Until my dear friend Josine Elizalde brought me one Sunday less than a year ago to the New Life Christian Center in Alabang Hills, and somehow, gradually, my mind began to tell me that I was not lacking – that I was not spiritually wanting as I had been feeling all along. All I have to do is know that God loves, and loves magnificently. This is now the lingering feeling I have. It is like a comfort blanket placed and wrapped around me, knowing that God’s love is overpowering and that’s all that counts.
The principal instrument in providing me with this comfort is a man by the name of Pastor Paul Chase, founder of the New Life Christian Center. The words of this pastor rings out in the simplest manner, certainly not in beatified language nor extravagant verbiage, but they leave an extraordinary effect on the listener seeking deeper spirituality in his or her daily existence, seeking that valuable dimension to a life grown spiritually shallow and weary. I have always been a believer in the words that, "Our goal in life should not just be the perfection of work, but the perfection of a life." How to bring this about could be a lifetime struggle, however.
Paul Chase’s story is an inspiring one. An American, he grew up in a family that ranged from one extreme to the other as far as the religious faith was concerned. His father never went to church but his mother constantly went to church, and had what Paul calls a "true love of God." During his college years, as he narrates it now, he lived a wild and wanton life of parties, women, drugs and alcohol.
It was in 1976, when he first went through a spiritual experience with Jesus that his life changed forever. He felt God’s love for the first time. He felt that sense of forgiveness pour over him, and felt divine love wash and forgive his sins. That restoration of dignity and self-esteem followed, as well as the feeling of being accepted by the Lord.
He began to see the true meaning of life and must have heard the message that he give value and worth to his being. That’s when he decided to go into full-time ministry, responding to the message given to him. Losing no time, the young Paul Chase decided to prepare himself and went to school for this specific purpose.
This became his Easter. This was his redemption!
As Paul Chase says now, "The true story of Easter is the resurrection of the One who paid the price for our sins – not by our works but by His grace and mercy. He was a sacrifice and a substitution for me. He carried my sins and my pain. He took my shame and my guilt. He gave me love, acceptance and forgiveness. The power of sins was broken in my life and I became free from the slavery of sin. It was a resurrection where death was conquered. This, after all, is what Easter is all about – a resurrection where death is conquered."
What happened to Paul Chase is not an unusual story. It has happened many times over in a world struggling from strife and sin. Forgiven and free, no more shame, guilt or condemnation, Paul’s resurrection brought a living faith into his life.
Now in his 50s, he has lived in the Philippines from the time he arrived here to found the ministry in 1980. Tall, solid-looking, and handsome, he immediately gives the impression that he is a fortress of God. On the stage speaking, or standing right in front of you, his manner is direct, straightforward, and simple. He is a man not given to lavish language or window-dressed prose. It’s an ordinary manner of speech, but with an effect that, to my mind, is extraordinary. He is extremely knowledgeable, not only as regards the biblical dimension, but indeed gives one the firm impression that he is sure of himself and his mission. And he has a great sense of humor.
It was precisely this mission that brought him to our country. He and his wife, Shoddy, a preacher herself, first lived in Catbalogan, Samar, for five months. Shoddy is a lovely person, sensitive and very effective in her delivery of God’s word, with an emotional carriage that touches her listeners.
Paul and Shoddy proceeded to Kalibo, Aklan, for the next nine-and-a-half years. Their first 10 years in the country saw them establish two receiving homes for abandoned and malnourished children, three different Bible schools, leadership conferences for over 4,000 patrons nationwide, outdoor evangelical meetings throughout the Visayas, a 70-foot boat that was used for island evangelism, and an elementary school for street children. Spreading the Word saw them sponsoring radio programs nationwide through multi-dialectical evangelism. Those years also saw them producing a "teaching letter" mailed to 5,000 pastors and leaders in the Philippines and other Asian countries.
It is no wonder, then, that as Pastor Joey Rafael, the internal and external affairs pastor of the Alabang New Life Christian Center, now says, "Pastor Paul is a soldier who is willing, ready and able to endure hardships for Jesus. He is an athlete who competes for a crown according to the rules, and is willing to run and finish the race. He is a hardworking farmer who plows, sows and reaps, no matter what the weather conditions are. Pastor Paul has proven himself diligent, a worker who does not need to be shamed, as he rightly divides the word of truth."
In 1990, the Chases moved to Manila, at the same time continuing to travel throughout the Philippines and other Asian countries. They started two separate Bible study groups, one in Makati and the other in Ayala Alabang. The latter group led to the birth of the New Life Christian Center in Alabang Hills. Now growing at such a speedy pace, it will be 15 years old this May. Within the past seven years, New Life opened 25 other churches in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
New Life’s fundamental mission and motto are spelled out in this statement: "We have a city to touch, a nation to reach, and a world to change, all of us together making a difference."
The word "together" is very meaningful. Pastor Paul has a growing community of people believing in him. Take Joey Rafael, who first met him when he still had a mustache: "The first time I met Pastor Paul, he was not the stereotypical pastor/preacher that I had in mind. With his long hair and mustache, he looked more like a drug dealer or something. But as I got to know him and allowed him to be my pastor, mentor and friend, I thank God for him and sister Shoddy – for being a source of strength and a standard in my life."
With such a large and still-growing community that holds him in the highest regard and are intensely fond of him, I listened one recent Sunday to Pastor Paul say, "We need people who, even when they’ve seen you tired and weak, or vibrant and cheerful, love you any which way. You need to let people into your life, but it requires humility to let them in. Jesus set me free to be what I am."
He has just finished writing a book titled The Soldier, the Athlete and the Farmer. Shoddy Chase herself authored The Blood and the Lamb. So many activities go on incessantly at New Life, i.e. young women’s fellowships, children’s activities, spiritual seminars with a wide spectrum of topics – these all make the New Life Christian Center a living, glowing testimonial to the vital leadership of Paul Chase.
I heard him say one recent Sunday, "This is not a perfect church because it is composed of people, and people are not perfect. But we are all centered on Christ and keep getting better, building relationships with people who have trust in each other."
I am certain that there is so much truth in what was said that day, that there is nothing better than knowing you have been able to lead others into eternity. Just as I am certain that it was God’s mercy that saved us, which Easter celebrates, but we have to earn this salvation.
Pastor Paul Chase has indeed been earning his, and in so doing it has been, for him, not just the perfection of work, but truly the perfection of a life.