The City Worship Experience
Welcome to The City! We are a people, a place, and a movement helping each other to live like Jesus and impact the city of Columbia. Our vision is to form community, uncover purpose, and create heaven on earth.
Welcome to The City!!!!
Where the spirit of the lord is there is freedom. You are welcome to worship freely in this space however you feel led. Stand up, sit down, kneel - whatever is meaningful to you - you’re free to do it. You’re also welcome to try something new you’ve never done before.
We’re honored and grateful that you are here to worship God and to worship God with us today.
Children at The City
Children are welcome in worship. We value their presence. For all children (big and small) we have 3 metal baskets on the tables with fun stuff in them.
Children can also attend Children’s Worship. If you’re interested in that, a First Impressions Team member will meet you in the back and escort you and your child to the Children’s Worship area.
Stay Connected!
We've established a handful of ways for you to stay connected with The City Worship Movement throughout the week.
First: Head over to www.ComoCreatesHeaven.com and join our email list! You'll receive updates on all news and events happening within The City.
Second: Like us on Facebook to stay plugged into the ongoing conversation. https://www.facebook.com/TheCityMVMT/
Third: Check in, share posts, or tag us (#TheCityMVMT) on Facebook.
Fourth: Add @TheCityMVMT on Instagram for active updates on all City happenings! https://www.instagram.com/thecitymvmt/
Fifth: Complete the connect card on the clipboards. It’s a great way to indicate your next step, your desire to serve, and more
In The City, we see the teaching time as communal. It’s not one person's time to shine but ours together with the Holy Spirit.
So two things you need to know.
The first is that in The City, there are no rhetorical questions. If a question is asked, you will be given time to think about it or answer it either in the teaching itself or later in a reflection time. You can record your thoughts however you'd like - the YouVersion app, your phone memo, a journal, post your thoughts on social media - but don’t let questions go unattended.
The second thing you need to know is YOU matter in this time of worship. When asked what makes The City different from other churches in Columbia,our belief is that we’re not in competition with other churches, we’re all on the same team. But there is one thing that is different and the difference is YOU. When you are here you make this experience richer, more textured. You bring your light and energy and questions and very heart to this space and that creates atmosphere and community for the short hour or so we’re together.
Inner circle: Relationships that matter
Jim Rohn, american entreprenuer and motivational speaker, said this: “We are the average of the five people we spend the most time with.”
The series is based on the book "11: Indispensable Relationships You Can’t Do Without" by Leonard Sweet.
Each Sunday we’ll be looking at biblical characters who possess qualities that we desperately need in our own circle of friends and influence. Hopefully, you’ll also begin to see who you are to others - what characteristics you are bringing to other people’s inner circle.
So far we’ve explored:
Jonathan in Who’s your true friend
Jethro - Who’s your butt kicker
Madi preached her first sermon on Nathan - Who’s Your Editor
And then last week - Karen Hayden brought us on world on Who’s Your Zaccheaus.
Today we’re looking at the Mentor/Mentee Relationship with Who’s Your Timothy.
A thorough google search will yield the all time famous mentor/mentee movies.
Top 3 mentor/mentee based movies on The Chronicle of Evidence - Based Mentoring are as follow:
2 Timothy 2:1-10 MSG
The makings of mentorship are found in verse two:
Paul writes here that he’s mentored with Timothy by passing on what he’s learned. Timothy is expected to mentor reliable leaders who are to mentor others. From one person - three generations of mentorship and growth and the spreading of the gospel to countries.
It begins with a Timothy - a protege, an heir, an apprentice, a “younger version of yourself” and this younger is not chronological but could be younger as in time spent in a role, or developing in an area you’re growing in. At no point, however is a mentor one who has arrived and is done growing.
One of the values in The City is DEVELOP to lead and be led.
The City Values: Develop : Reach back and reach ahead. You’ve got something to teach and something to learn.
Every great leader has been a Timothy.
Elisha apprenticed Elijah
Joshua apprenticed Moses
Even Jesus apprenticed John the baptist.
The gospel lives on because Jesus invested in, poured into 12 people, who in turn poured in to people, regions, and today into us through a legacy of writing, and discples who’s names we do not know that formed communities and churches all over the world.
Each of you can mentor someone in some area of life and faith.
You might say, well I’m no leader, no preacher okay - maybe not now --- but let’s see, you got up this morning and you showed up to worship God with other people. Well, somebody you know is at home and not here today. You can mentor them in how to get up, get dressed, show up and be in Christian community.
How do these mentor/mentee relationships form?
As a mentor, you see a little bit of yourself in someone. You might spend time with them and eventually, you say ‘hey, I’m so impressed by you and in some ways you remind me of myself. I hope you know I’m here for you to celebrate your wins and support you in challenges.”
It’s not always formal, many times before you know it, you realize you’re in the role of mentor based on your actions and time spent with a person.
On the other hand, you might be looking for a mentor. When you say, I wanna be like so and so when I grow up, there’s your hint. That person might make a great a mentor for you.
Who comes to mind that you might already be mentoring?
Who might you ask to mentor you?
As you consider mentorship. Keep the following in mind:
In order to have a Timothy you need to learn and embrace ways of dissonance. These are daring, mold breaking, life-giving ways of being and learning, but don’t expect them to make sense or be able to put them in a spreadsheet.
The Timothy relationship cannot develop without the patience of presence. It’s not neat and tidy. It’s life on life. It’s messy. It’s lived, organic. It takes time to cultivate trust and eventually depth.
Some of you - you’re like YES! Sign me up. You’re all about things taking shape as they will, not forcing it or trying to control it.
Others might be like - well, here are things you need to know, let me teach you. You might prefer a mentor relationship of transference, mentor by osmosis
To be a mentor isn’t about cloning folks to be just like you. A mentee or apprentice is impacted by you AND they have their own gifts and strengths to share with the world.
Imagine the mentor/mentee relationship is like a good mash up. You take the original song and remix it. Make it fresh! When you listen, you hear semblances of familiar but also a whole new key, baseline, you even hear the words you know but understand them differently when mashed up with another song.
The mentor is an ear - a sounding board. He or she, listens, supports, and encourages this remix. The mentor values the next expression of life, the gospel, the profession, whatever it is.
Len Sweet, who wrote the book we’re basing this series on - he says that the gospel (that is the good news, the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ) is about different not better. Christianity and a life with Christ isn’t about being better than other reltigions, denominitations, or faiths. It’s about living a life that marked by difference - such as small is large, poor is rich, death is life. We approach life today with a different set of values, a different mindset, and we keep looking for the difference makers in the world.
Why do we do this?
It’s the way we live out the great commission of making disciples. Jesus commanded love and he commissioned, which means to challenge. He challenged us to make disciples: people who follow this upside down way of thinking and living in the world. Disciples are people who accept God’s love and forgiveness. Disciples allow and surrender to the Holy Spirit to make them different, to transform their lives. Disciples make disciples when we mentor each other.
Being a disciple and living the gospel of salvation is a life long journey. And all along it, we walk the journey with others.
The City believes each of you is worth it - worth it to be a mentor and a mentee. We believe in equipping disciples who make disciples.On Saturday, March 16 we’ll be holding our first quarterly missional summit. The summit is called Lead in The City. We will be taking our understanding of mentoring and combining it with multiplying new leaders and mobilizing those leaders in the world.
Raising up disciples who make disciples starts with me. One of The City goals is to raise up 12 new leaders in The City by having monthly one on ones and practicing patience as presence.
Challenge:
See yourself as a Timothy.
Be teachable and moldeable to grow with depth of faith and with a mentor at your side - know you can also impact lives for Christ for now and for an eternity.
Offering & Faith in Action
We believe the offering is holistic and includes our prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness.
Pull out your connect card on the clipboards. This is your way to stay connected if you so choose. Place the cards in the offering as it comes around.
Also note that details about these events can be found at the comocreatesheaven.com website under the watch and listen tab.You can also complete a connect card online there.
Group Benediction
You are blessed in The City.
You are blessed in the fields.
You are blessed when you come and when you go.
Go in love and peace.