NCC 2021 Annual Report

Dear NCC family, God is doing a NEW THING at National Community Church.

We are entering into a NEW SEASON. It’s time to sing a NEW SONG. God is saying to His church, to His people—it’s time. Time for what?

It’s time to DREAM again.

And what’s our dream?

We’re believing God for REVIVAL, REFORMATION, and RENAISSANCE. As I look ahead, my heart is full of faith.

As I look back, my heart is full of gratitude.

• Our ONLINE CAMPUS continues to minister to our extended family all around the globe.

• We combined our NoVA campuses and found an interim home at the St. James.

• We completed PHASE 2 of Capital Turnaround debt-free, thanks to your generosity.

• You gave more than $1.2 million in 2020 and 2021 to our newlycreated COMMON FUND. • We raised $102,207.76 in one week for our partner in Addis, Ethiopia—Beza International Church.

• Hundreds of SMALL GROUPS gather weekly in DC, VA, and MD. • We invested more than $775,000 in mission partners all around the world.

As we look toward 2022, we are dreaming big, praying hard, and thinking long. We officially launch our network—the DREAM COLLECTIVE. It will be an incubator for kingdom causes! God is calling us to do more things that don’t have our name on them. It’s not about the name over the church door.

It’s about the name above all names! May God raise up the next NCC, the next Ebenezers, the next Dream Center. As we pursue this vision, we’ll continue to grow into the BELOVED COMMUNITY God has called us to be.

The best is yet to come!

Mark Batterson, Lead Pastor Lora Batterson

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CONTENTS ANNUAL REPORT, JANUARY - DECEMBER 2021

Campuses // 4 Online // 6 Dream Collective // 8 NCC Network Churches // 10 Capital Turnaround // 12 Groups // 14 Missions // 16 Kids & Youth // 18 NCC Learning // 20 Teaching Series // 21 Expressions // 22 national.cc 205 F Street NE aW shington, DC 20002 202-544-0414 /nationalcommunitychurch @nationalcommunitychurch 3

@NCC

NCC CAMPUSES CAPITOL HILL LINCOLN THEATRE NORTHERN VIRGINIA Our campus locations had been shuttered since March 2020 as we weathered the COVID pandemic and complied with local government gathering regulations. We were so grateful to be able to reopen our physical locations this year. While the doors were closed, though, NCCers found all kinds of creative ways to meet and to serve the city: over Zoom, in parks, and through frequent overflows of selfless giving to provide for those in immediate need in our city.

Even after reopening began in April 2021, NCCers continued to leverage all the creative virtual and outdoor meeting spaces they had embraced during the past year.

April 2021: We joyfully celebrated Easter together IN PERSON at our Capitol Hill Campus, throwing wide the doors of the Capital Turnaround to welcome worshipers back into our space.

September 2021: Our Lincoln campus was able to re-launch inperson services after the Lincoln Theatre reopened.

October 2021: Our NoVA campus met in parks July through October, then launched at an interim location at The Saint James Sports, Wellness, and Entertainment Complex in Springfield, VA.

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NCC ONLINE We are creating opportunities to see NCC continue to grow in engagement and discipleship through NCC Online's different portals. Some of these include NCC Daily, Upper Zoom, the NCC App, our NCC Online weekend experience and more.

3,475

178

DOWNLOADS OF THE NCC APP

AVERAGE NUMBER OF PEOPLE GATHERING TO PRAY IN UPPER ZOOM

104,217 APP LAUNCHES

145

3,000

PEOPLE COMMITTED THEIR LIFE TO JESUS AT LIVE.NATIONAL.CC IN 2021

PEOPLE RECEIVE NCC DAILY OVER EMAIL

5,696 TOTAL MINUTES IN PRAYER IN UPPER ZOOM IN 2021

616 UNIQUE PERSONAL PRAYER SESSIONS DURING OUR GATHERINGS ONLINE

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The Dream Collective is NCC's new network—our incubator for kingdom causes.

We desire to partner with God and his people in the re-creation and renewal of the world, believing for revival, reformation, and renaissance.

We plant churches, resource ministries, launch businesses, and inspire creatives. We desire to see a supernatural demonstration of God's love and power in our generation.

We believe there are ways of doing church that no one has thought of before and we commit to digging the ancient wells to draw wisdom from those who have gone before us.

We envision a church living on mission every day as we lean into our God-ordained creative impulses to write better books, produce better movies, draft better legislation, compose better music, and build better businesses.

LEARN MORE AT THEDREAMCOLLECTIVE.COM

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s e h c r u h c k r o ncc netw Nashville, TN Bridges Nashville

bridgesnashville.com // Kurtis and Sarah Parks

Who we are A house church movement where God's people and presence connect. Our prayer is that the people of Music City would be transformed one life at a time by an encounter with Jesus, through relationship, discipleship, and worship. We have four house churches currently meeting on different nights of the week.

What God has done in 2021 As a house church movement, we see people who won't typically show up in a church service. One of those people is Leah. She had run away from home, living out of her car. One of our house church leaders invited her to come and talk about faith. She showed up a couple weeks later. Then again. And again. Then she met with me to give her life fully to Jesus. She was baptized the following Sunday and is now discipling a couple other younger girls, and working in a mission-minded coffeehouse much like Ebenezers. A life changed, by the power of a gospel-centered community!

Baltimore, MD

Hope Baltimore/Blu_Print wearebluprint.com // wearehopebaltimore.com Joshua and Ericka Symonette

Who we are Hope:Baltimore is a community of hope that is Jesus-centered, justice-seeking, and cross-cultural. Blu_Print provides resources and support to teachers and school leaders to help close the achievement gap, create learning journeys for students to be exposed to new experiences that will better prepare them for the future.

What God has done in 2021 Our church services launched Sunday, October 31, 2021, with 110 people in attendance. The fact that we actually pulled off launching a church while still dealing with a pandemic is quite a feat. We have seen God work through people as they generously gave of their time, talent, and treasure. And I think the biggest encouragement might be the number of churches in Baltimore that have reached out and actually helped us launch. At least eight churches have sent people, resources, and helped promote the launch of Hope Baltimore. That's what unity looks like!

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Chicago, IL

New City Church newcity.life // Steve and Jessica Andres

Who we are We exist to love God and serve the city. Jesus is our message, People are our heart, Hope is our foundation, Honor is our way, Generosity is our privilege.

What God has done in 2021 We had our first Sunday morning in-person worship service on Easter Sunday, and welcomed over 600 people in person and 1,500 unique online profiles. This past summer, we hosted our first Chicago PEACE Week, partnering with businesses, schools and churches to serve at three Chicago Public School hubs, with hundreds of volunteers supporting students going back to school.

Gainesville, VA

New Season Community Church newseason.life // Rick Sarmiento

Who we are We strive to be great at the Great Commandment and great at the Great Commission: Love God. Love people. Make disciples of Jesus Christ.

What God has done in 2021 Since our transition from NCC - Gainesville, a healthy team of kingdom builders continues to love each other and care for longtime family members and new additions, too. Nearly 80% of attendees are plugged into group life. Missions is in our DNA. We are committed to the mission of God both home and abroad.

A New Season missions team led a mission trip to Waynetown, IN this summer. We are partnering with US and world missions missionaries with monthly financial support.

Sacramento, CA The Hope Community

thehope.cc // Caleb and Michelle Crenshaw

Who we are We are a new church community centered on Jesus where people find hope, live hope, and give hope.

We are launching in Fall 2022.

What God has done in 2021 Caleb and Michelle Crenshaw invested the last year in training and relationships as they moved from CA to the DMV to partner with NCC in launching the NoVA Campus as "church planters in residence." During this time, team members moved to Sacramento while Caleb and Michelle continued to develop the plan for launching The Hope Community Sacramento in 2022.

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CAPITAL TURNAROUND GRAND OPENING On Friday morning, October 15, hundreds of members of the community were greeted by a balloon arch, doughnut truck, and plenty of coffee as we opened the doors of the Turnaround to introduce the completed Phase 2 space and Phase Family Learning Centers to our community.

Pastor Mark and Lora were joined by Frank Bealer, CEO of Phase Family Learning Centers; Charles Allen, our Ward 6 Councilmember; and Michael Stevens, President of Capitol Riverfront BID for our ribbon-cutting and grand opening ceremony.

We were so grateful to celebrate another landmark moment underscoring our core conviction that the church ought to be in the middle of the marketplace. We welcomed our child development partner, Phase Family Center, to the Turnaround. Phase offers a full-service preschool for children 6 weeks - 5 years old in our newly-renovated space, complete with spacious nurseries and a streetcar-themed play space.

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turn around lives

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bless the city

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reimagine the church

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GROUPS We create communities where every NCCer can grow as a disciple who studies the words of Jesus, imitates the ways of Jesus, and partners in the mission of Jesus. We create atmospheres that encourage people to invite their closest friend who doesn't yet know Jesus to join them on their journey.

295 GROUP LEADERS FOR 2021

ALPHA We create a safe environment for those wrestling with topics specific to the Christian faith, helping those who are either seeking or are new to the faith to take one step closer to a relationship with Christ.

For the first time ever, we launched an Alpha in person and online running simultaneously to serve the needs of our growing online community.

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147 PEOPLE PARTICIPATED IN ALPHA IN PERSON AND ONLINE

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COMMISSIONED 211

This year, we launched a new discipleship experience, Commissioned, across our locations and online.

PEOPLE PARTICIPATED IN THE COMMISSIONED DISCIPLESHIP EXPERIENCE

Commissioned is a 10-week group experience designed to establish the posture of a disciple of Jesus. Each week, groups interact with Scripture, discuss the impact and transformative stories from our own lives, and embark on a set of curated experiences on specific weeks.

NCCers who journey through Commissioned develop a posture of a true disciple to help form God-ordained connections, discover Godgiven purposes, and chase God-sized dreams— just like the earliest disciples of Jesus.

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Set. Ready.

MISSIONS

Ordinary people, empowered by God's spirit, doing what Jesus did, together, wherever they are.

GLOBAL Because of the generosity of NCCers, we were able to continue to support seven key partners locally and internationally and continued to contribute to monthly support to 77 missionaries around the globe.

In 2021 we were able to respond with prayer and funds to crises in Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Haiti, and Zambia.

This year was especially meaningful as we received an encouraging, empowering visit from longtime NCC friend Pastor Zeb Mengistu from Beza International Church, our key partner in Ethiopia. He preached such a powerful message from a place of deep prayer and conviction in the midst of a crucible moment for the church. And it was so beautiful to get to then turn around and bless Beza by raising over $102,000 in one week!

Pastor Zeb Mengistu

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LOCAL SUPPORTING OUR FRIENDS EXPERIENCING HOMELESSNESS

Through our LIving Room and InService programs, we continued to provide meals (more than 5,200!), fellowship, and help for our friends experiencing homelessness this year.

We were also able to launch two financial coaching programs designed to equip people to steward resources effectively.

NCCERS GAVE MORE THAN $1.2 MILLION THROUGH THE COMMON FUND IN 2020-2021

We launched the Common Fund as an outgrowth of our COVID Relief Fund. Since we launched the Common Fund in early 2020, we have been able to provide emergency financial assistance to 274 households; support our local missions partners with refugee resettlement; and provide scholarships to Phase Family Learning Center.

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"I have received financial assistance from NCC when I needed it most. I still remember how happy I was when I got the check. I was alone and new to this country. I was staying in a rented basement in NW DC. I had no job. To make things worse, Covid hit and everything shut down. So I couldn't get out and try to find jobs in gas stations or in local stores. It was at that moment that your help came in.

Once again, thank you soooo much for the help. God bless you all in Jesus Christ's Name."

er, “My four-yeatr-enolasd ksdaugtohtwatch the McKayla, of p on TV no matter ‘NCC Kids’ ap is or how many times what day it it. She loves the she has seen nces along. We go to music and darson, but I wanted church in pege thank you to all to say a hu staff who are still the NCC kidsvideos for people who making the and even those who are virtual ough the week. Thank enjoy it thr king life and Godly you for speaour kids!” values into

NCC KIDS The mission of NCC Kids is to partner with parents to help kids to grow to be fully devoted followers of Christ–with a passion for His Word, an excitement about His church, and a commitment to serving His people. NCC Kids serves children from birth through fifth grade.

NCC Kids relaunched with in-person services in March at Capitol Hill, celebrated a grand opening of the Kids Hall at the Capital Turnaround, and relaunched in person services in September at NoVA and Lincoln. Families are returning in strong numbers with kids attendance running at least 30% of adult service attendance. NCC Kids continues to offer an online experience for families and provided the Baseline discipleship class via Zoom.

ids This Decemdbear nNeCwC Kevent presente ristmas Village called Ch l Turnaround at Capitaed 2,000 kids and host y members. and famil 18

NCC YOUTH Our mission is for students to experience intimacy with God, community with believers, and influence in their world.

Our goal is to equip students with a strong faith foundation and a personal relationship with Jesus that is expressed fluently in their daily lives.

in Savage and Pastor CohllAr t) ef (l n so on M dy an M or Past tern Sara ndt. in h it w s hie op tr f of ow sh (right)

This year NCC Youth welcomed two new youth pastors, Pastor Collin Savage and Pastor Mandy Monson.

As NCC Youth returned to in-person gatherings and events this year, we served our community for Missions Month, welcomed home 85 students and leaders at the Youth Kick-Off, danced all night at the Youth Late Night, and even collaborated with the Museum of the Bible to create a piece of artwork on display for the Christmas season.

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NCC LEARNING 76

NCC Learning is the umbrella organization offering learning opportunities through NCC: the Protégé Program; SEU at NCC; and the Church Planter in Residence Program. We partner with people in becoming the best version of themselves.

PROTÉGÉS COMPLETED THE PROGRAM OVER THE PAST 13 YEARS.

This year, we kicked off our first Protégé extension site in partnership with BridgesNashville and were able to offer a scholarship to an SEU student from the DC Community.

We hosted Caleb and Michelle Crenshaw as our Church Planters in Residence. Through our partnership with Southeastern University in Lakeland, FL, we offer five different degrees and two academic certificates. Learn more at ncc.re/nccu.

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TEACHING SERIES

Find weekend worship services and NCC teaching on the NCC App, on our youtube channel, and on ncc.re/messages.

January 2 - February 7

February 14, 2021

February 20 - March 28

April 4-25

May 2-30

June 6 - August 1

August 1-29

September 5 - October 10

October 17-31 474,546 PODCAST DOWNLOADS

WIN THE DAY: FLIP THE SCRIPT MOST-WATCHED MESSAGE

November 7-21

November 29 - December 24 21

EXPRESSIONS MIRACLE THEATRE The Miracle is a movie theater that celebrates great art, music, and storytelling that is beautiful, truthful, aspirational, or just plain fun. The Miracle eagerly reopened its doors in April after being closed to in-person business for more than a year. It reopened with mini movie parties, red carpet film premieres, and live events in addition to the usual film fan classics and maintaining its virtual cinema for those not ready to return to a movie theater.

themiracletheatre.com

EBENEZERS Ebenezers exists to welcome people from every walk of life into community with one another and with our God over exceptional coffee served by exceptional people. 100% of our profits support missions here in our city and around the world. This year, we continued to equip our leaders and baristas to compassionately engage with our neighbors experiencing homelessness. In 2021 we were excited to see a long-term goal achieved by offering health benefits to the leaders of our organization.

ebenezerscoffeehouse.com

500+ BEVERAGES GIVEN TO PEOPLE IN NEED

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DC DREAM CENTER The DC Dream Center is a place where hope becomes habit. One person at a time, we enable youth and adults to dare to dream about what is possible.

Four years ago, Deniyah joined our afterschool program and we met her grandmother Ms. Dephanie. During COVID, Ms. Dephanie began to help us distribute meals. As Ms. Dephanie showed up we saw her leadership gifts and when an opportunity came for our partner, Howard University, to hire a peer specialist to work with those who want to move out of opioid addiction, we immediately recommended her. This story, while unique, has a theme that we see played out time and time again here at the DC Dream Center: we serve the children first, then we are able to serve the family, then the community. Here at the DC Dream Center we transform lives one person at a time.

dcdreamcenter.com

114,365 POUNDS OF FRESH PRODUCE DISTRIBUTED FREE TO THOSE IN NEED

64,435 MEALS SERVED

300+ CHILDREN RECEIVED NEW TOYS THIS CHRISTMAS

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