New City Resources

Thanks for your patience and your prayers during the Café’s recent season of rest and reflection. While substantive change is never easy-and this is true in personal and organizational settings alike-a disruption from the norm can be revealing and restorative. Such is our experience over the past five months. As a result of this process, it is abundantly clear that in Knoxville there continues to exist a vibrant community of musicians concerned to cultivate and integrate Faith and Art.

To this end, New City is delighted to announce the rekindling of one of Knoxville’s longest running weekly singer-songwriter evenings. Come join us every Wednesday night, starting March 1 at 8:30pm. Greg Adkins will shepherd the group through a strong team of volunteer hosts, stage hands, and wait-staff. As during the previous eight years of ministry, New City will also host regional and national artists on a regular basis. Several CD release concerts are now slated for the Spring, as well as a ticketed event with one of New City’s favorites, Ryan Long.

Numerous worldview workshops, Cohorts, seminars, and city-wide discussion groups continue to function through the efforts of New City Resources. And so, we say: “Further up and further in.”

Respectfully Yours, 

Kenny Woodhull,
Executive Director, 
New City, March 2006

New City Announces a Sabbath Season at the Cafe

After seven years of fruitful ministry in Knoxville’s Old City, New City Café is preparing to enter a season of rest and reflection. While the Cafe will continue to host a number of special events in October and November, our last regular weekend of music in 2005 will be Friday, September 30 with Andrew Peterson and friends.

To mark the end of a long and blessed season and the beginning of a Sabbath period, we would like to invite everyone to gather with us at the Café for a unique celebration service on Sunday, October 2, at 4pm. Along our journey, since first meeting on the sidewalks of the Old City in 1996, we have endeavored to walk with God-neither rushing ahead nor lagging behind his leadership. Our sense now is that we are being asked to wait, to take a break from the sustained pace of the Cafe and pause in such a way that we can more clearly discern the shape of his future purposes for this essential aspect of New City’s work.

To the many musicians who have graced our stage and engaged ourimaginations and to the many artists who have enlivened our walls with their work, New City says THANK YOU. To the army of volunteers who have served faithfully over the years-motivated solely by a desire to serve God and others-New City says THANK YOU. To the countless guests who have sipped cappuccinos, slurped New City Frizzles, and indulged themselves with New City’s famousPeanut Butter Pie, we say THANK YOU. To those who risked their resources in the form of financial donations, investments in the kingdom for purposes of sharing the gospel, cultivating community and encouraging Christian creativity, New City says THANK YOU. To our dedicated and skilled staff-special souls willing to relocate, work bi-vocationally, and/or labor for little or no remuneration at all-men and women who tirelessly merged the work of ministry and the ministry of work, blending hospitality and service with a humble willingness to sacrifice so much for the cause, New City says THANK YOU.

With this said, we very much need your help in making the next few weeks-running up to our celebration service on October 2–the best ever at the Café. Like never before, we need lots of volunteers to serve and offer hospitality to our many guests. Since most of our operating expenses will continue through September (and to an extent through November), we also humbly request your continued financial support to help us end this season well and in away that will allow us to honor all our current obligations. If you’ve always wanted to help New City and you never could figure out how or when, now is the time to jump in.

We would also like to have your input, advice, and prayers as we explore options pertaining to the future shape of ministry at the Café. At the end of this reflective process, we look forward to serving you in a new and vital ministry that is both consistent with the character of our past and progressive in its commitment to listen and respond anew to the Lord. During the Café’s sabbatical period, New City Resources will continue to utilize our location at 116 S Central to cultivate a variety of initiatives promoting the arts, city-wide unity and discipleship.

And so, we pray: gracious Lord thank you for your abiding presence and generous provision over these eight years. We ask now your blessing on the Cafe’s Sabbath rest that we might in the near future and with renewed strength honor you and the vision you have asked us to steward.

New City Friends,

Values and vision are essential to authentic community. Values speak to the principles that help us maintain who we are, clarifying what is important, and what is acceptable or unacceptable. Vision refers to mission, reminding ourselves of the bigger picture–where we have been, and what we are moving toward.

Regardless of what different terms might be used, it is important for every family, community, church, or organization to periodically revisit its values and through a process of reflection recast its vision. In a certain sense, this is what the Lord repeatedly asked of Israel. And it is precisely what his people repeatedly failed to do. A stanza of a favorite Hebrew song (Psalm 78) makes this clear:

Though armed with bows, they turned back on the day of battle.
They did not keep God’s covenant and refused to live by the law.
They forgot what he had done, the wonders he had shown them.

In other words, Israel refused to live out her values, forgot her incredible history of deliverance from slavery and, though properly equipped, proved the coward in the heat of battle. It is a compelling picture and a powerful reminder for all of us to keep our hearts soft and full of God’s values and NEVER forget his miraculous provision for his people past, present, and future.

Accordingly, every year at this time, New City’s leadership withdraws from the battle and assesses our adherence to our values and measures progress in the light of our vision, repenting when necessary and realigning for the future. Like Israel, New City has a remarkable history of God’s provision: our first year (rent-free!) on the corner at 102 S Central; the raising of an army of volunteers from around the city to staff the Café EVERY Thursday, Friday, and Saturday since July 1998; and God’s gracious and miraculous provision (August 2002) of our current home for both Café and Consortium ministries.

The Lord has been VERY good to New City and all of this flows directly from your gracious giving of time, money, and skill! As we praise God for his ongoing provision, we want to thank you for your part in helping us carry out the vision: that is, to establish Christian community in the Old City through the cultivation of the Arts and Christian discipleship.

And now for two requests: Please pray for New City leadership as we retreat together Saturday, December 11. We also ask you to remember us in your end of year giving. While New City now generates 50% of it annual operating needs through activities related to the Café, as a non-profit organization we remain dependent upon charitable giving to cover the remaining 50% of our budget each year. Thanks for your time and your participation in this ministry.

Kenny Woodhull
New City, Director

Dear Friends,

Shalom to you and yours from Knoxville’s Old City. Without a whole lot of fanfare, New City entered its seventh season of ministry July 4th. Thanks for supporting us as you do. Please know that we could not do what we do without your involvement.

The Cafe continues every Thursday-Saturday night with special events occurring somewhat regularly now on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. Recently, we hosted a reception for student-workers involved in Operation Backyard. In June, Doug Floyd facilitated a showing of Andre Rubelevâ’s Passion, a strange but stirring film by famed Russian director, Nicolae Tarkovsky, concerning war and betrayal, beauty and redemption. In August, over a pot-luck dinner coordinated by our own Sunny Penner (kitchen manager), we viewed Jesus of Montreal (a clever Canadian contemporization of Christ’s life, 1989). It is especially enjoyable to watch these films on a super large screen through on our newly donated video projector!

The Consortium is developing in a healthy fashion as well. After a hugely successful launch year, RegentCollege (Vancouver) has committed to another year of partnership with us. We are presently assembling a new group of students for our second Marketplace Cohort, and we still have a few seats available in the new group! Father Stephen Freeman, founding priest at St. Anne Orthodox Church (Oak Ridge, TN), will lead a series on the Gospel in Dostoyevsky starting in September. In addition to these on-site initiatives, New City coordinates numerous church and para-church entities under the auspices of the New City Consortium.

While what New City does through the Cafe and the Consortium is important, who we are is of equal significance. Accordingly, it was with a measure of sadness in July that we said goodbye to Chris Tappan, our manager. Chris came to us just out of UT and, after two years of ministry at New City, is now pursuing an MBA at Eastern Seminary (Philadelphia). In Christ’s departure, however, we see evidence of God’s gracious provision in Mark Vowell’s eagerness to assume a greater level of leadership at the Cafe. Mark is a long-time friend, long-term board member, and a gifted musician. Helping Mark with the shepherding and cultivation of the singer-songwriter night every Thursday is Rick Huemmer. These men are godly servants, and we are tremendously blessed to have them both at this time. Sunny remains in charge of New City’s kitchen and always seems to invent some incredibly delicious (and affordable!) special each weekend for the many guests who come to us as strangers, guests, and friends.

As the Executive Director, I am quite spoiled with this staff. When I figure in our board of directors and our faithful volunteers, I am deeply humbled by the Lord’s abiding presence in this project. He clearly cares greatly about his people and those that come to the Old City for something real and meaningful. Hope to see you soon.

Kenny Woodhull

Dear New City Friends,

Another year of ministry in the Old City comes to an end.  My reflections run the gamut from a deep sense of blessing through the provision of our new location to a lingering sadness over the sudden death of a dear friend. 

Early last summer-after the unexpected purchase of 102 S Central, our home since 1998–we were not sure where New City was going to be.  As a board of directors we discussed, prayed, researched, and negotiated through a variety of options .  Our sense of God’s pleasure in the project had never been stronger.   Yet we had neither the means nor the desire to pay 30% more for a rented building that could no longer serve our long-term vision.  All roads kept leading us back to the strategic significance of the Old City and the evident fruit from five years of ministry. But how? Where? And when?  Our new landlord wanted us out of the building by the end of June.  

Enter God’s intervention (I have no other way of explaining it) through the exhorbitant and sacrificial benevolence of His people in Knoxville.  At a time, when every non-profit everywhere was struggling to meet financial obligations and people were scrambling to stabilize investment losses, two married (anonymous) couples bucked the system and provided New City with sufficient resources and pledges to help us secure a new home!  And not only did we get a building, but combined with other gifts, large and small, we have been given the opportunity to birth the New City Consortium, a city-wide educational network purposed to equip God’s people (head, heart, & hands) for life and ministry.  For your part in this project (past, present, & future), we say “thank you.” 

It is clearly a work of the Lord built upon the perseverance of a core, the radical obedience of a few, and an adventurous spirit among many.

And now a sobering dimension of our reality : in the very process of our re-birth, one among New City’s core lost his struggle and left this life in October.  From the time we first opened on the corner, David Egerton was a special part of the community .  An artist and friend of God, David read and wrote for hours at the Cafe.  We have a few of the many photographs he took now on display in the performance space.  The images reveal a penetrating awareness of things ignored and unnoticed- perhaps even a bit like their creator .  I think many of us miss David more than we can articulate, more than we can even know.

And so my Lord Jesus uses this experience of death to remind me that as great as our new building is it is merely a shell for the cultivation of authentic friendships and a  deeper experience with God.  Everything we do on site at New Citycontributes to these eternal purposes –whether steaming cappuccinos, singing from up front, chatting over coffee, or leading a theological discussion upstairs.  

Thank you for your part in this project with us.  Please remember us in yourprayers, your tithes , and your reflections on your service to The King.

Kenny Woodhull for New City