Christ City Church is coming up to 5 years old (Sept 2019), and in preparation for this we wanted to ask the whole church to commit to a month of renewal. A number of times in the Bible story we learn that the people of God gathered together to recommit themselves to God and to ask him to renew them, to refresh them and to reinvigorate them.
For example, Joshua at the end of his life in his final speech, gathers the people together to remind them of the promises of God, the story of their ancestors and the covenant that they have with God. He asks the people to reaffirm their allegiance to God and recommit themselves to his purposes. Famously he challenges them by saying (Joshua 24:14-15):
“Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshipped … But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve … But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
It’s important that from time to time we ask God to recommit ourselves to God and ask him to renew us.
A Season of Renewal
So we want to spend the month of May seeking God for CCC, that he will speak to us afresh and that we will recommit to him afresh. For each of us it might mean different things:
– maybe for some of you there are patterns of sin that you have become accustomed to and are no longer seeking God to change. But you feel distant from God, you have lost the intimacy and vulnerability with God and with God’s people, and it’s because you’re ignoring regular patterns of sin in your life. David prays in Psalm 51:10-12, after his heinous sins against Bathsheba and her husband Uriah,
Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me…Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
– For some of us this might be a season to ask God to refresh you. Your walk with God has become stale, you have lost the vibrancy and zeal you once had and you long for God to breathe new spiritual life into you. Maybe you have been through a number of changes in your life, or there has been setbacks and disappointments, or trials and burdens that have weighed you down. It’s not that that you’re wallowing in unrepentant sin, but you long to be refreshed in God and refreshed in your service of God. As Paul says to the church in Rome (Romans 12:11);
Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervour, serving the Lord.
– for some of you this might be a season to ask God to re-envision you for the city or for the church or for your life. Maybe you have drifted from previous visions and desires God put on your heart. Maybe you have become settled and stagnant and have lost that purpose and direction you once had in life and in what God wants from you. As Jeremiah (6:16) says to the people of God in his day who had lost their vision and direction:
Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.
– for many of us life can get complicated and it’s not so much that you’re living with sin or lacking zeal and vision, it’s more that you are doing too much. You have fallen foul to the trap of over-committing and you’re very busy, and busy doing good things, but you’re not doing any of them well. Well this month might be a time to simplify and refocus. As the writer to the Hebrews says:
let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
– my prayer is, however God speaks to us individually during this time, that together this becomes a season of recommitment to God, to one another and to the city of Dublin. As we finish our series in Ephesians thinking about what it means to be the church, may we recommit to playing our part in the church, knowing we have a role and that together we can make a positive difference in the city. 1 Chronicles 12:32 says:
the men of Issachar, understood the times and knew what Israel should do.
May God give us discernment to understand what it means to be God’s people in this city, in our time, and therefore what we should do.
Looking back…looking forward
The last 5 years of CCC have been thrilling as the church has been established by the Holy Spirit. It has been wonderful to see new people come to faith, people’s lives changed and a new community established that has as its vision the spiritual, social and cultural renewal of Dublin (Jeremiah 29:4-7). We want to use the month of May to thank God for what he has done and the journey so far. None of this would have been possible without him. Do read about the motivation for starting a new church in Dublin, the first 2 years of house-church and my reflections at 6 months, year 1, year 2, year 3 and year 4 of launching the church.
Over the next 5 years we want the church to grow in depth and breadth and become a church-planting church. At the AGM I spoke about 5 ‘M’s for the coming years:
- A multiplying church (leadership development, City Groups, a church plant or a new congregation)
- A multi-ethnic, multi-generational family church (all ages, backgrounds, nationalities)
- A missional church…for the non-churched of Dublin (Youth Alpha, Intro, Sunday gatherings, City Group projects…but also prioritising reaching the unchurched rather than structuring church around our preferences)
- A merciful church…investing into & serving the city (CAP, City Group projects, people settling & investing in Dublin as Jeremiah 29:4-7 says and as God challenged Jonah, do listen back to my sermon on Jonah 4)
- A maturing church (wisdom, vision, love, servant-hood, stability)
So we want to use the month of May to seek God for these things, and sense his heart for the city and for the role we can have.
What’s involved?
During the month of May we’ll use a number of channels to help us as we seek God together.
- Sunday gatherings – Each week we’ll use the passages we’re focusing on, from Ephesians 6 and the first part of Judges, to ask God to speak to us and renew us.
- Prayer & Worship Night – We will start the month with an evening of prayer, on Wednesday 1st May. This will be the perfect way to kick things off. Do join us!
- Prayer Guide – We’ll be producing a daily prayer guide, with a verse and a prayer for each day, so that we can all be praying for the church and the city together. There will be paper copies but we’ll also be sending a daily email. Do sign up here – https://www.christcitychurch.ie/renew-sign-up/
- Renew Meetings – We’re asking that everyone attends one of the Renew meetings, where we’ll go over the vision and values of the church, and reflect on what God has done so far and where he wants to take us. Also, we want to hear from you and get your feedback, so each of us can think through what God is calling us to as we look to the next 5 years of Christ City Church. It will also be great to hear personal testimony of either what God has already done in your life, or anything you sense God speaking to you about.
- City Groups – We’ll be producing four Bible studies to work alongside the preaching series, Renew meetings and prayer guide and ask that City Groups follow along if possible.
- 24 hours of Prayer – from 6pm on Friday 24th May to 6pm on Saturday 25th May, in 4 locations(below) around the city. This is being organised by Louisa Collington and out student interns, you can sign up on a Sunday or by emailing andrew@christcitychurch.ie. Do join in for 1 or 2 hours or more. There will also be a ‘kids hour’.
4 locations and times:
Andrew & Ola’s (Glasnevin): 6pm – 12am
Rebekah and Kathryn’s (City Centre): 12am – 6am
Maria’s (near Connolly station): 6am – 12pm (kids hour – 10-11am)
Louisa/Kelsey/Martina’s (Leopardstown Valley): 12pm – 6pm (kids hour – 2-3pm) - Personal Stories – We’d love to hear from one another about how God has used the church to impact you or to make an impact in the city, so please be thinking about what you can share, whether during a Renew meeting, a Sunday Gathering, at the Prayer & Worship Night or in your City Group.
- Feedback – Since we’re spending the month seeking God, we expect that he will meet with us and speak to us. So if you have a suggestion, an encouragement, a scripture, an impression or anything you’d like to feed back that you sense God speaking to you about then please either email this into renew@christcitychurch.ie or post a note through the letter box on a Sunday. We’ll then collate these, ask God to give us discernment as we weigh them, but be open to how God is speaking to us as a church community. And we’ll feed back.
Renew Meetings – Sign Up
Please sign up for one of the following sessions to come to, and if possible select two sessions so we can try and get 10-20 people at each one;
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- Sunday 5th May – 2:15-4pm or 6:15-7:45pm
- Sunday 12th May – 2:15-4pm or 6:15-7:45pm
- Sunday 19th May – 2:15-4pm
- Sunday 26th May – 6:15-7:45pm
Each Renew meeting will take place in the Oratory, before or after the service. You can also sign up on a Sunday through the sign up sheets on a Sunday.
Childcare – we will be providing childcare for the 5th and 19th May, 2.15-4pm slots, so if you’re a parent and you’d like childcare provision, please sign up for one of those or if not please email martina@christcitychurch.ie
Teams – many of you are on Sunday teams so when you sign up, please try and work around existing commitments to your teams or arrange a swap.
Some other questions
- Who is it for? If you’re part of CCC it is for you. If you’re new to CCC it is for you. If you’re considering making CCC your church it is for you. It’s for everyone involved or thinking of being involved in CCC.
- What if I have already done Connect Night? That’s perfect! Ideally we want everyone to have done Connect Night in advance of the Renew meetings, so we can build on what we have learned there, be honest about where we current align (or don’t) with our vision and values, and think through where God is taking us.
- What if I haven’t done a Connect Night? That’s fine, please come along. We’ll be covering some of the same material and if you would like, you can do a Connect Night later on too.
If you have any questions around practicalities please contact Ola at ola@christcitychurch.ie
If you have any questions around what we’re doing and why or if you have any suggestions, please email steve@christcitychurch.ie, or if you have a word for the church please email renew@christcitychurch.ie