A Plug For Plant and Replant

Plant and RePlant is an Acts 29 Regional Event

January 22-23

Hosted by New City Church downtown

More than anything. this event is intended to be a very practical help to you in whatever context you are currently in so that you can prayerfully and strategically prepare for the future. Our hope is not to preach to you about things that you should be doing, but answering questions that you have about how the gospel can take root in the work that you feel God is calling you into.

There will be 3 Main Sessions featuring Tyler Jones, planting pastor of Vintage 21 and Jonathan McIntosh, planter and former campus pastor at the Journey Church in St Louis.

There will also be 3 breakout sessions that will largely be Q and A - so bring your questions. Breakouts will be divided into 2 tracks - Planting and Replanting...

PLANTING PROMO:

RePLANTING PROMO:

What I learned About NCCd Church Planting (4)

Where We Intend to Plant Campuses (2) - Warner Robins:

This is a guest post from Heath Clarke, one of our Warner Robins MC Leaders about his home city...

Warner Robins is located directly south of Macon in a neighboring county. The city’s population is 61,336. However in Houston County (pronounced House-ton) the population is 133,161. Warner Robins and Houston County is one of the fastest growing areas in the state of Georgia (listed as the fastest outside of Atlanta according to recent census information http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houston_County,_Georgia). Warner Robins is also home of Robins AFB, the states largest industrial complex and employer making it a vital city to the Central Georgia area.

Partly because Warner Robins is a “young” city and has experienced rapid growth a central downtown area never developed. It is a typical 20^th century boomtown suburb setting, lined with shopping malls on every street and commercial chain restaurants.

However, because of a swelling desire by the people there are plans that have been developed by the city to renew and develop an area of the city to transform it into a city center and a downtown. A New City Church in Warner Robins could help serve the city in its plans to do such development.

Being a suburban military town, family and security are two traits of the city. These traits have made Warner Robins the number one city in the state of Georgia to raise a family for two consecutive years. The pulse and personality of Warner Robins is not music and art but family. The importance of the family is found in the very vibrant youth sports leagues and high school sports programs throughout the city.

New City Connections:
The Warner Robins and Sub-south Missional Communities. These two Missional Communities already buy into and are living out the vision and mission of New City Church and are serving their contexts with the gospel. These two MC’s will form the core team for planting in their context.

Heath and Lindsey Clark with Jason and Kimberly Clements - Together they lead the Warner Robins Missional Community. All have jobs in the city of Warner Robins and are serving to build and multiply their MC.

Mike and Tammy Gilbert – They are the leaders of the Sub-south Missional Community. The Sub-south area is between Macon and Warner Robins.

Through these MC’s there are several people that are attending and traveling 30 minutes to attend the New City gatherings on Sundays. They buy the vision and mission of the church and are already in the process of fighting to see the Gospel transform their city.

Because Robins AFB brings people from all over the United States and the world, Warner Robins is different in many ways than most Southern cities. One trait however that it shares with the south is a plethora of churches. Warner Robins and Houston County could be described as a very churchy un-churched culture. Religion is pervasive but the Gospel isn’t! What Warner Robins lacks is a church that is strong in all pillars of a healthy church (worship, community, being missional, and theology). Several churches might have one or some of these traits but none embody all. There is not a church that is striving to serve the city and engage it where it is with the gospel.

Though New City Church Warner Robins will no doubt look different because of the context of the city Warner Robins is in need of a church that preaches the Gospel and lives out the mission of God as a people living in community with each other for the city.

Macon - Music and More

Take a few minutes to watch and learn a little about Macon...

What I learned About NCCd Church Planting (3)

Following a week of preparation and meeting with a potential NCCd Campus planter/pastor and family, I wanted to take a few posts to unpack my thoughts. This is part 3 in the series. My first post focused on the idea that What We Intend To Do Is Good, my second post focused on How We Intend to Do This Being Good, this post begins a look at

Where We Intend to Plant Campuses:

While we are pretty wide open to planting locations, there are three Middle Georgia locations that we have immediately in mind: Milledgeville, Warner Robins, and Forsyth. This series of posts will give some basic info on each of those cities.

Milledgeville

Milledgeville is located almost 30 miles North of Macon. The city’s population is around 20,000. Add to that number almost 6,000 students at Georgia College and State University and 1,000 at Georgia Military College. One website listed the total population within a five mile radius of the city at 40,000.

Where the campus of Georgia College ends, the downtown area of Milledgeville begins. Downtown is a great mix of shops, restaurants, bars and coffee spots in buildings constructed in the late 1800s. The downtown area is beautiful and having 7,000 college students as a neighbor makes for a really great vibe. Downtown seems to be a pretty decent scene for art and music and hosts at least a couple of annual festivals.

New City Connections:

Brooks and Melissa Hinton – Brooks works in Milledgeville and he and Melissa are Missional Community leaders about 12 miles south of Milledgeville.

Heather Holder – I worked closely with Heather while she was with New Town Macon. Heather is from Milledgeville, is very involved in the downtown area as well as the community at large and is employed now by Georgia College. Heather is very familiar with New City Church and our work in Macon. I recently ran into Heather while visiting Milledgeville and she was visibly happy to hear that New City is looking to invest in downtown Milledgeville – she immediately began telling me about a great building that we could use downtown that isn’t on the market…

Josh and Megan Maloy recently moved to Macon to be a part of New City Church. Josh was the Campus Outreach leader at Georgia College and still has a lot of great student contacts at Georgia College.

Amanda Miles is a recent graduate of Georgia College and is also very involved at New City. She was our summer intern and like Josh, still has several contacts on the campus – one being her soon to graduate boyfriend Ben.

Because of Josh, Megan, Amanda, Ben and others we have actually had several students drive the almost 30 miles to New City Church…

Which leads to what we have learned from our Milledgeville connections:

While there is no short supply of churches in Milledgeville, there is a very short supply of gospel-centered, reformed, missional churches who are working to engage students and the city. In a conversation recently with one of the downtown shop owners, I asked about churches – she there were a lot of churches all around the city. I asked if any were really involved in the city for the good of the city – she paused – and answered, ‘No.’

So it seems, Milledgeville may be ready for a church like New City Church – and it seems it is in need of the Gospel.

What I learned About NCCd Church Planting (2)

Following a week of preparation and meeting with a potential NCCd Campus planter/pastor and family, I wanted to take a few posts to unpack my thoughts. This is part 2 in the series. My last post focused on the the idea that What We Intend To Do Is Good, this post focuses on:

How We Intend to Do This Is Also Good

First: We start with an assessment process

Anyone who wishes to plant an NCCd campus must pass an assessment process that is very much like the A-29 assessment process. The process includes numerous questionnaires covering theology, personal testimony, practical ministry, mission and vision, as well as calling. There are references to be completed, a resume of life and work experiences, personality testing, entrepreneur testing, and a phone interview. If all of this goes well, there is face to face time and a two hour husband and wife assessment.

If the potential planter does not pass the assessment process, at any time/stage the process will end.

Second: If the potential planter PASSES the assessment process, then the information attained in the process will be used to formulate a training strategy for the planter. Some may need theological strengthening, or preaching work, or perhaps just experience and guidance. (Of course, the potential planter must make a decision on coming to Macon and partnering with NCCd before training begins)

Third: When the potential planter and family are committed to the process and living in the area, training begins. The period of training will depend on the amount and type of training needed. Much will depend on how the potential planter responds to the training and increased weight of leadership. Training will mean intimate involvement in the operation, working, and pastoring of New City Church downtown. At the same time, the potential planter will begin working in the city in which he will plant and he will begin leading the Missional Community(ies) in that city.

Fourth: At some point (as soon as possible) in the training process, a date for Launch will be set. The MC will serve as the Launch team. The goal will be the casting of vision and multiplication of the MC. The readiness of the potential planter - now PLANTER - and the health and readiness of the core (the MC) will determine the final Launch date.

Fifth: LAUNCH (and yes I skipped finding the place for the Launch gatherings and a host of other details). A few things that the PLANTER didn't have to work hard on or worry about during the core building phase and Launch:

Casting a new vision - our MCs get it.

Finding musicians - man this was hard for a season! We currently have 3 bands who understand that they will one day rotate between campuses,

Membership - We will launch our version of membership this winter. The class materials will be handed to the planter - with a core of members.

Lack of Experience - Likely there will still be a lack here BUT, the Planter will have had hands on training with a planter AND he will continue to receive coaching and support from NCCd elders who have been in the battle and want to see the planter's victory.

Sixth: There are still unknowns regarding future structures - but we have ideas. The plant/campus will remain a New City Church - and will be active in planting other churches. The campus planter will be an elder - serving with other New City Church downtown elders and raising up his own elders

The system - though we still have much to learn and put in place is a good one. It equips the planter and readies the people for a plant. It takes away many of the areas that are time consuming and troublesome for many planters... it doesn't guarantee a successful and thriving plant, but it sure seems that it will help a lot.

So - I'll end it here with this... if you are interested in planting in Middle Georgia as a New City Campus - You'll get an MC Core, 3 awesome worship bands, proven elders, support from a guy near you working hard with you, and more...

e-mail me keith@newcitydowntown.org

What I Learned About NCCd Church Planting (1)

Having spent the majority of last week hanging out with a family who may be moving to Macon to train and plant a New City campus, I want to take a few posts to reflect on my thoughts and things I learned from last week. I'll post as things come to mind, but not in any particular order. Here's the first...

What We Intend To Do Is Good

What is it that we intend to do?

We intend to plant churches (New City campuses) in numerous cities in the Middle Georgia region. Currently we are considering Warner Robins, Milledgeville, and Forsyth.

While each of those cities does have some good churches, initially it appears that there is a need for a Gospel-centered, reformed church that is willing to engage unchurched people in the public square. It seems that not only is there a need for such a church, but there are also people wanting such a church. Visiting these cities and talking about them this past week with residents and others has only strengthened our planting intent. In fact, it has fueled the fire to plant sooner rather than later.

What do we mean by a NEW CITY CAMPUS?

This is always one of the first questions that a potential planter with New City asks. The reason for the question is because there are so many different types of campuses:

Video Venue campus - Generally the majority of the preaching at such a campus is done via video projection by one guy. Mars Hill has several campuses where Mark Driscoll preaches the vast majority of the time - not live, but by video projection. Campus pastors in this system shepherd people, organize, and lead a campus but do not preach very often.

Single Preacher Satellite Campus - This is a campus in close enough proximity to the church's main campus that the Preaching Pastor can preach in one venue and then fly off (sometimes literally) to the second campus where he preaches again.

New City Campuses - Our hope is to find a planter/pastor for each of our targeted cities (and then some). Each campus planter will serve as the pastor and lead preacher/teacher for that campus. In many respects he will function and operate just as any planter would - juggling getting to know a new city, building of new relationships inside and outside of the body, working on policies, studying, writing, counseling, and yes weekly preaching and teaching.

BUT - he would plant the New City campus with the shared resources of NCCd - we would share elders, share systems and structures, share bands (creating a rotation between campuses for our current 3 bands), share a common mission and vision, finances, Missional Communities and more! For example: A New City warner robins planter would come into a situation where a core group already exists in our Warner Robins MC (Missional Community). The MC knows, understands, and is fully on board with our mission and vision. They are ready to work toward a WR campus and several of them have worked in NCCd for over a year - THAT for a planter is PRICELESS!

So - I'll end it here with this... if you are interested in planting in Middle Georgia as a New City Campus - You'll get an MC Core, 3 awesome worship bands, proven elders, support from a guy near you working hard with you, and more... e-mail me keith@newcitydowntown.org

Why Wait? Time is Ticking - PLANT

Not knowing what to expect, I blogged and tweeted and facebooked a call for a church planter - someone willing to lead a New City campus in Middle Georgia - Forsyth, Warner Robins, or Milledgeville. The tweet was re-tweeted and the blog had 4 times as many hits in a day as usual. And from all of the traffic - 1 guy followed through!

He and his wife and their 21 month old son will be heading to Macon on December 2 to meet us and check out middle Georgia. We have already completed his initial assessment and everything looks great.

A few people have asked what I have asked myself - Are we ready to plant? We are not quite 2 years old, we have 1 full time staff person (me), we are running wide open to keep up with ourselves and our city, we are pushing to add partnership (our version of membership) and leadership development, our elder candidates are just that CANDIDATES... Can we really plant a new campus?

So here are my thoughts:

* If we wait until we have everything figured out with all of our 'i's dotted and t's crossed' - we will never do it.

* If we wait until we have enough money - we will likely never do it.

* If the right guy were with us today, it would take us a year to Launch a new New City campus - a year of planning, a year of MC building, a year of getting ready...

* There is a need, now for gospel centered missional churches and every day, week, month that we wait puts off another day, week, month, year...

* Will a new campus be 'successful'? I don't know. And I really only know one way to find out - try it - not as a fool, but by faith believing that God is in the process even now - leading his people, preparing the way, and working for His kingdom

So - I would then reverse the question - Why Wait? Why NOT now? Time is ticking!

If you are interested in planting in Middle Georgia and align theologically and missiologically with New City Church downtown - Let's talk!

If you want to know more about church planting - check out Plant and RePlant - register today!

Want to Plant?

80% of church plants fail. At least thats the statistic commonly used. Ed Stetzer's statistics show that 68% make it to year 4. Either way, many new church starts have short, hard lives.

I have heard no statistics, but I have seen the ruin of men and churches whith the attempt to infuse new life in old and dyeing churches. Replanting an established church is most often NOT successful - 95% of churches are unable to change their DNA.

In contrast, according to Scott Thomas of the Acts 29 Church planting network, 95% of A-29 Church plants and re-plants are successful.

So have you ever wondered - what are A-29 churches doing?

How they doing it?

If so, you will want to join us January 22-23 for the Plant and RePlant Conference. The featured speakers are Tyler Jones of Vintage 21 Church in Raleigh, NC, and Jonathan McIntosh of ReThink Mission and a former campus pastor at the Journey Church in St. Louis, MO.

One of the unique things about Plant and RePlant is that we will bring together church planters who are still new in their plant and veterans who have 'been there and done that' to answer YOUR questions. Break outs for Plant and RePlant will primarily consist of Q and A driven by attendees. So - if you are a planter now, hope to be a planter one day, or a church looking to jump into church planting, Plant and Re-Plant is for you!

Register early - seating is limited.

Ambition Audio Available

Thanks to Sojourn Church for getting audio up so quickly from last week's Ambition Boot Camp. This was the Best Boot Camp that I have attended - my recommendation to church planters is that you listen to every session! For understanding your city and connecting for transformation, Kevin Cawley is a MUST hear. To keep you humble and distance yourself from the glitter that some associate with church planting - DO NOT MISS Chandler. Happy Listening!

The following was pulled directly from Sojourn's church planting blog:

You can either download them all from: the Sojourn Church iTunes podcast , our standard podcast RSS feed , or listen to them right from the sojournchurch.com Guest Speakers page. Here are direct links to each session:

Matt Chandler (Ministry for the Long Haul & Ambition)

Kevin Cawley (Decoding Your City & Ambition)

Bob Thune (Discipleship & Ambition)

Russell Moore (Speaking Past Demons: Christian Preaching As Expository Exorcism)

Darrin Patrick (Leadership & Ambition)

Steve Timmis (The Church & Ambition)

Ed Stetzer (Church Planting & Ambition)

Dave Harvey (The Gospel & Ambition)

Droided

I fought it for years - not wanting to be connected - I was already waaaaayyyyy to connected - computer at work, laptop at home, laptop on vacation, laptop at conferences...

Then I got a semi-smart phone. It could get and send e-mail, do important mobile stuff like twitter and facebook. With that I could get and receive e-mail from anywhere (yes anywhere - because unlike AT&T Verizon has real nationwide coverage). But - I couldn't do much online and I couldn't open documents - and a few other things that just 10 years ago no one could do from anywhere - except a cold room with walls lined with giant computers (OK maybe 20 years ago).

Well - today I purchased a SMART phone - I think. It seems smart. Smarter than my first 3 computers - able to do 100 times as much as my 1st laptop. Now I can be connected, surf the web, do research, shoot and upload video, take 5 mega pixel pics (with a flash), call you, receive your call, get driving instructions, shop e-bay and more - all at the same time - from ANYWHERE.

wondering if this was really a good purchase.

Ambition Highlights

Last week was a cRaZy busy week as Amy and I headed to Louisville, KY and Sojourn Church for Acts 29's Ambition Boot Camp. Boot Camps are exhausting: there is travel, nightly events, early mornings (8:30 am meetings), afternoon activities, dinners, hang out (late night) and back at it early in the morning, followed by Thursday assessments of potential church planters, then return travel! It is honestly non-stop. Add to that maddening pace the incredible amount of teaching that pours out of one amazing leader after another and - well - it can take days to recover - but who has days to recover?!?!?

So, while it was fresh on the mind, I thought I would share some of the highlights for me from last week, in no particular order...

# Boot Camps and other A-29 events provide me with the opportunity to connect with other planters in the network - much needed.

# The teaching line up at these events is INCREDIBLE - Ed Stetzer, Darrin Patrick, Steve Timmis, Russ Moore, Matt Chandler, Kevin Cawley, Dave Harvey, and Bob Thune all rocked the main sessions.

# Boot Camps are getting better and better at addressing a wide range of issues and need through breakout sessions - Ambition was the best I have attended.

# Sojourn and A29 did a great job of taking care of the A 29 guys there to help with the Boot Camp and assessments - great meals together, great hang out time that included a couple of awesome Louisville pubs and some cigars (love the smell of a cigar though I do not smoke them)

# Wives are encouraged to help in the assessments - that means Amy makes the trip with me - nice.

# Daniel Montgomery invited me to help by teaching one of the breakout sessions - Vision and Values - Great Church or Great City? It gave me the opportunity to share with people from all over the country the cool stuff going on in New City and in our city

# Kevin Cawley's talk was the best session I have had the honor of being in (and I have been in some good ones). Kevin is planting in KC, Mo - but what he talked about described what New City is doing. Really Good! I got to follow his talk with a brief testimony about New City - cool.

# Josh and Meghan Maloy made the trip as well as Patrick and Jennifer McConnell - hang out time with them was really good. Josh and Meghan made their first A-29 event and walked away with a renewed heart for our mission and vision.

# Meeting men from all over the country who have a passion and drive to reach people with the gospel by starting new churches - exciting.

Audio should be up in a week or so as well as video interviews with numerous planters and worship leaders.

A great week! Now to catch up here...

Love Should Lead Me to Risk Much - What's Your Agenda

In my previous post I raised the question of whether or not we truly love the people around us. If we do, then our love should compel us to share the gospel - even though that involves risk. The next question that came to my mind when it comes to the gospel and those around us centers on agenda.

What is your agenda? (Webster's - an underlying plan or program)

Is it to LOVE first, or to CONVERT?

If your agenda is simply conversion, then - what will you do of there is no conversion? What will you do if the one you share Jesus with doesn't believe?

Christ follower - watch this video - a non-Christian's perspective:

Christians Trying to Convert Non-Christians from Rethink Mission on Vimeo.

Love Should Lead Me to Risk Much

A lot of people think I am crazy or maybe just stubborn because I will hop back on my motorcycle as soon as I am able - this after my second broken bone from a crash (and I am not getting younger - whatever that means). Obviously there is a risk with riding a dirt bike, but for me the reward is worth the risk!

There is nothing that compares with riding - I LOVE it - and that Love leads me to risk scrapes, bruises, a little blood, and broken bones.

I have been thinking a lot over the past few days about the Gospel and our motivation (or lack thereof ) for sharing it with others. The gospel is by its nature confrontational and ultimately divisive - you are a sinner and either you believe or you don't. Confrontation and division often leads to arguments, hurt feelings, name calling, and worse. Talking with co-workers whom you see every day could lead to awkward days at work. Talking to friends on such a touchy subject could lead to your being de-friended! So - there is a risk. And often we determine the risk to be too great. So we say nothing.

But - if we LOVE our friend or co-worker (and I really mean love - not just the word love, but the reality) - if we love them, shouldn't that love motivate us to take a risk?

Or is that the real issue? We don't truly love.

Tis the Season - to ReThink the Season

Earlier this week I was checking out the Advent Conspiracy after hearing much about it and knowing almost nothing. The concept was nothing new, but some of the numbers were incredible... a solemn reminder of the consumerism of my culture - and of my own consumerism.

The Advent Conspiracy is about Christmas - and Christmas spending, but we are actually in the midst of a pre-Christmas holiday right now - Halloween. While Halloween numbers fall far short of Christmas numbers, a Time Magazine article estimates Halloween spending to be 6 BILLION dollars this year. Add to that the dollars spent on enormous Fall Festivals sponsored by churches and quite frankly the numbers are sickening.

Watch this video from the Advent Conspiracy and tell me what you think...

So, as you enjoy a Fall Festival or purchase Christmas gifts,

remember that just $10 Billion could potentially change the world.

in the beginning...

I was asked to contribute to a piece that is being written for the FPD Alumni News. The article will feature comments from several FPD grads who are very involved in downtown and will describe why we love downtown and are so involved. Thinking about what to write reminded me of those first days downtown - and how we got here. Below is one of my first posts on this blog:

so as I was dreaming of

WHERE I might plant a church - downtown kept

coming to mind. A lot

of work and $ is going into rehabbingdowntown Macon. New facades on old buildings, a new Sports Hall of Fame and Music Hall of fame, new stores, pubs, and sandwich shops. Caleb, our student minister and I went to lunch. I decided I would take a look around downtown and introduce Caleb to some areas of Macon he might not know. We had lunch at the Rookery - great burgers and walked around downtown.

It made my heart BEAT.

There was LIFE.

People walking and talking, having lunch at tables along the street.

There was the occasional homeless/street person, the hospital worker, the starched-shirted businessmen, and the whole spectrum of human colors.

That was the place.

That is the place.

Continued Growth in a Bad Economy

Economic slump doesn’t stop growth in downtown Macon - Local & State - Macon.com

Source: www.macon.com

During one of the toughest economic downturns, several new small businesses have opened in downtown Macon during the past year or so, helping bring jobs and people to the citys center.

Help Wanted - SERIOUSLY

Wanted:

Church Planters

New City Church is a church plant - we started new and with little more than a small core of people, a great desire to see the gospel transform the city, and an overwhelming sense that THIS is what God was calling us to do. New City Church is a member of the Acts 29 church planting network. We are a church planting church - meaning, we believe that the best way to reach new people is through planting new churches.

New City Church is located in downtown Macon. We have Missional Communities in or near, Forsyth, Milledgeville, and Warner Robins and we are considering planting in those cities.

If you are a church planter, in agreement with Acts 29 doctrine, and Middle Georgia is where you feel God leading you to plant - we would love to talk to you.

Must be an Ox (listen here)

New City, You Have Favor With All The People

Yesterday afternoon New Town Macon held its annual meeting. The meeting is an opportunity for New Town to give a yearly review as well as talk about what is on the horizon. Bruce Green from the Georgia Department of Economic Development also spoke.

Towards the end of the meeting New Town presented its "Partners in Progress Awards." Some of the award winners were Talmadge Stuckey for 'Growing Jobs,' College Hill Corridor received the '360 Degrees Award,' and Cox Communications received the 'Creating a Sense of Place Award.' Some of the other award winners were County Commission Chairman Sam Hart, Mayor Robert Reichert, and NEW CITY CHURCH.

The award reads, "Emerging Leader," but the accolades given went well beyond any one person and spoke very clearly of a church making a difference in its city. It was amazing to hear all of the reasons the award was presented to me, especially hearing them from people not associated with New City Church. Some of the things mentioned:

starting a church in downtown Macon

a growing congregation

involvement in downtown events

a recognized presence working for downtown

volunteers serving regularly at downtown events

New City people moving to the city

financial support in the city (even quoting our Live, Work, and Play downtown)

the start of City Watch and our strong support of it

Honestly, there may have been more said. The moment was incredibly surreal and the presenter seemed to go on and on with really great things to say... it was a little overwhelming. It is still a little overwhelming.

So - New City - your work in the city, your love of the city, and your hope for the city has not gone unnoticed, and as a result it seems you have favor with all the people (Acts 2:47).

Macon Telegraph Story

567 Interview

Greg Wood recently interviewed me regarding the 567. The following is a portion of that interview found on Greg's blog:

New City Church downtown (NCCd), of which I am a member, states that “we exist to see the gospel transform everything within our reach… ourselves, our church, our city, and the world.” In April of 2008, the 567 Café became a very public expression of this mission. Located at 567 Cherry St., Macon, Georgia, the café provides a venue for musicians and artists to present their work on Friday and Saturday nights while providing coffee and other refreshments to the patrons.

In an interview on August 1, 2009, Keith Watson, pastor of NCCd said to me the following when asked what the goal of the 567 Café is.

The ultimate goal of the 567 is the same as the mission of our church: to see the gospel transform everything within our reach. The 567 is a tool that, primarily through the relationships we develop there, the gospel can go forward. Our goal primarily is gospel-transformation in people who work, live, or play in downtown Macon

Another benefit that has been observed by the church in having the 567 Café is that the members can form new relationships with people whom they would not contact otherwise. The setting is an easy place to have conversations that lead to discussing the church, the gospel, and Jesus. Secular artists, musicians, and patrons often ask questions about why a church would provide such a venue in the downtown area. In short, the café serves to help people live missional lives.

New City Church downtown is committed to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. NCCd also holds that faith in Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation. The church is a theologically conservative evangelical church which believes in the authority, inerrancy, and infallibility of Scripture. A more complete list of theological beliefs can be found at the church’s website: www.newcitydowntown.org/about_new_city.

Part of the reason NCCd gathers in downtown Macon (and thus the 567 Café is in downtown Macon) is that other churches have left the area, and most of the churches who are still there are not engaging the culture with the gospel. Thus, the 567 Café seeks to be for the good of the city, and the advancement of the kingdom and the gospel.

In addition, downtown Macon has a fairly rich music history and a music scene that seems to be reviving. Keith expounded on how the 567 Café took on its current form.

As a part of the revitalization efforts of downtown, NCCd wanted to involve the visual arts and music. In talking with musicians and others who were downtown, NCCd found that the only places to listen to music were bars. There were no listening rooms. It was just loud bars filled with smoke. We could meet a need in that musicians are looking for a place to play. Macon needed its own residents to see good things happening downtown. The space just fit all of that. It fit our needs and the
needs of the city. That’s contextualizing what we do.

I asked Pastor Keith how he sees the 567 serving to establish a counter-culture rather than a sub-culture. Here is how he answered:

Our hope and goal is to celebrate good things that God has created. God created us to be creative people like he is creative. I believe that’s a part of being created in his image. So we celebrate the creativity of the people in our city. We do so in an environment that is generally clean and safe for family and where we can come with our wife and children. It’s an environment that is good for the musicians as well.

What we do at the 567 is counter-cultural in two ways. It’s counter-cultural in the secular world because we’re a place that celebrates the artists and their creativity. This is very counter-cultural because in the other venues that those artists play, it’s not about the artists or their art; [rather] it’s about them bringing money to the facility. So we’re counter-cultural there in that we truly celebrate them and the gifts that God’s
given to them.

The 567 is also counter-cultural in church culture because we’re not running from our community and our culture. We’re engaging it and celebrating what is good.

When asked to share some of the things that have shown him that God’s hand is really involved in this ministry, Keith shared the following.

Many people have been skeptical of the church being downtown and us doing this cafe thing for music. There have been a number of people who have been sitting back and watching to see whether we were real and genuine. I had a conversation at Bragg Jam last week with a female musician whose lyrics indicates that she’s got Christian background, but you can also hear in her lyrics that something has happened that really hurt her. She walked away from the church several years ago. Well she’s played at the 567 Cafe several times. We have developed a relationship through talking with her about her music and about her playing at the cafe and through serving her while she’s at the Cafe (by helping her get set up and torn down). That developed that relationship so that when we were at Bragg Jam, she and I sat down while one of the musicians was playing and had a thirty minute conversation about religion, church, and the gospel. We’re supposed to meet again for coffee just to talk more. But she was obviously very excited. She said she has not found anyone in the last several years who she felt that she could talk openly and honestly to about her hurts in the church and
religion. So there’s one.

This was I think the tenth year of the Bragg Jam music festival. This was our [the 567’s] second year as a venue and this year we were the only non-alcohol-serving venue at Bragg Jam. We had rave reviews from a lot of the people who played there and who visited there for music. After Bragg Jam, because of the 567 and because our people serve at Bragg Jam, there were some conversations as they were planning for next year’s Bragg Jam. [We talked about NCCd] providing help to them, create a couple
of more venues that were family-friendly, and even having Christian music. One of the ideas was to maybe do some gospel music to bring black and white together-maybe even to bring a couple of the church choirs together as one of the acts. So all of that, to me, is a hint of redemption that is coming through Bragg Jam, which was a pub crawl only two years ago. The only way that that conversation was taking place was because of the 567 and our people serving in the city. So that is a huge success.

City Watch [a Neighborhood Watch for a sixteen block area surrounding the 567 Café] is a result of the 567 because people saw that we were serious about our city and loved our city and wanted to be a part of revitalizing our city. That led to conversations about what we could do about security and other issues downtown. That led to City Watch, which pays a part of Patrick’s monthly income. So that was a big thing directly connected to the 567.

There have been tons of gospel conversations with unbelievers… and on and on.

New City’s efforts have been met with some skepticism from those outside the body. The common misunderstanding was that it would be a “church café” for “church people” with “church bands.” It was thought that the 567 Café would simply be against the things that go on in the city.” The Church in downtown Macon has not generally celebrated with the culture. It has been completely isolated in its own world, following more of Niebuhr’s “Christ Against Culture” model. So, the apprehension was brought about because people expected the 567 Café to be the same.

In, For, On - a Changing Season

Fall is in the air... at least hints of Fall. Fall is probably my favorite season - football, cool mornings, the bright colors of changing leaves... good stuff!

This Fall brings another change for me. I have been hard at work for 2 years IN New City Church and FOR New City Church - now I have to shift and work more ON New City Church. Let me explain:

IN - Working IN New City Church means I spend time IN the church and IN the activities of the church. Working IN the church includes things like counseling, set up and tear down, study and sermon prep, even concessions and sound at the 567 - the in-house things that you would think of most when you think of a pastor.

FOR - Working FOR the church means that I am working on behalf of the church. This would include attending local meetings outside of the church, working with a group talking and considering a 'Day Shelter' for the homeless, working with New Town Macon and others downtown. These are things that I often do for the good of New City Church. I represent you (New City) in our community and beyond.

Both of these I am very accustomed to as a pastor. All pastors work IN and FOR their churches to some degree, though I will admit that New City's commitment to our city has caused much more work FOR than I ever anticipated. What is very new to me, at least to the sizable degree that we face as a church plant, is working ON New City Church.

ON - Working ON New City means that I will be focussing on things like SYSTEMS (ex. how do we evaluate and train future church planters, elders, deacons..., membership?), PROGRAMS (ex. what do we need in place to ensure that our current and future leadership is well trained, what needs exist for children...), POLICIES (in writing), HIRING, FIRING, BUDGETING... and the list goes on!

The truth is that for the most part, things have been so busy since we started that I haven't had time or energy to work ON while also working IN and doing so much work FOR. I believe that now we have established ourselves well downtown, so I can ease off on some of the FOR work. And hopefully some of our people will take up my slack and continue a lot of the great work that remains to be done. I also believe that getting a bit more work done ON the church will free me up to continue to be more involved IN the church - especially in developing the leadership IN the church.

So it is a season of change. Coming soon in 2010 we should see New City's version of church membership - something we are choosing to call PARTNERSHIP. With that we will add a 5 or 6 week class that I am writing now. We are also looking at training that we would open up to the entire church but that is aimed at developing current and future leadership - classes like How to Study Your Bible, An Old Testament Overview with the Gospel in mind, New Testament Overview, Theology Basics, Biblical Counseling, and more (remember, we are a worshipping community of missional THEOLOGIANS)

On top of that I and other church leadership continue to ponder the possibilities of a move and a more permanent 7 day a week home for New City. We are looking for a strong finish to 2009 as God continues to do amazing things in and through New City - and already the season is changing and 2010 is looking amazing!

Baptists, Gays, and A-29 - What a Day!

Yesterday was quite the full day! I had two major appointments - The Georgia Baptist Convention North of Atlanta for what turned out to be a round table discussion with 8 church planters from the state and several leaders from the GBC, followed by a panel discussion at Mercer University on the subject of Gays and Religion. Thanks for all of the prayers and questions about how things went - for those who want to know - here's the rundown...

GBC and A-29

GBC will continue to welcome churches who desire to be both A-29 and Georgia Baptists.

Churches who desire to receive funding from the GBC or SBC (Southern Bapt Convention) will sign a statement saying that they do not drink alcohol and hold a position of abstinence. The possibility exists that an A-29 church plant who agrees with the abstinence policy of the GBC/SBC and agrees with the ecclesiology statement of the GBC/SBC and who desires to be Southern Baptist MAY (as in - maybe, might, possibly) be eligible for GBC/SBC funding as any other GBC/SBC church plant would be.

Also

I had a great discussion with Butch Butcher the GBC head of church planting about the fact that each Acts 29 church is independent and not all Acts 29 churches are the same. So each church should not be judged based on Mars Hill or Mark Driscoll. Likewise just because some Acts 29 churches take a moderation approach to alcohol, doesn't mean that all do - many take an abstinence approach. Therefore churches should be considered individually when partnering with the GBC and should not be automatically viewed in a negative light because they are Acts 29.

There seems to have been good, honest dialog and there is a mutual respect for one another even though there are differences on secondary issues (though alcohol remains a primary issue for most in the SBC/GBC).

J Robert White, the GBC Executive Director stated that he would like very much to meet again and continue the dialogs. A couple of guys from the GBC church planting team said they would like to come and visit me and New City soon.

Gays and God

(I think that is what the evening was called)

I was a late invite to the table, but gladly accepted the invitation. The panel was made of 8 - 4 Conservative / 4 Liberal

Conservatives: Myself, Eric Ashley (Associate Pastor at First Pres Macon), Chris Fuller (Bapt College Ministry leader at Mercer), Dominique Johnson (local word of faith preacher/minister)

Liberals: Camile Hegg (Rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church), Dennis Meredith (Pastor of Tabernacle Bapt in ATL), Chris (Prof of History at Mercer), a Mercer student who is gay

questions:

What is your church's faith tradition and how has it historically viewed homosexuality?

How does your church view membership of homosexuals and their full participation in the church?

How will your church address / respond to the growing acceptance of gay marriage - especially if Gay marriage were to become legalized in GA?

Each panelist answered the question and then other panelists may add to, comment, or question those responses.

I am very thankful to have had an opportunity to participate in the discussion - I learned a great deal. There were a couple of tense moments, but all remained civil and no one yelled - a good night on such a difficult subject. So here are a few observations:

1) The 4 conservatives relied on Scripture - because Scripture holds such a high value to us. We all quoted Scripture and repeatedly expressed that our opinions were not based on feelings, or fears, but on what the Bible says.

All 4 liberals relied on feelings, psychology, and opinion. They gave no Scriptural references and stated that the Bible is important but should not be taken as literal. It is best to take the teachings of the Bible along with modern psychology and a good understanding of culture. Rector Hegg said that we should understand that the Bible is really just stories of people from long ago trying to make sense of life and understand how God was a loving God. (What the #@!!% are you talking about!!!!!?????? - sorry, mental flashback on my part)

2) The most humble people speaking were the conservatives (maybe excluding myself - I wasn't always humble). The liberals in the room were at times arrogant making statements like: the conservative reactions come from fear - homophobia. That statement was made multiple times - I reacted on the 1st occasion by raising my hand and stating - I am NOT a homophobe. I am not afraid of those of you who are gay. The second time I said that the Rector was making gross misstatements of me and other conservatives by saying that we react in fear. The truth is that our position is held based on our theology and based on the teachings of Scripture. Another statement - the problem with them (looking at the conservatives on the panel) is that they are unwilling to look at the findings of doctors, sociologists, and psychologists. There were other statements as well. The conservatives over and over and over presented themselves as broken and dependent on Jesus.

3) I never heard the gospel - in any form - from the liberals. Every answer and discussion by conservatives went back to the gospel - our common need for a redeemer - and Jesus being that redeemer.

4) Without a common view of Scripture - there will never be agreement between liberals and conservatives.

Most outrageous statements of the night:

1) You are not broken or sinful - you are good, just like you are - you are the image of God.

(Who needs to know what the Bible says about you???? Just ask Prof. Chris!)

2) God created me in his image. I am gay. Therefore a part of God must be gay as well.

3) The statement above by the Rector - that the Bible is really just stories of people from long ago trying to make sense of life and understand how God was a loving God.

All in all, a great night - much learned - Jesus was highly exalted. I probably don't have many new gay friends - but that wasn't the hope of the night - sharing the gospel with boldness in love and kindness was... I think that happened.