September 2022 is the start of a new season for Christ City Church as we launch our morning congregation.
A Church-Planting Church
For many years we have taught, prayed and talked about becoming a church-planting church. That God might use us to reach many people in Dublin with the good news of Jesus and make a positive difference to the city. In September 2022 we will take a big step on that journey as we become a multiplying church – from one congregation, one location and one time to two congregations, two locations, and two times.
We start with a ‘soft launch’ (for those internal to the church, so we can get used to things) from Sunday 4th September, and we have our ‘official launch’ on Sunday 25th September (which is when things will be public and that will be a great chance to invite friends).
So going forward our service times and locations will be:
- CCC South – 10.30am, Oatlands Primary School
- CCC Central – 4.30pm, Synge Street Secondary School
In the not too distant future our plan and prayer is to start a morning congregation on the northside too.
What’s the Story?
To celebrate our new congregation, we’re joining What’s the Story? – an Ireland-wide multi-week campaign exploring life’s big questions: God, purpose, death, suffering, guilt, and the role of the church in modern Ireland. This will be a great preaching series (with live Q&A) to invite your friends to.
What’s different and what’s the same?
Some things will stay the same – we’ll still be one church, with one leadership, staff, trustee, finance and advisory teams. We’ll still do certain things together (e.g Prayer & Worship Nights, the Banquets, City Groups, Life Groups etc) and we’ll still have plenty of relational cross-over between the two congregations.
And even on a Sunday many things will stay the same – the rough format and length of our services, the preacher and sung worship team will be the same at both services, at least initially, and we’ll follow the same church calendar of events and preaching series.
Another similarity is that although the morning congregation is ‘new’ we want both congregations to have a fresh-start and a fresh sense of identity, purpose and mission.
What will be different is that we’ll gather as God’s people in two different locations and form two congregations. Additionally, the morning congregation will be the only service that has children’s provision, so will naturally be a more family-orientated service. This will of course change community formation and the feel of ‘turning up on a Sunday.’ Another difference will be that each congregation will have their own weekend away, CCC Central in November and CCC South in May.
What’s new? Congregation Teams!
To help us transition to two congregations, we are forming two congregation teams. The teams are as follows:
- Morning – Steve Vaughan, Leanne Vaughan, Maria Krump-Garib, Sharon Wilmshurst & Ola Ngaditono
- Evening – Maffy Baskin, Katie Young, Will Langrell & Vanessa Kelada
These teams are responsible to pray for, organise, contextualise and form community within each congregation, alongside the staff and leadership teams. I’ll be writing a more detailed blog on this and how the various teams work together in due course. These teams may grow within the year or change after a year.
Maffy will lead CCC Central and Steve will lead in CCC South, and their respective teams. All staff members will remain regularly present at both congregations, at least to start with.
Which congregation is for you?
We want everyone who is currently part of CCC to join us as we move into a new season. As a leadership team we’re aware that becoming two congregations means caring for each person through the change. Some of us will be ready for change and find it exciting, refreshing, life-giving and positive. Some of us might find it more challenging and unsettling. Some of us might find we need to re-discover CCC as our church family again. That’s all normal and to be expected. We all need to adapt to the change.
Additionally, as the church grows in number and as new people come along, our Sunday Gatherings might ‘feel’ different in that we won’t know everyone and we’re not so connected to as many people. We might see more unfamiliar faces. The community dynamic we’ve grown accustomed to will change.
So let’s keep talking about how we’re finding the changes. Let’s look out for one another. And please do speak to one of the leadership or staff team, or your City Group leaders, if you have concerns as we multiply. You can also email hello@christcitychurch.ie if you’d like a coffee with one of the staff or leadership team to talk it through. We’re here to support you.
If you’re not sure which congregation is for you, here are four criteria to help you discern which is best for you and for the church:
- Personal desire and connection – it’s right for you and your growth at this time
- Practical need & your gifts – you see a need in a congregation and you have the desire and capacity to help
- Missional opportunity – you can more easily invite someone to this congregation
- Location – you live near the venue, which will help with community and mission
Join us on the journey
We have two big desires and prayers as we enter this new season. Firstly, we want everyone involved in CCC to join us on the journey and become part of one of the congregations. Please come and speak to us if you don’t feel you can. We’d love to hear from you and see how we can support you at this time. We pray that in this new season of church, the Holy Spirit might give fresh joy, life and vitality to each of us, as we seek to live day-by-day for the glory of God.
Secondly, we long for many who don’t know God personally, who are far from Jesus and his church, to hear the gospel and encounter something different in us, that might lead them to find salvation in Jesus’ name.
As Paul wrote in Corinthians 4:15, our desire is that…
the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.
Steve & Maffy on behalf of the CCC Leadership Team