Influence: “New Community” is actually the name of your church. How do you ensure that new community continues to be part of your church DNA?
Aaron Escamilla: Our church name was chosen based off of community assessments that were done in our city. After talking with city officials, educators, business owners and nonprofits, we discovered the name New Community Church met a felt need in our city. Mesquite is in need of and searching for something new. That’s our mission and why NCC exists — to “Make People and Places New.”

People hold on to stories, so we celebrate stories a lot around here. Whether it's celebrating a past event, highlighting a ministry, sharing a need or honoring a team member — it always comes back to the mission of “making people and places new.”
Our goal is that everyone who calls NCC home will know how God is using NCC to accomplish this mission and find ways to live it out in their life every week.

What is a significant challenge you have as lead pastor of this fellowship? 
A significant challenge we have as a church is moving from event-based outreaches to a continuous community engagement model. We don’t want to produce people who serve at a few events each year and believe they are living out the message of the gospel.
Our goal is to be present in our community and schools to see lasting transformation. We are constantly looking for ways for the people of NCC to serve and meet the needs of our community. This happens by partnering with strategic nonprofits on a continual bases. We also offer several large outreach events throughout the year that serve as a springboard for people to serve at local nonprofits.

Share a little about your church and how it fuses with the unchurched community around you.
We believe the church isn’t a building or a time during the week. The church is the people that make up NCC. We try to remind the church that being a Jesus follower changes everything; it changes their family, their job and their neighborhood.

We try to remind the church that being a Jesus follower changes everything; it changes their family, their job and their neighborhood.

Each of us should be engaging unbelievers in spiritual conversations because it’s part of our lives. This is also something we talk to first time guests about. They receive a Next Steps guide that challenges them to have four spiritual conversations over the next four weeks. We are constantly looking for new ways to challenge people to not wait for church leaders to plan something, but to engage with friends and neighbors on their own. We believe the most powerful engagement the unchurched have with NCC is not a flyer or a website, but people sharing what God has done for them. 

What are some core passions for your church?
We’re passionate about creating a clear, simple way for people to move forward in their relationship with Jesus. Another core passion of NCC is our role in the community. We aren’t asking the community to come be part of what we are doing, but rather we are part of what's going on in our community. This means not recreating outreach ministries, but finding ways to participate and champion what is already happening here in Mesquite.

Tell us about your annual Family Fest.
FamFest is an event that was started to resource families in our area as they head back to school. This event started in 2010 and has continued to grow rapidly as people are supplied with backpacks, medical screenings and family resources. FamFest went so well the Mesquite School District approached us in 2015 and asked if we would partner with them. We saw this as an opportunity to develop the relationship with our city even further.

This was the start of the Mesquite Back to School Fair. Last year was a huge success, and the district has asked us to expand the event to two high schools this year. We have the full support of the Mesquite School District, many local businesses and a large hospital in Dallas. We are seeing God use this event to bring churches together, open new doors for us in our school district and resources our city’s families.

Aaron Escamilla is the lead pastor of New Community Church in Mesquite, Texas. This article originally appeared in the June/July issue of Influence. For more print content, subscribe here.