Imagine A City...

This past Sunday I had a conversation with one of our men. He has recently started reading Total Church and he and I have been talking about where New City is headed. He asked me of some churches who were similar in vision to New City - I pointed him to a couple that came to mind very quickly - Soma and Kaleo. I regularly visit there web sites and blogs and much of what they write and teach rings true in my heart.
Jeff, pastor of Soma recently started blogging. I read his blog today about the vision he had as he started Soma - it will probably sound familiar because so much of it I share for New City - (he just writes better!).
So here's a sample...

...Then, I would draw arrows coming out of the box and clarify: The mission of the church - the purpose of the gospel - is to call a people who are set apart to God through the work of Jesus Christ in order to send them out of the building for mission. The goal is not to fill a building with people but to saturate the city we live in with the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ through the called people of God living lives full of the Spirit, surrendered fully to the will and mission of God, living out the gospel in tangible ways in every place, home, neighborhood, business and school in our cities. The goal according to Paul as he addressed the church in Ephesus is to see Christ fill all in all - so that no one in our city will be able to get away from the real presence and proclamation of the Gospel AND the heavenly realms will be blown away at the manifold wisdom of God displayed in his Church everywhere.I asked the question, "What if we were to intentionally send more resources out of the building for the sake of the mission than we tried to keep in the building?" "What if the gifts that God has given to the Body are not just for the sake of our gatherings, but for the
building up of the Body in the city we live in?" "For example, what if the gift of administration isn't just for organizing our databases or events, but also for organizing broken systems and structures in the city we live in?" "What if our teaching gifts are not just for teaching a class for believers but also for tutoring kids that need extra help in school?" I remember asking, "What if we made it our goal to equip the believers that come to faith to leave the building and start new missional expressions of the church in their context?" What if we did not stop sending equipped missionaries back out until the city of Tacoma was filled in every way with the presence of Christ through His Body the Church?"

And here's the whole story.