“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 and our second child on his way, I sensed change was in the air. It was in the pursuit of God’s direction that New Day was birthed in a season dedicated to prayer.
A visit with hometown friends in Massachusetts only confirmed the trail that God was blazing—start a nontraditional church in traditional New England. That day, around a small table at Starbucks, the soon-to-be pioneers of New Day Church dreamed of giving people an alternative to conventional church.
In October of 2007, our young family eagerly made the leap 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 March 21, 2008 at the Longmeadow Community House in Longmeadow, MA. We met once a month for six months before beginning weekly Friday night services on 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. January 1, 2009 marked our first-ever season of sustained growth at New Day. When the hotel came under new management in December of 2009, the search was on for a new place to expand. Miraculously, God provided a meeting space at the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010. The miracle came in the rental agreement that was contracted for $10,000 less than our original offer.
Starting with one service that year, a second service was soon added in 2011, followed by the addition of a third service in 2012. Two years later, we had the good problem of exceeding our seating capacity and needed to think outside the box to accommodate for yet another increase. Once again, through a dedicated season of prayer, our answer came in the form of technology. We would add 200 more seats to all three services in an on-site venue called the Loft. The live preaching would happen in this Loft venue upstairs and be sent downstairs through a video feed to our original Theatre venue at the Hall of Fame. This use of technology has launched New Day into its most recent season of growth.
From 8 to 800 people (and counting!), God continues to bless our efforts. We praise God for all the lives He is changing through New Day. We also welcome you to be a part of what He continues to do through our church because the best is yet to come!
-Mike, Lead Pastor
