Our Prayer Letter Sent on July 4

Wow! Time flies when you're having fun! It's been so long since I last wrote to you. I hope you are doing well. Here's what's going on at New City Church:

Where We Are Now: Two-Stage Launch Strategy

We are a church in the process of being planted. We are using a two-stage launch strategy. We "soft" launched last Easter, meaning that we started to have worship services, but we have not "hard" launched yet. The major goals since the "soft" launch have been to develop and train a core/launch team to about 40-50 and develop ministries and systems to facilitate discipleship and outreach. We have been faithfully doing that and our core/launch team is now about 40. So, we are now preparing for our "hard" launch, our Grand Opening, on September 14.

A Potential New Venue for New City: Club 740

In order to accommodate the anticipated number of people at our Grand Opening and afterwards, we have been looking for a new venue that can handle at least 150-200 people. Our current venue, e3rd restaurant, can only accommodate about 80 people max. It has been extremely difficult to find a venue in downtown. I have looked at every possible place--hotels, theaters, nightclubs, restaurants, empty spaces, schools, centers, etc. They are either too expensive or not workable for us. We have recently found a new potential venue that may work for us. It is a nightclub called Club 740. It is a converted old Globe Theater (a Shakespearean theater built in the 1920s). It is in the middle of downtown at Broadway and 8th. There is a large parking lot right in front of the club. The generous owner offered the Club to us at an unbeatable price (just his added cost).

Grand Opening on September 14, 2008

Our goal is to invite every resident of downtown LA and create a buzz about New City. We will do a direct mail campaign to approximately 20,000 households four times over the four weeks leading to the Grand Opening. We will put up signs all over downtown and plaster our flyers and invitations everywhere. We plan to hand out water bottles and invitations at downtown concerts in Pershing Square. We are going to table in front of Ralphs in Downtown. We are going to train our core/launch team members to invite all of their unchurched friends and family. We have a team of people planning all kinds of creative outreaches.

We've Moved: New Home Address

New City is a downtown LA church, so we wanted to live close to downtown. We finally moved from Santa Clarita to La Crescenta (not exactly downtown, but we couldn't afford downtown) a couple of weeks ago. Here's our new home address:

Kevin and Grace Haah
2760 Franklin St.
La Crescenta, CA 91214
(818) 306-8385

Prayer Requests

-Downtown residents opening their hearts to the gospel
-Continued development of our core/launch team to 50-60 by September
-Prayer re possible new venue at Club 740
-God would bring many unchurched people to the Grand Opening
-Our Community Group (small groups) launch in 2 weeks
-Building a worship team
-Training people and creating a system that facilites development of fully devoted disciples

Financial Needs

New City is still in need of financial partners. We are looking for people who will partner with us financially for the next 3 years, after which we expect to be financially independent. Would you be willing to invest in the extension of the Kingdom of God $50-$500 per month for the next 3 years?

We love ya!

Warmest Blessings,
Kevin and Grace Haah