Today was your average Sunday and yet New City Church, is not your average church. The church itself sold its building a while ago, and has been now for several services over the last 6 months holding services at Great Falls High School while its new building, the former “Tribune” building is under construction. In a way you can say the church is proving that a church isn’t about the building, but about the people. In another twist, that dynamic is changing again.
For the next few weeks, the church will be holding services at the “Mansfield Center”. The theme, “CHRISTMAS AT THE MOVIES”
Being separated from a permanent physical location has not stopped this church! The staff of this church have come up with creative ideas to continue services, including the above aforementioned moving the church into “Great Falls High school” during the year temporarily, and for 2 services in December, “The Mansfield Center”.
Today was no exception to the church’s long standing attendance, the house was packed.
In today’s sermon the church held true to its word, that is “Christmas at the Movies” where it showed clips from the world famous movie, ELF!
Lead Pastor Nate Swanson gave a sermon in between movie clips that related the clips themselves and the main character’s belief in Santa to our belief in God. The 1:1 comparison was on point.
One huge and interesting thing to note about this service. In the movie they showed a clip where a lady in the movie when told that the main character “Buddy” needs some Christmas cheer, she remembers that “Buddy” had said, the best way to bring Christmas cheer was to sing a song. So in the movie, she starts singing, the crowd in the movie starts singing but what was very powerful to us in this service is, “the church members in unison started singing”. The entire church, the clip, everyone was singing the song. Pastor Swanson then went on to equate the power of worship in our lives in this very same way.
Let us take a moment to recognize a church in our community that is not only serving our community, but being creative while doing it. In a quote from the New City Website:
New City Church Website https://newcity.church
“New City Church is a non-denominational, charismatic church that was founded as Great Falls Christian Center in 1981. Sent as an outreach of North Kenai Chapel, the original ministry team consisted of Bob & Cindy Johnson and Leo & Donna Kruger (along with a pile of kids). Over the years, God’s grace has allowed this humble church to include hundreds and impact thousands.
The passing years have brought laughter, tears, new friends, and many changes, but one thing has remained constant; We still rely on God to graciously supply our needs, including the strength to carry out the vision He has given us.”
The leadership of this church continues to be foundational in our community as well. The church itself has been handed down from generation to generation in 2019 before COVID with the naming of Lead pastor Nate Swanson, who succeeded lead pastor Bob Johnson.
The website continues with this:
“Our favorite memories include:
New City Church – Who We Are
– planting churches in distant cities (1991, 2003)
– adopting churches in need of partnership
– launching missionaries into a Muslim nation (1999, 2002)
– founding an internship to mentor the next generation (2005)
– serving our city in under-resourced neighborhoods
– benefiting our public schools in practical ways
– forming a relational network of like-minded churches (2013)
– changing our church name to reflect our mission (2016)
– completing a healthy, intentional transition to a new lead pastor (2019)
– launching a New City campus in the muslim nation of Kosova (2022)”
Members of the church include public officials, professionals, and citizens from all walks of life. More recently famous members of this church which are community leaders include the newly elected honorable judge Mark Dunn, and of course Cascade County Sheriff Jesse Slaughter.
If you’re interested in finding out more about who New City is, we recommend going to this link: New City Church – Who We Are or visit at the next service. New City is also on Facebook, New City Church | Facebook
New City provides services to anyone in Cascade County whom wish to seek God. Services include sermons, youth church services, small groups, community engagement and involvement, yearly giving and family support for Christmas gifts, and much more. The church also has marriage counseling and premarital counseling services, along with marriage services and mentoring from a biblical view. The leaders of this church are very open to people in all walks of life, and are very understanding to the needs of the parishioners. Like all Churches in our city, they accept tithe’s and they give back a portion of the tithe to the community as well. This church in many ways is very unique.
New City Church website presents of rich media describing the current services, and the foundational principles that guide the church. It can be found here : https://newcity.church
The core principles on the site are :
Welcome home!
We are care about connecting!
We are devoted to growing!
We are equipped for giving!
We are making room for more!
And finally, New City Stories!
And this church, is an active community church, participating in making the community better through all of these core ideals!
One of the things that is great about the church, is that all churches in this city are part of one church but each church represents God and your place to find him. If you feel comfortable at a church that gets creative when trying to find ways to help you understand God, then this is the place to be.
Check it out: New City Church – Next week at the Mansfield Theater, Sunday 12/17/2023 at 10:30am.
Or you can visit the church at its temporary office: 2nd Level ERA Advantage Realty, 2022 Central Avenue, Great Falls or give the church a call 406-727-4849 you can also e-mail the church at theoffice@newcity.church.
