New Leaf Church strives to be a community led by the Holy Spirit, and as disciples of Jesus Christ, baptized by the Spirit, we take seriously our identities as children of God.

Because of this, we have been intentional about including the whole community in nearly every church decision. These have included practical questions like when and where we worship and how we want to spend our money, to more theoretical questions like how we “read” or interpret scripture and how to respond to important ethical questions of the day. Our pastor, Jason Mack, a graduate of Wesley Theological Seminary, provides leadership and teaching on these issues, but he does not make decisions for the group, expecting the community to own up to its convictions.

Through the incorporation of each member in leadership of the church, we have seen discipleship happen. Within a body of believers, God provides those who have the gifts of tending, nurturing, teaching, and guiding, and we want to be a church that nurtures these gifts of God’s people. Our decentralized decision making process hasn’t been easy, but we believe that, in the end, we are growing from having to do this hard work, and that the church we build will be stronger than anything that one person could create on his or her own.