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!
