The Next Five is a campaign to invest in the mission and vision of Christ City Church: loving God, loving others, and making disciples so we might see the flourishing of God’s kingdom on display in every life and every sphere of life, in DC and beyond.

It began in the summer of 2022, when Christ City turned five years old and we asked the church community to consider how God was inviting them to be a part of shaping the next five years. The giving portion of the campaign will begin in summer 2023 and continue over the course of three years.

Celebrating our fifth anniversary in 2022 was an occasion for reflection. (You can see our most recent Annual Report here.) That summer we also marked a year of in-person services since going solely online during the height of Covid-19. There are two main reasons for participating in this giving campaign now.

First, financial giving did dip during those pandemic months, by more than 10% when compared to the previous eighteen months, and we want to invite financial commitment and recommitment to help provide a stable base and support for all we are trying to accomplish in being faithful to God’s calling on our community.

Second, and more importantly, our vision and sense of what God would have us do far outpaces our capacity to do it. The words shared with us from friends of the church and founding members on our five year anniversary brought this into focus. We certainly recognize our limits and have sought to live and minister faithfully within them. At the same time, we long for more—more faithful, courageous conversations; more relationships built and reconciliation facilitated; more justice lived out; more people welcomed into the family of God and the work of God’s kingdom—and continually pray that the God who provides (Philippians 4:19) would do just that.

The Next Five is not a building campaign in the traditional sense. We are not raising funds to purchase a property we already have our eye on.

However, we do spend over $100,000 per year on facilities—renting Miner Elementary every Sunday and the office space on H Street. The money raised from The Next Five will go to our operating budget, including rent for those facilities but also funding our strategic priorities—transformational discipleship, inclusive welcome, and collaborative justice—and all of the activities that are included therein: our local and global projects and partnerships, all the ministry, mission, and discipleship we are able to accomplish both within Christ City and beyond, and more equitable compensation for our staff.

One percent of our operating budget is set aside for our Benevolence Fund, to provide appropriate aid for those in need, and another one percent for the Angel Scroggins Memorial Fund, to provide resources for youth making the transition to adulthood. As the money raised as part of The Next Five would go towards the operating budget, it would also contribute to those two funds.

Additionally, for the last two years, our Leadership Council has passed deficit budgets as a way to responsibly steward the savings we had accrued in the first few years of Christ City. This is obviously not sustainable in the long run, and a successful campaign would help us to run surplus budgets and replenish our savings so we’re well positioned to explore purchasing a permanent space in the future, should the opportunity arise.

Our primary goal is that everyone who considers Christ City their home would commit or recommit themselves to the mission and vision of the church, in their time and talents as well as in their resources. Our secondary goal, for this giving portion of The Next Five, is to raise $450,000 over three years, above and beyond our existing tithes and offerings.

In total, this would be an increase of about 33 percent on our current tithes and offerings. However, it would not simply be a matter of existing givers raising their level of giving but also new givers beginning to support the work of Christ City.

We long to see people choose to step into evermore wholehearted participation in life with God—through worship, community, and mission—and, as we do this, that we might experience the fullness of God’s kingdom on earth as in heaven and become the kind of church community that is recognizable as the body of Christ to a world in need.

Theologically speaking, commitment is a characteristic of discipleship—it is like a promise to be present in a particular way for a particular time. In a culture where it is tempting to hold out for better offers or more exciting options, making a commitment is to discern a choice, to make the decision, and to stick with it.

Practically speaking, it is helpful for financial planning purposes. Budgeting as a donation-based organization is always tricky, and any predictability that people can provide is appreciated. A three-year commitment allows us to have a sense of what may be possible in the next five years.

If you are in need of financial assistance or counseling, please reach out to us at info@christcitydc.org. We would love to get you connected with help, whether immediate aid through the Benevolence Fund or learning principles and practices of financial stewardship and getting out of debt.

As it pertains to giving to The Next Five, we trust you to discern how God would lead you in wise and generous stewardship of what you do have. If you want to talk through this decision, we would encourage you to discuss it with your small group leaders, trusted friends, and/or members of the Christ City staff or pastoral team.

First, thank you. You have already played a vital part in making all that we have been able to do in the first five years happen. We hope you feel like your contribution was worthwhile—that we stewarded your gifts well in service of God’s kingdom.

Second, we would likewise ask you to join with everyone else in considering what else God may be asking of you. Your capacity to give may have diminished since you last made an intentional decision to support Christ City financially—or it may have increased. Perhaps there is an opportunity to experience God’s presence in a new way as you stretch yourself and your experience to show God’s goodness through financially supporting the work of the church.

We recognize there are many worthy causes, which you may already be supporting. Nonprofit organizations can tackle specific issues in specific ways, and their results can be more readily apparent.

As a church, we focus on holistic change: in each person’s soul as well as in society. This includes cultivating relational health and working through our traumas and triggers. It includes engaging beyond the walls of Miner and outside of Sunday mornings to be ambassadors of the kingdom, agents of love to a world in need. This is the work of making disciples who live and love as Jesus would if he were in our place. At its best, the church reflects the welcome and values of God’s kingdom, meets the needs in a neighborhood, advocates for the vulnerable, and bears witness to the liberating power of the good news of Jesus.

We are not seeking to pit the church against other organizations working for the common good. But we do hope Christ City is and is becoming a place that is doing work that is good, beautiful, and kind, and you feel it is worth investing in.

Yes. There is a biblical precedent for this; one New Testament church was commended for giving “what they could afford and even more than they could afford, and they did it voluntarily” (2 Corinthians 8:3). We hope you will arrive at a commitment amount that will stretch your faith—and it may be beyond what you feel capable of right now. And we believe that as you engage in the process with God and with loved ones, you will discern an amount that is faithful.

Absolutely. We would be thrilled for everyone—from our youngest to our oldest—to consider what it means to be part of the shaping of our community and to join in by filling out a commitment card.

We understand that a lot can happen in three years. (Three years ago, we had just entered a pandemic!) Some circumstances may change for the better—a return to faith, cultivating healthy relationships, finding one’s purpose—that may lead you to want to increase your giving to Christ City and The Next Five; you are more than welcome to do this.

You might also not know if you’ll still be in DC or even at Christ City for the next three years—you’re still welcome to be part of The Next Five! The first five years of Christ City is a testament to the involvement and investment of those who chose to contribute their time, energy, and resources, no matter how long they ended up living in the DC area. Even a one-time gift is appreciated—every contribution helps.

We also understand that circumstances may change in more challenging ways and you may need to adjust or even cut short your commitment. If there are ways we can come alongside you in a particularly difficult season, please do not hesitate to reach out to us at info@christcitydc.org or share a prayer request: go.christcitydc.org/prayerrequest.

The Next Five campaign giving portion will begin on July 1, 2023 and end on June 30, 2026. Commitment Sunday will be on May 21, 2023.

Commitment cards will be available at Miner every Sunday during The Next Five campaign (beginning April 23 and ending May 21). Additionally, an online commitment card can be found here: go.christcitydc.org/tnf.

After Commitment Sunday (May 21), we will follow up by email with everyone who pledges to the campaign to remind them to set up their recurring donation or to make their one-time gift. Giving to the campaign will be tracked and available to view on each donor’s individual Planning Center Giving profile.