The countdown begins

First of apologies for the lack of updates recently.

I am pleased to tell you that things are continuing to take shape and develop with the plans to plant CityChurch. There is now a core group of 20+ adults committed to the plant and there is plenty of room for more. Houses are being put up for sale and job searches have begun. We may still be 12 months away from an official launch but it is getting very real.

In all of this the mission remains central. To see the Kingdom of God come on earth as it is in heaven. In the planning for CityChurch I am stirred by the word 'Go'. Jesus said 'Go' in the great commission but modelled it through his whole ministry and the discipleship he put into others. He sent out the 12, then the 72. For us going to Leicester is just the start of the going. When we get there we will not be building a big temple to hide in, rather we will continue to take the good news to the city. When we have gone, the going really begins!

The next stage

Planting a church is certainly a journey and the next stage of the CityChurch journey is about to get under way. We will soon begin to meet monthly to build relationship and pray. We hope to do this on some occasions in Leicester but for now we will start in Derby. It will be difficult to draw everyone together as we have people from different parts of the UK coming to join City Church but it will be exciting and we will do our best! Watch this space for details.

Mission Opportunities

As suggested in an earlier post we want CityChurch to have a strong incarnational edge to it. This means pouring our lives into communities and people groups that needs Jesus. At present we are exploring 2 possible opportunities to do just this. They may or may not be things we finally commit to but the opportunities are exciting!

The first is on one of the city's estates. It is an area with no strong church presence according to the local Christians and it has lots of need. In the middle of this estate we have found an inspirational woman who has seen the lives of many locals transformed. We are exploring whether or not we can invest in this area. Are you up for moving onto an estate in Leicester and pouring your life into a needy community?

The second opportunity is very different! Missions organisation WEC have shown some interest in exploring the possibility of partnering with us as we look to work with people from other religions in the city. Who knows what will come of this, but we start talking with WEC tomorrow!

Time to step up a gear

Things are as exciting as ever as we continue to seek God and make plans for CityChurch. In order to share some of the vision more widely and give people a chance to find out more we are having a 'find out more' evening at the Riverside Centre (home of Community Church Derby) @ 8pm on April 29th. You can find directions via the Community Church Derby website link. We hope you can make it!

The shape of things to come...

Opinions about what a church should look like are plentiful in these days of rapid cultural change. Some will argue that to be truely effective a church must adopt an incarnational 'go to them' mentality. This involves significant community involvement and acknowledges that many people will never step inside a church building. Others will argue that a more traditional 'come to us' approach that relies upon people attending central gatherings and being impacted by the presence of God is still the way forward. Often it seems that a choice must be made and a preferred shape chosen. My experience, both personal and from stories told around the nation, is that both approaches remain effective - when done well.

So what will CityChurch look like?

I believe we can do both well at the same time! If one thing is certain it is that CityChurch will be a mission shaped church. We aim to see the Kingdom of God come across the whole of Leicester. To play our part in this we will definitely need to find ways to effectively impact communities and people groups outside the walls of the church. We will 'go to them'. However our vision is to see a church that impacts the whole city built. To do this we must be visible and we must have gatherings that have great expectation within them. Expectation that people will be saved, healed and delivered. If God is calling us to expect growth, and He is, then we must have faith that people will 'come to us'. We better give them an opportunity to do so.

CityChurch Leicester - gathered and scattered for the making of disciples, with expectation!

CityChurch Promo Video

CityChurch Leicester Promo Video from EMCF on Vimeo.

So who are we?

This church plant is some of the fruit of a vision that goes back 30 years.  East Midlands Christian Fellowships (EMCF) has long been committed to seeing the Kingdom of God come across the East Midlands and church planting is at the heart of the vision.  Today EMCF is made up of 5 congregations with an apostolic base in Derby called Community Church Derby.  It is from here that CityChurch Leicester is being planted.  EMCF is also part of a national movement of churches called Salt and Light Ministries.  You can find out more about all these groups via the links opposite.

The vision to plant into Leicester has been growing in the hearts of the EMCF leaders for 18 months now and Ben and Esther Rook, who are part of the leadership and staff of EMCF are heading up a team that will move into the city to plant this church.  We are in faith that this plant will begin with a strong group of 50+ adults and their children from across EMCF and Salt and Light.

CityChurch Leicester will be launched officially in September 2011 but there are already a good number of people committing to this adventure.  We will begin to meet to pray and seek God for the future of the plant soon, watch this space and drop us a line if you would like to find out more!

Its all coming together!

Come on.  The CityChurch Leicester website splash page is now up and running.  Take a look with the link opposite. Now we have a webpage, a blog and Facebook page.  Hopefully that should help us be as visible as we can be, now we just need to plant a church!

By the way 'CityChurch' is not a typo, it is deliberate.  It's a design thing.  I like it.

Up and running

Welcome to the CityChurch Leicester blog! The purpose of this blog will likely change over time but for now its purpose is to chart our journey as we head towards planting a brand new church in Leicester. There is a lot to say already about who we are, our vision and the story so far. That will all come soon and we hope that this blog will be of interest to anyone who is keen to join, support or follow the progress of CityChurch Leicester.

This weekend is a big one for us. We will be at the Salt and Light ministries European Leaders Conference and we are blessed to be recieving a bit of publicity. We have produced a short video about the plant and that will be shown at the conference and hopefully there will be some people who are stirred to consider getting involved. We shall see.

After the conference we shall begin sharing more information here on the blog. See you then!