We are thrilled to announce the upcoming release of The City 2.0! It's a huge leap forward in the way people experience The City, and we can't wait for you to see it in action. We know that many of you have been waiting for this and we're ecstatic for you to see the new developments.

The City will have an all-new interface and a number of new features– but it’s less of a collection of new stuff and more of a rethinking of “The City” experience. This will provide a great platform for layering in additional functionality with future releases.  This will be a transformational change in how people engage with each other to build community and advance the mission of the Church.

The exact release date of 2.0 is still a secret …all I can say is sometime in January.  

Here's a summary of what's coming:

New Interface

Designed with a three column layout for greater usability and interactivity, the new interface makes it simple to find what you're looking for and do what you want to do quickly.  

News Feed

We've implemented "lifestream" filtering to the news feed to give you items with the most recent activity at the top of your feed. You can also view the full content of a post in the news feed, so you don't have to click into a group to see the whole post. We've also applied this concept to your content feed within groups.

To do List

Have you ever forgotten to do something? Not a problem! We’ve added a clear and organized “Things to do” area for you to stay up-to-date on new action items like friend requests, event invitations, and conversation updates.

Calendar

We’ve added a dynamic calendar function because everyone should be in the know.  Now you'll always have your calendar one click away, so you can stay on top of everything that's coming up in your groups. It's also going to be easier to subscribe to your calendar feed through major email/calendar clients.

Content Creation

We've reinvented our content creation tools so it's even easier to post and format new content -- whether it's a topic, event, prayer, or need, getting it done is simple.

Community Support Center

No question is ever a stupid question. The City's new Community Support Center will give you a direct path to help if you ever run into something unexpected or just don't know how to do something.

We've taken a step back, reassessed, heard your feedback and reinvented The City.  We hope that when you see it, you will be just as excited as we are. Stay tuned..



The last few weeks have been quite a whirlwind!  We headed down to Atlanta in early October for Catalyst '09. We had an amazing time there meeting new folk and sharing what we're all about here at The City.

While we were down there we introduced everyone to our new friend Lloyd the Builder.  He's a rabid fan of The City and loves to see its juicy tech goodness used to positively impact lives for Jesus.  Check out the video we shared at Catalyst and see real stories about how The City has impacted people on www.buildyourcommunity.org.

Lloyd is a high energy dude but needs a break occasionally.  Watch him taking a moment during Catalyst to make friends with the Chick-fil-A cow.

Since Catalyst some of us have been taking an involuntary break brought on by bouts of the flu and some have been traveling around the country meeting with churches or running boot camp training.  We finally managed to get everyone together and capture some impressions from the event.

OK, we have decided that it is time to lift the wraps on the Plaza. What is it, you ask?

Well, it starts with the vision Jesus casts in Matthew 5:14: that His people would be like a city on a hill, whose light cannot be hidden. This is the driving force behind The City in general and The City Plaza specifically. Jesus has called us, answered our prayers, healed our afflictions, and loved us beyond what we could ever imagine. The City Plaza provides a platform to help remove the walls that keep the church inside, to interact in meaningful ways with its community, to be good neighbors.

The Plaza can help you build real relationships with people who are not yet connected to your church by leveraging the community-building power of The City and the viral nature of Facebook to open discussions, share needs, unite in prayer, or organize events.

We don’t want to keep you waiting, so take a couple minutes to check out the brief video overview below then head over to our Plaza demo site to test drive a small part of the Plaza experience for yourself!

The City is a great catalyst for community building. With The City Plaza, we're adding HUGE capabilities for community engagement outside your church!

Stay tuned for more to come soon, but check out the screenshots below as a preview for what you can expect ...