While Randy is writing some great overall articles addressing the different core values we hold to as New City, I thought I would put some things out there in the form of Core Value Statements. These "we believe" statements come from our core values classes that we teach at NCF St Louis. They are not (at all) intended to be the final statements of this group- just a starting point for our consideration. Basically, I will post these core value statements we at NCF St Louis have already affirmed around several topics: 1) The centrality of the Gospel of the kingdom- the establishment of the righteousness/justice of God as a gift through faith in Christ; 2) The centrality of Reconciliation in the message of the Gospel of the kingdom; 3) The Nature and Focus of the Kingdom: for the poor, through a demonstration of justice, mercy and humility; 4) The Practical Expression of Humility in the Kingdom- embracing a humle heart and humble circumstances; 5) The need for and nature of Team Ministry …
Core Values
What’s Grace Got To Do With It?
Everything; grace has everything to do with it. New City churches ought to be places where grace just drips from the amplifiers, from the offering baskets, from the pulpit, from the folding chairs or whatever we sit on. How can there be reconciliation between people without grace working in our hearts to open us up to forgiveness, to deliver us from fear and shame, from giving us confidence before God? To understand grace I think one has to ask themselves what kind of a Christian they are or how they understand the Gospel. I hesitate to ask what "level" someone is in their understanding because the whole idea of grace delivers us from measurements of ourselves against ourselves or others. Grace starts with ground zero, and in a sense never elevates us above that. We are always on the ground before God, always zero, always and absolutely in need of his mercy. We just have to get that idea because without it we are not …
Reconciliation As An Export?
At the New City Summit we discussed as a group the idea of planting cross cultural and reconciliation model churches in other countries. What do we have to offer to other countries, how could our model be good for them? I suppose the question would first be, is there any enmity anywhere but in the U.S.? Is there any racism, tribalism, or ethno-centrism that has resulted in alienation, hatred, and violence? I suppose we could just ask, is there life on earth? We are not pretending we have a franchise to sell, or that we have worked things out so well in our own congregations that we are now experts at reconciliation. We would be very foolish to continue an attitude of arrogance in missions. We can only offer the years of experience, our own struggle, or own sincere and broken attempts to live out the Gospel, and indeed even our mistakes and failures for others to learn from. We also come to other countries as …
Some practical issues in creating this network
This blog was begun to give a forum to discuss the concept and means by which we can create a New City Network. This network is to help us, as a group, to plant more churches, and to mutually encourage and support each other in being effective in ministry and witness. In order to be a network we have to have an agreement as to what the network is to accomplish, how churches can enter and leave it, what criteria we have for allowing admission or barring such, how we can assist each other in being more effective in ministry and witness. We must then look at the very practical areas of funding it, communication and decision making, when and how to meet, and leadership. We must also make it clear to ourselves and others how we relate to our denomination and if other congregations not in the Presbyterian Church in America can be a part of us. Let me make a few comments about our relationship to the P.C.A. …
Who is in, and where are we going?
We recognize that the Lord is moving in many places, in many congregations. We recognize that long before New City became a church there were folks committed to justice and mercy, committed to a church that was truly welcoming of people of different races, ethnicities, and languages. I grew up in a church that found itself becoming multi-ethnic and transitioned to be cross cultural. In the beginning of that church (Calvary Gospel Church of Newark, New Jersey), they were driven by a passion to be soul winners, to be evangelistic. They rejected an abandonment mentality found in many Evangelical churches in their city and instead of leaving the city they sought to win the people of the city, no matter what their color or culture. They did soul winning with a presumption that theirs was the correct Christian culture, they assumed that new disciples would assimilate to their worship and to the practices of the church which had brought them …
Mercy is a Core Value
One of our core values in New City type churches has to be our pursuit of the poor. I use that phrase to show that we want poor people in our church, we don't simply want to minister to them. The poor need so much, and I thank God for all acts of kindness to them. But, and that is an important demarcation, the poor need to be gathered into the fellowship of the saints. They need the Gospel, they need discipleship, they need community, they need the wonderful security of the Body of Christ. For this reason I have a real problem with what I call "mercy tourism." This seems to be the prevalent way young urbanites who are planting churches seem to approach the issue of ministry to the poor. They farm out their members as volunteers with the rhetoric that they are affecting the city. The volunteers get involved in tutoring and with various agencies who do good and some of them develop real relationships with poor folks. If …
Creating a Micah 6:8 coalition, aka, New City Network
During the weekend of November 4-8 several pastors and leaders of New City type churches (as this article goes along we hope to define that term) gathered for a consultation of creating a church planting network. Strangely enough these people, dedicated to ministry among the poor, had this consultation on a cruise ship. This was done to eliminate the possibility of escape during the discussion and give the participants a rest and break from what is often a very intensive kind of ministry life. We hope that this was a historic gathering and we are now engaged in an open discussion of how this network will take shape. Several of us were assigned to write our reactions, impressions, and ideas for such a network which will in turn be passed around for everyone to read and to which they can react. I intend this newly created blog to give me a place where my thoughts can be read and hopefully reacted to by certain individuals so we can …