morris enjoy the celebrations.
New Life is looking ahead to the future, with a strong growth in young families at the church, which has seen 16 babies born since 2021, and another due this month.
In order to further provide for young families, New Life is dreaming of its own building that is fit for purpose, a community centre in Moama that will help support the community in a number of different ways for years to come.
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