New City Church Is Turning One And It Almost Never Happened

A year ago today was the launch of New City Church. As I think about how I felt the day before we launched, and all God has done this past year, I can’t help but think about the fall of 2016. 2016 was the year we began to raise funds and build a team to plant New City, and it was a hard year. A really hard year. In fact, about 18 months ago something happened that not many people know about; I almost quit.The reality is I wanted to quit. Not that I actually wanted to quit, but it didn’t seem like anything was working, and at some point, tough decisions have to be made; you can’t keep continuing with something that seems to be failing. It’s a crushing place to be.To give you a small glimpse, below are a few snippets from my journal entries in the fall of that year.9/26/16“I’m not sure this church plant is going to work.”10/9/16“Lots of discouragement in church planting. I really need today not to suck. If it does, I’m not sure how we are going to make this thing happen.”10/26/16“This. Is. Hard. Church planting is so hard. It’s discouraging. You feel like you aren’t doing anything, and I don’t see how it’s going to work. We aren’t at all where we wanted to be at this point.”11/28/16“Including a couple of spaces I contacted this month, New City is 0 for 6 when it comes to securing a possible space to gather in on Sundays.”12/5/16“In the past I have wrote/thought about how New City might not work, but this is the closest I have actually felt to quitting….I have no idea what to do. Also, if we did quit, I’m not sure who would hire me. I was a church planting resident who failed to plant a church. Not a great resume for getting a job. Very discouraged.”Yet here we are, on the brink of New City Church turning one, and it’s hard to believe. It’s hard to believe New City almost never came to be. In fact, if it wasn’t for my wife Christina's love, support, and encouragement, New City wouldn’t be. Quite literally, I have no idea what I would be doing right now if not for her. I certainly wouldn’t be writing this.The mission of New City Church is to help people meet Jesus and grow in a relationship with him, and I am so grateful and humbled for how God is making that a reality in so many people’s lives through a church plant, that according to the statistics, should have failed. We weren’t able to raise much money before we launched, we didn’t have a large launch team, and the church planting network we started out with thought we were too much of a risk, so they parted ways with us.And yet here we are. Here God is. God has been faithful. God has been good. God has been gracious. God has given us, and given me, much more than I deserve. It’s such an honor and privilege to lead this church, full of people who love Jesus and want as many people as possible to experience who he is.Here is what I honestly believe; God is going to do some incredible things through New City Church. Not because of me, but because all it takes is a group of people willing to put Jesus first. And as we celebrate our first year as a church this coming Sunday, it’s hard to believe New City almost never came to be. Thankfully, God had other plans.As I was trying to find a picture to share with this post, I came to one that was taken in March of 2017, just a few short weeks before the launch of New City. The picture above is of the living room of our former townhouse, where on Sunday mornings we would move out the furniture and put out folding chairs so 20ish people could gather, pray, and prepare for what was ahead.Thank you to all of you who have supported financially, prayed for, and made New City a reality. Thank you for investing in this. There will be people in eternity that will have you to thank.And thank you to all of you who call New City Church home. Thank you for allowing me to learn, grow, and figure things out over this past year. Thank you for your patience, your grace, and for your love towards me and my family. This is only the beginning.The best is yet to come.