Our Logo

Our logo design came out of our purpose as a Christian and vision of the church.

Our family had been discussing Scripture, things at school, and the need of a logo for the church plant.  Later our son Josh came out of his room, having taken time for his personal devotions, and produced a simple black and white sketch.  As we discussed it more, it became clear that "true life", real life, only comes when you are in the shadow of the cross.  When you have knelt in humility at the bleeding feet of your Savior, and when you walk in the shadow cast by what HE did for you on the cross, the result is "true life."

Leading from Our Knees

Dear Friends,

Please forgive me for not posting on the blog in over a month. It seems that life in the Wellinghoff household just STAYS busy, no letting up! I hear this question often from people I talk with: How do you work 60+ hours a week and have time for your family, and also plant a new church? My response is usually the same every time: I stay on my knees. Not always in the physical sense but certainly in the spiritual sense, praying without ceasing for God to move in my workplace, my family, and my church planting field of Princeton, IN.

Whether from the outside or from the inside of the church, the Adversary will stop at nothing to try to disrupt and dismantle the body of Christ. But these struggles are not the demise of God’s people. On the contrary, they are our opportunities to apply biblical principles and priorities—the only solutions to the challenges we face.

We must keep our fingers on the pages of Scripture like a boat moored to the pier in a raging storm. While we do not worship the print on the page, the paper and ink lead us to the knowledge of the One whom we do worship—Jesus, our Master and Savior.

WE NEED TO STAY ON OUR KNEES. Prayer is a radical interference with the status quo. It is the means by which God grants power to those who rely on Him. This dependence never changes. Even as a sixty-something-year-old man who had been preaching faithfully for years, the apostle Paul continued to walk in a state of dependence on God. You have to love Paul’s humility.

“Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving; praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned; that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak.” (Colossians 4:2–4)

There was no pretense with Paul. No degree of success or number of years in the ministry gave him a false sense of ultimate accomplishment. He knew he had not yet arrived. He remained dependent on the Spirit of God. And so with a genuinely thankful heart, he entreated his fellow believers for their prayers. Can you see the power of that kind of attitude? Very refreshing in the first century. And very rare in the twenty-first. No wonder the man made such a lasting impact for Christ! The Lord honored and blessed Paul’s ministry because he upheld prayer and promoted God’s Word.

Rather than trying to copy the world’s system, God points us in another direction. It’s a way of life that stays out of step with the world and yet is not aloof from those in the world.

The early church did not ask God to bless their gimmicks. So, the church today does not need gimmicks to attract people—it needs pastors who lead prayerfully (from their knees), preach and teach biblical truth passionately, and  live out Christianity authentically.

Love in Christ,

Pastor Paul

Our Booth at the Golden Heritage Days Festival in Sept 2013

Sorry to not have shared this earlier, but better late than never.

Those of you in Princeton might remember this.

This was taken on that rainy Friday.  So the signs for some of the free items that we gave away didn't fair so well, and had to be replaced early Saturday morning.  We had attempted to make the sheet protectors water proof from the start, but it didn't work so well.

The cotton candy that you see hanging up, was made inside a sister church, because spinning it outside in the high humidity DOES NOT WORK.

The pop-corn machine also took almost all day Saturday to dry out, before we got it popping again.  Perhaps someday the Association's pop-up booth will have sides like some of the others we saw.  But time works wonders for drying things out, and since the rains didn't keep everyone away, we were happy to stay and continue passing things out that first day.  It actually gave us a chance to get a little more organized.

Don't let the photo mislead you - it must have been the only time we weren't busy.

Love ministering to and getting to know the folks of Princeton, IN.

It's all about JESUS!

At True Life Church, it is our aim that everything we do be about JESUS! We want to make MUCH of JESUS! HE should be the focus of our worship on Sundays and every day through the week. If we don't worship HIM through the week, we won't truly worship Him on Sunday. So prepare your heart by 

The words of this song by Paul Oakley remind us that JESUS should be our everything!

Jesus, Lover of My Soul (It's All About You)

It's all about You, Jesus
And all this is for You
For Your glory and your fame
It's not about me
As if You should do things my way
You alone are God
And I surrender to your ways

Jesus, lover of my soul
All consuming fire is in Your gaze
Jesus, I want you to know
I will follow you all my days
For no one else in history is like you
And history itself belongs to you
Alpha and Omega, You have loved me
And I will share eternity with You

If you live in the Princeton area, I personally invite you to come and worship with us Sunday at 4:00pm at our meeting location, New Covenant Baptist Church, 901 W. Broadway, Princeton, IN.

Click on this link for directions to True Life Church

Come and join us as we make much of JESUS!

Pastor Paul Wellinghoff

True Life Church

Sharing Praises

Praise the Lord for a good worship service today at True Life Church! Josh did a great job of leading us in worship as we sang praises to Jesus! We were reminded from John 1 that Jesus is the eternal Son of God who creates and sustains all life. He has all power to speak everything into existence and keep it all together. He is the Source of all light and life. He comes to brings us out of the darkness of sin and give to us abundant and eternal life. He created us to have fellowship with Him and we don't experience "true life" until we accept Him into our lives by faith.

Praise the Lord for the new friends who opened their home and hearts to us today. "True Life" is living in community with one another where lives are mutually encouraged and strengthened. May the Lord bless our new friends as they seek the Lord.

Hope to see you next week!

Pastor Paul Wellinghoff

Come Worship with Us!

Greetings in Jesus Name!

If you live in the Princeton, IN area and you do not have a church home, you are invited to come and worship with us at True Life Church this Sunday! The service begins at 4:00pm at our meeting location at New Covenant Baptist Church 901 W. Broadway, Princeton, IN. True Life Church is a new church plant seeking to make an impact for the kingdom of God in southwest IN. Come and discover the "true life" that Jesus offers!

See you Sunday!

Pastor Paul Wellinghoff

Don't Despise these Small Beginnings

Praise God we had 3 people at the first gathering of True Life Church today!

You may say, is that all you had?

Earlier this year I heard a message entitled "Not by Might, Nor by Power" from Zechariah 4:1-14.

This phrase which bounces around in Christian circles- "not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord" has held great power through the ages. That was the first point- It is about the Holy Spirit. He must be at the center of things. We can't do anything without Him. Our dependence must be on His guidance, not our own. This was a great reminder....

The pastor's third point looked intently into verse 10. In the story of the passage, it is a prophecy from the Lord about the completion of the Temple project by Zerubbabel. Listen in:

Zerubbabel is the one who laid the foundation of this Temple, and he will complete it. Then you will know that the LORD Almighty has sent me. Do not despise these small beginnings, for the LORD rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plumb line in Zerubbabel's hand. (Zech 4:9-10 NLT)

Embedded in this passage is that amazing statement--Do not despise these small beginnings. Actually in the original it is a rhetorical question:

Who despises the day of small things?

or consider this contemporary translation which gets the spirit of this question:

“For who dares make light of small beginnings?” (from the NET Bible)

The idea behind a rhetorical question is that everyone knows the answer. If I ask this: Isn't it true that the St. Louis Cardinals are the best major league baseball team in the country? Everyone knows the answer to that, right?  GO CARDS! Now don't get side-tracked by my illustration.

The answer that everyone knows to God's question: Who dares make light of small beginnings? NOBODY. Small is the way things get started. From building the Temple to growing an apple tree, to growing a new church plant, it always starts small.

I was moved by this truth. Beyond that, I really began to embrace that this is the common sense design of our God for the way things work in our world.

In our culture of XL, mega and super-size, the small things get the shaft. They are overlooked. Maybe even despised by some. God's rhetorical question helps us set out to do the small things. To encourage our co-worker, smile at people on the street, pick up the laundry, make a meal for a neighbor, share more about Jesus in a conversation, etc... All small things, but don't despise those small things, they pave the way to bigger things.

Small churches ought not be despised either--from without or from within. Rather than bemoan what you don't have, look at all the benefits you do. You can know each other, reach out to many, serve each other and meet in all kinds of places and times. Don't despise the small things.... That's the way God made things to get started.

For who dares make light of small beginnings?

Pastor Paul Wellinghoff
True Life Church