Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. (Acts 20.28)
Pastoral Care at New City
We’d like every member at New City to experience genuine community and faithful care. Very often those things go hand in hand -- folks with ongoing, established friendships are often well-cared for. But as a growing church, not all of these things can happen organically or automatically. Thus we need to be intentional about our processes to best care for the flock.
At New City, we consider faithful CARE to be expressed by knowing, feeding, leading, and protecting the flock. That is carried out in different ways.
Community Groups
In practice, Community Groups (along with men’s and women’s groups) are the life of our church. The real relationships expressed in groups enable disciple-making, mission, and care. It is the church who builds up and cares for the church. This is a beautiful picture of Ephesians 4 playing out. Community Group leaders take responsibility for checking in on, praying for, and providing regular care for group members. Common care (the day-in and day-out maintenance of “life together”) happens best in small groups.
Elders
Even while community group leaders do much of the “day to day” care of members, elders are given the task of responsibility for this shepherding. As such, they will provide care, shepherding, counsel and support to community group leaders. Each community group will have an elder or pastor assigned to it. The elder will be regularly praying for and checking in with the group leaders and will be available to assist in any crisis care situations.
Pastoral Counseling
Every person is both marked by dignity (having been made in the image of God), and broken to the core (because of the devastating effects of sin). We understand that this brokenness affects all relationships so we take seriously the need for providing thoughtful and wise counsel, which we offer to our members. We provide pastoral counseling with one of New City’s pastors, which may cover a wide range of issues from spiritual struggles to relational difficulties. Pastoral counseling is intended to be short-term -- from one to four sessions. To schedule an initial appointment for pastoral counseling, please fill out this form and one of the pastors will get in touch with you as soon as possible.
Clinical Counseling
At times, the expertise of a specialized counselor is needed (especially in crisis situations). New City pastors will often make referrals based on the specific nature of the need. If the cost of counseling is an obstacle, members are encouraged to fill out a Deacons Fund application which could help with the cost.
Here is a list of recommended referrals for various acute needs as well as general counseling.
Deacons
The deacons at New City provide care for the physical needs of our congregation and our neighbors, which may cover a wide range of issues like care for the sick, recommending resources for poverty alleviation, financial assistance on bills and counseling, and request usage of the church building. If you would like to reach out to a deacon for help in one of these areas, please email them at DeaconsNewCity@gmail.com, or give them a call at 513-549-3048.
If you are looking for financial assistance on bills and/or counseling, please fill out this form and one of the deacons will get back to you. The more information you can provide us, the better the deacons will be able to assist you.