[Part 4 of 10 in answering some FAQ's about The City Church]As we move into the fall, we're excited to begin gathering regularly as we develop a "core group" and move toward our "official launch." The City Church will begin gatherings in three phases over the coming months:
Phase One: Building a Core (beginning Sunday, Sept 13):
Beginning this coming Sunday(!), folks who are interested in The City Church will begin meeting weekly, Sundays at 5:30 pm, at Matt and Angie Hudson's home (directions/details here). In order to give you a feel for "City life," this fall we're asking the question, "if we're a community on mission, what does __[insert an aspect of church life]__ look like?"
There is no cost and no commitment required during this initial phase; kids are welcome to join us as approved folks take turns caring for them, and we'll rotate through providing food. Each week we'll eat together, talk about life and God, pray for each other and meet each others needs, carry out local mission, and encourage each other with the Bible and theology as we build our church community!
What do we do about "worship" during the core phase? Knowing the value of gathering corporately for worship and teaching, we want to provide opporutnities for you to ease out of the church experience most of us are used to: this fall, we're totally fine with you attending another local church for worship services, then coming to our first Village as we gathering Sunday evenings. We only ask that you make sure it's OK with the leadership of the other church first! As another option, our friends at The Rooted Church have invited us to "camp out" with them on Sunday mornings through the fall. Additionally, "City folk" will gather the first Wednesday of every month (beginning this week, Sept 9), for a Worship+Prayer night, reminding us of our mission, for the glory of God and the good of Fort Worth.
Phase Two: Launch of Villages (beginning January or earlier)
The second phase of The City Church's "launch" is to turn our single Village into many, as we send you out to various weeknights and various homes, coffeeshops, and pubs across Fort Worth to begin regular, weekly Village gatherings. Our initial plan is to see this happen in January 2010, but depending on the size of our core gathering through the fall, we may multiply earlier than originally expected!
The structure of these Village gatherings will look much like the initial phase, but before we launch, we will ask folks to commit themselves to The City Church as their local church, and during this phase, we'll begin meeting more regularly for All-Church times of worship, teaching, and prayer.
Phase Three: Normal "City life" (likely beginning sometime in Spring 2010)
The final phase of The City Church's launch will be stepping into the normal rhythm of City life: weekly Villages gathering across Fort Worth on weeknight; All-Church Gatherings with our initial City Kids' ministry on Sunday evenings, and carving time into our schedule to live on mission to Fort Worth.
Rather than put a timeline on this final phase, our Board of Directors - with help from other Acts 29 pastors - is creating a list of standards we want our church family to meet before we add the regular All-Church Gatherings. The list will contain things like "our body understands Villages as the primarily weekly gatherings of the church"; "our people are living on mission in their daily lives"; etc.
So there it is: it's an exciting time to jump in on phase one, as we look not for a team of folks to give us "criticial mass" for a few months and disappear, but folks who want to build a long-term foundation in what God is doing in our city and our new church community, for his glory and the good of Fort Worth!
Next FAQ: What Will Villages Actually DO?
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