As The City Church walks through Paul's Letter to the Philippians, we are excited to let you know that we're increasing the time our entire church spends together as a larger, unified church body. BUT, we're doing so in a unique way.
From our launch date in January 2010, All-Church Gatherings have been every other Sunday evening, for two reasons:
- We wanted to protect Villages in their infant days; to make sure that they become more than "Bible studies." We want our Villages to become true communities on mission in our city, where our church family lives out our gospel identities together.
- We wanted to make sure our church family sees Villages as the center of "City Life," rather than centering on the Sunday gathered event.
To be candid, we don't think our body as a whole is fully grasping that dual vision for Villages yet. So to increase All-Church Gatherings would be counter-productive, and increase our chances of becoming a Sunday-event-focused church body even more.
At the same time, we realize the need to build unity, community, and vision across Village boundaries and throughout our entire church family. So as we wrap up our first spring season and enter the hot months in Texas, we've developed a schedule that will increase all-church time together, while at the same time help emphasize our gospel identities as we live them out as a family: starting April 18, we're doing something every Sunday night, but not the same thing every Sunday night! Here's the plan:
- All-Church Gatherings (every other week): ACG's are “family celebrations” in The City Church: we celebrate God through song, prayer, and creed; we celebrate God’s word through preaching; we celebrate Christ’s finished work through communion; and we celebrate God’s work in our church family through sharing what he’s doing in our lives. We'll be walking through Philippians through the summer, so ACG's will essentially function in the same way you're used to.
- Living Our Identities Together (the other "every other week's"): On the Sundays between All-Church Gatherings, we're doing different things to help us realize and live our our gospel identities together: we are Worshippers, we are Family, and we are Missionaries, so our options will rotate between these identities. Here are some of the things you can expect on these evenings:
- Worship+Prayer Nights: We'll meet in various locations around town, to continually remind us of our mission: because we exist for the glory of God, we worship. And because we exist for the good of Fort Worth, we pray for different parts of our city, on prayer walks/prayer drives. For anyone who's interested, we'll eat dinner together after we wrap up.
- SERVE Weeks: SERVE Weeks have already been carved into The City Church's schedule, where we live as Missionaries to our neighborhoods and city by taking a break from our normal ACG/Village rhythm and SERVE together. We'll continue doing this throughout the spring and summer
- Love Your Neighbors: A few times over the coming months, we're simply carving time into our Sunday night schedule for you to pair up within your Village and have neighbors over for dinner. No agenda; no program; just simply have your neighbors in your home, get to know them, share good food and conversation with them, serve them, and love them.
So there's the plan! We've heard a lot of good feedback, and we encourage you to see every week's option as a vital, necessary part of living our our church's mission and identities.
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