EVERYTHING IS DIFFERENT; EVERYTHING’S THE SAME
Dear Church,
September 2023 will be a September like no other in the history of our church. And yet, it will probably look and feel very similar if you have been around for a while.
Let me explain.
EVERYTHING IS DIFFERENT
September 2023 will be the first month in the history of New City that Pastor Connan Kublik will not be at the helm as our senior pastor or church planter. In fact, it will be the first month in our church’s history in which we will be without a senior pastor, period. We at New City have been exceptionally blessed with the stability of having known only one senior pastor throughout our sixteen years of our existence. We are thankful for the faithful service and presence of Connan, Brenda, Kira, Brysan, Evan, and Rylan, and we continue to pray for them.
September 2023 will be the first month in the history of New City in which we begin a pastoral search process. This means that it’s also the first time in our church’s history that we will elect a “pulpit committee” (a pastoral search committee) on September 24 to help us identify our next senior pastor. Here is a flowchart to help you understand pastoral succession in our denomination, and you will hear more about this process in the days to come. In the meantime, please keep praying for God’s grace to abound in unity and wisdom for your elders and for our church.
September 2023 will be the first September in the history of New City in which we are actively in the process of planting a daughter church with an ordained assistant pastor for church planting, Philip Tadros. The last month or so have been a whirlwind of activities and change, but we are still committed to sending out a strongly supported daughter church in the Stoney Creek area. Please continue to pray for Phil & Lindsay and their children as they pray, connect, raise support, and strategize about Mission to Stoney Creek. And please pray as to whether the Lord may be calling you to be sent out with them.
Yet for all these firsts, much remains unchanged.
EVERYTHING’S THE SAME
Our Mission and Vision
Our mission remains unchanged: to bring the whole gospel to Hamilton until Hamilton is whole. We do this by making disciples who know God, who are learning to be God’s people, and who engage in God’s work in Hamilton, in Canada, and in the world. As we do this work, we envision disciples and churches growing into the wholeness of Christ, so that our city, culture, and the world are transformed by the gospel.
Our commitment to realizing this vision means that we continue to gather weekly in corporate worship to honor Christ, to build each other up, and to invite our unbelieving friends to come and hear the gospel. It also means that we continue to gather in smaller groups to accomplish the same purpose.
On September 17, signups for Intermission Groups (our small groups ministry) will open. The staff, led by Josiah Ling, are working hard to prepare for the new Intermission season and we are excited to go through Tim Keller’s Gospel in Life curriculum together. Intermission Groups will officially begin gathering the week of October 16. Please pray for Josiah and the staff as we prepare for this new season of Intermission Groups!
Signup Day for Intermission Groups will also be the first session of Honest Evangelism, a four-part adult Sunday School class that will walk through Rico Tice’s new and refreshing approach to evangelism. Click HERE to sign up for this class. Lunch, childcare, and the book are all included in the registration fee.
Our Message
Our commitment to faithfully preaching the whole counsel of God as revealed to us in the authoritative Word of God remains unchanged. To that end, we will begin a new sermon series on September 10 in the Gospel of Mark, entitled “Mark: the King and the Cross.” I am very excited to walk with you through this exciting and life-changing story of Christ and his earthly ministry as we return to the very core and foundation of our faith: the person of Jesus the Messiah.
To prepare your mind and heart for this series, I strongly encourage you to read through the entirety of the Gospel of Mark on your own over the next two to three weeks. Depending on your reading speed, it will take between one and two hours for you to read the entire gospel, which is less time than what the average person in North America spends watching TV daily. If you don’t have a Bible, just let us know and we’ll happily get one into your hands! I pray that this shared adventure through the Gospel of Mark will increase our love and faith in Christ, our commitment to His Kingdom mission, and our confidence in the finished work of Jesus on the cross and in the empty tomb.
Our Elders & Staff
Our wonderful elder team, composed of Allan Buist, Hank de Jong, Steve Geleynse, Varun Rana, Darren Schutten, Armen Svadjian (not pictured), and myself, Moses Lee, remains largely unchanged and as strong as it has ever been. I have said this before and I’ll say it again: I am confident that we have the best ruling elders in our denomination. They are godly, humble, wise men with true shepherding hearts who pray and care deeply about us. I am immensely humbled and honored to serve alongside these men, and I urge you to take some time over the next couple of weeks to thank them for their hard labors, find ways to support them, and to pray for them and their families.
In addition, I am very thankful for Phil Tadros, Josiah Ling, Catherine McGeorge, and Dan Kikkert for their tireless service and daily partnership at the Staff level. They are wonderful to work with, so please be sure to find ways to thank and support them as well!
Friends, I have asked you to pray a lot in this little writeup. But I hope that you don’t think I’m just mindlessly repeating some trite phrase that spiritual people say. I assure you; I am not. With all my heart, I am pleading with you, my church family, to pour out your hearts with me before our merciful, awesome Father in heaven to show us his glory this season.
Jesus declared this humbling but liberating truth inJohn 15:5:
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me, you can do nothing.”
To remain in Christ is to stay connected to Him in humble, childlike reliance. It is the key to fruitfulness, individually and as a church. Depending on Christ can look like many things, but it always requires praying.
If you haven’t yet, please click HERE to sign up to fast & pray during the month of September. And please join us on Friday, September 8 at 7 PM for a special Prayer and Praise Night as we kick off the new ministry season here at New City.
So, church, pray with us, serve with us, and rejoice with us as we forge ahead together in a September like no other. Everything is different, but everything’s the same, because our unchanging God, our Rock of Ages, He is with us.
