Rooms available in apartment located at 9th & Spring in Chinatown.

• Small bedroom available for a June sublet.  $343/month + utilities (about $50, on average)
• Two large bedrooms available - can be rented together July 1st. Otherwise, one room is available July 1st and the other room can be made available either July 1^st, August 1^st, or September 1^st. Ideally, looking for a one-year time commitment. Each room is $372/month + utilities (about $50, on average).

Four young professional women (mid-twenties to early thirties) currently live in the apartment.  Three will be moving out over the course of the next three months so we are looking for other women to take their places.  If you or a friend are interested, please get in touch!

The Apartment

• Split-level 4 bedroom / 2 bathroom apartment
• Kitchen / Living Room
• Washer and Dryer
• Nice-sized balcony
• Located on the 3rd floor of a walk-up building
• Utilities include central heat/air conditioning, gas, electric, water, internet.

We would like to live with someone who is responsible, respectful of common spaces,  easy-going, and who would like to build gradual friendships rather than simply sharing space.  Sorry, no smoking or pets.

If interested, please send me an email (deborah@alumni.upenn.edu) and tell me a little about yourself.  Also, please include times when you would be available to see the apartment.  Thanks!

This is a friendly reminder that THIS Sunday, May 6th liberti center city will be worshiping at 4:00pm instead of our regular worship time of 9:30am. This is in an effort to accomodate those that will be participating in the Broad Street Run on Sunday morning, and to prevent any inability to attend church in the morning because of the inevitable Broad Street Run traffic and detours.

Questions? Email our admin.

*broad street run THIS Sunday... we'll be worshiping at 4:00pm THIS Sunday, May 6th to accomodate all of the participants in the Broad Street Run, and to avoid potential inability to attend church that day due to Broad Street Run traffic. Please make a note on your calendar, and take advantage of the free parking - do dinner in the city after! Questions? Contact our admin.

*in covenant retreat... the next in covenant retreat will be THIS Saturday, May 5th at the liberti center city campus (17th & Sansom) from 9:00am - 4:00pm. Come to learn the why's, how's and what's of liberti, ask questions and take the first step in becoming an in covenant member at liberti! FREE parking will be provided. For more info on coming in covenant, click here. To sign up for the retreat, email our admin.

*women's retreat... May 18th (evening) - May 20th (morning) at Spruce Lake Retreat Center in the Poconos. Join us in fellowship with other women at liberti center city & main line to hear Lois Kehlenbrink from Redeemer Counseling Services talk about "perspective: finding our identity and call in a broken world". Cost is $110 (need-based scholarships are available). There are only 50 spots, so sign up soon! For more info, click here, or to sign up, contact our admin.

*intern hosts are needed... June 6th - July 29th! If you're able to help host an intern this summer and show them what it's like to be in Christian community in the city, please email our admin. More details to come!

*congregational meeting and combined worship service... Sunday, June 3rd. Join with liberti main line at our regular worship time (9:30am) followed by a brief congregational meeting. More details to come. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to our admin.

*we want to hear from you... please send any questions or comments to our admin and we'll connect with you!

This Sunday, January 29th we're holding an informational meeting in the First Baptist Church basement conference room to talk about a great opportunity!

You have the ability to participate in the Spring Break Service Week as a college intern this year!

All college students are invited to the meeting - and FREE pizza and drinks will be served!

If you have any questions, email Alan at alan@liberti.org or Tara at atchison.tara@gmail.com.

We look forward to seeing you there!!

“Do you want to be single and lonely or married and bored?” The comedian Chris Rock asked this in a stand-up routine once and, in a phrase, captured the ambivalence many of us feel toward marriage.  We long deeply for companionship and love; yet we’re terrified of marriage, or struggle at it, or we are fearful for what marriage might mean for our lives.  A recent article in the Washington Post reports that the proportion of adults who marry has plunged drastically in recent years - a symptom of our paralyzing fear of saying, “I do.”

Starting Sunday, January 8th, we’ll be doing a six-week exploration of the Christian vision of marriage.  Here are a few reasons why...

Many of us aren’t married. This may seem counterintuitive, as over half of our congregation is single, and many - if not most - of our friends and neighbors are unmarried.  Yet many of us, now or eventually, will pursue marriage. This series will help those of us who are single prepare for married life.  In addition, as we explore the Christian vision of singleness and marriage, we’ll explore the unique way in which Christianity offers dignity to unmarried people.

Many of us are getting married. There are quite a few of us who are preparing for marriage, getting engaged, and planning for our wedding day.  This series will help us not simply prepare for a wedding day, but for a flourishing life.

Marriage is hard work. No one who has been married for more than a few months would describe marriage in the syrupy, Hallmark terms that we read in the cards we receive on our wedding day.  Marriage is beautiful... and hard work.  This series will equip those of us who are married to grow and deepen in covenant companionship.

Many of us have scars where marriage is concerned. There are quite a few of us who come from broken or abusive homes.  Many people have actually never seen a marriage on a first-hand basis that they’d want to emulate.  Some of us have experienced the pain of separation or divorce.

There are numbers of us who are investigating Christian faith. What if you’re only beginning to process the claims of Christianity, or aren’t sure what you think of the Bible (if anything!)?  This series is for you, as well. Over the years, as I’ve officiated weddings for folks who aren’t familiar with Christianity, I’ve shared the logic and wisdom of the Christian view of marriage to many, and watched it be deeply helpful to many peoples’ surprise.  Additionally, Christian faith says that marriage is one of the main pictures we have of the saving love of God for us; exploring the Christian wisdom concerning marriage is a prime way to “try on” the Christian message.

So, join me as we explore love and marriage. We hope this series will be honest, helpful, and practical.  As we make our way through this series, we’ll be drawing on material from a great book on marriage that pastor and author Tim Keller recently wrote, entitled “The Meaning of Marriage.” I’d encourage you, if you’d like to go deeper with this material, to pick up the book as well.  Plan on inviting a friend, and join us on the 8th!

May the love of God enable us to love each other well...

Jared Ayers

preaching pastor, liberti church

2011 has been a breakneck year for liberti church! Think back over the year with me...

It’s been a memorable year in liberti’s worship life.  Over the past 12 months, we estimate that our worship service attendance has grown by almost 50%!  And last spring, the Lord opened the door for us to forge a partnership with First Baptist Church and rent facilities from them.  This has enabled us to continue to welcome new friends and neighbors, and expand our ministries.  liberti’s community life has continued to develop, too.  We’ve launched several new home meetings over the past calendar year, with more to follow early in 2012.  And, about a month ago, our church commissioned Brian Savage and Scott Jennings as pastors to our congregation!

Perhaps most exciting has been all of the energy and new initiatives of mercy to the city and beyond that have been birthed through this past year.  Our efforts to serve have multiplied exponentially... We held a summer camp, “Life Nights,” for underprivileged children; expanded our work with Alpha Pregnancy Services and several different Bethesda Project homeless shelters; raised over $20,000 with the other liberti churches to distribute meals to hungry families last Easter; began regularly sending teams of people to visit men incarcerated in a prison on the edge of the city; and, together with First Baptist, have started serving a bi-monthly meal to upwards of 100 homeless men and women at our church facility.

As all this has gone on, we’re also praying and preparing to multiply the life of liberti: there are now close to 60 people who have signed up to be a part of the launch of liberti’s main line campus, which we expect to happen early in 2012!

As we look back gratefully at 2011, and look ahead to 2012, will you do two things with me?  First, humbly thank God. We have such an excess of God’s grace to be thankful for!  Second, consider financially supporting liberti in December. As a church, all of the expressions of mission and ministry we’re engaged in are funded entirely by the giving of the church community.  We need the committed participation of everyone who attends liberti to be able to carry out the mission he’s called us to in Philadelphia and beyond.

As I write these words, our church is currently carrying an operating deficit of $42,474.47.  In order for us to keep and develop staff and ministry, and pursue all of the opportunities God’s placed before us, it’s imperative for us to wipe out our deficit to continue to operate effectively.

How can you partner with us?  Glad you asked!  First, consider liberti in your year-end giving. Every dollar given counts, and impacts the lives of hundreds and hundreds of people; so, consider how you can give through liberti this December.  You can find out about giving options here, and give in whatever way makes the most sense for you.

Second, if you’re a Christian, and you don’t currently practice a pattern of giving, you can begin to give regularly, worshipfully, and generously. You can read more here about how giving to, and through, liberti is biblical, wise, and strategic.  And when you give to liberti, God makes you a part of all that he’s doing here!

Who knows what awaits us in 2012?  What might God do through us if we all committed our time, talents, and resources to pursuing the mission of Jesus together?  I can’t wait to find out, and I want you to be a part of it!

Merry Christmas!

Jared Ayers

preaching pastor, liberti church

Questions? Email ashleyabruce@gmail.com.

What is Emmanuel Community Ministries? liberti church helps First Baptist Church reach out to our homeless brothers and sisters in Center City every 2nd and 4th Saturday of the month. They offer a time of devotion, giving thanks, and a safe environment for expressing special needs and requests. They are provided a cooked meal, clothing, shoes, movie-time and much-needed relaxation time away from some of the hardships they face daily. We attempt to give our friends and guests the reassurance that comes with belonging to a larger community.

What are we doing for Thanksgiving? We are joining First Baptist to serve a special Thanksgiving Breakfast to our homeless brothers and sisters on Thanksgiving morning this year. This will involve food preparation, set-up, food service and clean-up.

Where? Emmanuel Community Ministries is located at First Baptist Church at 17th & Sansom streets in Center City Philadelphia.

When? Emmanuel is normally every 2nd and 4th Saturday of the month, but the special Thanksgiving breakfast will be held on Wednesday, November 23rd and Thursday, November 24th in several shifts.

Wednesday, November 23rd: help will be needed with food prep anywhere between 10:00am - 6:00pm.

Thursday, November 24th: help will be needed at 6:00am for food prep, 7:30am for set-up and 8:00am for food service & hosting. The event will go to approximately 11:30am (clean-up included). Come for as long as you're able, we could really use the help!

Contact? If you have questions about how to get involved on Thanksgiving or general inquiries regarding Emmanuel, please contact Austin Gee at austin.m.gee@gmail.com.

What? Slugs & Bugs Live Concert for the Kids! This concert is free-of-charge and will be a great way to connect with families in your community, so invite them to come along!

Where? Marian Anderson Recreational Center at 17th & Fitzwater Streets

When? Friday, November 18th at 6:00pm

For more information, click here or email Vito Baldini at vito@libertichurchcentercity.org.

It has been our normal practice to provide a quarterly update of the church’s finances, in order to provide transparency and partnership together in seeing the mission of the church continue to go forth in the city, and in the world.

As of today, nearing the end of the first quarter of our fiscal year, we have an operating deficit of $40,780.84.

As an organization, we depend on the giving of those who are a part of the church to operate and carry out our mission.

Some of you that were with us in June when we unveiled the budget for this fiscal year, remember how in June, we were significantly in the black, and had ended last fiscal year with a surplus. So you may be asking: “What happened? I thought liberti was doing well financially?”

Briefly, let me try to explain some of the dynamics involved:

We are about 3 months into a new budget year, in which our expenses have grown dramatically as we’ve had to change facilities and add staff to accommodate growth.

Our giving has usually been low in the summer time, as many are away from Philadelphia and don’t give while not physically present. Additionally, we’ve had several folks who were faithful financial supporters of liberti church move away over the summer months.

At the beginning of the fiscal year, in July, we gave financially to a liberti foreign missionary, and a liberti supported church planter, who were both in unexpected financial need. This was budgeted giving, but we gave monies in the beginning of the fiscal year from accounts projected to accumulate over the course of a year. We chose to be helpful to partners in mission, even though it was a sacrificial choice for us to make.

As we have provided financial updates over the past year, the running theme has been that our budget was in the black, and we were running a surplus. This dynamic may have motivated some to direct their giving elsewhere.

Although we have been generous to others outside of our church at the beginning of the fiscal year with monies that our projected to accumulate over the course of a year, in every other area of expenditures in the budget we have been right on track or under what is budgeted. So, as we have evaluated the deficit with our finance team, we recognized that our primary challenge to the budget is the giving of those who are part of the church.

We work hard to manage the funds given to the church responsibly, but for the reasons just stated we find ourselves significantly behind as we head into the fall. Our finance team has been gathering, and will continue to provide wise oversight and counsel for the use of the church’s finances.

How should we respond?

First, Pray. Pray with us, with expectant, bold faith that God would continue to provide for what he’s doing at liberti. Pray that this would be an opportunity for our church to grow in our stewardship of the resources God’s given us. Consider fasting to pray for liberti in a concentrated fashion. And pray that God uses us as an agent of great generosity to the city and the world!

Second, prioritize giving as we enter into the fall. It’s crucial, as we are kicking off ministry this fall, that all of us who are a part of liberti prioritize giving regularly, generously, and sacrificially as a response to God’s generosity to us in Christ.

By way of reminder, your giving at liberti is tax-deductible, and we have three different giving options:

Giving during a worship service

Giving through online banking

Giving through our brokerage account

Third, pray and consider how you can help liberti eliminate our operating deficit. Consider how you can help wipe out our shortfall, no matter what your income level. If we all work together, we can immediately address our deficit. If, in addition to our regular giving, we each give as we can, we’d be back on track and positioned to continue to boldly minister to the city and the world this fall.

Consider God’s work among us...

Think with me for a moment at how God has provided, sustained and enabled us to be a church for this place in a matter of just over 2 years. He has morphed us from a small living room of strangers to several hundred people, connected in neighborhood-based groups all across the greater downtown. He has allowed us to send a missionary to Uganda, to give substantial help to local partners in compassionate ministry for those in great need, and he has enabled us to assist in starting a counseling center.

This fall, we’re in the midst of praying and planning to launch a new liberti campus in the  western suburbs of the city, and a number of you are working together to start a school. We expect to multiply and start a number of new home meetings in order to connect people to Jesus and his church.

We often ask the question, what could God do this year? this month? He never ceases to amaze us. All that God has in store for us as a community will only be possible with his grace, and the committed partnership of all who participate in the life of this church.

If you have questions, or would like to further understand the church’s financial landscape, you can email the admin email account (admin@libertichurchcentercity.org), and we will connect you with someone on the finance team who can be of assistance to you.

Please contact Steve Huber or John Alexander for more information,  for their contact information, click here.