{"id":5740,"date":"2023-07-05T21:28:02","date_gmt":"2023-07-06T01:28:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsongpittsburgh.org\/?p=5740"},"modified":"2023-07-05T21:40:39","modified_gmt":"2023-07-06T01:40:39","slug":"celebrating-new-life-in-christ","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsongpittsburgh.org\/?p=5740","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating New Life in Christ"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>With prayer, praise, and an all-church picnic, New Song Community Church celebrated the baptism of nine people in an outdoor ceremony on June 25, 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Officiated by Pastor Herb Shaffer, the baptisms signified the people\u2019s commitment to following Jesus, to being made into a new creation in His image, and to being continually made newer over time by choosing to follow Him daily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The full-water immersions were held in a baptismal tub placed on a sidewalk overlooking the church.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Before their baptism, the people shared testimonies of what drew them to Jesus and how God is at work in their lives, in ways big and small.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Congratulations to <strong>Melissa Mozurak<\/strong>, <strong>Jean Ann Wolney<\/strong>, <strong>Luke Fitzgerald<\/strong>, <strong>John Pasquarelli<\/strong>, <strong>Val Pfabe<\/strong>, <strong>Michael Scott<\/strong>, <strong>Alexander Wright<\/strong>, <strong>Bill Wright<\/strong>, and <strong>Nina Wiebalk<\/strong>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Among their testimonies:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Being reared in a household where God was a part of life from the very beginning<\/li><li>Overcoming drug addiction and rediscovering a sense of purpose in life<\/li><li>Encountering the presence of God supernaturally&nbsp;<\/li><li>Feeling a sense of family and community within the New Song church body<\/li><li>Receiving God\u2019s presence and preparation for the unexpected death of a loved one<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-container-2 wp-block-gallery-1 wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsongpittsburgh.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/outdoor-photo-2-scaled.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" data-id=\"5743\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsongpittsburgh.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/outdoor-photo-2-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5743\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.newsongpittsburgh.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/outdoor-photo-2-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.newsongpittsburgh.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/outdoor-photo-2-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.newsongpittsburgh.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/outdoor-photo-2-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/www.newsongpittsburgh.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/outdoor-photo-2-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.newsongpittsburgh.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/outdoor-photo-2-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsongpittsburgh.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/outdoor-photo-1-scaled.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1920\" height=\"2560\" data-id=\"5742\"  src=\"http:\/\/www.newsongpittsburgh.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/outdoor-photo-1-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Baptismal font outside\" class=\"wp-image-5742\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.newsongpittsburgh.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/outdoor-photo-1-scaled.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/www.newsongpittsburgh.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/outdoor-photo-1-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.newsongpittsburgh.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/outdoor-photo-1-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.newsongpittsburgh.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/outdoor-photo-1-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/www.newsongpittsburgh.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/outdoor-photo-1-1536x2048.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Following the baptisms, New Song held an all-church potluck picnic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Church members gathered for fellowship over a smorgasbord of foods. Homemade chili, shredded pork, kielbasa, burgers and hotdogs, vegetable trays and salads, a bounty of cookies, cakes, and pies, and more were on the menu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The baptism day was a day of changed lives and joyful praise of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lives were changed because the newly baptized made a declaration that they were following Jesus.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With prayer, praise, and an all-church picnic, New Song Community Church celebrated the baptism of nine people in an outdoor ceremony on June 25, 2023. Officiated by Pastor Herb Shaffer,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5753,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[97,91],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsongpittsburgh.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5740"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsongpittsburgh.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsongpittsburgh.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsongpittsburgh.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsongpittsburgh.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5740"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsongpittsburgh.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5757,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsongpittsburgh.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5740\/revisions\/5757"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsongpittsburgh.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsongpittsburgh.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsongpittsburgh.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsongpittsburgh.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}