Who Will Be "The Pastor" in WR?

Let's start here - New City Church views "Pastor" as the equivalent of "Elder."

No one is given the title "Pastor" or "Minister" unless he is an "Elder." All Elders are Pastors, and as New City is an Elder Led body, we have a plurality of Elders.

Within the Elder/Pastor structure we have and will have different designations depending on the Pastor's specific role. For example - "Missional Communities Pastor." This Pastor is responsible for overseeing, ministering and leading our MCs. A Children's Pastor would be an Elder who oversees ministry to children... you get the idea.

Currently, I serve as the "Lead Pastor" of New City Church downtown. Ryan Lyons serves as the Lead Pastor of New City Church milledgevile. Patrick McConnell serves as our third Elder at New City Church downtown, and like Ryan and myself - wears a number of hats, including Warner Robins MC Pastor. Patrick oversees the Missional Communities in Warner Robins. With the WR plant, we are adding an Elder Designation - "Campus Pastor". Patrick will continue to oversee the MCs in WR and will take on the responsibility of General oversight of the new plant in its day-day functions (he will be the "Go To" guy in WR). NCCwr will not have a "Lead Pastor" initially. We will have a Campus Pastor and "Teaching Pastors". The Teaching Pastors being, Myself, Ryan Lyons, and Patrick McConnell. We will alternate teaching at the new campus on Sunday nights. The WR campus then will not have 1 pastor but 3! And it will continue to function this way until the Lead Pastor emerges that God has for this campus.

Why We Are Planting in Warner Robins, GA...

The mission of New City Church is to see the Gospel transform everything within our reach, ourselves, our church, our city, and the world. While there are almost limitless ways in which we can communicate the gospel – youtube, facebook, twitter, websites, radio, tv, print… - we believe that the Most Effective Way to see gospel transformation become a reality in the lives of people is through the local church.

It is within the context of the local church’s community that the gospel is most readily heard and seen. Here, in the local church, the Gospel is proclaimed through preaching and teaching. It is also made known in the context of relationships, often one on one, within the community of the local church. More than that, the gospel is most readily seen in the lives of Christians as they do life together as a community of Christ followers – working, eating, laughing, playing, loving, weeping, mourning, encouraging… This is true not only for those who are inside the church, but also for those outside the church looking in at the lives of its people. The local church then serves as a beacon of light and hope and joy both to those who are far from God, but looking on, and those who are near God within the church.

This is why New City Church is a church planting church. We believe the Gospel will be advanced in our lives, in our church, in our cities, and throughout the world by planting missional, gospel centered congregations in cities and communities around the world.

So – we are planting our third campus, August 14th , 2011 in Warner Robins, GA.
We are excited to be a part of this plant, not because there aren’t good churches in Warner Robins, but because there are still people in Warner Robins who desperately need Gospel Transformation.