Charis & Forge
Imagine a church not planted by accident, but by design. A church placed at the heart of a community to help it move toward Jesus, in the chaos, in the questions, and in the beauty of real life.
What would that church look like? What would it strive for? How would it love, especially when life gets messy, painful, and complicated?
New Life was born from those questions. Twenty-seven years later, we're still asking them. Because we didn't come to Sonoma County to build walls - we came to open doors.
The Charis Project
The Charis Project is a network of specialized small groups, workshops, and courses designed to walk with people through their darkest valleys and celebrate with them on their brightest mountaintops. Because real life isn't neat, it's trauma. Loss. Grief. Divorce. Parenting a child with special needs, struggling with mental health, and recovering from abortion or sexual assault, searching for hope and belonging in an LGBTQ family. The answer isn't judgment. The answer is journeying.
The Charis Project isn't about fixing people. It's about standing beside them with hope, with healing, with honest community. It's about saying: You are not alone. You are not forgotten. You are moving toward Jesus, and we're moving with you.
This is grace in motion. This is what the Church was always meant to be.
The Forge Project
The Forge Project is our bold second step - a network of local Forge Communities that meet regularly to live out the mission of Jesus in everyday life. These are communities of grace and purpose - regional, relational, and radically present in the world around them. Because the Church is more than Sundays, its people on mission with Jesus, in the rhythms of real life. The Forge Project is our response to a world that is:
- Post-Christian and post-institutional
- Hungry for purpose and authenticity
- Longing for belonging, not just belief
- Craving sustainable rhythms over burnout
- Drawn to decentralized, collaborative leadership
Forge Communities are built for this. They are intentional, local, and resilient. They help people walk with Jesus together, not just attend service. This is purpose in motion. This is how we live what we believe.
Core Values
BE We are rooted in God's love, not our performance.
BELONG We don't have to walk alone; we walk together through sorrow, joy, healing, and celebration.
BECOME Grace never stops with us; it moves outward in action to become generosity, peace, joy, and inclusion.
BLESS We serve our communities to bless them with words, time, resources, prayer, and love.
Anchor Causes
At the heart of the Forge Project lies our commitment to tangible impact. Our Anchor Causes represent a select group of organizations within our community that embody the very essence of our purpose in motion.
Mentor Me Petaluma
Mentoring, at its core, guarantees young people that there is someone who cares about them, assures them they are not alone in dealing with day-to-day challenges, and makes them feel like they matter. Research confirms that quality mentoring relationships have powerful positive effects on young people in a variety of personal, academic, and professional situations.
Ultimately, mentoring connects a young person to personal growth and development, and social and economic opportunity. As a result, the community becomes more cohesive with these cross-generational and often cross-cultural mentoring relationships. Yet one in three young people will grow up without this critical asset.
MMP currently has a list of young people needing a mentor. A caring heart and a desire to help a young person are the main characteristics needed to be a mentor.
Questions about volunteering? Please contact Dan McNamee, by email or 415-654-9153
Redwood Gospel Mission
With a mission statement that reads “Mobilizing the community to minister to the needy so that lives are transformed”, RGM is a group of compassionate Christian people who do more than just feed, clothe, and house the needy. Where possible, they help them experience life transformation through receiving the good news of Jesus and participating in programs designed to give them the life and people skills required to thrive in our world.
Volunteer opportunities include direct guest services through hospitality and comfort ministries as well as indirect support through donations, food preparation, and annual collection drives.
All are open year-round to assist at various community outreach events or with the seasonal Nomadic Shelter hosted by New Life.
Questions about volunteering? Please contact Dan DeMars, by email or 707-486-0350
Mexico Missions
Our church has been sending mission teams to a small town in Mexico for about 20 years now. The town of Vicente Guerrero, located in the San Quintin valley, has been our designated area to work because of the extreme poverty and need. Today we partner regularly with four different causes in this valley — a church (La Puerta Del Cielo), a center for children too poor to go to public schools (Every Kid’s Hope), a shelter for abused women and their children (Mujeres Nuevo Comienzo…New Beginnings for Women), and YWAM (Youth With A Mission, an international Christian organization that supervises the building of houses in the valley). Annually in June we take a group of people on a week-long mission trip to work with these organizations and to expose our church family to mission work outside of our own community.
Questions about volunteering? Please contact Jim Thornton, by email or phone 707-322-3401
Una Vida
Una Vida serves as a year-round resource for Petaluma community-members, rallying resources and distributing donations to make sure local people are clothed, fed and connected to people and organizations that help them thrive. We do this by:
- Collecting and sharing donations of food, clothing and household items with community-members in need
- Inspiring generosity, cultivating connection, lovingly serving others, and distributing financial support and/or gift cards to at-risk individuals
- Fostering collaboration and helping community-members discover their unique gifts
- Helping people plug in and use their unique gifts to benefit our community
- Serving as a bridge between residents, local non-profits and community organizations to ensure that no community-members fall through the cracks of social safety nets.
Questions about volunteering? Please visit the Una Vida website at una-vida.org
Bless Week
Bless Week is a week we designate each month to use our gifts—big or small—to make a difference in someone’s life. Whether it’s your time, your talents, or your resources, every act of kindness matters.
✨ Simple ways to bless someone:
- Pay for someone’s groceries or meal.
- Cover a tank of gas for a neighbor.
- Volunteer at a local food bank.
- Offer your time to help a friend or stranger in need.
Together, we can show love in action. One small gesture can open the door to hope. 💛
👉 How will you bless someone this week?
We’d love to hear how you blessed someone this week. Click below to share on our Bless Week Blog. Entries are moderated and you can choose to include your name or make it anonymous.
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