4 Reflections On God's Faithfulness As New City Church Moves

The week of this post is a significant one for me and New City Church as we are moving out of our first location (auditorium pictured above) as a church and into our second. God has been gracious to us in our nearly three years of existence as a church, and moving is an easy time to remember and reflect as you prepare for what is ahead.

This post is more of a personal one for me as I share four reflections on God's faithfulness as we move into our new space.

1. God's grace is often unseen in the moment

All of us have times in our lives where we are praying and asking God to move. Yet, from everything we can tell, nothing is happening. In fact, sometimes it seems like things are getting worse.

This was the story of New City trying to find our first space to start meeting in as a church. Finding a space to meet was not something I thought we be difficult, and yet it turned out to be one of the most discouraging things I dealt with in the beginning.

For various reasons, we kept getting a "no" from various schools, community centers, and other places we wanted to rent out on Sunday mornings. Eventually, with no options in the particular part of North Raleigh we wanted to be in, I remembered that right across the street from where Christina and I lived at the time was a church that met in an office park.

I didn't know exactly where they met, I just knew I saw their road sign every weekend. So I found them online, went to their website, and saw that they were moving. Crazy.

To make a very long story short, that space turned into where New City has called home for almost three years.

Looking back, it was actually God's grace to us that we couldn't find any other place to meet. Why? Because there were a lot of factors that needed to go our way in order for us to get the space. Because we didn't have any other options if we wanted to be in this part of Raleigh, we had no choice but to go for it. If there were other options, I know that I wouldn't have tried for the space.

In other words, what I saw as unanswered prayer was actually God answering our prayers in ways we didn't even think to pray (I never thought we would start out in our own 24/7 facility). God was abundantly gracious to us, even if I couldn't see or understand it in the moment.

2. God doesn't move slow, he moves at a pace that is good for us

It's commonplace to hear how God's timing is often different than ours, and how He is a slow-moving God (at least compared to our desired timing).

And while that sentiment is technically true in many cases, I don't think it's an accurate portrayal of what God is often doing. Here is what I mean; we typically define things as "slow" in comparison to how quickly we think a particular thing moves in relation to other similar things or according to our expectations of it.

For example, a professional basketball player may be faster than the vast majority of people, but if he is slower than most other NBA players, he would be labeled as "slow." He's not actually slow, but simply slower than others we are comparing him to.

Or to give a practical example from my world; every church planter, if they are honest, would love to grow quickly. And this isn't all with prideful motives, the vast majority of pastors I know are primarily motivated by helping as many people as possible see and experience Jesus. So, of course, I wanted this to be true of New City.

But that didn't happen at New City. In fact, we steadily declined in attendance during our first year. In my eyes, things were moving slower than I thought they should. However, it was my expectations or desires that were off, not the pace God was moving.

The reality is, both I and our church could not have handled quick growth. Because of my relative lack of experience, we didn't have the proper systems and structures in place to get a lot of people connected and moving forward on mission.

I also needed time to grow as a preacher and communicator. There were a lot of factors that lead to New City needing "slow" and steady growth, not "quick" growth.

While you could look at this as "slow" it really was God in his kindness moving New City at a sustainable and healthy pace. "Fast" would have been detrimental to our church in ways that could have even made it hard for us to ever recover from.

In my experience, God moves "slow" because our expectations or desires are too "fast." God is actually moving at just the right speed.

3. God has been very kind to me and New City Church

Ultimately, there is no other explanation for New City being where it is and making it through the first few years (when many church plants don't) other than God's kindness towards us.

He provided our first space where we didn't have to be a portable church and could instead use our facility for a lot of really great things. He provided the really great staff team we have at New City. He provided so many amazing people who serve and give generously because they care about the mission of helping people meet Jesus and grow in a relationship with him.

There are so many things that God, for whatever reason, has been kind and gracious towards us with. Yes, strategies and effort do matter, but there is so much that was and is out of our control. In fact, here are 9 of my favorite memories that I shared when New City Church turned two years old.

God has been kind to us and to me, there is no other way to put it.

4. God has provided New City with faithful people, this is the primary reason we are growing

While there are many other things I could share about God's faithfulness towards New City, this one is the most impactful and moving to me.

Every week and every Sunday I see the love and faithfulness of our people toward one another and our church. As a pastor, I know what many of our people are dealing with. I know their struggles, their grief, their financial difficulties, etc. And I see how they serve, how they give, and how they make an effort to play their part in being faithful to God and his Church.

The #1 reason New City is growing and having to move into a bigger space is because of our people. They're faithful, and God is using that.

As I meet with and talk to other pastors and church planters about strategies and things others can do to have an impactful church (I even have a podcast dedicated to this very thing), none of it can actually happen without faithful people.

New City is not the perfect church. We are simply one church joining countless other churches across the globe playing their part in God's mission. But it is a church of people who love God and love others. When you do that, it's hard for people to stay away from experiencing and playing their own part in what God is doing.