In January of 2020 God began stretching us in ways we haven’t experienced in decades. Three specific challenges began the process that would later be known to our church family as “Vision 2020”. The first challenge was to change the name of our church, Glendive Assembly of God, to something that would relate better to our community. While maintaining our ties to the Assemblies of God, the members voted for a new name that pinpoints what we are about, “New Life.” Our new name will soon be unveiled publicly with a sign that is currently being built. Our old sign needed to be replaced and we will soon have it installed. The cost is about $16,000.00 not including the foundation and electrical expenses.

The second part of “Vision 2020” is to plant another church in our small community. At first this seemed ridiculous to the board of deacons as we are a smaller congregation with room to grow. Nevertheless, in September of 2021 we started a Dinner Church to reach the de-churched and the unchurched people of our community and we have seen tremendous success. We offer a free meal every week to as many as 50 people and have been blessed by donations to keep up with expenses. We are seeing a new community of faith being born right before our eyes and we hope to see similar church plants in our neighboring small towns.

The third part of the original challenge from God was to partner with a neighboring small Assembly of God church that had no pastor. After pursuing some options, the handful of people remaining chose to not accept our help and unfortunately closed their doors soon after. We continue to keep that community in prayer with the hopes that someday we can begin a work there as well. A Dinner Church in that small community could be what God leads us to do someday.

The three challenges that began “Vision 2020” were not the end. They primed the pump for us to step out in faith and begin a long overdue project. Our church is a beautiful brick building with the capacity to seat 200+ people but is “not” handicap accessible. As a temporary fix we added a stair chair lift, but to make our sanctuary wheelchair accessible, we needed to overhaul the entire front entrance. After removing walls to make room for a new entrance, constructing a handicap bathroom, purchasing the materials for a ramp, new double doors, laying new flooring and paying a plumber, boiler technician, construction contractor, engineer, and asbestos inspector, we are deep into the project. We have spent over $50,000 so far with more to come as the project awaits completion. We have not had to take out a loan yet, but we have depleted much of our general fund and do not have the money to complete what we started. We know that God will provide and our goal is to raise $50,000.00 to help finish the project and replenish some of what was spent from the general fund.