OUR VISION & BELIEFS
Our Vision
When you open scripture, you'll discover a single story with a single hero. From Genesis to Revelation, you'll read a single story about a broken world and broken individuals and the devastating lengths to which God goes to bring wholeness and healing to our hearts and this world (and the devastating depths we face without him). He does all this through his son, Jesus.
A New Record
Through faith in Jesus, we are brought into his family and united to him. And when that happens we get a new past, a new record, a new legal standing. That Jesus faces judgment for us on the Cross is good news for those outside the church and means that at New City, we want to talk to those outside the church about what Jesus has done and invite them to repent and believe.
A New Heart
We receive a new heart (e.g., Ez. 36.26) and are also brought to life by the Spirit, by whom we cry ‘Abba Father’. This means that Christ has broken the power of cancelled sin in our lives and frees us to live lives of radical transformation, lives of free children, empowered by His Spirit. This is good news for those inside the church and means that at New City, we care deeply about spiritual growth within our community.
A New World
Our adoption into the family of God isn’t just good news for us. The gospel is also the whole story of what God is doing through the death, resurrection, and ascension of His Son to renew the whole of creation (see Rom. 8). This is good news for the world and means that at New City we serve our neighborhoods, city, and the world to bring glory to God.
BUILDING A DEEP CHURCH
Christ our prophet: We are a confessional church.
New City is driven by the text of Scripture - we're not driven by partisan politics or a business model of the church. Yet, while committed to Scripture as the only infallible guide we have, a confessional church won’t approach or interpret the text in cavalier fashion. We’re not lone rangers: a confessional church is prevented from being too individualistic in its beliefs and practices in two ways.
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First, it is guided by historic confession: New City is an Evangelical Presbyterian Church. As a Presbyterian church, the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms serve as consensus documents that codify what we believe and teach. They’re not infallible or comprehensive documents, but they preserve the sufficiency of Scripture in their teaching and serve as anchor documents.
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Second, the confessional church is part of a denomination that provides plurality in leadership and connectedness to others. A confessional church isn’t driven by any one leader: a local congregation is led by a plurality of leaders (called elders in the Presbyterian tradition), and it is connected to other churches in a given region to provide still more accountability (called a ‘Presbytery’ in the Presbyterian tradition).
Christ our Priest: We are a sacramental church.
Sacramental churches believe that Christ is really present in gathered worship. We’re committed to participating weekly in the means of grace: Word, Sacrament, and Prayer.
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Our gathered worship has rhythms or cycles: (1) A praise cycle where we rediscover the glory of God. (2) A renewal cycle where we confess our sins and receive the assurance of our pardon in Christ. (3) A response cycle where we respond to God’s grace by submitting to His Word as it’s preached and tasting His goodness to us at the Table. At the Table, we are united to Christ, transformed and strengthened so that we can leave empowered for service, strengthened by His Word of benediction.
Christ our King: We are a communal church.
Christ’s Kingly ministry in the local church motivates a commitment both to building community and serving the local community. We’re committed to life-on-life shepherding and discipleship. We’re committed to the prosperity of the city and serving its interests (Jer. 29.5-7).
And we’re building an evangelistic community through local home discipleship groups that are committed to worship, sacrificial generosity, suffering with one another, accepting others as sinners while relentlessly pursuing holiness, and lovingly confronting one another as we speak the truth in love while at the same time encouraging and building one another up.
SERVING OUR NEIGHBORHOODS,
OUR CITY, AND OUR WORLD.
The church is both a source and locus of mission. We train and equip men and women to take the Gospel in word and deed to the world, starting in our local neighborhoods and city. Our weekly services are also places where the gospel is spread as non-Christians are present and participate in our corporate worship.