May 21, 2024 • 41 mins
In this episode, Pastors Damein Schitter and Benjamin Kandt give our May update to NewCity Next. You can find the resources mentioned and the slides from the presentation at this link.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:12):
Hello, new City.
This is Pastor Ben.
I'm here with Pastor Damien hey, and we are going to do an
equal parts New City Next recapand all of Life Guide intro.
And so we're going to look backat new city next on May 19th
and recap some of the things wetalked about there for anybody
who was not able to make it orjust wants a good refresher.
And then we're going to talkabout the all of life guide,
(00:34):
which releases releasedyesterday and we'll be using
through the June and July monthshere.
So just to give you a heads upin the show notes, we're going
to have three different things.
The first thing is we're goingto have the slides for New City
Next and so if you want tofollow along while you're
listening here, you'll be ableto track with the slides that we
use to illustrate differentthings that we're talking about.
That was a core part of our NewCity Next presentation.
(00:56):
And then we're also going tohave a link to a place where you
can put questions.
We're going to have a live Q&Awhere we take the questions that
people had and we're going toanswer those over Zoom, and
that's because we think visionis best cast through dialogue,
because we want to hear from you, we want to talk to you, we
want to hear feedback andpushback and questions and
(01:17):
curiosities and places ofresonance and resistance for you
, and so that would be reallyhelpful.
Put the questions you have inthat link and then the third
thing is we'll link the PDF tothe All of Life Guide so that
you have access to the thingthat we're going to be talking
about for the last half of thisconversation.
So with that, we regularly dothese New City Next updates,
(01:37):
damian.
What's the context for that?
Why do we do this?
What would be helpful forpeople to know?
Speaker 2 (01:44):
this, what would be helpful for people to know.
Yeah, I think the most succinctway to say it is that back in
March 2022, we came out of aseveral month eight or nine
month season of prayer andplanning as a session that's,
the elders of the church and wesaid we're entering as a
congregation into a new chapterand we said this is the third
chapter New City has been in,the first one being we were a
church that was planted and thenwe went through a season where
(02:06):
we were rooted, and now webelieve we're entering into the
season of reproducing, and wesaid it would take several years
to carry out this plan, and wejust named this whole season New
City Next.
That's the name of this, and soI can imagine at some point
these updates will no longer becalled New City Next, they'll be
called New City Next.
They'll be called New CitySomething Else, but until we've
completed what we set out to do,they're New City Next and
(02:28):
essentially, we've settled intoa rhythm of two times a year now
that's our plan where we'llgive an update, and this one
happens here in May, rightbefore the summer months of June
and July, which, in theministry calendar, mean rest.
So what we wanted to do reallywas give a snapshot of where we
are currently as a church as itrelates to our vision and New
(02:49):
City Next, and then preparepeople to rest.
Well, and we're going to get tothat on the second half of this
podcast ways that we want tolead people into resting because
, as we all know, the inertia ofour life doesn't lead to
reflection or rest, and so wewant to lead you all that way.
So the point is is that thistime, on May 19th, our desire
was to give a snapshot and thena little bit about Horizons.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
That's great, and one of the things that is important
is to kind of orient ourselvesin time, which is what the
ministry calendar is helpful for, and also to orient ourselves
with priorities.
What really matters to us andwe've stated our vision is that
we want to see the Father answerthe Lord's prayer.
And when you think about theLord's prayer, it's Jesus's
(03:33):
recipe to capture your holyimagination for what God might
do in the world.
And so when we're praying ourFather in heaven, hallowed be
your name, your kingdom come,your will be done on earth as it
is in heaven.
On and on, this prayer reallyis to ask for the order of
heaven to come and shape thechaos of earth.
And so, if you ask what wouldbe out of order in heaven,
(03:57):
that's a good question.
So in heaven, everyone knowsand honors and ascribes to God
His true worth, and so we wouldwant that on planet earth, and
so it happens in heaven.
So let it be done on earth asabove so below.
Another thing is the heaven isthe realm where God's will is
(04:18):
done, and we want that on earthas well, whether it's in your
workplace or your neighborhoodor your home or in the places
that God has sent you torecreate and play all of those
places.
What would it look like ifGod's will was done in those
places?
And then you know, anotherthing is is that in heaven
there's always enough to goaround, nobody lacks, nobody
(04:39):
goes without, and so there'senough food and enough
forgiveness.
And we want that on earth too.
And so those are just examplesof what it will look like for
the father to answer the Lord'sprayer.
So how does that happen?
It happens as we call for himand send disciple makers.
Now you might think that this isnot very original.
Come on, new City.
Like you can think more out ofthe box than that.
(05:01):
And the answer?
You're right, and that'sintentional.
We wanted to come with a visionand mission, with what we could
call fresh fidelity.
It's a faithfulness to whatthousands of years worth of
Christian reflection the Biblehas come up with for a vision
and mission for the church.
The kingdom come is our vision,and the Great Commission is our
mission in some ways, but thefreshness is our own way of
(05:23):
talking about it.
We call form and send disciplemakers, because how else is the
will of God going to be done onearth as it is in heaven, unless
people are growing in whollyyielding their lives over to God
, and how does that happen?
Through this process ofdiscipleship.
And so, as we call for and senddisciples who can make
(05:44):
disciples, we expect to see Godincreasingly answer the Lord's
prayer in our midst and throughour work.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Yes, yeah, and the reality is too.
There's a sense in which, inall of life, we want to pursue
healthy rhythms and pattern, andso if you've been around New
City, you know that we believein that.
That common rhythm is somethingcore to what we're engaging as
a community and as a part of NewCity.
Next, we also decided we wantedto put a pattern and a cadence
(06:13):
into our year as a churchtogether, and so you will want
to check out if it's been awhile since you've seen the
ministry calendar and you can'tthink of it.
As Ben said, it's going to bein the show notes, but if you
remember, it's a diamond lookingthing.
And then December and January wehave our rest months, and June
and July we have rest months aswell.
And so this is us remindingeveryone what season we're in
(06:35):
and where we are going, and Ithink it's important because
it's sort of like a mall map.
We need to know where we arenow so that we also know best
where we're going.
And the whole point or, yeah, Ithink the whole orientation we
have in this update, it reallymatters that we're leading you
into this season of rest, as Imentioned earlier.
So we think that's importantand we want to invite you to
(07:00):
truly lean in in this season.
What we want for everyone isthat we come back together in
the fall after these summermonths, and we can look back and
say you know, I was intentionalabout perspective before
planning, I was intentionalabout rest before I start
running again in the fall, andwe really want that for everyone
.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
That's great.
And when we say we call for andsend disciple makers, we really
have these environments wherewe do that in.
And when we say we call, formand send disciple makers, we
really have these environmentswhere we do that in.
And so we call people intothese environments, we form them
in these environments and wesend them out of these
environments.
And so our three environmentsare not new.
We've been around for a littlewhile, which is congregations,
communities and circles, and thelanguage that we describe this
(07:42):
with is that we've spent timeforming them, and now we're
really emphasizing filling them,and that language comes from
Genesis 1.
God, in three days, formed theearth and then, in three days,
filled the earth with things,and so that is.
We're just trying to bebiblical here.
Y'all.
That's all we can do.
And so when we talk aboutcongregations, what we mean is
(08:04):
people that are gatheredtogether with Jesus for
scripture and sacrament, prayerand praise.
There's things that happen onSunday morning as we gather for
worship as the church, thatcannot happen anywhere else, and
so we want to emphasize thoseaspects of the congregational
environment.
When we talk about communities,we mean a people that are
following Jesus together with acommon purpose, pattern and
(08:25):
practices, and so one of thedistinctives of communities is
that there's an ability to havemale and female in that space,
and also to meet in largergroups 15 to 50 people in that
space but reallypurpose-oriented.
If people are going to gathertogether in that space, they
have to have a reason for it,and it needs to be a good enough
(08:47):
reason for people to be willingto show up every other week and
to give their really precioustime to it.
And so, then, the finalenvironment here is circles,
which are three to six men orwomen following Jesus together
in transparent trust to love Godwith all of themselves, love
their neighbors as themselvesand make disciples by giving
themselves, and circles reallyare the environment that we want
(09:10):
every single person at New Cityable to lead in.
Why is that?
Well, because all theseenvironments matter.
Circles are the primary vehiclewhere disciple-making occurs,
though, and so if we're calling,forming and sending
disciple-makers, that, in ourcontext, means can you lead a
circle properly?
If you can lead a circle in away that helps people love God
(09:31):
with all themselves, love theirneighbors as themselves and make
disciples by giving themselves,then you are, then we've
completed our mission in onesense, and so because that's
what a disciple maker is able todo.
And so in the congregationalspace, those are upward
gatherings where we'reworshiping God In a community
space.
We ideally just function withan outward aspect, where they
(09:54):
help you be more missional,engage with your neighbors.
And then the circle spacereally is an inward or
formational space where you'reexperiencing deep knowing and
loving and community, but alsoreal formation into
Christ-likeness in that space.
Now, all of these have upward,inward and outward aspects to
them, but those are emphasizedkind of uniquely in each of
(10:16):
those spaces.
And so one of the things thatwe've said and I think this is
true is we want people to engagein all three environments.
So that's weekly gathering forworship on Sunday mornings.
It's every other week gatheringin communities.
It's weekly gathering incircles with three to five other
men or three to five otherwomen in those spaces to really
(10:40):
call you, form you and send youas a disciple maker.
Now that might seem like a lot,and some of you have been
engaging those spaces, all threeof them, and some of you
haven't been for various reasons.
Some of you aren't able, someof you aren't willing, and so
here's a phrase that I've foundreally helpful from Alcoholics
Anonymous.
Basically, the point is that ifyou, if you work the 12 steps
(11:03):
this is the phrase it works.
If you work it, so work it,you're worth it.
And basically what they'resaying is if you want to not be
an alcoholic, do these 12 steps,it works, we promise you.
It's got a proven track record.
Now, our track record isn'tquite as good as making disciple
makers, as AA's is, as makingnon-alcoholics, but we've got
(11:25):
some track record here.
We've got data fromconversations and feedback from
people that are in all threeenvironments, damien and myself
included, that it really doeswork.
It really does work if you workit.
And so, to shift the metaphorto a CrossFit, if you do this,
rx or as prescribed, it reallywill train you in Christ
likeness in meaningful ways.
(11:45):
And so that's the invitation,that's the call to engage in
these different environments.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Yeah, and so one of the things that we thought would
be helpful as we go into thesummer is to give people a
snapshot, in terms of numbers,of how many people are in each
one of our environments, becauseone of the things we said is,
now that we've formed them, wewant to fill them.
So on Sunday morning, theaverage attendance we have with
men, women and children is 560.
(12:13):
So obviously we rounded upthere I think it was an odd
number and I wanted an evennumber.
So 560 is the average Sunday.
If you come to New City on aSunday morning, that's what
you're going to find.
The reality is is that New Cityis a little bit better than
what the national average seemsto be on regular church
attenders and how often they goto church, because a couple
(12:34):
different studies have shownthat it's about 1.9 Sundays a
month for the average person,and so our total number is just
over 800 people would call NewCity their home, and that's a
pretty close number.
We've been keeping a close eyeon that, and so what that means
is, for our average is a littlebit above two times per month.
So the question then is, if 560men, women and children are
(12:57):
coming on an average week howmany of those people have been
gathering in communities, andthat number is 254.
So that comes from weeklyattendance.
There were about 300 people whosigned up at the beginning, but
people who were engaged theentire semester is 254.
In case you're interested,that's 45% of that 560 number.
(13:19):
So then the final environment ofcircles.
We have 113 people in circles,or about 20% of those who are
there on a Sunday, that is tosay, the number are in circles.
So one you might find thisinteresting.
The other thing is, what wouldbe interesting to us is to know
what lands with you when youhear this.
I talked to some people who sawthese numbers and they were
(13:41):
encouraged, especially aboutcircles.
Oh wow, I didn't realize we hadover 100 people in circles.
That's amazing For others.
I'm sure you exist I didn'ttalk to you yet, but you might
be thinking that's it and Iwould imagine there are people
in between.
But one thing I want you to knowthat this says to us is that
there's some friction that weneed to remove to help people
move from Sunday morning intocommunities and from communities
(14:03):
into circles, and that's reallyimportant to us.
So, really, if you hear onething, some of you might be
thinking none of this is new,yet.
This is just you guys remindingus, and I would say, even if
that's it, this is worth it.
But here's one thing I want youto take away is that where are
we now?
What we mean by forming andfilling is a big part of filling
these environments is reducingthe friction for people to get
(14:25):
into them, and so a metaphorthat might be helpful is what we
really long for is that if aperson steps into the community
truly wherever they would enterin, however they would enter in
if they've stepped into New Cityand are a part of our mission
that they would find themselvesin a current that would carry
them from congregations tocommunities, to circles.
(14:46):
It would just be natural.
If you're a part of New City,of course you're a part of all
three environments, and if youweren't except for extraordinary
circumstances, you wouldexperience yourself swimming
against the current, because thecurrent is so obviously taking
people, moving them fromcongregations, communities and
circles, and that's really whatwe desire, and the reason is, as
Ben said, is because we thinkthat all three of these
(15:09):
environments are integral to aperson growing in Christlikeness
and being equipped to be ableto multiply their life into
others.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Damien, you said something super helpful on
Sunday that was maybe more forour OG New City people, which
was the role that communities,or what we used to call
community groups, played in ourkind of our architecture, our
strategy, compared with the waythat we're talking about circles
today.
How did you articulate that?
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Yeah.
So if you've been around NewCity for a while, you knew that
community groups were central toour architecture and the way
that I said it was.
If you've been here before NewCity, next, what you know is
that community groups werecentral to our architecture and
the way that I said it was.
If you've been here before NewCity, next, what you know is
that community groups were boththe thing and everything.
So what that means is that thething that you needed to be
engaged in at New City was acommunity group, and the role of
(15:59):
the community group really waseverything.
In a sense, we did shepherdingthrough community group, we did
leadership development throughcommunity groups, we did
basically everything besidesSunday morning through community
groups, and that was reallychallenging.
And so the new move is actuallycircles are now the thing, but
they're not everything, which isalso why we have communities.
We think that there is a uniquerole that communities play in
(16:22):
our mission, and so, to repeatit again, while community groups
used to be the thing andeverything, now circles are the
thing, but they're noteverything.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
So helpful.
So if you're listening to thisand you're wondering, okay, what
are some next steps?
What does this look like for me?
From here, back to our ministrycalendar, what we've said is
that we are heading into Juneand July, which are rest months
for us Communities don't gather,circles gather, if that's the
(16:53):
nature of your circle, that'sdiscerned by each circle and
their leader.
But two real next steps.
The first one is that we have acircle training coming up in
June, and so if you fill out thecircle connect form, which you
can find on the app, you canalso find it in the all of life
guide.
Um, the circle connect formwill get your information
essentially into a space wherewe can follow up with you and
(17:14):
invite you to that training.
Uh, the training is not justfor leaders, it's for all people
in circles, because we want tobe able to equip them to be in
that space fruitfully.
So circle connect form would beone of those next steps.
The second one, which we'llspend the remainder of our time
in this podcast talking about,is the all of life guide, and so
, as we transition fromrecapping new city next to the
(17:38):
all of life guide, is thereanything else that you want to
kind of close out the new city.
Next portion of this on Damien,and then we'll turn our
attention towards the All ofLife Guide.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
The last thing I'll say is that the plan is in
August that we would haveanother one of these updates
with New City Next.
But rather than capturing theend of a season, we'll be
casting a vision for thebeginning of a new season going
into the fall.
So be tuned, or stay tuned, forthat Super helpful.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Okay, the all of life guide.
Now, this is a a rhythm that wehave.
It's a semi-annual kind ofkeystone habit we get that
language from.
Is it James Clear, or was itCharles?
Okay, charles Duhigg's book onhabits, which is, um, you know,
a keystone habit, is one ofthose things that, if you do
this, all your other habits andbehaviors that you want to do
are a little bit easier.
So for many of us, a keystonehabit is exercise.
(18:26):
If you exercise, it's morelikely you'll eat more healthily
, it's more likely you'll go tobed earlier, wake up earlier,
all those kinds of things thatwe want to do, and so a seasonal
time of reflection and planningis actually a really important
keystone habit to a flourishinglife.
And so we thought, hey, let'sequip you, let's give you a tool
(18:52):
, and then let's do thiscongregationally, all together
as a people, and so in walkedthe all of life guide.
And so we described this as asemi-annual keystone habit of
reflection and planning the lifeof our church to practice a
shared way of life.
I'm reading from page three theethos of this guy this is
really important is gracious,abiding, slow down spirituality
through joy-filled communionwith the Trinity.
(19:12):
No big deal, just you know, lowbar.
But really we mean that we wantyou to experience this as rest,
reflection, rejuvenation, andso as we try to invite you into
this rhythm, this keystone habit, we want you to know a few
things.
And so we're going to spendsome time kind of overviewing
the all of life guide and whatthat, what that looks like in
(19:32):
our rhythm together.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Yeah, that's great.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
So here's the on page one, the table of contents
there's.
I kind of want to just walkthrough the things that are
happening here.
There's a grand examen, and thepurpose of the grand examen if
you've never done one before isreally to get perspective on
where you are.
Where am I right now?
And the best way to do that isto kind of look at where you've
been.
And so the grand examen ismeant to look back at the last
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three, six, nine, 12 months even, and take stock.
What's happened in my life?
As somebody has said, allintrospection is retrospection,
in other words, allunderstanding of yourself that
can come from the self-awarenessof introspection.
All of that has to come fromlooking back.
Soren Kierkegaard said lifemust be lived forward, but you
(20:17):
have to face backwards somethinglike that and so we want to
help you do that with the grandexamen, and part of that is
paying attention to God'smovements in your life, through
your life.
What's he up to?
Taking real stock as to what'sgoing on in your life.
Damien, as you've done theGrand Examen multiple times,
because we've done it togethermultiple times what's been some
of the fruit of it?
(20:38):
What's your experience withthat been like?
Speaker 2 (20:47):
Yeah, so one of the beauties of the grand examine is
that you can examine the pastin smaller or larger time
increments, so it can be threemonths, six months, one month,
and even when I do my weeklyplanning and review it's not
quite a grand examine, but somuch.
If you look back, it revealsitself even over a week Meetings
and things that I have to begrateful for or, of course,
tasks that I have to follow upon.
(21:08):
But the rhythm of looking back,especially yielding to God, in
the presence of God, invitingthe Holy Spirit in, is a
powerful exercise and I thinkthat for me, what it's done is
that oftentimes I think and thisis true, but I'll say I need
more clarity, I want moreclarity and yet, looking back, I
(21:28):
see how much clarity the Lordhas provided as I reflect with
Him in a grand examine.
So I think that would be thesimplest way to say it from my
own experience.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
Super helpful.
So we move on from the grandexamine into the rhythm
inventory.
So if grand examine is gettingperspective on where you are,
the rhythm inventory is gettingperspective on what you do.
You know, there's this quotefrom Carl Jung.
He says until we make theunconscious conscious, it will
rule our lives and we'll call itfate.
And Damien hears me say thatquote all the time because I
(22:00):
love it.
But that's also true of ourhabits.
Until we make these unconsciousthings we do more conscious,
bring them up into our awareness, they will shape, form, mold us
into types of people, and wedon't even realize that we have
really low willpower.
We are not the kind of personwe wanted to become.
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In a variety of different wayswe're disgruntled and agitated
and hurried and harried and allthese things, and we don't
realize that a lot of it has todo with the way in which we give
consent to our will to do allthese little micro habits and
routines throughout our life.
And so the rhythm inventory ismeant to bring your attention
there, because where yourattention goes, your awareness
grows, and so we pay attentionto our morning, our afternoon,
(22:44):
our evening, various things wedo in routine, and then we
reflect on that.
And so some of the ways that Ithink about the rhythm inventory
there's this question that youknow in the best way.
Just it's like smelling salts.
And it's if I repeated the last24 hours, which includes your
thoughts, your emotions, youractions.
If you did that the last 24hours, you repeated it every day
(23:05):
for 10 years, what kind ofperson would I become?
And that's a diagnosticquestion, the kind of question
that helps surface some thingswhen you do a rhythm inventory.
Yes, and so Andy Dillard sayshow we spend our days is, of
course, how we spend our lives,and a rhythm inventory is trying
to help us get an idea of howdo we spend our days.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
So, as you, damian, similar, as you've engaged with
the rhythm inventory, what haveyou been surprised by?
Yeah, well, you know, somethingthat I've been surprised by is a
fresh is the power ofenvironment.
So, in other words, like when Iwalk home, whenever I come home
normally, when I come home, itis at the end of the day, right
before dinner, and so I'm hungry.
But what I've recognized, evenin the last couple of weeks,
actually is when I there havebeen times I've come home and it
(23:52):
hasn't been dinner time, andthe first thing that I think to
do is to go eat when it's nottime to eat and I'm not hungry,
and it has to do with that's arecognition of oh.
So I've habituated myself thatwhen I walk in the house,
whenever it is at the end of theday, it's time to eat, and
that's not always true, right,and so of course, other things
would be phone usage We'vetalked about that in the past,
(24:15):
and so, and maybe the finalthing I would say is that not
only reflection but also fasting, which is part of the practice
of the common rhythm, has reallyhelped me, in various seasons,
understand and uncover habitsthat I was unaware of, because
it's almost as though I havesomeone following me saying have
you ever noticed that, exceptit's the fact that I'm
(24:37):
restraining, I'm resistingsomething?
And that's when I realized allthe natural things that I would
do.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Yeah, so helpful.
And one of the things that, um,when I do the rhythm inventory,
I realize, oh wow, I hadaspirations of ways I'd spend my
time and my energy that arestill just aspirations, not
reality.
Um, and so grand examine getsperspective on where you are.
Rhythm inventory getsperspective on what you do.
The third one is relationalstewardship is really getting
(25:05):
perspective on who you're with,because the people and practices
in your life are two of themost formative components in
anybody's daily existence.
And so relational stewardshipreally is just that we're trying
to take stock of the peoplethat are in our life.
And we all know we've used thisillustration before of, like
(25:28):
some of us are like Legos, whereyou've got like eight connector
points or one of those bigLegos, or some of us only have
two connector points, and so youdon't.
Relationships go throughseasons.
Relationships experienceseasons of closeness and
distance, and now some of thoserelationships are covenantally
not allowed to go throughseasons of distance and they
(25:48):
still do, but we have to attendto that, like our spouses and
things like that.
And so really, relationalstewardship is helping us say
who we are, as a result of whosewe are, who we belong to, the
people that we have relationshipwith.
It's really shaping us.
So we want to reflect on notjust our relationships but our
roles in those relationships,the way in which we are called
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to show up in thoserelationships and get some real
ideas of where do we findourselves.
And in this context is where wehave the circles, and the reason
for that is we expect thateverybody at New City needs
three to five other people intheir life that know them deeply
(26:30):
, that they can kind of showtheir life to in meaningful ways
, people that can reflect backto them things that they can't
even see in themselves.
Right, the two things that weall know is it's you don't know
this when you're, when you havebad breath, until somebody else
tells you right and onephilosopher said it's
(26:50):
philosophically relevant thatyou can't see the back of your
own head.
In other words, we are utterlydependent on other people in
real ways, and so a circleenvironment is really being
intentional about who am I goingto invite into my life in order
to walk this path ofdiscipleship to Jesus with those
people in intentional ways, andso we're trying to help you
really get clarity on who thosepeople might be for this
(27:10):
upcoming season.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Yeah, and one thing I would mention there is that
when we look back in order tomove forward, there can be
seasons of discouragement ingeneral, like, for example, ben
said.
When he engages this, herecognizes the aspirations he
had for his time are stillaspirations.
I would say I've come to aplace and I would invite you to
consider coming to a place toknow that that's actually normal
(27:34):
.
What isn't normal, and we'reinviting all of us to, is to
recognize that and then gothrough this regular rhythm of
perspective gathering so that wecan redirect the future.
And it's going to happen again,and I just think that that is
not only normal.
I think it's, yeah, it's normaland we want to normalize it in
(27:56):
that sense.
But what's not normal is tohave these regular rhythms
together where we look around.
So, in this case, relationships.
I think that if I just thinkabout coming of a certain months
or certain weeks, of of a fullweek, we all understand
relationally the stress thatthat can put on the people that
we're closest to, and so the themost important thing is having
(28:17):
these regular rhythms of oftaking stock and stewarding and
redirecting.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
So helpful.
So this whole thing has beenmostly getting perspective
before planning, and that's aprinciple in taking stock of
your life is to get perspectivebefore planning.
And now comes the actualplanning part of things.
Now it's worth saying if youdid the rhythm, the all life
guide in January of this year,it was about 20 pages longer
(28:46):
than this one.
Some of that was font size,some of that was we
intentionally reduced and try toclarify and simplify around
things that really matter.
And somebody gave me thisreally helpful feedback, which
was their experience of the.
The all life guide was almostlike an hourglass, like it was.
It was bringing me focused overtime towards something.
They were talking about thegrand examen, the rhythm,
(29:07):
inventory, the relationalstewardship.
That was bringing them,focusing them down towards
something.
And then, when they got to thecrafting a way of life, it was
almost like it expanded backagain and that was not a
compliment.
They were saying, hey it, itwould be helpful if it really
was like a like an upside downtriangle, like really focusing
(29:30):
me towards a decision point.
And so we try to edit it alittle bit to do that well,
because crafting a way of life,which is the second half of this
is really where the rubbermeets the road.
This is where you're beingintentional, you're planning A
way of life is something thatChristians have done for
thousands of years, evenstemming back into the Hebrew
Bible.
You think about?
Daniel had three times of settimes of prayer where he would
go out pray facing the templeand be out in the window, and
people used it.
(29:50):
He was so committed to his wayof life that people used it to
try to get him killed for acapital offense and because it
was predictable he had a way oflife.
This was one of the ways inwhich he engaged with communion
with his God, and so a way oflife is very biblical, very
historical.
Christians have done this for along time, and so it's an
intentional plan to simplifyyour life around scheduled
(30:13):
practices and relational rhythms, to become more like Jesus in
every area of your life.
That's essentially what a wayof life is, and so what we've
been doing up to this point hasbasically been trying to grow in
self-awareness as to where weare, what we need, what season
our soul is in, what's God beensaying to us, how's the spirit
been moving in our life, thosekinds of things, and so the
(30:35):
crafting, a way of life walksyou through the rhythm, or, I'm
sorry, the common rhythm oureight practices that help us to
have a common life for a commonlove our eight practices that
help us to have a common lifefor a common love and then has
some simple steps to begin towork this into clarifying the
real practices and getting theminto your schedule.
Now I want to say something hereit's important to say we, we
(30:58):
really only want people to focuson two common rhythm practices
every semester, and the part ofthe reason why that is there's
just wisdom in habit acquisitionthat if you try to take on all
eight common rhythm practices,you'll probably do none of them.
But if you say, hey, in thisseason, what I discern as I'm
paying attention to God'spresence in my life, as I'm
(31:19):
receiving and responding toGod's activity in my life, I
realized the two things I reallyneed is a practice of rest,
where I have 24 hours that I donothing, that I know to be work,
and I need a practice oflistening, where I put away
screens and I allow myself toopen up to God's self and others
and to listen to them.
Well, that's great, so glad.
(31:40):
Now we want to help you kind ofwalk through what that can look
like.
There's a practice index wherewe talk about ways you can plan
and review those particularpractices to kind of improve and
increase your practicing ofthem.
And then there's an actualschedule, kind of a little
calendar of, hey, if I'm goingto listen on the daily, what's
(32:00):
that going to look like?
So for me that looks likecoming home from work 4.30, I
put my phone somewhere andI takemy kids out and for about an
hour and a half it's just me andmy two kiddos with no devices,
so I can listen to them andlisten to God and reflect on my
day and that's part of my listenpractice and so that's how it
fits into my schedule.
And so on page 30 and 31,there's a way of life worksheet
(32:23):
and a way of life schedule thathelp you get an idea of where
that's actually going to fitinto your life.
And then the remaining pagesreally are us trying to help
resource you with.
How do you actually implementthose specific practices?
What does it look like to putthose into practice in your
everyday life?
And, damian, I'll let you speakto the way of life and then
(32:44):
we'll close with the discernmentguide.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
Yeah, I think one of the things that is really
important coming out of page 30and 31 is this idea of making
sure that you're puttingsomething on your calendar.
I think that's super helpful,this idea of a way of life.
I think one of the realities andwe've said this in various ways
(33:08):
throughout the years is thatthe only option we have is
bringing our current way of lifemore in line with how we want
it to be aligned with our values.
We don't get to choose if wehave a way of life or not, which
is why we start with the rhythminventory and those types of
things.
We don't get to choose if wehave a way of life or not, which
is why we start with the rhythminventory and those types of
things.
And so there are lots of waysof life that we could have, and
(33:29):
there are very few that actuallyconnect us to the heart of God
and connect us to the peoplethat God's put in our life.
And so what we're reallyinviting all of us to is this
regular reassessment of the wayof life I'm on.
Is it taking me to adestination that connects me
more deeply to myself, to Godand to others, or not?
And we actually get theopportunity to reassess and
(33:52):
redirect.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
So helpful.
The last thing here is thisdiscernment guide.
Now it's an appendix.
In other words, if you're in aseason of life where you've got
questions about something inyour life, you've got a
situation you're trying to makesense of, you're trying to
really discern what is the willof God.
That's direct quote from Romans12.
This is a.
This is a kind of a project.
(34:15):
I spent some time studying thisdeeply Christian practice of
discernment and I kind ofdistilled and consolidated and
synthesized everything I learnedabout it into this discernment
guide and basically boiled itdown to discernment really is
two questions.
Now they're really, you know,in one sense simple on the
surface, but they're veryprofound.
And the two questions are whatis God saying and doing in my
(34:38):
life and, given who I am, whatwill I do?
Those are questions ofreceiving and responding
receiving God's active presencein your life and responding,
given who you are.
And so the discernment guide isthere for that purpose.
I know that I've used it inseasons with discerning, going
back to school and discerningdecisions Alana and I were
making and discerning variousways in which I could spend my
(35:00):
very limited and, you know, asMary Oliver says, your one wild
and precious life, and sodiscernment is a core practice
in discipleship to Jesus, and sowe wanted to basically just
give you a tool for that.
You don't have to do that ifthat's not something relevant in
what you're going through inthis current moment.
But where I want to end is withtwo questions on page 23 of the
guide that we predict Now it'snot entirely prediction, we're
(35:25):
not prophets but really we'vehad enough conversations with
people that these questions weknow are relevant and those
questions are first, isn't thislegalistic, like all this way of
life and practices anddiscipline, spiritual
disciplines and, you know,calendar, and I mean, isn't this
just like subtle legalism?
I think it's a legitimatequestion and I think a few ways
(35:47):
I want to go about asking andanswering.
I find it helpful to thinkabout legalism less as something
that you do and more as aposture of the heart.
It blew my mind when I read thatJesus said look at the
Pharisees and do what they tellyou, but don't do what they do.
That blew my mind.
We all think Pharisees are thearch legalists.
(36:07):
They're like the, you know, theVader of legalists.
They're just the worst thatthere is.
And Jesus says if they tell youto do it.
You should do it.
In other words, you shouldlisten to those legalists.
Why?
Why, would he say that it blowsmy mind?
Well, I think it's becauseJesus knows that a legalist and
a lover might look somewhatsimilar on the surface, their
actions might be similar, butit's a profoundly different.
(36:29):
The difference is a heartorientation.
You see, a legalist does, does,does in order to get, get, get.
A lover has been giveneverything, and so they just do
everything out of response.
Another way to say that JustinWhitmell early says it like this
God's love for us really canchange the way we live, but the
way we live will never changeGod's love for us.
And so lovers are alwaysresponding to the first love of
(36:52):
God.
Christopher West I heard himsay we can never say I love you
to God, we can only say I loveyou too.
And so the all of life guide isa guide for lovers.
It's not a guide for legalists.
It's a guide for people who say, oh, god is so good to me in
the grace of Jesus Christ.
His life, death andresurrection has given me far
more than I could ever ask orimagine.
(37:13):
And they say well, what does itlook like for me to become more
like Jesus.
I want to become like the onewho loved me, and this is us,
just trying to come alongsideyou and help you.
And so if your concern is isn'tthis legalistic or works
righteousness?
The answer is maybe, maybe foryou.
Depends on your posture ofheart, depends on the way in
which you're responding, dependson the way you receive this,
(37:36):
the ways in which you experienceGod moving towards you.
And so our concern, or ourquestion for you would be Jesus
makes it really clear that itwas for freedom that he came to
set us free, and so, if that'strue, does a way of life create
more freedom in your life?
That's probably a good litmustest, but before you run on and
(37:56):
answer, there's no way thiswould be more constrictive and
constraining.
Let me also ask you does yourcurrent way of life because we
all have a way of life, justlike we have a budget and a diet
, even if we're not intentionalabout it does your current way
of life lead to more freedom?
And so you know, a fish is notfree when it's on the dock.
It's only free when it's in thewater, when you're swimming and
doing the things that Goddesigned you to do, the way he
(38:18):
designed you to do it.
That's where real freedom isfound.
It's not in losing constraints,but in finding the right
constraints, and so that's whatwe're hoping for with this, is
that this is the response of alover to the first love of God
in Christ for us, and so that'sour encouragement as you take up
the all of life guide.
But, damian, a question that wealso get is this sounds like
(38:40):
it's going to be a lot, likeit's going to take a lot.
How does all of this actuallyhelp my already busy life?
Is this just adding more to myto-do list?
Am I just crowding out analready busy life?
What does that mean, and howdoes the All of Life Guide help
us with that?
Speaker 2 (38:54):
Yeah Well, I would say, when done as designed, the
All of Life Guide will actuallyinclude more subtraction from
your life rather than additionto your life.
I think that's the principle isthat when we say it's easy to
drift from our designs anddesires and we need these
(39:16):
regular times of reflecting back, I think one of the things we
find is actually that we'redoing lots of things and maybe
too many things, maybe somedistracting things, and so it's
kind of like cleaning yourcloset.
You know you clean your closetand imagine cleaning your closet
at the beginning of the day andcoming back and someone had put
more things back in your closet.
(39:37):
I think we try to tend to moveinto planning in our life, as
though everything will go asplanned, and it's sort of like
cleaning out your closet Okay, Imade the decisions, I got rid
of some stuff, and so I justwon't put out of things then.
But the reality is is that it'salmost like someone's putting
things in your closet.
That's that's our life.
It just keeps filling up mostnaturally, and so really, what
we would say is that a big partof moving toward a way of life
(40:00):
in a process like we have in theall of life guide is regular
times of getting perspective andthen recognizing what can I
remove.
What can I remove, not what canI add.
Speaker 1 (40:10):
So helpful.
The thing that we want you tohear in all of this is we love
New City, we're so grateful tobe able to pastor this people
and we are those who, as Hebrewssays, are called to give an
account for the people of NewCity.
And the author of Hebrews talksabout make it so that your
leaders can do that joyfully.
And that's so true to ourexperience here at New City is
(40:36):
that the people of New City makeour jobs a joyful.
I often will tell people I'mjoyfully bound to this people.
It's such a gift to be in andamong this congregation and to
be able to lead here, and sothis is just us trying to lead
well in the ways in which webelieve the Spirit is at work in
our midst and we're trying todiscern that and try to lead you
well, and so we love you.
We're grateful for you.
If there's any questions thatyou might have, you're welcome
(40:59):
to reach out to us.
Use the link in the show noteshere, and we look forward to
talking to you soon.
Hello, new City.
This is Pastor Ben.
I'm here with Pastor Damien hey, and we are going to do an
equal parts New City Next recapand all of Life Guide intro.
And so we're going to look backat new city next on May 19th
and recap some of the things wetalked about there for anybody
who was not able to make it orjust wants a good refresher.
And then we're going to talkabout the all of life guide,
(00:34):
which releases releasedyesterday and we'll be using
through the June and July monthshere.
So just to give you a heads upin the show notes, we're going
to have three different things.
The first thing is we're goingto have the slides for New City
Next and so if you want tofollow along while you're
listening here, you'll be ableto track with the slides that we
use to illustrate differentthings that we're talking about.
That was a core part of our NewCity Next presentation.
(00:56):
And then we're also going tohave a link to a place where you
can put questions.
We're going to have a live Q&Awhere we take the questions that
people had and we're going toanswer those over Zoom, and
that's because we think visionis best cast through dialogue,
because we want to hear from you, we want to talk to you, we
want to hear feedback andpushback and questions and
(01:17):
curiosities and places ofresonance and resistance for you
, and so that would be reallyhelpful.
Put the questions you have inthat link and then the third
thing is we'll link the PDF tothe All of Life Guide so that
you have access to the thingthat we're going to be talking
about for the last half of thisconversation.
So with that, we regularly dothese New City Next updates,
(01:37):
damian.
What's the context for that?
Why do we do this?
What would be helpful forpeople to know?
Speaker 2 (01:44):
this, what would be helpful for people to know.
Yeah, I think the most succinctway to say it is that back in
March 2022, we came out of aseveral month eight or nine
month season of prayer andplanning as a session that's,
the elders of the church and wesaid we're entering as a
congregation into a new chapterand we said this is the third
chapter New City has been in,the first one being we were a
church that was planted and thenwe went through a season where
(02:06):
we were rooted, and now webelieve we're entering into the
season of reproducing, and wesaid it would take several years
to carry out this plan, and wejust named this whole season New
City Next.
That's the name of this, and soI can imagine at some point
these updates will no longer becalled New City Next, they'll be
called New City Next.
They'll be called New CitySomething Else, but until we've
completed what we set out to do,they're New City Next and
(02:28):
essentially, we've settled intoa rhythm of two times a year now
that's our plan where we'llgive an update, and this one
happens here in May, rightbefore the summer months of June
and July, which, in theministry calendar, mean rest.
So what we wanted to do reallywas give a snapshot of where we
are currently as a church as itrelates to our vision and New
(02:49):
City Next, and then preparepeople to rest.
Well, and we're going to get tothat on the second half of this
podcast ways that we want tolead people into resting because
, as we all know, the inertia ofour life doesn't lead to
reflection or rest, and so wewant to lead you all that way.
So the point is is that thistime, on May 19th, our desire
was to give a snapshot and thena little bit about Horizons.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
That's great, and one of the things that is important
is to kind of orient ourselvesin time, which is what the
ministry calendar is helpful for, and also to orient ourselves
with priorities.
What really matters to us andwe've stated our vision is that
we want to see the Father answerthe Lord's prayer.
And when you think about theLord's prayer, it's Jesus's
(03:33):
recipe to capture your holyimagination for what God might
do in the world.
And so when we're praying ourFather in heaven, hallowed be
your name, your kingdom come,your will be done on earth as it
is in heaven.
On and on, this prayer reallyis to ask for the order of
heaven to come and shape thechaos of earth.
And so, if you ask what wouldbe out of order in heaven,
(03:57):
that's a good question.
So in heaven, everyone knowsand honors and ascribes to God
His true worth, and so we wouldwant that on planet earth, and
so it happens in heaven.
So let it be done on earth asabove so below.
Another thing is the heaven isthe realm where God's will is
(04:18):
done, and we want that on earthas well, whether it's in your
workplace or your neighborhoodor your home or in the places
that God has sent you torecreate and play all of those
places.
What would it look like ifGod's will was done in those
places?
And then you know, anotherthing is is that in heaven
there's always enough to goaround, nobody lacks, nobody
(04:39):
goes without, and so there'senough food and enough
forgiveness.
And we want that on earth too.
And so those are just examplesof what it will look like for
the father to answer the Lord'sprayer.
So how does that happen?
It happens as we call for himand send disciple makers.
Now you might think that this isnot very original.
Come on, new City.
Like you can think more out ofthe box than that.
(05:01):
And the answer?
You're right, and that'sintentional.
We wanted to come with a visionand mission, with what we could
call fresh fidelity.
It's a faithfulness to whatthousands of years worth of
Christian reflection the Biblehas come up with for a vision
and mission for the church.
The kingdom come is our vision,and the Great Commission is our
mission in some ways, but thefreshness is our own way of
(05:23):
talking about it.
We call form and send disciplemakers, because how else is the
will of God going to be done onearth as it is in heaven, unless
people are growing in whollyyielding their lives over to God
, and how does that happen?
Through this process ofdiscipleship.
And so, as we call for and senddisciples who can make
(05:44):
disciples, we expect to see Godincreasingly answer the Lord's
prayer in our midst and throughour work.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Yes, yeah, and the reality is too.
There's a sense in which, inall of life, we want to pursue
healthy rhythms and pattern, andso if you've been around New
City, you know that we believein that.
That common rhythm is somethingcore to what we're engaging as
a community and as a part of NewCity.
Next, we also decided we wantedto put a pattern and a cadence
(06:13):
into our year as a churchtogether, and so you will want
to check out if it's been awhile since you've seen the
ministry calendar and you can'tthink of it.
As Ben said, it's going to bein the show notes, but if you
remember, it's a diamond lookingthing.
And then December and January wehave our rest months, and June
and July we have rest months aswell.
And so this is us remindingeveryone what season we're in
(06:35):
and where we are going, and Ithink it's important because
it's sort of like a mall map.
We need to know where we arenow so that we also know best
where we're going.
And the whole point or, yeah, Ithink the whole orientation we
have in this update, it reallymatters that we're leading you
into this season of rest, as Imentioned earlier.
So we think that's importantand we want to invite you to
(07:00):
truly lean in in this season.
What we want for everyone isthat we come back together in
the fall after these summermonths, and we can look back and
say you know, I was intentionalabout perspective before
planning, I was intentionalabout rest before I start
running again in the fall, andwe really want that for everyone
.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
That's great.
And when we say we call for andsend disciple makers, we really
have these environments wherewe do that in.
And when we say we call, formand send disciple makers, we
really have these environmentswhere we do that in.
And so we call people intothese environments, we form them
in these environments and wesend them out of these
environments.
And so our three environmentsare not new.
We've been around for a littlewhile, which is congregations,
communities and circles, and thelanguage that we describe this
(07:42):
with is that we've spent timeforming them, and now we're
really emphasizing filling them,and that language comes from
Genesis 1.
God, in three days, formed theearth and then, in three days,
filled the earth with things,and so that is.
We're just trying to bebiblical here.
Y'all.
That's all we can do.
And so when we talk aboutcongregations, what we mean is
(08:04):
people that are gatheredtogether with Jesus for
scripture and sacrament, prayerand praise.
There's things that happen onSunday morning as we gather for
worship as the church, thatcannot happen anywhere else, and
so we want to emphasize thoseaspects of the congregational
environment.
When we talk about communities,we mean a people that are
following Jesus together with acommon purpose, pattern and
(08:25):
practices, and so one of thedistinctives of communities is
that there's an ability to havemale and female in that space,
and also to meet in largergroups 15 to 50 people in that
space but reallypurpose-oriented.
If people are going to gathertogether in that space, they
have to have a reason for it,and it needs to be a good enough
(08:47):
reason for people to be willingto show up every other week and
to give their really precioustime to it.
And so, then, the finalenvironment here is circles,
which are three to six men orwomen following Jesus together
in transparent trust to love Godwith all of themselves, love
their neighbors as themselvesand make disciples by giving
themselves, and circles reallyare the environment that we want
(09:10):
every single person at New Cityable to lead in.
Why is that?
Well, because all theseenvironments matter.
Circles are the primary vehiclewhere disciple-making occurs,
though, and so if we're calling,forming and sending
disciple-makers, that, in ourcontext, means can you lead a
circle properly?
If you can lead a circle in away that helps people love God
(09:31):
with all themselves, love theirneighbors as themselves and make
disciples by giving themselves,then you are, then we've
completed our mission in onesense, and so because that's
what a disciple maker is able todo.
And so in the congregationalspace, those are upward
gatherings where we'reworshiping God In a community
space.
We ideally just function withan outward aspect, where they
(09:54):
help you be more missional,engage with your neighbors.
And then the circle spacereally is an inward or
formational space where you'reexperiencing deep knowing and
loving and community, but alsoreal formation into
Christ-likeness in that space.
Now, all of these have upward,inward and outward aspects to
them, but those are emphasizedkind of uniquely in each of
(10:16):
those spaces.
And so one of the things thatwe've said and I think this is
true is we want people to engagein all three environments.
So that's weekly gathering forworship on Sunday mornings.
It's every other week gatheringin communities.
It's weekly gathering incircles with three to five other
men or three to five otherwomen in those spaces to really
(10:40):
call you, form you and send youas a disciple maker.
Now that might seem like a lot,and some of you have been
engaging those spaces, all threeof them, and some of you
haven't been for various reasons.
Some of you aren't able, someof you aren't willing, and so
here's a phrase that I've foundreally helpful from Alcoholics
Anonymous.
Basically, the point is that ifyou, if you work the 12 steps
(11:03):
this is the phrase it works.
If you work it, so work it,you're worth it.
And basically what they'resaying is if you want to not be
an alcoholic, do these 12 steps,it works, we promise you.
It's got a proven track record.
Now, our track record isn'tquite as good as making disciple
makers, as AA's is, as makingnon-alcoholics, but we've got
(11:25):
some track record here.
We've got data fromconversations and feedback from
people that are in all threeenvironments, damien and myself
included, that it really doeswork.
It really does work if you workit.
And so, to shift the metaphorto a CrossFit, if you do this,
rx or as prescribed, it reallywill train you in Christ
likeness in meaningful ways.
(11:45):
And so that's the invitation,that's the call to engage in
these different environments.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Yeah, and so one of the things that we thought would
be helpful as we go into thesummer is to give people a
snapshot, in terms of numbers,of how many people are in each
one of our environments, becauseone of the things we said is,
now that we've formed them, wewant to fill them.
So on Sunday morning, theaverage attendance we have with
men, women and children is 560.
(12:13):
So obviously we rounded upthere I think it was an odd
number and I wanted an evennumber.
So 560 is the average Sunday.
If you come to New City on aSunday morning, that's what
you're going to find.
The reality is is that New Cityis a little bit better than
what the national average seemsto be on regular church
attenders and how often they goto church, because a couple
(12:34):
different studies have shownthat it's about 1.9 Sundays a
month for the average person,and so our total number is just
over 800 people would call NewCity their home, and that's a
pretty close number.
We've been keeping a close eyeon that, and so what that means
is, for our average is a littlebit above two times per month.
So the question then is, if 560men, women and children are
(12:57):
coming on an average week howmany of those people have been
gathering in communities, andthat number is 254.
So that comes from weeklyattendance.
There were about 300 people whosigned up at the beginning, but
people who were engaged theentire semester is 254.
In case you're interested,that's 45% of that 560 number.
(13:19):
So then the final environment ofcircles.
We have 113 people in circles,or about 20% of those who are
there on a Sunday, that is tosay, the number are in circles.
So one you might find thisinteresting.
The other thing is, what wouldbe interesting to us is to know
what lands with you when youhear this.
I talked to some people who sawthese numbers and they were
(13:41):
encouraged, especially aboutcircles.
Oh wow, I didn't realize we hadover 100 people in circles.
That's amazing For others.
I'm sure you exist I didn'ttalk to you yet, but you might
be thinking that's it and Iwould imagine there are people
in between.
But one thing I want you to knowthat this says to us is that
there's some friction that weneed to remove to help people
move from Sunday morning intocommunities and from communities
(14:03):
into circles, and that's reallyimportant to us.
So, really, if you hear onething, some of you might be
thinking none of this is new,yet.
This is just you guys remindingus, and I would say, even if
that's it, this is worth it.
But here's one thing I want youto take away is that where are
we now?
What we mean by forming andfilling is a big part of filling
these environments is reducingthe friction for people to get
(14:25):
into them, and so a metaphorthat might be helpful is what we
really long for is that if aperson steps into the community
truly wherever they would enterin, however they would enter in
if they've stepped into New Cityand are a part of our mission
that they would find themselvesin a current that would carry
them from congregations tocommunities, to circles.
(14:46):
It would just be natural.
If you're a part of New City,of course you're a part of all
three environments, and if youweren't except for extraordinary
circumstances, you wouldexperience yourself swimming
against the current, because thecurrent is so obviously taking
people, moving them fromcongregations, communities and
circles, and that's really whatwe desire, and the reason is, as
Ben said, is because we thinkthat all three of these
(15:09):
environments are integral to aperson growing in Christlikeness
and being equipped to be ableto multiply their life into
others.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Damien, you said something super helpful on
Sunday that was maybe more forour OG New City people, which
was the role that communities,or what we used to call
community groups, played in ourkind of our architecture, our
strategy, compared with the waythat we're talking about circles
today.
How did you articulate that?
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Yeah.
So if you've been around NewCity for a while, you knew that
community groups were central toour architecture and the way
that I said it was.
If you've been here before NewCity, next, what you know is
that community groups werecentral to our architecture and
the way that I said it was.
If you've been here before NewCity, next, what you know is
that community groups were boththe thing and everything.
So what that means is that thething that you needed to be
engaged in at New City was acommunity group, and the role of
(15:59):
the community group really waseverything.
In a sense, we did shepherdingthrough community group, we did
leadership development throughcommunity groups, we did
basically everything besidesSunday morning through community
groups, and that was reallychallenging.
And so the new move is actuallycircles are now the thing, but
they're not everything, which isalso why we have communities.
We think that there is a uniquerole that communities play in
(16:22):
our mission, and so, to repeatit again, while community groups
used to be the thing andeverything, now circles are the
thing, but they're noteverything.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
So helpful.
So if you're listening to thisand you're wondering, okay, what
are some next steps?
What does this look like for me?
From here, back to our ministrycalendar, what we've said is
that we are heading into Juneand July, which are rest months
for us Communities don't gather,circles gather, if that's the
(16:53):
nature of your circle, that'sdiscerned by each circle and
their leader.
But two real next steps.
The first one is that we have acircle training coming up in
June, and so if you fill out thecircle connect form, which you
can find on the app, you canalso find it in the all of life
guide.
Um, the circle connect formwill get your information
essentially into a space wherewe can follow up with you and
(17:14):
invite you to that training.
Uh, the training is not justfor leaders, it's for all people
in circles, because we want tobe able to equip them to be in
that space fruitfully.
So circle connect form would beone of those next steps.
The second one, which we'llspend the remainder of our time
in this podcast talking about,is the all of life guide, and so
, as we transition fromrecapping new city next to the
(17:38):
all of life guide, is thereanything else that you want to
kind of close out the new city.
Next portion of this on Damien,and then we'll turn our
attention towards the All ofLife Guide.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
The last thing I'll say is that the plan is in
August that we would haveanother one of these updates
with New City Next.
But rather than capturing theend of a season, we'll be
casting a vision for thebeginning of a new season going
into the fall.
So be tuned, or stay tuned, forthat Super helpful.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Okay, the all of life guide.
Now, this is a a rhythm that wehave.
It's a semi-annual kind ofkeystone habit we get that
language from.
Is it James Clear, or was itCharles?
Okay, charles Duhigg's book onhabits, which is, um, you know,
a keystone habit, is one ofthose things that, if you do
this, all your other habits andbehaviors that you want to do
are a little bit easier.
So for many of us, a keystonehabit is exercise.
(18:26):
If you exercise, it's morelikely you'll eat more healthily
, it's more likely you'll go tobed earlier, wake up earlier,
all those kinds of things thatwe want to do, and so a seasonal
time of reflection and planningis actually a really important
keystone habit to a flourishinglife.
And so we thought, hey, let'sequip you, let's give you a tool
(18:52):
, and then let's do thiscongregationally, all together
as a people, and so in walkedthe all of life guide.
And so we described this as asemi-annual keystone habit of
reflection and planning the lifeof our church to practice a
shared way of life.
I'm reading from page three theethos of this guy this is
really important is gracious,abiding, slow down spirituality
through joy-filled communionwith the Trinity.
(19:12):
No big deal, just you know, lowbar.
But really we mean that we wantyou to experience this as rest,
reflection, rejuvenation, andso as we try to invite you into
this rhythm, this keystone habit, we want you to know a few
things.
And so we're going to spendsome time kind of overviewing
the all of life guide and whatthat, what that looks like in
(19:32):
our rhythm together.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Yeah, that's great.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
So here's the on page one, the table of contents
there's.
I kind of want to just walkthrough the things that are
happening here.
There's a grand examen, and thepurpose of the grand examen if
you've never done one before isreally to get perspective on
where you are.
Where am I right now?
And the best way to do that isto kind of look at where you've
been.
And so the grand examen ismeant to look back at the last
(19:55):
three, six, nine, 12 months even, and take stock.
What's happened in my life?
As somebody has said, allintrospection is retrospection,
in other words, allunderstanding of yourself that
can come from the self-awarenessof introspection.
All of that has to come fromlooking back.
Soren Kierkegaard said lifemust be lived forward, but you
(20:17):
have to face backwards somethinglike that and so we want to
help you do that with the grandexamen, and part of that is
paying attention to God'smovements in your life, through
your life.
What's he up to?
Taking real stock as to what'sgoing on in your life.
Damien, as you've done theGrand Examen multiple times,
because we've done it togethermultiple times what's been some
of the fruit of it?
(20:38):
What's your experience withthat been like?
Speaker 2 (20:47):
Yeah, so one of the beauties of the grand examine is
that you can examine the pastin smaller or larger time
increments, so it can be threemonths, six months, one month,
and even when I do my weeklyplanning and review it's not
quite a grand examine, but somuch.
If you look back, it revealsitself even over a week Meetings
and things that I have to begrateful for or, of course,
tasks that I have to follow upon.
(21:08):
But the rhythm of looking back,especially yielding to God, in
the presence of God, invitingthe Holy Spirit in, is a
powerful exercise and I thinkthat for me, what it's done is
that oftentimes I think and thisis true, but I'll say I need
more clarity, I want moreclarity and yet, looking back, I
(21:28):
see how much clarity the Lordhas provided as I reflect with
Him in a grand examine.
So I think that would be thesimplest way to say it from my
own experience.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
Super helpful.
So we move on from the grandexamine into the rhythm
inventory.
So if grand examine is gettingperspective on where you are,
the rhythm inventory is gettingperspective on what you do.
You know, there's this quotefrom Carl Jung.
He says until we make theunconscious conscious, it will
rule our lives and we'll call itfate.
And Damien hears me say thatquote all the time because I
(22:00):
love it.
But that's also true of ourhabits.
Until we make these unconsciousthings we do more conscious,
bring them up into our awareness, they will shape, form, mold us
into types of people, and wedon't even realize that we have
really low willpower.
We are not the kind of personwe wanted to become.
(22:21):
In a variety of different wayswe're disgruntled and agitated
and hurried and harried and allthese things, and we don't
realize that a lot of it has todo with the way in which we give
consent to our will to do allthese little micro habits and
routines throughout our life.
And so the rhythm inventory ismeant to bring your attention
there, because where yourattention goes, your awareness
grows, and so we pay attentionto our morning, our afternoon,
(22:44):
our evening, various things wedo in routine, and then we
reflect on that.
And so some of the ways that Ithink about the rhythm inventory
there's this question that youknow in the best way.
Just it's like smelling salts.
And it's if I repeated the last24 hours, which includes your
thoughts, your emotions, youractions.
If you did that the last 24hours, you repeated it every day
(23:05):
for 10 years, what kind ofperson would I become?
And that's a diagnosticquestion, the kind of question
that helps surface some thingswhen you do a rhythm inventory.
Yes, and so Andy Dillard sayshow we spend our days is, of
course, how we spend our lives,and a rhythm inventory is trying
to help us get an idea of howdo we spend our days.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
So, as you, damian, similar, as you've engaged with
the rhythm inventory, what haveyou been surprised by?
Yeah, well, you know, somethingthat I've been surprised by is a
fresh is the power ofenvironment.
So, in other words, like when Iwalk home, whenever I come home
normally, when I come home, itis at the end of the day, right
before dinner, and so I'm hungry.
But what I've recognized, evenin the last couple of weeks,
actually is when I there havebeen times I've come home and it
(23:52):
hasn't been dinner time, andthe first thing that I think to
do is to go eat when it's nottime to eat and I'm not hungry,
and it has to do with that's arecognition of oh.
So I've habituated myself thatwhen I walk in the house,
whenever it is at the end of theday, it's time to eat, and
that's not always true, right,and so of course, other things
would be phone usage We'vetalked about that in the past,
(24:15):
and so, and maybe the finalthing I would say is that not
only reflection but also fasting, which is part of the practice
of the common rhythm, has reallyhelped me, in various seasons,
understand and uncover habitsthat I was unaware of, because
it's almost as though I havesomeone following me saying have
you ever noticed that, exceptit's the fact that I'm
(24:37):
restraining, I'm resistingsomething?
And that's when I realized allthe natural things that I would
do.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Yeah, so helpful.
And one of the things that, um,when I do the rhythm inventory,
I realize, oh wow, I hadaspirations of ways I'd spend my
time and my energy that arestill just aspirations, not
reality.
Um, and so grand examine getsperspective on where you are.
Rhythm inventory getsperspective on what you do.
The third one is relationalstewardship is really getting
(25:05):
perspective on who you're with,because the people and practices
in your life are two of themost formative components in
anybody's daily existence.
And so relational stewardshipreally is just that we're trying
to take stock of the peoplethat are in our life.
And we all know we've used thisillustration before of, like
(25:28):
some of us are like Legos, whereyou've got like eight connector
points or one of those bigLegos, or some of us only have
two connector points, and so youdon't.
Relationships go throughseasons.
Relationships experienceseasons of closeness and
distance, and now some of thoserelationships are covenantally
not allowed to go throughseasons of distance and they
(25:48):
still do, but we have to attendto that, like our spouses and
things like that.
And so really, relationalstewardship is helping us say
who we are, as a result of whosewe are, who we belong to, the
people that we have relationshipwith.
It's really shaping us.
So we want to reflect on notjust our relationships but our
roles in those relationships,the way in which we are called
(26:09):
to show up in thoserelationships and get some real
ideas of where do we findourselves.
And in this context is where wehave the circles, and the reason
for that is we expect thateverybody at New City needs
three to five other people intheir life that know them deeply
(26:30):
, that they can kind of showtheir life to in meaningful ways
, people that can reflect backto them things that they can't
even see in themselves.
Right, the two things that weall know is it's you don't know
this when you're, when you havebad breath, until somebody else
tells you right and onephilosopher said it's
(26:50):
philosophically relevant thatyou can't see the back of your
own head.
In other words, we are utterlydependent on other people in
real ways, and so a circleenvironment is really being
intentional about who am I goingto invite into my life in order
to walk this path ofdiscipleship to Jesus with those
people in intentional ways, andso we're trying to help you
really get clarity on who thosepeople might be for this
(27:10):
upcoming season.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Yeah, and one thing I would mention there is that
when we look back in order tomove forward, there can be
seasons of discouragement ingeneral, like, for example, ben
said.
When he engages this, herecognizes the aspirations he
had for his time are stillaspirations.
I would say I've come to aplace and I would invite you to
consider coming to a place toknow that that's actually normal
(27:34):
.
What isn't normal, and we'reinviting all of us to, is to
recognize that and then gothrough this regular rhythm of
perspective gathering so that wecan redirect the future.
And it's going to happen again,and I just think that that is
not only normal.
I think it's, yeah, it's normaland we want to normalize it in
(27:56):
that sense.
But what's not normal is tohave these regular rhythms
together where we look around.
So, in this case, relationships.
I think that if I just thinkabout coming of a certain months
or certain weeks, of of a fullweek, we all understand
relationally the stress thatthat can put on the people that
we're closest to, and so the themost important thing is having
(28:17):
these regular rhythms of oftaking stock and stewarding and
redirecting.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
So helpful.
So this whole thing has beenmostly getting perspective
before planning, and that's aprinciple in taking stock of
your life is to get perspectivebefore planning.
And now comes the actualplanning part of things.
Now it's worth saying if youdid the rhythm, the all life
guide in January of this year,it was about 20 pages longer
(28:46):
than this one.
Some of that was font size,some of that was we
intentionally reduced and try toclarify and simplify around
things that really matter.
And somebody gave me thisreally helpful feedback, which
was their experience of the.
The all life guide was almostlike an hourglass, like it was.
It was bringing me focused overtime towards something.
They were talking about thegrand examen, the rhythm,
(29:07):
inventory, the relationalstewardship.
That was bringing them,focusing them down towards
something.
And then, when they got to thecrafting a way of life, it was
almost like it expanded backagain and that was not a
compliment.
They were saying, hey it, itwould be helpful if it really
was like a like an upside downtriangle, like really focusing
(29:30):
me towards a decision point.
And so we try to edit it alittle bit to do that well,
because crafting a way of life,which is the second half of this
is really where the rubbermeets the road.
This is where you're beingintentional, you're planning A
way of life is something thatChristians have done for
thousands of years, evenstemming back into the Hebrew
Bible.
You think about?
Daniel had three times of settimes of prayer where he would
go out pray facing the templeand be out in the window, and
people used it.
(29:50):
He was so committed to his wayof life that people used it to
try to get him killed for acapital offense and because it
was predictable he had a way oflife.
This was one of the ways inwhich he engaged with communion
with his God, and so a way oflife is very biblical, very
historical.
Christians have done this for along time, and so it's an
intentional plan to simplifyyour life around scheduled
(30:13):
practices and relational rhythms, to become more like Jesus in
every area of your life.
That's essentially what a wayof life is, and so what we've
been doing up to this point hasbasically been trying to grow in
self-awareness as to where weare, what we need, what season
our soul is in, what's God beensaying to us, how's the spirit
been moving in our life, thosekinds of things, and so the
(30:35):
crafting, a way of life walksyou through the rhythm, or, I'm
sorry, the common rhythm oureight practices that help us to
have a common life for a commonlove our eight practices that
help us to have a common lifefor a common love and then has
some simple steps to begin towork this into clarifying the
real practices and getting theminto your schedule.
Now I want to say something hereit's important to say we, we
(30:58):
really only want people to focuson two common rhythm practices
every semester, and the part ofthe reason why that is there's
just wisdom in habit acquisitionthat if you try to take on all
eight common rhythm practices,you'll probably do none of them.
But if you say, hey, in thisseason, what I discern as I'm
paying attention to God'spresence in my life, as I'm
(31:19):
receiving and responding toGod's activity in my life, I
realized the two things I reallyneed is a practice of rest,
where I have 24 hours that I donothing, that I know to be work,
and I need a practice oflistening, where I put away
screens and I allow myself toopen up to God's self and others
and to listen to them.
Well, that's great, so glad.
(31:40):
Now we want to help you kind ofwalk through what that can look
like.
There's a practice index wherewe talk about ways you can plan
and review those particularpractices to kind of improve and
increase your practicing ofthem.
And then there's an actualschedule, kind of a little
calendar of, hey, if I'm goingto listen on the daily, what's
(32:00):
that going to look like?
So for me that looks likecoming home from work 4.30, I
put my phone somewhere andI takemy kids out and for about an
hour and a half it's just me andmy two kiddos with no devices,
so I can listen to them andlisten to God and reflect on my
day and that's part of my listenpractice and so that's how it
fits into my schedule.
And so on page 30 and 31,there's a way of life worksheet
(32:23):
and a way of life schedule thathelp you get an idea of where
that's actually going to fitinto your life.
And then the remaining pagesreally are us trying to help
resource you with.
How do you actually implementthose specific practices?
What does it look like to putthose into practice in your
everyday life?
And, damian, I'll let you speakto the way of life and then
(32:44):
we'll close with the discernmentguide.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
Yeah, I think one of the things that is really
important coming out of page 30and 31 is this idea of making
sure that you're puttingsomething on your calendar.
I think that's super helpful,this idea of a way of life.
I think one of the realities andwe've said this in various ways
(33:08):
throughout the years is thatthe only option we have is
bringing our current way of lifemore in line with how we want
it to be aligned with our values.
We don't get to choose if wehave a way of life or not, which
is why we start with the rhythminventory and those types of
things.
We don't get to choose if wehave a way of life or not, which
is why we start with the rhythminventory and those types of
things.
And so there are lots of waysof life that we could have, and
(33:29):
there are very few that actuallyconnect us to the heart of God
and connect us to the peoplethat God's put in our life.
And so what we're reallyinviting all of us to is this
regular reassessment of the wayof life I'm on.
Is it taking me to adestination that connects me
more deeply to myself, to Godand to others, or not?
And we actually get theopportunity to reassess and
(33:52):
redirect.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
So helpful.
The last thing here is thisdiscernment guide.
Now it's an appendix.
In other words, if you're in aseason of life where you've got
questions about something inyour life, you've got a
situation you're trying to makesense of, you're trying to
really discern what is the willof God.
That's direct quote from Romans12.
This is a.
This is a kind of a project.
(34:15):
I spent some time studying thisdeeply Christian practice of
discernment and I kind ofdistilled and consolidated and
synthesized everything I learnedabout it into this discernment
guide and basically boiled itdown to discernment really is
two questions.
Now they're really, you know,in one sense simple on the
surface, but they're veryprofound.
And the two questions are whatis God saying and doing in my
(34:38):
life and, given who I am, whatwill I do?
Those are questions ofreceiving and responding
receiving God's active presencein your life and responding,
given who you are.
And so the discernment guide isthere for that purpose.
I know that I've used it inseasons with discerning, going
back to school and discerningdecisions Alana and I were
making and discerning variousways in which I could spend my
(35:00):
very limited and, you know, asMary Oliver says, your one wild
and precious life, and sodiscernment is a core practice
in discipleship to Jesus, and sowe wanted to basically just
give you a tool for that.
You don't have to do that ifthat's not something relevant in
what you're going through inthis current moment.
But where I want to end is withtwo questions on page 23 of the
guide that we predict Now it'snot entirely prediction, we're
(35:25):
not prophets but really we'vehad enough conversations with
people that these questions weknow are relevant and those
questions are first, isn't thislegalistic, like all this way of
life and practices anddiscipline, spiritual
disciplines and, you know,calendar, and I mean, isn't this
just like subtle legalism?
I think it's a legitimatequestion and I think a few ways
(35:47):
I want to go about asking andanswering.
I find it helpful to thinkabout legalism less as something
that you do and more as aposture of the heart.
It blew my mind when I read thatJesus said look at the
Pharisees and do what they tellyou, but don't do what they do.
That blew my mind.
We all think Pharisees are thearch legalists.
(36:07):
They're like the, you know, theVader of legalists.
They're just the worst thatthere is.
And Jesus says if they tell youto do it.
You should do it.
In other words, you shouldlisten to those legalists.
Why?
Why, would he say that it blowsmy mind?
Well, I think it's becauseJesus knows that a legalist and
a lover might look somewhatsimilar on the surface, their
actions might be similar, butit's a profoundly different.
(36:29):
The difference is a heartorientation.
You see, a legalist does, does,does in order to get, get, get.
A lover has been giveneverything, and so they just do
everything out of response.
Another way to say that JustinWhitmell early says it like this
God's love for us really canchange the way we live, but the
way we live will never changeGod's love for us.
And so lovers are alwaysresponding to the first love of
(36:52):
God.
Christopher West I heard himsay we can never say I love you
to God, we can only say I loveyou too.
And so the all of life guide isa guide for lovers.
It's not a guide for legalists.
It's a guide for people who say, oh, god is so good to me in
the grace of Jesus Christ.
His life, death andresurrection has given me far
more than I could ever ask orimagine.
(37:13):
And they say well, what does itlook like for me to become more
like Jesus.
I want to become like the onewho loved me, and this is us,
just trying to come alongsideyou and help you.
And so if your concern is isn'tthis legalistic or works
righteousness?
The answer is maybe, maybe foryou.
Depends on your posture ofheart, depends on the way in
which you're responding, dependson the way you receive this,
(37:36):
the ways in which you experienceGod moving towards you.
And so our concern, or ourquestion for you would be Jesus
makes it really clear that itwas for freedom that he came to
set us free, and so, if that'strue, does a way of life create
more freedom in your life?
That's probably a good litmustest, but before you run on and
(37:56):
answer, there's no way thiswould be more constrictive and
constraining.
Let me also ask you does yourcurrent way of life because we
all have a way of life, justlike we have a budget and a diet
, even if we're not intentionalabout it does your current way
of life lead to more freedom?
And so you know, a fish is notfree when it's on the dock.
It's only free when it's in thewater, when you're swimming and
doing the things that Goddesigned you to do, the way he
(38:18):
designed you to do it.
That's where real freedom isfound.
It's not in losing constraints,but in finding the right
constraints, and so that's whatwe're hoping for with this, is
that this is the response of alover to the first love of God
in Christ for us, and so that'sour encouragement as you take up
the all of life guide.
But, damian, a question that wealso get is this sounds like
(38:40):
it's going to be a lot, likeit's going to take a lot.
How does all of this actuallyhelp my already busy life?
Is this just adding more to myto-do list?
Am I just crowding out analready busy life?
What does that mean, and howdoes the All of Life Guide help
us with that?
Speaker 2 (38:54):
Yeah Well, I would say, when done as designed, the
All of Life Guide will actuallyinclude more subtraction from
your life rather than additionto your life.
I think that's the principle isthat when we say it's easy to
drift from our designs anddesires and we need these
(39:16):
regular times of reflecting back, I think one of the things we
find is actually that we'redoing lots of things and maybe
too many things, maybe somedistracting things, and so it's
kind of like cleaning yourcloset.
You know you clean your closetand imagine cleaning your closet
at the beginning of the day andcoming back and someone had put
more things back in your closet.
(39:37):
I think we try to tend to moveinto planning in our life, as
though everything will go asplanned, and it's sort of like
cleaning out your closet Okay, Imade the decisions, I got rid
of some stuff, and so I justwon't put out of things then.
But the reality is is that it'salmost like someone's putting
things in your closet.
That's that's our life.
It just keeps filling up mostnaturally, and so really, what
we would say is that a big partof moving toward a way of life
(40:00):
in a process like we have in theall of life guide is regular
times of getting perspective andthen recognizing what can I
remove.
What can I remove, not what canI add.
Speaker 1 (40:10):
So helpful.
The thing that we want you tohear in all of this is we love
New City, we're so grateful tobe able to pastor this people
and we are those who, as Hebrewssays, are called to give an
account for the people of NewCity.
And the author of Hebrews talksabout make it so that your
leaders can do that joyfully.
And that's so true to ourexperience here at New City is
(40:36):
that the people of New City makeour jobs a joyful.
I often will tell people I'mjoyfully bound to this people.
It's such a gift to be in andamong this congregation and to
be able to lead here, and sothis is just us trying to lead
well in the ways in which webelieve the Spirit is at work in
our midst and we're trying todiscern that and try to lead you
well, and so we love you.
We're grateful for you.
If there's any questions thatyou might have, you're welcome
(40:59):
to reach out to us.
Use the link in the show noteshere, and we look forward to
talking to you soon.
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