How it all started . . .

New Song United Methodist Fellowship held its first worship service on March 16, 1997, at Surprise Elementary School. The school's cafeteria held 140 people in attendance, led by Steve Marshall. In 1998, New Song United Methodist Fellowship purchased 10 acres from John Yancy and Verde Instruments, as well as four acres from farmer Arnold Jarrell, that now serves the current home of New Song United Methodist Church, located at Bell Road and Sarival Avenue in Surprise, Arizona.

Originally, the ten acres were part of a larger plot of land owned by John Yancy, owner of Yancy's Orchard, which was famous for its local oranges and grapefruit shipped across the country. Yancy decided to sell part of his orchard to the church as the orchard would eventually be closing. To fund the purchase of this land, five local churches loaned money to New Song United Methodist Fellowship for the initial down payment of the land.

On January 14, 2000, New Song United Methodist Fellowship was officially recognized by the Desert Southwest Conference as New Song United Methodist Church. After five years of worshipping in the elementary school, ground was broken on January 26, 2002, and construction of the new 6,500 sq. ft. church was underway. On May 5, 2002, church members were invited for a tour of the partially constructed building where they were encouraged to sign their name, write a prayer, quote scripture or offer a written blessing on the cement floor to bless the new building. In August of 2002, the completed building held its first worship service.

While New Song United Methodist Church has added space to its original building, not only has it grown for worship, but it has also provided a stable home to a successful preschool. Join us every Sunday and allow us to include you on our journey to furthering God's purpose for New Song United Methodist Church. Historical information compiled by Deb Sengsavath. Photo credits: archives of New Song library.

The early days . . .

Expanding the vision . . .

The post-covid church is deeply reflective on the activities of its past and the desire to move into the future. We look for ways that God shows up in our worship services, our community involvement and mission, but also in our day to day living. We live-stream every worship service and have online studies as well as in-person studies. Missions are still a priority and we find ways to serve our community by providing food-boxes 3 times a year to Dysart Schools families in need. We donate goods to children exiting the foster care system. We cook meals for local shelters. We also have opportunities to send donations to local and global non profits. We are organizing small groups for fellowship as well as for growing our faith, knowledge and commitment to God. Our children’s ministry is growing as we listen to how God is working through the youngest in our church and communities. We offer Sunday School, Children’s Bells, prayer partners, Vacation Bible School and special events throughout the year. Our music program, under the supervision of Rev. Stephanie Soon shares their beautiful musical gifts through choirs, handbells as well as other ways of worshiping God through music. We are committed to being UMC. Since 2019 (and before) the United Methodist Church has had challenges in remaining faithful to one another and faithful to the Book of Discipline as we make changes to focus our hospitality on all of God’s children. Many churches have left the UMC in response to conflicts with one another and with one another’s view points. Understanding that the UMC is a big tent with room for different people with different understandings of the Bible, we choose to move forward in faith that we are stronger together. Written by Pastor Howick.

Where we are headed . . .

Our future will be directed toward navigating how to be good neighbors and being a light to our community. We aspire to work with local neighborhoods to do Easter Egg Hunts, Block Parties, and more! We will be working on getting past the harmful ideas of “us and them” ideologies, past the fear of people who are different from us and past judging others to put them in well-defined boxes. We are called to reunify our communities, to create beauty and opportunities for reconciliation.

We also aspire to build an extension of our current campus to increase our availability to host community groups, more classes and small groups, more children’s ministry opportunities, etc. We are thankful for you as you get to know New Song and find a place to contribute your gifts to the work God is doing through us and around us. Written by Pastor Howick.
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