I Give Thanks...

Romans 16 I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church at Cenchreae, 2 that you may welcome her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints, and help her in whatever she may need from you, for she has been a patron of many and of myself as well.
3 Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, 4 who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks but all the churches of the Gentiles give thanks as well. 5 Greet also the church in their house. Greet my beloved Epaenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in Asia. 6 Greet Mary, who has worked hard for you. 7 Greet Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners. They are well known to the apostles, and they were in Christ before me. 8 Greet Ampliatus, my beloved in the Lord.  9 Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and my beloved Stachys. 10 Greet Apelles, who is approved in Christ. Greet those who belong to the family of Aristobulus. 11 Greet my kinsman Herodion. Greet those in the Lord who belong to the family of Narcissus. 12 Greet those workers in the Lord, Tryphaena and Tryphosa. Greet the beloved Persis, who has worked hard in the Lord. 13 Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord; also his mother, who has been a mother to me as well. 14 Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers who are with them. 15 Greet Philologus, Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them. 

I cannot say enough how incredibly good that God has been to New City Church. We have seen amazing things in our 13 years. We have seen baptisms, seen leaders rise, sent leaders out, supported other churches, supported missionaries, been a help to our city, planted churches and now we are involved in our first replant of a church. I am thankful for all of the people who serve and have served here - every one of you has been a gift of grace. But today, I especially give thanks for our staff.

Amanda Christopher
You may not know this, but Amanda was New City’s first intern. She joined us when she was a senior at Georgia College needing an internship for graduation… and she’s still here! Amanda is technically our Children’s Director and Office Administrator and she does an incredible job in each of those roles. I think that everyone on staff would agree that Amanda contributes far more than those titles give her credit for. Amanda has been a huge part of starting our Women’s Cohort. It was Amanda who came up with the idea of the weekly devotionals, inviting the writers and organizing the entire thing. She is a regular singer on Sunday mornings. She and Ben have led and co-led MCs - the truth is the list of her contributions is more than you want to read - she is an incredibly vital part of New City’s ministry. Thank you Amanda.

Arthur Lin
I remember the day I met Arthur - about to graduate seminary and looking for a church position. I knew the school he was graduating from and I knew the church he had been involved in ministry with and my hopes for bringing Arthur on were high, but he has shattered every expectation! Arthur introduced liturgy and the gospel story as part of our worship. He has added diverse music. He has added musicians and members of our tech team. He has equipped our building with tech and sound equipment that he once knew nothing about. More than that he has discipled so many musicians and singers! He is regularly teaching them God’s big story and inviting them into roles they have never served in. He has grown our liturgy writing team to include people who had never written liturgy. He mentors, encourages, trains and equips. Arthur serves in more ways than almost anyone in our congregation knows. Thank you, Arthur, for all that you do.

Joey Olivier
Joey is our Director of Operations. Basically that means that Joey is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the church and staff - it’s a lot! Joey is serving in his first church position, taking a huge cut in pay to be a pat of what God is doing in and through New City. Joey is not only leading the charge here, he has taken the lead role in the church replant - New City East Side. He has worked closely with our elders to start our Replant Residency program. He and Sherry are new MC Leaders. He serves the church; he serves me; he serves the staff and he serves our community. There is no way we could do all that we are currently doing with Joey! Thank you, Joey.

Rhett Pritchett
Rhett is our newest staff addition as the Community & Connect Director. Rhett is responsible for our Missional Communities and our efforts to connect people with us at New City. Rhett handles training MC Leaders and co-leaders, planting new MCs, making sure that our Connect Teams have all that they need and are fully staffed (about 50 plus volunteers). Rhett has helped our MCs navigate the pandemic and even plant new MCs during a time when just meeting is difficult. Rhett is a huge part of helping us train the East Side Sunday School leaders in all things MC (with help from a team he put together). Rhett loves the place of community at New City and our vision for connecting people to Jesus and to this family. Rhett, thank you for all that you do.

Amy Watson
Few people know that Amy is a part time staffer! After years of serving without pay, the elders decided a few years back that it was time to make her a staff member. Amy has helped with church finances since before our first service working with team members on Sunday mornings, working with our accountant and with our staff members. She has handled tax issues, giving statements, online giving, insurance, unemployment insurances and a list longer than I know! She has made countless runs to the store for cleaning supplies, garbage bags and office snacks. Obviously since few people even know that Amy does all of that, she doesn’t get a lot of thanks. Thank you Amy for all of the unseen and unknown work.

Patrick McConnell
Patrick isn’t really a New City Macon staff member, but he was. He left Macon 3 years ago to take the position of lead pastor at New City Milledgeville. I won’t go into all that Patrick has been involved in here or even all that he does in Milledgeville, but I am indeed very thankful for the sacrifice that he and his family has made in going to Milledgeville.

I cannot imagine doing this without this staff.
I know that they are evidences of God’s grace to us - New City, Macon and especially to me.
Thank you for all that you do. And thanks to your spouses - Ben, Erin, Sherry and Amber for the sacrifices you make.