“God, please don’t let me waste my life; I want to make a difference for Your kingdom.” This was the theme of my early morning prayers during 2007. Despite leading a thriving youth ministry in Maryland, I sensed change was in the air. As I prayed for God to guide me into his will, the idea that would become New Day Church was birthed in my heart.
A visit with hometown friends in Massachusetts only confirmed that God was leading my wife and I to start a non-traditional church in very traditional New England. That day, around a small table at Starbucks, the soon-to-be pioneers of New Day Church dreamed of giving the people of New England an alternative to traditional church.
In October of 2007, our young family moved from Western Maryland to Western Massachusetts. Working in conjunction with three other couples, we were able to plan New Day Church’s first service on Friday March 21, 2008 at the Community House in Longmeadow, MA. We met once a month for six months before beginning weekly services starting September 12, 2008.
Although 64 people attended our first service, we managed to grow the church down to 20 people by December of that same year. Turns out some things are meant to stay traditional!! We were doing the right thing on the wrong day. So when God provided the opportunity to begin meeting on Sundays, we relocated to the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Enfield, CT (now a Holiday Inn) on January 1, 2009.
Over the course of the year we finally found some traction and grew to one hundred people. We were ecstatic! But when the hotel came under new management in December of that year, the search was on for a new place to expand. Miraculously, God provided a meeting space at the Basketball Hall of Fame starting in 2010. Starting with one service that year, a second service was soon added in 2011, followed by the addition of a third service in 2012. In 2015 we added an on-site video venue to accommodate even more growth.
Having grown from 8 to 800 we realize the Hall of Fame had taken us as far as it could, so we prayerfully made plans to return to Enfield, CT and purchased the old Namco building on 1551 King St. We spent the better part of 2018 renovating this space and we now plan to begin meeting there starting Sunday December 2nd.
And we certainly hope to see you there!
-Mike, Lead Pastor
