Our Beginnings

The New Song Story
New Song Community Church was born on September 27, 1992.

From day one, New Song has wanted to be a church that helped people outside of traditional church find Christ and grow in relationship with Him. It has never been our intention simply to serve ourselves. We have always wanted to be a community of faith that invites people far from God to find out how life-changing a relationship with Him can be. We've wanted to be a prevailing church. One that reflected Jesus' declared intention in Matthew 16:18 when He said, "I will build my church, and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it."

That vision started with Founding Pastor Hal Seed and his wife Lori 18 months before they moved to Oceanside, on faith, to start our original small group. "It was like God grabbed me by the collar and whispered, 'If not you, who? If not now, when?'" says Hal. "God had been so good to me, how could I do any less than respond to His call? Even though it meant leaving behind a nice church in a nice city, with nice buildings, nice friends, and a nice salary to come to a place where we knew no one, to start a church that had no name, no people, no buildings, and no finances. We had to respond."

The first small group was held in the Seed's home on January 9, 1992 in a house near Rancho Del Oro Road.

From the very beginning, the group was captivated by God's description of the first church in Acts 2:42-47.
They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had a need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

A month later, Scott and Susan Evans moved from Colorado to utilize their gifts in helping to build a strong foundation for the new community that God was building in North County. The Evans' move typifies how God has led in New Songer's lives over the years. Susan was pregnant, they were unable to sell their house before moving, and they needed to raise financial support to join the church planting effort. Undeterred, they came because they believed God was in it and would provide for them.

By May of 1992, 14 people had made a commitment to found a new church, called "New Song." Their hope was to fulfill the words of Psalm 40:3, He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord.

On September 27, 1992 we opened the doors of the Mini-Theater at Mira Costa College and invited our friends to attend. 194 came to the first service. God has been prevailing in New Song ever since.

In 1994, New Song gave birth to a daughter church: New Hope Community Church, in San Marcos, under the leadership of Dr. Mark Williams.

From 1992-1995, the church met in 9 different locations. In September of 1995, New Song moved into its leased space at 4065 Oceanside Blvd. By mid-1996, growth made it necessary to add a second Sunday service.

Also in 1996, Outreach Marketing was formed by Scott Evans to "help more churches reach people for less money." Since its inception, Outreach Marketing has invited millions of people to various churches around the country.

That same year New Song began a partnership with Dynamic Church Planting International to assess and train church planters nationally and internationally. In partnership with DCPI, New Song has trained hundreds of church planters and dozens of "church planting mentors" to start church plants and training "networks" around the country.

In September 1998, New Song added a Saturday night service to alleviate crowding and parking problems in our two Sunday morning services.

In October 1998 we gave birth to our second daughter church, Rock Springs Community Church. Rock Springs is a GenX style church targeting the Carrillo Ranch area of Carlsbad, CA.

In February 1999, our third daughter church, Iglesia Christiana Emanuel went public, targeting the 33% of North County that is Spanish speaking. In its first year, I.C.E. saw 50+ people come to Christ.

The thing that excites us most is what we see God doing to reach people who have previously been outside of a relationship with Him. In 1995, 53 people came to Christ, (one every seven days). In 1996, 61 people came to Christ, (one every six days). In 1997, 78 people came to Christ, (one every five days). In 1998, 96 people came to Christ, (one every four days). In 1999, 163 came to Christ, (every three days). In 2000, 186 came to Christ (one every other day). And in 2001 we saw 513 come to Christ (more than one a day.) From 2002 - 2006, we saw between 400 and 500 come to Christ each year. In 2007, we instituted an intensive prayer program and saw 784 come to Christ.

On August 18, 2000 we closed escrow on our own building, giving New Song a permanent location for generations to come. The first phase of our build-out was completed in March, 2001. The first New Song service was held in our new 500 seat auditorium on April 1, 2001.

In 2002, three New Song families formed another parachurch ministry to help churches connect with their communities. The ministry is called, "Church Community Builder," which offered cutting-edge websites coupled with a self-administered database management for subscribing churches. (New Song's website is hosted by CCB.)

New Song is involved in an ongoing process of improvements as we work toward our next phase of construction. Upon completion of the entire facility we hope to accommodate growth for the next decade and beyond, making us a regional point of hope for the 300,000 people who live within a 30 minute drive.

New Song currently holds three identical weekend services (one Saturday night and two Sunday morning). We also hold small groups every evening and several mornings a week. Annual highlights are: Mexico Missions Trips (April), summer missions trips (June- August), Kids Camp (July), the New Song Leadership Summit (August), Next Door Assignments (throughout the year), and The Hanging of the Greens (first weekend of December).

Mission:
Our mission is to help unchurched people become fully devoted followers of Christ.

Vision:
To become The Church Next Door. - Collectively we want to serve our surrounding community so well that they think of us like a great neighbor. And individually, we want to think and live as if the church lives in my house, so that we are great neighbors to those around us.

Goal:
To touch every home and family in our surrounding area with the love of Christ by being The Church Next Door.

Action:
We believe God wants to build us into A Great Front Door (comprised of a) gifted artists sponsoring God-moments and experiences during each service, b) anointed teachers delivering relevant, life-changing messages, and c) an army of hosts welcoming newcomers into our church like they would welcome guests into their own home.) And...
A Great Serving Core (teams of people serving together in life-changing and people-
changing ministries both inside and outside of the church while doing life together in such a way that they know and are known, love and are loved, serve and are served, celebrate and are celebrated by each other.)

We are just beginning the adventure of building the GFD and the GSC. So here's what we believe these should look like -
A Great Front Door requires:
1. Awesome artists, whose ministry touches hearts during the first half of our services,
2. Anointed teachers, whose ministry sends people home with high-quality, biblical, Monday-usable teachings that cause transformed lives.
3. An army of hosts who welcome people into our church like they would welcome them into their homes.
We ask every attender to assume one of those roles every time they are at church.

A Great Serving Core requires:
1. Each ministry is led by a team that has the essential elements of a caring community: knowing and being known, loving and being loved, serving and being served, celebrating and being celebrated.
2. Each of these Serving Teams has a trained leader, a vision statement, and job descriptions for each team member. We ask that each team meet regular (at least monthly) for prayer, care, and ministry improvements, and that do fun things together at least 4 times a year (we recommend two parties, one retreat, and one training seminar per year.)

Ideals:
- We are committed to reaching lost people.
- We value community and doing life in teams and groups.
- We want to grow people in depth and devotion to Christ.
- We want to have an ever-increasing influence on our surrounding neighborhoods and cities.
- We believe in using creative arts to touch people with God's love and message.
- Relevance is a high value.
- We want our weekend services to be the best hour of the week for every member of the family.

Our affiliations are with the Conservative Baptist Association and the Willow Creek Association.

We are a congregationally-led church with the founding pastor still in residence. (So, functionally, we are a board-and-pastor-led congregation.)

Our move in 2001 put us in a great location, with a great facility that still has many basics yet-to-be built before we can hit on all cylinders. (We need offices, a kitchen, and congregational-sized meetings rooms, a small chapel, and a fountain for baptisms, besides the classes we will need to accommodate a growing children's ministry.)

We are at the northern end of San Diego County. 300,000 people live within a 20 minute drive of us. 1/3 of those people are Hispanic. 12% are black. 6% are southsea Islanders. There are also a measurable percentage of Filipinos, most of whom arrived as spouses and children of Marines. A huge percentage of the tri-city area we are in is military, and a larger percentage is former or retired military.

Many in our area are young families who have settled here because housing is much less expensive than San Diego to our south and Orange County to our north. Still less-expensive housing is available 1/2 hour northeast of us in the Temecula Valley, a south Riverside County area. In the last three years, as our housing prices have risen, many families looking to "move up" in housing size have begun migrating to this inland area. Several New Songers have made this move. We are in the process of developing small groups for them in their local area.

In addition to the young families, we are situated within 3 miles of 3 retirement villages.

Most of our surrounding area is working class, with people holding jobs in construction, government, and service-industries. Our largest employer is Camp Pendleton, then local governments and school districts. Our next-largest employer would be "Outreach Inc," a Christian organization started and led by our former and founding associate pastor. Close behind Outreach is the San Onofre Nuclear power plant, employing a dozen or more of our members.

Our Values
We have chosen to elevate the following values to help define who we are:

1. Loving lost people. Lost people matter to God and therefore they matter to us.
Lk. 19:10; Acts 2:47; Lk. 15:1-25  

2. Doing life together. Life is sweeter when it's lived in community.
Acts 2:42-46; Matt. 18:20; Rom. 12:15  

3. Being transformed from the inside out. God longs for us to be like Him.
Gal. 4:19; 2 Pet. 3:18; Phil. 1:6

4. Serving Christ, His Cause, and His Church. We are never more like God than when we serve.
Matt. 6:33; 1 Pet. 4:10; Mark 10:45

 5. Minimizing cultural barriers. The church should be culturally relevant and doctrinally pure.
1 Cor. 9:20-23;   Acts 15:1-29; John 1:14  

6. Giving our best for God's best. Excellence honors God and inspires people.
Mal. 1:8-11; Col. 1:17; Col. 1:29; 1 Cor. 9:25-27

7. Having an undivided heart. Full devotion to Christ and His cause is normal for every believer.
Acts 13:22; Lk. 9:23;   Acts 2:42; 1 Kgs. 11:4

How We Operate
New Song is governed by its members. Those who have completed New Song 101 and agreed to abide by the membership commitments are asked to give their input, via ballot, on all budgets, physical expansions, constitutional changes, and affirmation of new Leadership Board candidates.

The Leadership Board exists to guide the church on its optimal growth path. It works in conjunction with the Sr. Pastor to set direction and policy, hire staff, develop budgets, and carry out appropriate church discipline. The Board currently has 7 members, which is an ideal number for a working team. Like other Serving Teams in the church, the Board meets monthly for prayer, care, and improvements, and does "fun" activities together, including parties, a retreat, and a training seminar yearly.

The staff, under the direction of the Sr. Pastor, leads our church in ministry. It is the staff's job to "equip the saints" to do the work of the ministry. Staff members' major function is to develop ministries alongside committed volunteers, invite people to lead and serve in them, develop and resource these volunteers, and cheer on their victories.

The members and attenders' responsibility is to do the ministry.