University City Church

Founded: September 1994

Address: 604 Doug Mays Drive (Oasis Shriners Temple)

Phone: (704) 716-3610

Website: www.theuniversitycitychurch.com

Membership: 1,600

Denomination: Church of God in Christ

Pastor: Rev. Michael Stevens

Worship Services:

• Sunday, 8 a.m. and 11 a.m.
• Pastoral Teaching, Thursday 7 p.m.

Q. What makes your church unique?
We provide a unique blend of contemporary and traditional. The Bible says, “I become all things to all men that I may win some.” So when you come to UCC on the weekend and on Thursday night, we try to provide something for everybody so that everyone feels included, connected, and involved with the church. So anywhere from Christian contemporary services to some of your older traditional services, there’s a wonderful unique blend – hybrid --of the services.

Q. What is the church’s vision?
The vision is simple: to love God, love one another, and serve the world. That’s what the Bible calls for, the Great Commandment in Matthew 23, and the Great Commission in Matthew 28. So when you put the Great Commandment and the Great Commission together, it’s simple: love God, love one another and serve the world.

Q. What are the church’s beliefs?
We actually have seven core values. All of them are on our website when you go to the core value statement. We believe in passionate praise and worship. We believe that we should be very passionate in our praise, very intimate in our worship. We believe in a very strong, sound biblical theology. In other words, we take the Bible for what it is and what it’s worth. We also believe in having genuine authentic relationships with one another. We believe in having a global Christian worldview, meaning we believe we’ve been called to preach to the world by any means necessary. We believe in the next generation of young people. We’re heavy, heavy investors when it comes to the youth of our church, in that once a month we have a youth Sunday, because we really believe in our young people.

Q. What ministries and programs are offered?
We offer more than 90 different ministries and programs on a weekly basis. We have anywhere from Zumba classes, to fitness classes, to cooking classes, to Bible studies, teenage girls only, married couples only. And, of course, we have traditional groups like choirs, ushers, greeters, and multimedia. But we took it a step further, and we wanted anybody who felt like they wanted to have some type of influence at the church to have these groups throughout the city and throughout the county on different days of the week.

Q. What are the greatest strengths of the church?
Our greatest strength is to be relevant in a very real world. We try to provide a gospel that you can take home every day and apply to your everyday life. So instead of the nursery rhymes and the famous Bible stories and the cute church, we try to find something that is relevant and on the cutting edge of everyday living. Another strength of the church is just being real. My wife and I are very transparent, very real, very open. Very honest about everyday issues that you deal with in life, whether it’s your marriage, your money, your children, your ministry, you name it.

Q. How do you foster spiritual growth for individuals in the church?
Discipleship. We have a City Series. When you join our church, we have a Welcome to the City, which is 10 weeks. Next you go through Living in the City, which is 10 weeks. Then you go through Soaring in the City. Then, if you feel like you have a leadership call on your life, there is Leading in the City. And then all of that is sort of integrated into different small groups run under different ministers. So you don’t have to be stuck in the same group for the rest of your life, depending on what your season is, or your hobby, career, or calling. All these things foster discipleship and growth, staying connected to the house of God, staying under the word of God.
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Editor's Note: If you would like to see your church featured in this ongoing series, email churches@qcitymetro.com.

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