20 years of god's faithfulness

As I reflect on the last 20 years of New Life Church, I am overwhelmed by the faithfulness of God.

Twenty years ago, Yolanda and I, along with a small team of people, stepped out in faith and planted New Life Church in the city of Lakewood. We began in a rented Masonic temple with metal chairs, wooden floors, and a simple sound system — but our hearts were filled with faith, vision, and a deep love for God and this city. Even in those humble beginnings, we held tightly to the promise of Psalm 37:25:

“Once I was young, and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.”

From the very beginning, we believed that provision follows vision. Proverbs 29:18 says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” God had given us a vision to reach people locally and globally with the hope of Jesus Christ, even though at the time we had very little in the natural.

Those early years required complete dependence on God. We trusted Him month by month — and sometimes week by week — for rent, salaries, equipment, ministry expenses, and missionary commitments around the world. Yet through every season, God proved Himself faithful.

Not once did we miss a payment. Not once did we fail to honor a commitment to missionaries or ministry partners. Time and again, God provided exactly what we needed. Looking back now, I can say with confidence what David declared in Psalm 37:25: “I have never seen the righteous forsaken.”

I often think about those pioneering years when New Life operated out of the bedrooms of our home. Two women worked faithfully in one small bedroom while another room became my office. As the church began to grow, we rented office space and additional facilities for youth ministry. Every Sunday morning we gathered at the Masonic Temple, eventually paying more than $50,000 a year in rent, while carrying a God-given dream that one day New Life would have a permanent home in Lakewood.

But Lakewood felt landlocked. There seemed to be no place for us.

I remember when Saint Paul Pilgrim Church was preparing to close its doors. We approached them about purchasing or possibly using the building. At the same time, another church plant from a large and influential church in Solon was also pursuing the property. In the natural, there was no way we could compete. It truly felt like David standing before Goliath.

But God… In His faithfulness, God gave us the building. He provided the finances to purchase it, and over the last decade He has continued to provide for renovations, growth, and expansion. Even now, as we prepare to complete the courtyard project, we continue to witness the hand of God at work among us. The same God who was faithful in the rented hall has remained faithful through every season since.

Over these 20 years, we have seen countless people come to Christ, lives transformed, marriages restored, prodigals return home, miracles take place, and generations impacted by the Gospel. We have touched thousands of lives not only locally, but internationally. Every story, every testimony, and every changed life stands as evidence of God's faithfulness.

Now, as we prepare to hand the baton to the next generation of leadership, my heart is filled not with fear, but with great confidence. The God who sustained NewLife in the beginning will sustain its future. The God who provided then will continue to provide now. After 20 years of ministry, I can personally testify that the words of Psalm 37:25 are absolutely true:

 I have been young, and now am old; Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, Nor his

descendants begging bread.

Lamentations 3:22–23 reminds us:

Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,

Because His compassions fail not.

They are new every morning;

Great is Your faithfulness.

Much love,

Pastor Bob Kistemaker