Jan 22, 2012 is a Huge Day for The City Church!

God has greatly blessed our first years as a church. By God’s grace and favor, we have much to be thankful for. And it’s all just beginning: we have an exciting future ahead of us! On the weekend our church officially turns two years old, we’re making three big changes in what will essentially be one big “moving day”:

1. New Gathering Address: 4449 Camp Bowie Blvd
   (Texas Girls Choir Building)

2. New Gathering Time: Sundays, 10:30am

3. New Web Address: thecitychurch.net

Each of these changes has been prayerfully considered, and each plays a unique role in propelling us to live as “a family of disciples on mission, for the glory of God and the good of Fort Worth.” Read on to see the reasons for each change, and how it directly impacts you.

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1. New Gathering Address: 4449 Camp Bowie

Why the Change?

• Space: The TGC auditorium will seat 500+, has separate babies’ and toddlers’ rooms, plus a nursing room and plenty of rooms for future KidCity use.
• Accessibility: The TGC building has street-level parking lots for 80+ cars, with a reserved lot for family/handicapped use. And other than restrooms, everything’s on street level. Adult restrooms are downstairs, but a handicapped-accessible restroom is available on the main floor.
• Permanence: With the size and space available to us, we’re able to meet at the TGC building for a long time. Plus we can use the space for non-Sunday use at times, and there will be a permanent City Church sign on Camp Bowie. God willing, we see this as a "long-term" move. And, with the exceptions of a few TGC concerts per year, we’re able to leave some rooms set up week-to-week. Sunday set-up just got easier!

What’s It Mean for You?

• Get Here: Simply show up at our new address, every Sunday but the last one of each month, beginning Sunday, January 22.
• Map Out the Change: For many of you, accessibility to I-30 will decrease your time of getting to our Gatherings. At most, it should add no more than 3-4 minutes drive time. And that doesn’t consider garages, one-way streets, and downtown traffic
• Spread the Word: Help make sure your Village, friends, and even folks who aren’t yet part of The City Church family – or who visited, and the size or condition of our meeting space turned them away – know about the change!

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2. New Gathering Time: Sundays, 10:30am

 Why the Change?

• Knowing Our Culture: We’ve always wanted to be in the heart of our city. Downtown is definitely the “business and industrial center” of Fort Worth – but this move puts us in the heart of its “historic and cultural center.” Plus, there are neighborhoods nearby. And it’s a proven fact: in north Texas, whether someone’s a believer or not, if they’re going to walk into a church for the first time, they’ll likely find one that meets on Sunday mornings. Ironically, by meeting Sunday mornings – one of the most traditional things we could do – we’re corporately living on mission better than evening Gatherings!
• Mission: We always hoped Sunday evening Gatherings would allow you to live on mission well on Sunday mornings – going to coffee shops, etc. while “all the other Christians are at church,” if you will. But we’ve learned that for many, that became a second, somewhat "forced" mission field. In your primary mission fields, your neighbors are out more, and you have more of an opportunity to do natural life with the folks we always push you to invest in, on Sunday evenings.
• Breaking Down Walls: As we planted The City Church, we wanted to make sure that everything we did reflected our “different, unique church DNA.” Evening Gatherings did just that. We wanted to wait until we had a strong enough core, of folks who truly get our mission and identities, before we ever considered this last, “big move”: moving to mornings, 40 times a year, makes us as “normal” as we’ll ever be! But we prayerfully recognize our church’s need for an older generation. We recognize the difficulty on families (as well as others) to get to evening ACG’s. So while we uphold every bit of our DNA, and value the years of evening ACG’s, we hope this move will make The City Church more accessible to those who have seen evenings as a barrier.

 What’s It Mean for You?

• Get up Early: 10:30am gives you plenty of time to get to our Gatherings, and still gets us out in time for lunch. But it’s a change from 5pm, so plan ahead on January 22!
• Live on Mission: The extra evening you have to be with your neighbors only works if you’re with your neighbors! Carve out time. Live with gospel intentionality. Live as a missionary. Use the extra evening well, for the glory of God and the good of your neighborhood!
• Plan New Village Meeting Times: Villages who currently meet on Sunday mornings will feel the greatest impact of this change. Our Village leaders are meeting in early January to plan next steps, but you’ll find a new time for your Village to meet. For some of you, this might mean finding a Village that meets nearer to your home, or at a day/time your schedule allows. Pray much, consider God’s mission above your own comfort, and work through this change well, as a Village family. Let your Pastor-Elders know your concerns, and how they can help.

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3. New Web Address: thecitychurch.net

Why the Change?

• Ease: Very practically and simply, it’s far easier to tell someone to go to “The City Church dot net” than “eff double-you (as in Fort Worth) City Church dot org.” And it’s far easier to remember as well. Since 2009, we’ve been waiting for one of the “big three” (.com, .org, or .net) to open up with “citychurch” or “thecitychurch.” Finally one did, so we jumped on it.

What’s It Mean for You?

• Change Your Bookmark: effective January 22, fwcitychurch.org will automatically redirect to thecitychurch.net. But if you our website bookmarked, you’ll want to update to the new address – when the fwcitychurch.org domain expires, it’s gone.
• Delete old email addresses; insert new ones: all pastor-elder and deacon email addresses are moving to the new domain name. Please delete all fwcitychurch.org emails and replace them with “first name @ thecitychurch.net” (example: matthew@thecitychurch.net). That will work until our current candidates get emails! Old ones will auto-forward for a bit, but will disappear when the old domain expires.

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What ISN’T Changing

With these changes, we feel it wise to remind you of the core
of who we are, and a few things that will NOT change Jan 22:

• The gospel, our identities, and our mission: We still exist “for the glory of God and the good of Fort Worth,” as disciples, family, and missionaries, responding to God’s saving grace with everything we do.
• Villages, the centerpiece of our church: Villages are where our identities are lived out; Villages are our communities on mission; Villages are the heart of who we are and what we do. As we make these changes, you’ll see an even greater push to make sure everyone who attends an ACG finds a Village near them.
• Scattered worship: The last Sunday of every month will continue to see The City Church family scatter, and worship by loving neighbors, by serving our city, and by Sabbath rest. The entire year’s “Scattered Worship” schedule will be posted at thecitychurch.net/events before January 1, and we’ll equip you better this year, to worship well in those different ways.
• These are just a few things that are NOT changing. Other non-changes include our commitment to God, scripture, solid theology, biblical leadership, equipping the saints for the work of ministry, and cultural engagement. And the list could go on. We’re simply meeting in a more-accessible place, at a new time, with a new web address. We’re not losing any of our gospel identity in these changes; we hope they will allow us to live it out more fully.

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Questions, Concerns, Etc?

Email a Pastor-Elder: ben@, matthew@, or dennis@ thecitychurch.net