2016 CITY CHURCH AND THE LIMA INITIATIVE HIGHLIGHTS

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1 DECEMBER, 2016 Helping leaders build gospel movements in cities INTERNATIONAL INTENSIVE RECAP By Meredith Denton Page 4 GOSPEL IN THE CITY KIEV, UKRAINE By Ruth Leary with Benjamin Morrison Page 6 12 CITY TO CITY HAS A NEW CEO By Tim Keller, Chairman of the Board I am delighted to announce that Redeemer City to City has announced its new CEO. Steve Shackelford will join CTC as CEO on February 1, Here s a glimpse of the great resources and experience that Steve is bringing to this role. + + A wealth of business and leadership experience, currently serving as President and CFO with the fifth largest business development company in the U.S. + + International experience, having lived and worked overseas. + + A passion for church planting, serving on two boards supporting global church advancement. + + A heart for justice in cities, serving on a board that works to reach the poor and marginalized. + + A passion for the local church, serving as an elder, a teacher, and a community group leader. Over the last 20 years Steve has sensed that God might be preparing him for a leadership role in ministry. As CTC s board and the search committee engaged with Steve in this exploratory process, all became confident that he has talents and vision to lead CTC s vital work around the globe. Steve and Lisa, his high school sweetheart and wife of 30 years, will be relocating to New York City. They have three adult children and one grandson. Please join me in welcoming Steve to the team and in praying for him and Lisa as they say farewell to their life in Orlando and begin their new chapter here at CTC. We are grateful to God for bringing Steve to us, and I personally am excited to serve alongside Steve, the rest of the CTC Team, and you as we work together to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to cities around the world.

2 2016 CITY CHURCH AND THE LIMA INITIATIVE HIGHLIGHTS By Julio Chiang Director of Lima Initiative Peru is one of the most influential and culturally rich countries in the world. Lima, our capital city, has almost 10 million people. It s a beautiful city, but full of great brokenness as well. Many people have come to Lima to escape poverty or terrorism in the countryside. We know that God is at work in our city, and we believe that City Church is part of God s plan to transform Lima. City Church started as a home church with about 20 people. The average attendance increased to 50 on our monthly open worship gatherings. We plan to move to weekly, public worship services by March City Church is committed to social well-being. This pursuit is not about charity, but about justice, and it s an essential part of our commitment as an extension of the reign of God in our city. We have developed a mercy ministry, supporting two children s homes in Lima: one for orphans and one for sexually abused young girls. In May we participated with Redeemer City to City to initiate a network for church planting in Lima. Forty pastors attended the event. As a result there is now a network of eight churches working together to plant churches in the city of Lima. This network, the Lima Initiative, is about the multiplication of dynamic churches for the redemption of lives and the transformation of communities. In July the Lima Initiative organized a meeting with city leaders and Bob Moffitt, author of If Jesus Were Mayor: How Your Local Church Can Transform Your Community, to discuss possible partnerships between Christian organizations and local governments for holistic transformation. Also in July the Lima Initiative organized a meeting for 120 pastors and church leaders. We discussed how we might live our lives in community, providing encouragement and discipleship to each other as we initiate and lead gospel-centered ministries in order to impact our city. We are grateful to God for these opportunities to reach our great city, and we are excited to see what God will do through our church and the Lima Initiative. 2

3 THE LAB: A NEW TRAINING PROGRAM FOR THE OUTER BOROUGHS OF NYC By Cody Dunn Leadership Pipeline Coordinator, New York City BACKGROUND The Incubator is City to City s flagship two-year training program for church planters in New York City and around the world. The program provides in-depth training and practical, relational support to help participants develop the key competencies needed to effectively lead their new churches. While The Lab is structured around the main building blocks of City to City s traditional Incubator training, we have made several key adaptations. The Lab meets two weeknights per month to better accommodate the schedules of bivocational leaders, and the training takes place at a partner church in Brooklyn to reduce travel time. We are very excited to have pastors and planters from the outer boroughs who have completed CTC training play a key role in developing and delivering the content. THE LAUNCH This fall we launched a pilot of The Lab with 12 participants. The early response has been overwhelmingly positive. We plan to launch another cadre of The Lab next fall in the Bronx, and we anticipate that this adapted model will prove useful for other networks around the world. SOLVING THE PROBLEM In New York City we deliver the Incubator as a series of monthly full-day training sessions in our midtown offices. For leaders who minister bivocationally or who live in the outer boroughs of New York, traveling all the way into Manhattan and committing a full work day to this training simply isn t feasible. Because these leaders are so critically important to a gospel movement that encompasses all of our city, the New York City team has been working with John Thomas, CTC s Director of Global Training, and a group of NYC planters to repackage the Incubator content and make this powerful training accessible for bivocational pastors and church planters in the outer boroughs. We are calling this new program The Lab. We are incredibly excited to bring CTC s training to these practitioners in a carefully contextualized, relevant way. Please pray that God would give us wisdom as we continue to develop this training, and that He would use this program to encourage and equip leaders as they work to expand and strengthen the gospel movement across New York City. 3

4 REDEEMER CITY TO CITY INTERNATIONAL INTENSIVE RECAP By Meredith Denton Intensive Project Manager The International Intensive is a four-week training program designed to prepare urban church planters by exposing them to urban church planting concepts, theological resources to grow churches, leadership modules, and other church planting principles. On top of the training, and just as crucial, strong relationships are built during the Intensive. The relationships formed over these four weeks become strong sources of support and accountability for these families, and deep friendships are made that last for years. On October 15 Redeemer City to City welcomed 23 church planters and trainers to this year s International Intensive in New York City. Of these 23 planters, eight were able to bring their spouses, and two couples brought their children. Church planting couples that attend training together have the clearest vision as they enter ministry. What a delight to see these families together, to get to know their kids, and to watch these couples be encouraged and strengthened by this training. The twenty cities represented in this year s class are: Accra, Al Ain, Athens, Barcelona, Christchurch, Dublin, Istanbul, Krakow, Madrid, Melbourne, Nairobi, Paris, Pretoria, San Jose, Santiago, Stockholm, Svitlovodsk, Sydney, Tel Aviv, and Warsaw. For the first time we had global trainers participate in the International Intensive. These seven trainers received additional teaching on gospel-based training 4

5 concepts. Three new sessions were added this year: a session on Public Faith, a Church Planting Experience Panel given by New York City pastors, and a three-day Parakaleo training conference. Parakaleo provides specific support and training to church planter wives. Jessica Tam from Sydney said, Parakaleo--Oh my, where do I start? The sessions were so insightful, full of depth, and really helped to expound what it means to [seek to] live gospel-centered lives in thought, action, and in our hearts. This past month has been full of learning, fellowship, and encouragement for the church planters, global trainers, and CTC staff. Shebu John, church planter from Melbourne said, The intensive was a deep, rich time to reorient my heart to the gospel, stir my affections for the Kingdom, and give me a glimpse into Christ s heart for the nations. What a privilege to see what God is doing in New York City and around the world through His people. As the members of the International Intensive Class of 2016 return to their cities, please pray that the knowledge gained and friendships made during these past four weeks will encourage them as they seek to build gospel movements in cities through new churches. These weeks were a gift from God that will mark my life forever. In a unique city like NYC, God challenged my own heart and ministry with gospel principles. Christian Concha from Santiago, Chile 5

6 GOSPEL IN THE CITY KIEV, UKRAINE By Ruth Leary, Regional Network Coordinator with Benjamin Morrison, Network Leader As part of our mission to help leaders build gospel movements in cities, City to City, in partnership with local leaders, hosts exposure events to acquaint people to the basic church planting philosophy and theology to which City to City ascribes. These Gospel in the City events provide an opportunity to connect with leaders previously unknown to us as well as to help catalyze local network formation. On October a Gospel in the City event, hosted by local church planters and network leaders, was held in Kiev, Ukraine. Nearly 150 leaders from seventeen of the twenty-four regions of the country were in attendance. The group was highly transdenominational reflecting the diverse and unique relationships that City to City believes are vital to developing robust and healthy church planting networks. Gathering such a diverse group of leaders is unique for Ukraine. One participant reflected, I ve never seen a conference in Ukraine where so many people from different denominations gathered together yet with so much unity around the gospel. We are particularly excited that City to City leaders from Hamburg, Germany taught the workshops in Ukraine. Having just hosted their own Gospel in the City event, they were able to share invaluable personal experience to the Ukraine participants. Workshop topics included gospel theology, preaching to the heart, and contextualization. We are so encouraged to see the growing maturity of the work in Europe as demonstrated by this kind of training being provided by leaders from within the CTC Europe Network. Amazingly Center Church by Tim Keller was officially published in Russian the week prior to the conference. Due to an incredible discount offered by outside donors, over 250 copies of the book were distributed at the event. Consider the potential impact on Ukraine from hundreds of practitioners having access to the concepts of Center Church in their native tongue. In addition, as the book circulates in the region, a new and large audience will encounter City to City for the first time. We had the opportunity to discuss the event with Benjamin Morrison, one of the network leaders on the steering committee. Here are some of his reflections: WHAT DO YOU THINK WAS AN IMPORTANT TAKEAWAY FOR THE PARTICIPANTS? Many pastors and local leaders were encouraged by the emphasis on church planting and were inspired to talk more readily with their denominations and churches about starting new churches. We have found that often leaders are interested in planting churches, but their denominations or existing churches do not share the same vision. Another key takeaway was recognizing the need for more training and equipping of church planters in Ukraine. Recognizing this need, 6

7 several participants went away from the conference calling for more training and asking how they could be involved. There is great potential for City to City to partner with local denominations and churches to offer training to local leaders. WHAT WAYS CAN CITY TO CITY ADD VALUE TO THE GOOD WORK THAT IS ALREADY BEING DONE IN UKRAINE? The key added value from City to City is a truly gospelcentered theology. Much of the church in Ukraine is moralistic and driven by legalism. Instead of viewing the gospel as an entry way and then something to be forgotten, we need a theological vision that has the gospel at the heart of it and that recognizes that the center of the Christian life is transformation by the gospel. City to City s distinct focus on the gospel as the key is desperately needed in churches in Ukraine. Many of the churches in Ukraine can learn much from City to City about contextualization and how to reach people with the gospel in ways that appropriately address the culture of today. City to City s desire to help build networks that are trans-denominational aligns perfectly with a great need in Ukraine. The war has inspired churches to work across denominational lines, and we believe City to City will be a great asset in these efforts. As Ukraine faces challenging times as a nation, the church has a unique opportunity to reach the hearts of people that have previously been closed off to the gospel. Pray that through continued partnership between City to City and local networks in Ukraine, we might see the flourishing of church planting across the nation. 7

8 THANKS, PARTNER. Your financial support has paid off big this quarter! You helped start a church planting network in Lima, trained bivocational church planters in Brooklyn, invested in 23 leaders from 20 cities through the International Intensive, and brought together over 150 ministry leaders in Ukraine around gospel renewal and church planting. You can give to Redeemer City to City by check, online gift, stock transfer or EFT. CTC FINANCIAL SUMMARY Please make checks payable to: Redeemer City to City 1166 Avenue of the Americas, Ste 1620, NY, NY GIFTS YTD $4.8M To gift appreciated securities or a mutual fund, please contact doug@redeemercitytocity.com NEED: $7.4M To give online, visit redeemercitytocity.com/give. (M) $0 $2 $4 $6 $8 For general gift inquiries, call Doug Thorson: We need to receive $2.6M to meet our 2016 goal. The CTC Snapshot is sent to a special group that helps us continue this work. We thank you for your generosity, passion and devotion. Together we see movements of the gospel spread through the world s major cities, and we are humbled that you join us on the journey. Redeemer City to City 1166 Avenue of the Americas, Suite 1620 New York, NY 10036