By Josh Wagner
For 3 years, it was just a dream. We spent countless hours in prayer, conversation, visioning, ideating, wrestling, arguing, and finally launching United City Church. We officially started on October 7th. This dream that my wife, Nonni, and I had of starting a life-giving, multiethnic church in Indianapolis, finally happened! Our vision from the beginning was to be a safe place to explore faith, ask honest questions, and find authentic community. This vision is actually happening. There has been such a strong sense of unity, love, and God’s presence in our church, and one of the greatest joys of starting United City has been seeing numerous de-churched people experience the love of Christ in our community.
Here’s one of my favorite stories:
“I can’t describe how much better I feel after being here.” These were the words of Brandon, a 35-year-old man who has been out of church for 17 years. It took one of our United City families over two months of asking Brandon and his wife to check out our church before they finally came. Brandon later told me that he wasn’t planning on ever coming back to church, but after joining us for several Sundays in a row, they are now 100% in. He has already started serving on the set-up team and is connected to a men’s group. One of the coolest parts of the story is that Brandon has already brought two other families with him to United City, and now they’re getting connected. Brandon is one of the 14 people who have made a commitment to follow Christ (many of these are of people coming back to faith).
We are also committed to be a blessing to our city, and one of the ways we did this was by giving 35 stockings to a local ministry that gives Christmas presents to underprivileged kids in Indianapolis. Another way we’re bringing the Kingdom to Indy is through a partnership with Safe Families of Indianapolis. Our families are all thinking/praying about how we can obey Christ’s words to take care of the orphan and fatherless/motherless.
It’s been a great 4 months, and we are filled with great expectation for 2019: hearts changed, lives restored, chains broken, enemies reconciled, disciples formed, and God glorified.