Life together
the Way
Course
Daughter Communities
Tables
Life
Cohort
Monastics
Partnering with God in the world
| We are becoming… | …through this shared practice |
|---|---|
| 01 We stop. We rest. We resist the lie that our worth is in our productivity. Sabbath is an act of worship in a city that never stops. | One day of full rest each week, kept by each household. Every 7th Sunday the whole community stops together — no programs, no agenda. Every 7th month, a Sabbath Month of communal rest and release. |
| 02 We slow down enough to listen before we speak, and to be with God before we do for God. Prayer keeps us oriented toward the one we follow. | Morning or evening prayer daily — listening before speaking. A weekly community prayer gathering where we pray for one another by name and intercede for the city. |
| 03 We come to the Word slowly — not to master it but to be formed by it. Scripture is how we hear God's voice across all of life. | Daily Lectio Divina — slow and prayerful, leaving the text open to return to through the day. Weekly engagement with Scripture in Sunday Gathering and home community. |
| 04 We go without as a way of going toward. Fasting trains our desire away from comfort and toward God. | A weekly personal fast as a shared community practice. Communal fasting together during Lent and other sacred seasons of the church year. |
| 05 We practice inner stillness in outwardly noisy lives. Solitude creates the conditions for God to speak and for us to hear. | A daily moment of quiet before God — even amid the noise of family life. A weekly period of listening prayer, phone down. Monthly extended time alone with God. |
| 06 We show up for one another — across difference, difficulty, and the ordinary rhythms of life. Community is where we become who we say we are. | Sunday Gathering and Sabbath Tables — present at the shared table week after week. Reaching toward one another through the week with a text, a prayer, a check-in. |
| 07 We hold our money and possessions loosely, giving freely because we trust the one who provides. Generosity is a practice of freedom from the grip of scarcity. | Regular financial giving as a spiritual discipline. One daily act of generosity — time, attention, or resources — to a neighbor or stranger. |
| 08 We see those around us and move toward them with practical love. Service is how we partner with God in the life of St. Petersburg. | Showing up fully for the people immediately around us — family, neighbors, coworkers. One act of service in the neighborhood each week. Monthly coordinated service alongside local organizations. |
| 09 We become genuine neighbors to those outside our walls, trusting God to move through our relationships. Witness is who we are, not just what we do. | Practicing neighboring — building genuine, unhurried relationships with those around us. Growing into our communal witness practice together as a focused community season. |
Sunday Gathering at UC is not a service to attend — it is a practice to inhabit. Every element of the gathering is chosen with the question: what is this forming in us? The gathering is not a delivery mechanism for content. It is a communal encounter with Jesus, shaped so that those who enter are slowly, persistently formed into his likeness together.
the Way
Course
The Practicing the Way Course is UC’s primary on-ramp from Sunday Gathering into the formation pathway. A 10-session, cohort-based journey through the practices of Jesus — done in community, with accountability, and with the Shared Way of Life as the horizon. It is not a class to complete but a life to begin.
- Introduces the nine practices of the Way of Life and the formation theology behind them
- Run in cohort format — a group of people committing to learn and practice together over a season
- Pairs with a Formation Retreat for a deeper encounter outside the normal rhythm of life
- The primary bridge from occasional Gathering attender to committed community member
- Completing the course is the natural invitation into a Sabbath Table
Information without practice produces informed people who are not formed people. The PTW Course is built around doing, not just learning — each session pairs teaching with a practice to carry into the week. The content is not the point. The life that grows from it is.
Tables
A community gathering weekly around a meal, Scripture, and the practices of the Way of Life. Sabbath Tables and Sunday Gathering belong together — neither replaces the other; both are required. The table is UC's primary community structure: not a program to attend but a home to belong to. Formation here is simple, slow, and repetitive by design — the same rhythms, week after week, until they become part of who we are.
- Pilot 2–3 Sabbath Tables in Fall 2026 — strategically located in neighborhoods UC feels called to inhabit
- Missional by nature: tables reflect the neighborhood in makeup, culture, and the people who gather around them
- To belong to a Sabbath Table is to belong to Uncommon City
- Each table commits to the same shared practices — anchored in the Shared Way of Life
- Tables share stories monthly at Sunday Gathering — making formation visible to the whole community
- Always open to multiplication where the Spirit leads — a table can become the seed of a new one
3–4 people in a high-trust, same-gender circle of honest conversation, confession, and mutual prayer. Rooted in the band meeting tradition of John Wesley, Bands are where we practice being known. Vulnerability is not something we choose to be — it is something we already are. A Band is simply the place where that becomes true out loud. Where Sabbath Tables form community, Bands form character.
Each person shares; each person is prayed for. The meeting ends. Nothing else is required.
- Begin Bands discernment in Year 01; launch pilot in Year 02
- Bands are the natural next step for those in Sabbath Tables who are ready to go deeper
- Bands feed directly into the Way of Life Cohort for those discerning covenant commitment
Together, Sabbath Tables and Bands are the small-scale containers through which everything else in the Shared Way of Life gets practiced and held.
Without them, the pathway is a diagram.
With them, it becomes a life.
This is not a job description. It is a picture of a person.
It is what we mean when we say we are becoming a community of pursuers. Directional team members at Uncommon City are the most committed embodiment of our shared life together. They are not perfect. They are formed, forming, and honest about the difference. If you recognize yourself in what follows, you may be called to this.
A directional team member is someone who has made their own apprenticeship to Jesus the organizing priority of their life. This is not optional and it is not negotiable. The nine practices — Prayer, Scripture, Solitude, Fasting, Sabbath, Generosity, Community, Service, and Witness — are not suggestions. They are the rhythm of their actual life. They are practicing counter-formation in a city that is constantly trying to form them into something else. You cannot invite people into a way of life you are not walking yourself.
Uncommon City is built on collaborative leadership. The work is genuinely shared, the weight is genuinely distributed, and no single person is left holding every bag. A directional team member takes initiative. They follow through without being chased. They show up to what they committed to. What we celebrate and what we tolerate is the culture we are creating together. We celebrate shared ownership. We do not tolerate passive participation dressed up as leadership. If someone on this team is struggling, we address it with honesty and grace. We call each other back to what we said we would be.
A directional team member is always asking who they are bringing along. They are not trying to be the most visible person in the room — they are trying to be the most formative presence in someone else’s life. They notice the person who is ready to grow and they make room for them. They share what they know. They give away what they have been given. This is what it means to pursue the Good, Beautiful, and True Way together rather than alone.
UC’s seven Core Convictions are the theological and missional identity of Uncommon City. A directional team member does not merely agree to them — they embody them. These convictions are a portrait of who a directional team member is becoming.
A directional team member is not someone who drives to a Sunday gathering and goes home. They are embedded in this city. They know their neighbors. They have real friendships with people who have no interest in church. They care about the housing, the schools, the corridors, the neighborhoods that make up this place. The Gospel is not an escape from the city but the renewal of it. Our mission is local because God is local. Presence in the city is a spiritual practice, not a nice addition.
The measure of a directional team member is not what they accomplish on their own.
It is who is more formed, more capable, and more alive in Jesus because of their presence.