N E W L I F E ” D I S T I N C T I V E S “
Reflections on the early days of New Life Church
by Dave Miller (Elder at New Life, no relation to Jack Miller)
When I try to articulate what it was that made New Life Church (Glenside) different, two things come to mind: “one-hour sermons and three-hour prayer meetings.” By that admittedly facetious statement I mean to express that the overwhelming focus was on the Lord Jesus Christ, and on a vital, obedient and faithful relationship of service to Him. Prayer was not “an emphasis” of New Life, it was New Life. And our focus on Christ was not a good feeling or sentimental imagination; it was a concrete focus in that it was drawn out of a faithful exposition, exegesis and application of the Word of God. The Bible was expounded. Jack Miller’s sermons—I have fond memories of those early days at the Jenkintown library—were usually about an hour in length. Sometimes they would begin with one passage of Scripture, then go on to two or three more; they amounted to two or three or four mini-sermons on related passages. The preaching of the Word was prominent, but it was never just intellectualized. It was intensely practical and came across with the Spirit’s authority—you knew you had had an encounter with the Lord Jesus. When Jack pronounced the benediction at the end of the service, you knew it wasn’t just words, but the Reality was present in those words. In short. New Life Church participated in a revival. I don’t suppose anyone who had been present then would doubt it.
New Life was founded in prayer, but it is not enough to simply make that statement as if all we need to do is spend more time in prayer meetings. It wasn’t just prayer for its own sake, it was prayer that was full of an awareness of the Presence of our Holy God. It was prayer that was full of adoration and joy in Christ. The prayer meetings went on for three hours and no one was bored! Yes, there was confession of sin, but it was never just dwelling on what great sinners we are—never a “wallowing in sin,” never confession that allowed anyone to become the center of attention by allowing his or her personal life to “spill out all over the floor” (quotes are from Jack Miller). Sin was confessed in prayer because it wasn’t appropriate for anyone to keep sin in his heart when we were all standing (or kneeling) in the light of Christ’s presence. I remember Ron Lutz frequently quoting Robert Murray M’Cheyne, that, “for every look at your sins, take ten looks at Christ.”
New Life never had to say anything like “we are a praying church”—it just was. You didn’t have to say it. Jack set the example. He would pray at the drop of a hat, without embarrassment and without pretention or appearing “religious.” Also, Jack would take some real time to pray before a prayer meeting! Nobody was looking for an emotional experience, but emotion often was felt because the sensation was real, but Christ had the pre-eminence.
New Life worship has caused quite a stir. Reactions have varied from those who felt scandalized by what they perceived as “charismatic” or “irreverent” worship to those who just liked folk and folk-rock type music, and thought the genius of the whole thing was in the style of music. But all such observations miss the point. The worship grew out of the underlying spirituality. People’s lives were touched by the Lord of Glory, and so that had to find expression. We know that if we kept silent the bricks and floor boards would cry out (to paraphrase Luke 19:40). The favorite hymn in those days was “Joy to the World,” Isaac Watts’ paraphrase of Psalm 96. (It is not really a Christmas song so much as a hymn about the Second Coming.)
We didn’t hold “evangelistic” meetings, but people invited non-Christians to the services, including the prayer meetings. Jack used to say that a prayer meeting, where God’s people are really engaged in focusing on the Lord and worshipping Him was the best place for unbelievers to be converted, because they saw folks being honest before God. They could sense the Lord’s presence, and so were often led to confess “God is truly among you” (I Cor. 14:25).
Yes, sometimes New Life’s worship was quite “contemporary,” making use of guitars, trumpets, drums, as well as pianos and keyboards, but that was never the real focus. The worship welled up from within and always centered on the Lord, the Triune God, never dwelling for very long on ourselves.
I don’t mean to idealize New Life, though I know this sounds like I am. There were mistakes and some attempts at novelty in the worship services that flopped, but Christ was always ultimately exalted. New Life weathered the sinfulness of all of us involved because the Lord sovereignly sustained us, and I am convinced that was in answer to our earnest, stumbling, desperate prayers. We determined we had to have God and in spite of our faults and sins, we would have Him, and nothing else would do.
I mention Jack Miller a lot, because he was so influential in the formation of New Life, but it is misleading to suppose Jack was a dominant or authoritarian leader. He was only a “lead-sheep,” in his own words, “a beggar telling other beggars where to find the bread.” That Jack served the Lord’s Supper frequently was no accident. The Lord had broken him, and so he was a vessel fit for the Master’s use. The sense was not that this was “Jack Miller’s church” or that he was somehow the star of the show—far from it! But he didn’t abdicate his position as pastor, representing Christ to us. And it was precisely that representation of Christ in him that attracted people to this work. They could really see the power of Jesus and they wanted to taste that power, too. He would stand at the door after the service to shake hands with everyone as they left; often those lines to leave took some time to get through because Jack would take time for a mini-pastoral visit right there in line on Sunday! Not infrequently Jack would pray for you right then and there. It was like getting a private benediction as you left, and it wasn’t easy to try to slip out without seeing him.
What made Jack the kind of person he was? I said that the Lord had broken him, and that’s a story he’d have to tell. But I do know that he was a deep student of revivals in the Reformed tradition. Jack’s preaching was never very far from the Westminster standards on the one hand or from the Church’s history of revivals (especially the Great Awakening in the eighteenth century) on the other. Jack imbibed the spirit of men like George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, and Robert Murray M’Cheyne. There was an eloquence and passion in his preaching that was borne of the Spirit of God.
Session meetings did real pastoral work, and they were never a “rubber-stamp” of Jack’s desires. We argued and weren’t afraid to disagree, but almost never took a vote—we just talked and prayed it through to a consensus. We weren’t perfect. We made mistakes, but with all our sometimes bumbling, we followed Christ. Session meetings were open to the congregation. In fact, often the people were invited to come! (Not many actually took up us on that invitation.) But unless something of a sensitive nature was being dealt with, the people were really encouraged to come and observe and pray for the elders. The leadership wanted above all to be open to the people.
This last point I think was part of our conviction that the Holy Spirit really is working in and through the people. The priesthood of all believers was central to our thinking. That didn’t mean that the elders and pastors abdicated their positions; far from it! But it did mean that they served as “helpers of (our) joy,” not as authoritarian leaders. One of the signs and fruits of this attitude was that gifts of individuals were encouraged to come to expression for the good of all. People felt encouraged to serve the Lord by serving the congregation. Small groups fostered and nourished fellowship, but they never pretended to take over the pastoral function of the pastors. Jack visited the congregation as did the other elders and associate pastor.
There is a well known story about Charles Spurgeon that illustrates the “secret” of New Life Church. Once two students travelled a great distance to hear the great preaching of Mr. Spurgeon. They arrived early and sat on the steps of the Metropolitan Tabernacle, waiting for the service to begin. A man engaged them in conversation and then asked if they would like to see the power room of the church. They agreed, a bit reluctantly. He took them through the basement to a room filled with about 400 people earnestly praying for the service about to start upstairs. Later they discovered Spurgeon himself was the one who had been their guide.
I hope this explains something of what “New Life” is and was all about.
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