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Thank you for taking the time to find out more about New City Church and our community.
Our Sunday Worship gathering is at 10am in the Los Angeles Theater Center.
Are we a liberal or a conservative church?
Our Vision
To be an inclusive, gospel-centered community of lovers of Jesus Christ who connect people to God, grow together, serve the city, and extend God's kingdom.
Here is an excerpt about the vision from the first message Kevin gave at New City:
Welcome to New City Church. Today is the beginning of our church. It is our first Sunday morning gathering. We are not a traditional church like one you might have grown up in, and we are not a contemporary church like one you might have seen on TV. We are a multi-ethnic multi-socioeconomic church designed for people who do not go to church.
Our dream is to be an inclusive community where anyone can come, whether they are black, white, yellow, brown, whether they are poor living in Skid Row or rich living in a penthouse loft, whether they are a Democratic Obama supporter or a Republican Huckabee supporter, whether they are gay or straight, whether they are living a morally upright lifestyle or a morally loose one. We want this to be an inclusive community where anyone can come as they are.
Our dream is to be a gospel-centered community whose primary mission is to declare and live out the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are not a community that is ultimately about family values, ethics, or morals, but we are a community that is ultimately about how we have failed in our values, ethics, and life, and how God rescued us from the mess we’ve created. We are a community of people who are more sinful than we thought we were and more loved by God than we ever imagined possible. We are a community of sinners living in God’s grace.
Our dream is to be lovers of Jesus Christ and seek Him for the pleasure of His company, and not for what He can do for us or what we think we can do for Him.
Our dream is to connect residents in and around downtown LA and around all of Los Angeles to God by connecting them to this church, where they can find transformation and hope through a relationship with God. We want to create a church where we can bring our friends. We want our church to be for people who don’t go to church.
Our dream is to grow together with one another in a loving and honest community. We believe that the gospel transforms us, the Holy Spirit empowers us, spiritual disciplines place us where God can transform us, and we believe transformation happens in the context of community.
Our dream is to serve the city of Los Angeles, not just by sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ, but by living out the gospel of Jesus Christ. We will, in partnership with others, serve the needy; we will serve the lost; we will serve the forsaken; we will serve the hopeless. We will serve the city because God loves the city and we love the city. We will build this New City Church.
Our dream is to extend the Kingdom of God by sending out missionaries to the inner city, to the ends of the earth, and planting churches in the inner city to the ends of the earth. We will extend the Kingdom of God by proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ to the outer reaches of the world.
That is our dream. That is our vision.
And today, we put that dream into motion.
Our Core Values (explain our Vision Statement)
Our core values explain each word of our vision statement and are the DNA of our church:
What we seek to be:
An inclusive gospel-centered community of lovers of Jesus Christ.
What we seek to do:
- Connect: Sunday Gathering
- Grow: Community Groups
- Serve: Ministry Teams
- Extend: Team Leaders, Disciplers, Church Planting Teams
"BE" CORE VALUES:
Inclusive: We are a multi-ethnic, multi-socioeconomic Christian church where anyone can come as he or she is. We welcome everyone without judgment, whether you are Black, White, Latino, or Asian, live in a penthouse loft or skid row, work in U.S. Bank Tower or are on welfare, voted for Obama or McCain, are gay or straight, have a morally upright lifestyle or a loose one. We are a "come-as-you-are" church.
Gospel-Centered: The gospel is this: “We are more sinful than we can ever know and we are more loved than we can ever imagine, at the same time.” The gospel is not essentially about rules and how to live, but about our failures, and what God did to rescue us from the pit we’ve created for ourselves. God rescued us by sending Jesus to die for us on the cross, paying the penalty for our sins. God demonstrated His justice and love towards us through what He did on the cross to rescue us.
A Loving and Honest Community: We want to be a community where we care for one another, and can be vulnerable, where we can be accepted even if we are messed up, different, poor, rich, average, arrogant, meek, a sinner. We want to mourn with those who are mourning and rejoice with those who rejoice. We want to love homosexuals, people who look like they have it all together, homeless people, and people living outside of God. We want our church to look like Jesus. In addition, our faith in Jesus is not blind but grounded in solid historical evidence. Our faith also compels us to be emotionally honest with God and others. As such, we seek to be both intellectually and emotionally honest.
Lovers of Jesus Christ: We love God, and so, we seek an intimate relationship with Him which is made possible by what Jesus has done on the cross. We seek Him primarily for the pleasure of His company, and not just for what He can bless us with or what we think we can do for Him.
"DO" CORE VALUES:
Connect People to God: We are passionate about welcoming people who are not in a relationship with God. As such, we don’t want to create a church primarily for ourselves; we want to create a church primarily for our friends and neighbors.
Grow Together: In order for us to grow together, for inside-out transformation to happen, we need to live by the Spirit, which we believe encompasses the following four things:
· Believing the gospel with all of ourselves (intellectually, emotionally, volitionally, spiritually), not just to become a Christian, but also to grow as a Christian. The gospel is the foundation for Christian growth. It is only when we realize the truth of our sins and the power of His grace that our hearts are changed from inside-out and transforms our lives.
· Drawing near to God as Abba (daddy) in an intimate relationship with Him as a loved son or a daughter, walking in His presence every moment of our lives, listening to his promptings, and obeying Him. Spiritual practices such as prayer, meditation, worship, Bible study, solitude, confession, and fasting help us develop this intimacy with God. This is the process for Christian growth. Through this intimate relationship with God, He transforms us from inside-out.
· Being empowered with the Holy Spirit. We are asking God to empower us with the power of the Holy Spirit in order to prevail over the dominion of the powers of darkness. We expect God’s supernatural power to be a part of our Christian growth. This is the fuel for Christian growth.
· Doing it together. We believe that transformation happens in the context of community. This is the context for Christian growth. It is through discipleship and godly relationships that we spur one another to live by the Spirit.
Serve the City: We seek to be good news even to those who are not a part of the church because we become a part of the city and serve to benefit the city. We want to love the city because God loves the city. We network and partner with other groups and organizations to collectively serve the city. We also seek to help people integrate work and faith. In addition to sharing the gospel of Jesus with people at work, we seek to help people love, serve, and transform the city through their vocations.
