:: AIP#53 - Weekly Gatherings Have Begun! ::

We're off and running!
As of last night, The City Church's weekly gatherings have begun, as by God's favor we build both a core team and a strong foundation for our new church community over the fall. For me, it was thrilling, humbling, and a little surreal to see a couple-year-old dream move from hypothetical into reality, and exciting to see some faces who have been on this journey since it started taking shape a year ago, sitting next to others, whose first interaction with The City Church was last night's gathering. It was a great kick-off, and we're excited to see how God will move over the coming months!

Fall Overview
After everyone ate dinner together - kids with adults, because we believe the church is a family - and after enjoying celebratory cake and ice cream, everyone over the age of 10 "circled up" upstairs. We talked again through the vision [audio from the August Vision Dinner here], then introduced the first steps of "City life" - it's pretty simple, but here's what we're doing through the end of '09:

• Our Weekly "Village" (Sundays, 5:30pm) - Modeling the primary venue for life in The City Church, our first Village will meet weekly for dinner, building community, discussing scripture and theology as we grow together, praying for each other, & meeting each others' needs.
• Total Church (the content of our discussion) - As we lay a foundation this fall, we're asking the question, "if we're a community on mission, what does __[insert an aspect of church life]__ look like?" To guide that discussion, we're walking through Tim Chester & Steve Timmis's Total Church (which Crossway Books gave us at a huge discount + free shipping, allowing us to give them to our developing core team - thanks Crossway!). We're weighing their book against scripture, and will walk through consecutive chapters during our time together this fall. If you need a book, email Ben!
• First Wednesday Worship+Prayer (Oct 7, Nov 4, Dec 2) - We're beginning each month by reminding ourselves of our mission: we exist for the glory of God so we worship, through song, prayer, creed, and communion. And we exist for the good of Fort Worth, so we pray, for each other, for our church, and for the city we live, seeking God's welfare for it. We'll move around Fort Worth for these evenings, praying for various parts of our city. Read about our Sept 9 "W+P" here; details for the Oct 7 one coming soon.
  
• Fall Roadtrip (Oct 9-12) - Our first City Church "event" will be a weekend in the middle of the fall, to "unplug" a bit, and just spend time alone, with God, and together in beautiful Turner Falls, OK. $95 Fri-Mon; $80 Fri-Sun; details here; RSVP here.

And that's pretty much it! We'll have a few more opportunities for folks to get to know one another, but we're keeping the calendar pretty open, to allow you time to build relationships, love your neighbors, and live on mission, even in the early stages of our church's life.

Kids Ministry Kick-off
While the adults talked logistics and prayed over the fall, our "Kid City" ministry began as well, and through the work and dedication of some great parents, we're farther ahead than we originally thought! Taking over the Hudsons' guest rooms, our kids played games, made and decorated paper trumpets, made a little noise with those trumpets, and above all, started talking through the Old Testament story of Joshua from The Jesus Storybook Bible. Different pairs of background-checked adults will rotate through heading up kid stuff each week, with ready-made lessons prepared in-house by a great team of wonderful, godly City folk - we're hugely blessed by this, as Kid City made a strong kick-off!

Need A Book? Can't Make Sundays?
All in all, it was a fantastic beginning. We're amazed and grateful to God for the grace and blessing he gave, and we're excited to see what he's going to do this fall as we work together to build a strong foundation for The City Church, for the glory of God and the good of Fort Worth.

If you weren't there last night, I need to get you a copy of Total Church at some point this week, so you can be ready for next Sunday's discussion of chapter 1. And I know some of you are committed to other ministries/organizations on Sunday nights this fall; if that's you, let me know as we consider how to best involve you in the discussion, and as we ponder what our next step is in building The City Church. Either way, email Ben and we'll figure out what to do.