Jump to:
About 2,000 years ago Jesus Christ said he would build his church. In that first church in Jerusalem many people were forever changed, as they turned to Jesus as Lord. That church grew exponentially and started other churches. Those churches grew and started still more churches. This cycle continues today.
While New City is separated from that very first church by time and distance, it is connected with that first church and all other churches because we meet together on Sundays for the same purpose—to proclaim Jesus is Lord. Our mission is the same as their mission: to make disciples of all nations and to proclaim God’s glory to the nations.
Whether you are new to the Bible or know it deeply, whether you’re rich or poor, whether you’re old or young, whether your skin is light or dark or something in between, whether you’re a high-school dropout or have a Ph.D., whether you’re a single mom or a grandfather or have never been married, you’re welcome here. What unites us as a group of people is Jesus Christ. There is one Lord and one faith.
Mission
A church does not get to choose its mission; Jesus gave us our mission!
Churches are very diverse but as churches fulfill this mission they will also share many similarities between them, whether they are in Uganda or Guatemala or Dallas or Grand Rapids. They will also look very different based on the cultures in which they exist.
Whether a church worships under a tree, in a multi-million dollar building, or a rented elementary gymnasium, the outcome of the mission is the same: fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ.
Our mission as a church is quite simple. Making Disciples. Period.
Making disciples must be the intended outcome of whatever we do. As we worship together on Sunday mornings, we become more like the God we serve. As we meet together in City Groups we encourage one another to live out our faith. As we serve our community together we illustrate tangibly the love God has for his world. As we study the Bible together we come to know God more deeply.
The outcome of these things is we become more fully devoted followers of Christ. This is our mission. Our philosophy of ministry, that is, our understanding of the correct approach to making disciples is this: discipleship happens in relationship.
Beliefs
In the fifth century Vincent of Lérins, a monk in Gaul, wrote the following declaration:
All possible care must be taken, that we hold that faith which has been believed everywhere, always, by all.
Vincent of Lérins, “Comminitory”
What has been believed everywhere, always, by all Christians is rooted firmly in God’s Trinitarian self-revelation, and centered in Jesus Christ. Creeds express what has been believed everywhere, always, by all Christians as they are ancient and universal. New City Church affirms the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed.
The Apostles’ Creed
We believe in God, the Father almighty,
Creator of heaven and earth.
We believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, our Lord,
Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
Born of the Virgin Mary,
Suffered under Pontius Pilate,
Was crucified, died, and was buried;
He descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again;
He ascended into heaven,
He is seated at the right hand of the Father,
And he will come again to judge the living and the dead.
We believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting.
Amen.
The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed
The Apostles’ Creed is a Western church creed that formed originally as a baptismal creed. It is, therefore, not the product of an ecumenical council, though it is an accurate declaration of the Christian faith. At the Council of Nicea and later the Second Ecumenical Council at Constantinople, the whole church produced a new Creed that expresses our Trinitarian faith that has been believed everywhere, always, by all Christians. New City Church affirms this Creed.
We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, visible and invisible.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only-begotten Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father;
through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
was incarnate from the Holy Spirit
and the Virgin Mary,
and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified
under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at
the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father,
who with the Father and the Son
is worshiped and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come.
Amen.
New City Church’s Statement of Faith
While Creeds are ancient and universal (believed everywhere, always, by all), confessions or statements of faith are recent and local. They express what a particular church or a group of churches believe on secondary matters. While the core of the Christian faith is Trinitarian theology centered on Jesus Christ, the church has never had complete agreement on baptism or end times. A Statement of Faith includes Trinitarian theology, but it also specifies what a particular church or group believes about secondary—though still important—matters of the faith. The following declaration is New City Church’s Statement of Faith, which all who join as members must adhere to.
Revelation
We believe God has chosen to reveal Himself to His creation through all that He has created. Through one’s observation of all that exists, one may know God’s divine nature and power.
We believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are given by divine inspiration, and are the only infallible rule of faith and practice. The Scriptures are inerrant in all they affirm or deny. The Bible is the authoritative record of the revelation of God in the face of Christ.
We believe God has revealed Himself more fully from time to time in history by exerting divine power over natural processes, sending messengers to communicate to people, giving dreams and visions, speaking directly to people, and appearing to people in a form comprehensible to them.
God
We believe God is that one being who is all sufficient in Himself, who lacks nothing and therefore needs nothing. He is the Creator of all that has been created. Because He is the source of all that exists, He is the One for whom all things exist. Nothing exists outside of His creative acts and nothing exists which does not exist for Him.
We believe God exists eternally in three Persons yet remains one Being. These three Persons are God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. These three are one in essence, equal in power and glory, yet distinct in personality. The Father is God but is neither the Son nor the Holy Spirit; the Son is God but is neither the Father nor the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit is God but is neither the Father nor the Son. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit exist in perfect community and work in eternal harmony. The distinctions in roles of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit neither diminish nor enhance Their divine nature, as each Person is completely and wholly God. These distinctions are clearly seen in creation. God the Father determined to create, God the Son performed the act of creating, and God the Holy Spirit gave life to all living things. These distinctions are also clearly seen in salvation. God the Father determined to save, God the Son performed the work of salvation, and God the Holy Spirit applies salvation.
We believe God is sovereign over all creation. God has decreed all things that come to pass yet is neither the author of sin, nor does He approve it. This decree does not violate the will of men and women.
Man & Sin
We believe God created man male and female, after His own image, with dominion over the earth. The first man desired what God had forbidden and chose to rebel against His authority. He therefore brought God’s just wrath and condemnation on all mankind. Apart from the grace of God, all mankind will continue in sin and rebellion against God. Unless God causes a person to be born again, that person can have neither the desire nor the will to love God, repent, or trust in Christ.
Jesus
We believe Jesus is God the Son, equal in power and glory with the Father and the Holy Spirit. God the Son became man, was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, was cruelly executed on a Roman cross and shed His innocent blood for the sins of His people, was truly dead but rose again on the third day. After His resurrection He ascended to heaven to sit at the right hand of His Father to rule over the Kingdom His Father has given Him.
We believe Jesus is the image of the invisible God. Therefore, all those who claim to worship the God of the Bible but do not worship Jesus are mistaken and have no unity or identity with the followers of Jesus.
The Holy Spirit
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Godhead, equal in power and glory with the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit convicts men of sin, regenerates the elect, and works to bring glory to the Father and the Son.
Salvation
We believe that before the foundation of the world, God, in Christ, according to His great and sovereign mercy chose an unknown number of men and women to receive eternal life. This election is based solely on His sovereign will and pleasure and not on any foreseen faith, decision, or merit of these people. At the right time in human history, God sent His Son to suffer the penalty for the sins of His people, to be the propitiation of God’s wrath for them, thus purchasing their salvation.
We believe that the death of Jesus warrants and demands a universal call to repentance and faith, therefore the Gospel must be preached to all people. All people everywhere have the responsibility to repent, believe, and obey the Gospel. All who will repent and believe will never be rejected by Jesus but will receive eternal life. And God, who began a good work in His people, will be faithful to complete that good work and will give to His Son all those He promised to give Him.
The Church
We believe in one holy, universal church which is the body and bride of Christ. The true church consists of all believers in heaven and on earth who have been justified by grace through faith in Christ. The universal church manifests itself in local churches who assemble in the name of the Lord. The local church gathers to worship God and experience His presence through the preaching of the Word, prayer, fellowship, the exercise of spiritual gifts, and the sacraments of believer’s baptism and the Lord’s Supper. The church disperses to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection to a sinful world. The church makes disciples who embody the kingdom values of loving neighbor, serving those in need, and caring for creation, thus anticipating the redemption of all things at Christ’s return.
We believe it is necessary for God’s people to live their lives in a way that is honoring to Him and reveals the greater joy and pleasure to be found in Him over and above all lesser things. It is essential for God’s people to live in a state of moral and ethical purity. In particular, God’s people should abstain from sexual immorality, homosexual behavior, pornography, and all other sexual practices forbidden in the Scriptures.
Spiritual Gifts
We believe that each believer receives the Holy Spirit at conversion. According to His sovereign will God bestows spiritual gifts to His people. Not all receive the same gifts nor do all receive gifts to the same degree. Therefore, no particular spiritual gift is necessary for, or evidence of, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, though use of spiritual gifts is to be regarded as evidence of regeneration.
End Times
We believe Jesus will return to the earth to consummate His Kingdom and to judge the living and the dead. Those who believe will be resurrected to everlasting life and those who do not believe will be resurrected to everlasting judgment. Jesus will create a new heavens and a new earth and all God’s people shall then dwell with Him forever in His presence.
The Confessional Statement of The Gospel Coalition
While New City Church is independently governed by its own Council of Elders, it is part of the Gospel Coalition, a loose network of like-minded churches. These churches, some of which are independent and some of which are part of denominations, hold to the following Confessional Statement, as does New City Church.
- The Tri-une God We believe in one God, eternally existing in three equally divine Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, who know, love, and glorify one another. This one true and living God is infinitely perfect both in his love and in his holiness. He is the Creator of all things, visible and invisible, and is therefore worthy to receive all glory and adoration. Immortal and eternal, he perfectly and exhaustively knows the end from the beginning, sustains and sovereignly rules over all things, and providentially brings about his eternal good purposes to redeem a people for himself and restore his fallen creation, to the praise of his glorious grace.
- Revelation God has graciously disclosed his existence and power in the created order, and has supremely revealed himself to fallen human beings in the person of his Son, the incarnate Word. Moreover, this God is a speaking God who by his Spirit has graciously disclosed himself in human words: we believe that God has inspired the words preserved in the Scriptures, the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments, which are both record and means of his saving work in the world. These writings alone constitute the verbally inspired Word of God, which is utterly authoritative and without error in the original writings, complete in its revelation of his will for salvation, sufficient for all that God requires us to believe and do, and final in its authority over every domain of knowledge to which it speaks. We confess that both our finitude and our sinfulness preclude the possibility of knowing God’s truth exhaustively, but we affirm that, enlightened by the Spirit of God, we can know God’s revealed truth truly. The Bible is to be believed, as God’s instruction, in all that it teaches; obeyed, as God’s command, in all that it requires; and trusted, as God’s pledge, in all that it promises. As God’s people hear, believe, and do the Word, they are equipped as disciples of Christ and witnesses to the gospel.
- Creation of Humanity We believe that God created human beings, male and female, in his own image. Adam and Eve belonged to the created order that God himself declared to be very good, serving as God’s agents to care for, manage, and govern creation, living in holy and devoted fellowship with their Maker. Men and women, equally made in the image of God, enjoy equal access to God by faith in Christ Jesus and are both called to move beyond passive self-indulgence to significant private and public engagement in family, church, and civic life. Adam and Eve were made to complement each other in a one-flesh union that establishes the only normative pattern of sexual relations for men and women, such that marriage ultimately serves as a type of the union between Christ and his church. In God’s wise purposes, men and women are not simply interchangeable, but rather they complement each other in mutually enriching ways. God ordains that they assume distinctive roles which reflect the loving relationship between Christ and the church, the husband exercising headship in a way that displays the caring, sacrificial love of Christ, and the wife submitting to her husband in a way that models the love of the church for her Lord. In the ministry of the church, both men and women are encouraged to serve Christ and to be developed to their full potential in the manifold ministries of the people of God. The distinctive leadership role within the church given to qualified men is grounded in creation, fall, and redemption and must not be sidelined by appeals to cultural developments.
- The Fall We believe that Adam, made in the image of God, distorted that image and forfeited his original blessedness—for himself and all his progeny—by falling into sin through Satan’s temptation. As a result, all human beings are alienated from God, corrupted in every aspect of their being (e.g., physically, mentally, volitionally, emotionally, spiritually) and condemned finally and irrevocably to death—apart from God’s own gracious intervention. The supreme need of all human beings is to be reconciled to the God under whose just and holy wrath we stand; the only hope of all human beings is the undeserved love of this same God, who alone can rescue us and restore us to himself.
- The Plan of God We believe that from all eternity God determined in grace to save a great multitude of guilty sinners from every tribe and language and people and nation, and to this end foreknew them and chose them. We believe that God justifies and sanctifies those who by grace have faith in Jesus, and that he will one day glorify them—all to the praise of his glorious grace. In love God commands and implores all people to repent and believe, having set his saving love on those he has chosen and having ordained Christ to be their Redeemer.
- The Gospel We believe that the gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ—God’s very wisdom. Utter folly to the world, even though it is the power of God to those who are being saved, this good news is christological, centering on the cross and resurrection: the gospel is not proclaimed if Christ is not proclaimed, and the authentic Christ has not been proclaimed if his death and resurrection are not central (the message is: “Christ died for our sins . . . [and] was raised”). This good news is biblical (his death and resurrection are according to the Scriptures), theological and salvific (Christ died for our sins, to reconcile us to God), historical (if the saving events did not happen, our faith is worthless, we are still in our sins, and we are to be pitied more than all others), apostolic (the message was entrusted to and transmitted by the apostles, who were witnesses of these saving events), and intensely personal (where it is received, believed, and held firmly, individual persons are saved).
- The Redemption of Christ We believe that, moved by love and in obedience to his Father, the eternal Son became human: the Word became flesh, fully God and fully human being, one Person in two natures. The man Jesus, the promised Messiah of Israel, was conceived through the miraculous agency of the Holy Spirit, and was born of the virgin Mary. He perfectly obeyed his heavenly Father, lived a sinless life, performed miraculous signs, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, arose bodily from the dead on the third day, and ascended into heaven. As the mediatorial King, he is seated at the right hand of God the Father, exercising in heaven and on earth all of God’s sovereignty, and is our High Priest and righteous Advocate. We believe that by his incarnation, life, death, resurrection, and ascension, Jesus Christ acted as our representative and substitute. He did this so that in him we might become the righteousness of God: on the cross he canceled sin, propitiated God, and, by bearing the full penalty of our sins, reconciled to God all those who believe. By his resurrection Christ Jesus was vindicated by his Father, broke the power of death and defeated Satan who once had power over it, and brought everlasting life to all his people; by his ascension he has been forever exalted as Lord and has prepared a place for us to be with him. We believe that salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved. Because God chose the lowly things of this world, the despised things, the things that are not, to nullify the things that are, no human being can ever boast before him—Christ Jesus has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness, and redemption.
- The Justification of Sinners We believe that Christ, by his obedience and death, fully discharged the debt of all those who are justified. By his sacrifice, he bore in our stead the punishment due us for our sins, making a proper, real, and full satisfaction to God’s justice on our behalf. By his perfect obedience he satisfied the just demands of God on our behalf, since by faith alone that perfect obedience is credited to all who trust in Christ alone for their acceptance with God. Inasmuch as Christ was given by the Father for us, and his obedience and punishment were accepted in place of our own, freely and not for anything in us, this justification is solely of free grace, in order that both the exact justice and the rich grace of God might be glorified in the justification of sinners. We believe that a zeal for personal and public obedience flows from this free justification.
- The Power of the Holy Spirit We believe that this salvation, attested in all Scripture and secured by Jesus Christ, is applied to his people by the Holy Spirit. Sent by the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ, and, as the other Paraclete, is present with and in believers. He convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, and by his powerful and mysterious work regenerates spiritually dead sinners, awakening them to repentance and faith, and in him they are baptized into union with the Lord Jesus, such that they are justified before God by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone. By the Spirit’s agency, believers are renewed, sanctified, and adopted into God’s family; they participate in the divine nature and receive his sovereignly distributed gifts. The Holy Spirit is himself the down payment of the promised inheritance, and in this age indwells, guides, instructs, equips, revives, and empowers believers for Christ-like living and service.
- The Kingdom of God We believe that those who have been saved by the grace of God through union with Christ by faith and through regeneration by the Holy Spirit enter the kingdom of God and delight in the blessings of the new covenant: the forgiveness of sins, the inward transformation that awakens a desire to glorify, trust, and obey God, and the prospect of the glory yet to be revealed. Good works constitute indispensable evidence of saving grace. Living as salt in a world that is decaying and light in a world that is dark, believers should neither withdraw into seclusion from the world, nor become indistinguishable from it: rather, we are to do good to the city, for all the glory and honor of the nations is to be offered up to the living God. Recognizing whose created order this is, and because we are citizens of God’s kingdom, we are to love our neighbors as ourselves, doing good to all, especially to those who belong to the household of God. The kingdom of God, already present but not fully realized, is the exercise of God’s sovereignty in the world toward the eventual redemption of all creation. The kingdom of God is an invasive power that plunders Satan’s dark kingdom and regenerates and renovates through repentance and faith the lives of individuals rescued from that kingdom. It therefore inevitably establishes a new community of human life together under God.
- God’s New People We believe that God’s new covenant people have already come to the heavenly Jerusalem; they are already seated with Christ in the heavenlies. This universal church is manifest in local churches of which Christ is the only Head; thus each “local church” is, in fact, the church, the household of God, the assembly of the living God, and the pillar and foundation of the truth. The church is the body of Christ, the apple of his eye, graven on his hands, and he has pledged himself to her forever. The church is distinguished by her gospel message, her sacred ordinances, her discipline, her great mission, and, above all, by her love for God, and by her members’ love for one another and for the world. Crucially, this gospel we cherish has both personal and corporate dimensions, neither of which may properly be overlooked. Christ Jesus is our peace: he has not only brought about peace with God, but also peace between alienated peoples. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both Jew and Gentile to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. The church serves as a sign of God’s future new world when its members live for the service of one another and their neighbors, rather than for self-focus. The church is the corporate dwelling place of God’s Spirit, and the continuing witness to God in the world.
- Baptism and the Lord’s Supper We believe that baptism and the Lord’s Supper are ordained by the Lord Jesus himself. The former is connected with entrance into the new covenant community, the latter with ongoing covenant renewal. Together they are simultaneously God’s pledge to us, divinely ordained means of grace, our public vows of submission to the once crucified and now resurrected Christ, and anticipations of his return and of the consummation of all things.
- The Restoration of All Things We believe in the personal, glorious, and bodily return of our Lord Jesus Christ with his holy angels, when he will exercise his role as final Judge, and his kingdom will be consummated. We believe in the bodily resurrection of both the just and the unjust—the unjust to judgment and eternal conscious punishment in hell, as our Lord himself taught, and the just to eternal blessedness in the presence of him who sits on the throne and of the Lamb, in the new heaven and the new earth, the home of righteousness. On that day the church will be presented faultless before God by the obedience, suffering and triumph of Christ, all sin purged and its wretched effects forever banished. God will be all in all and his people will be enthralled by the immediacy of his ineffable holiness, and everything will be to the praise of his glorious grace.