What to Expect at Our Combined Gathering
New City Family,
This coming Sunday, we’ll be joining together for worship with Cole Community Church in a shared Sunday morning gathering. Our pastoral team has been working together with Cole’s elders to plan an order of service that will incorporate aspects of both of our churches’ Sunday gatherings and will hopefully feel familiar and comfortable for everyone.
While we recognize that there can be a lot of unknowns when gathering in a time and place that we’re not used to, our hope is that this shared gathering will be encouraging and life-giving for all involved. To ease any anxieties you may be feeling about logistics, we’ve put together some information below about what you can expect when you show up on Sunday morning.
If you have any additional questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to Josh!
In Christ,
Josh, Heath, and Mitch
Combined Gathering Time & Location
Our worship gathering will begin at 10:00am. We’ll be meeting at Cole Community Church’s building: 8775 Ustick Road in Boise—at the corner of Maple Grove and Ustick.
We encourage everyone to arrive early in order to check in kids, meet some new people, and get a cup of coffee.
Attire
Feel free to wear what you normally wear to New City’s Sunday gatherings!
Parking
The building has its own large parking lot with plenty of space available. Please save spots closer to the front doors for families with children and those who are less able-bodied.
Arriving
When you arrive, you’ll be welcomed by a team of greeters from both Cole and New City. Coffee will be available in the lobby.
Kids
You can check in children for kids’ ministry in the lobby. Cole uses the same check-in system that we do, and accounts for families who regularly attend New City should already be set up with their stations for quick check-in.
Our children will worship with us for the first half or so of the gathering before being dismissed to kids’ ministry. Parents, please feel free to walk your kids to their classrooms. We will have a short time of greeting during the gathering to accommodate for this.
Gathering Liturgy
For this gathering, we have included elements from both of our churches’ weekly gatherings. Overall, the gathering should feel familiar to everyone. Pastors from both churches will be leading different parts of the gathering and several of our musicians will be leading worship. When we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, the elements—bread and grape juice—will be passed out rather than on tables.
The order of service for this combined gathering is one possibility for what a Sunday morning might look like if our two congregations were to join together long-term, but not the only possibility. We expect that the order of service will be something of a work in progress for awhile as we continue to have conversations and try things out. The liturgy for this service is different from our previous combined gathering, and it’s quite likely that some things may shift and change between this week and the next time we meet together.
Feedback
As we continue to seek discernment around the possibility of merging with Cole Community to form a new church, we welcome all of your feedback. Please reach out to Josh, Heath, or Mitch to share comments, encouragements, questions, or concerns. We’re happy to meet with you, either individually or in your gospel community,