March 19, 2020

Dear New Life Church,

As we stated in our latest correspondence (March 12, 2020), we are doing our best to think ahead and continue to be proactive in our space of responsibility regarding the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) that has been a global and national issue.  As a church that gathers weekly, we wanted to provide some thoughts concerning this issue and update you on our response as a corporate body.  As a church, we are not communicating information on medical advice concerning this virus.  However, we will communicate ways we can continue to live our lives of faith as instructed by God’s Word.  For information on the coronavirus, and medical advice, please avail yourself to https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html. 

Based on the latest urgings, declarations of states of emergency and strong recommendations, below is our current plan:

What will New Life Church do?

• Beginning this Sunday, March 22, we will move to an online based worship service that you can view/participate in from home; New Life Kids are providing lessons via online (details below)
  • We encourage you to attend our online service. This will be accessible through our website http://www.newlifechurchofjackson.org and will be available Sunday morning at 10:30. The service can be accessed directly on our website from your computer or smart device’s web browser. We encourage you to participate as you normally would during service and engage with worship and the message.
• We are planning for this to be our practice for at least 2 Sundays (March 22 & 29; maybe longer if needed)
• We are also cancelling all Next Gen meetings until further notice, but check out our New Life Kids page on our website & Facebook for videos just for them.
• Our staff will be working remote but will be in contact with each other often through this time. Our Deacons and Elders along with our Pastoral staff will attempt to make initial phone contact with our membership to check-in on everyone’s wellbeing and to offer prayer

Obviously, we don’t enjoy having our normal weekly gatherings disrupted, but in this case, we will attempt to make the best out of this.  Let’s do our best to remain prayerful, vigilant, and hopeful over the next couple of weeks.  Let’s trust the Lord our God in this time and stay connected as a church family as best we can even in our hour of “social distancing.”  We have long known that the Church was more than a building, and in this hour, we can truly show that to the world around us.

We will do our due diligence to monitor the current situation and will pass along any information that is pertinent to you via our website: www.newlifechurchofjackson.org , our active social media accounts, and through direct email.

Things to remember as a functioning member of NLC:

• Pray for your church, pastors and leaders, community, state, country, & world
• Check on other members of the church as best as possible
• Let the Pastors/Leaders know if you need prayer or assistance:
  • Email us at
• Continue to give tithe & offering:
  • Mail to NLC, PO Box 11535, Jackson, TN 38308
  • Give online at newlifechurchofjackson.org/resources/give/
  • Give via the Church Center App from your smartphone
  • Text to Give at “84321” (text $ amount & it will walk you through)
• Build yourself up in faith through the Word of God
  • Connect to our online service on Sunday
  • Read your Bible and pray daily
  • Check in with us on social media and our website for additional encouragement, and check-ins.

Remember that we are Christians who have the Word of God to guide us, the Spirit to sustain us, and the Sovereignty of the Almighty to protect us.  God’s Word teaches us to ask for wisdom and He will provide it to us.

Abiding in the shadow of the Almighty,

Jereme Smith

Senior Pastor

New Life Church of Jackson

More information on what has led us to make these current decisions:

While, no in-person church service cancellations are currently required they are strongly recommended.

We understand the Federal Level recommendation is to avoid gatherings of 10 or more as of 3.16.2020 for the next 15 days -- https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/03.16.20_coronavirus-guidance_8.5x11_315PM.pdf.  The CDC’s recommendation is to also follow the Federal Level’s guidelines -- https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html.  Our State Level recommendation is to avoid gatherings over 250 as of 3.13.2020 -- https://www.tn.gov/governor/news/2020/3/13/governor-lee-issues-guidance-for-mass-gatherings--schools-and-state-workforce.html.  The federal and state also recommend following local districts guidelines.  Our local agencies are also strongly recommending we follow the guidelines laid out from the Federal Level and CDC -- http://www.cityofjackson.net/?s=state+of+emergency. (as of 3.18.2020 there are no reported positive cases of anyone having the virus in Madison County or in adjacent counties) -- https://www.tn.gov/health/cedep/ncov.html.