our role at citychurch

From London to Ft. Lauderdale
Greetings from London! I am writing to you on a day that characterizes England because it is raining yet again. London is quite a contrast to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida (the sunshine state) and we are looking forward to sunnier days, especially in the winter. If you haven’t heard through our e-mail updates, we are moving back to Florida to work with a church plant, but I’ll get to that in a moment. Things are going well here in London. Both the City Vision team and City of Peace are moving forward with great progress. Ashley and little Natalie are doing well, and we have 4 weeks left until her due date! Our plans for coming home have also been formalized. The City Vision program finishes with a farewell service in July and we will be flying into Miami on July 31st where we will take a few weeks to get settled in before we start this new work with CityChurch. In my last update I promised to include more info about the work at CityChurch and our role there. I’ll also be including some information on how you might partner with us.

CityChurch--Past and Present
CityChurch has been under the watchful guidance and direction of Rick Hunter (the organizing pastor) since it’s inception over a year ago. In the early spring of 2005 Rick began meeting with a core group of people interested in planting a church in the Ft. Lauderdale city center. Ft. Lauderdale has followed the trend of many other cities in America that have gone through the process of rapid growth and change over the past 10-15 years, and so there has been a Spirit guided conviction on the part of this core group that a church was needed to engage the city in light of these changes. This core group met through the autumn and winter holding several preview services, which culminated in a Christmas Eve Service this past year. CityChurch held their inaugural weekly worship service January 8, 2006 and have even changed worship locations in this short time due to the need for more space.

CityChurch has come a long way over the past year and half, but there is more to church planting than gathering a group of people together on a Sunday morning. CityChurch hopes to create a movement through the gospel of Jesus Christ that brings not just spiritual renewal, but cultural and social renewal to the city of Ft. Lauderdale. Our hope is that this church will not only save souls, but it will create a new humanity which starts the process of bringing God’s Kingdom to Earth as it already exists in Heaven. This will not only result in people’s lives being changed, but we will also see a city that reflects the ideals of His Kingdom.

How do we propose to do this?
· A Gospel Foundation--CityChurch desires to be a gospel driven church which ‘levels the playing field’ as we engage those who don’t share our beliefs. If we truly believe the gospel, then we realize that we are in the same position as everyone else—someone who is messed up and in need of God’s grace. Ultimately, we hope to see gospel community formed that attracts non-churchy people.
· Continuous Church Planting—CityChurch is committing to the planting of new churches routinely and constantly. ‘Vigorous, continual planting of new congregations is the single most crucial strategy for the numerical growth of the Body of Christ, the renewal of existing churches, and the overall impact of that church on the culture in any city.’[1] What’s exciting is that a group of young men training for ministry or in ministry (including myself) who are interested in church planting are coming alongside Rick. This will certainly bear fruit in the coming years as they are trained up and then sent out to plant other churches in the area.
· Holistic Ministry—We hope to engage the city through holistic ministry, which means loving our city through word and deed. One goal of CityChurch is to insure that the city would miss us if we were to “close the doors.” Again, CityChurch desires not only to see individuals saved, but also see the removal of poverty, hunger, and injustice. We hope to mobilize and equip people inside and outside our church to achieve this task.
[1] Tim Keller, Why Plant Churches.

Our Role at City Church
Ashley and I have gained invaluable experience in training and pastoring a team in urban mission along with church planting with City of Peace over the past 2 years in London and we’ve been constantly humbled and driven to our knees, but we believe our time here has provided a great foundation for ministry at CityChurch. There is much to be done if the vision of CityChurch is to be realized, and this is why I have been enlisted to provide additional leadership. In particular, I will be providing operational and structural leadership to the overall development of CityChurch. I’ll naturally have a number of responsibilities related to teaching, pastoring and preaching, but I will also be involved in overseeing such things as the development of a Mercy and Justice Ministry to the city. Ultimately, my task is to design and implement an all encompassing infrastructure that will facilitate the growth of CityChurch and its ministry, and also to the proposed future church plants for the city.