Our Story

In 2024, Parkview Church in Palm Coast cast the vision to plant a new church in St. Johns County in 2025. At the same time, God was stirring the hearts of Trent and Andrea Griffith about leading the effort to plant a new church.   At the beginning of 2025, God brought them together, and Pastor Trent and Andrea committed to building the core group, with the hope of seeing New City Church emerge in the months ahead.

Pastor Trent has extensive experience in church planting. In 2009, he led a group of 13 people to plant Gospel City Church in Granger, Indiana. Over the next 13 years, Gospel City Church grew into a congregation of over 2,000 people while planting 8 other churches.  We don’t know exactly what God has planned for New City Church, but we know Jesus promised to build his church, so we continue to take steps of faith to join him in that work.  

We didn’t know what to expect when we held our first public prayer and praise gathering on June 29, 2025, but we were thrilled to see 72 new friends show up to seek God’s favor and learn more about our vision. We are grateful to Good News Church for allowing us to meet at their campus near the World Golf Village exit of I-95.  

We know it takes all kinds of churches to reach a diverse community. We are grateful to come alongside other gospel-preaching churches in making disciples of Jesus in our community. 

On January 11, 2026, New City Church will officially launch to serve our community. 

Our purpose is not to build a platform or promote an agenda. We desire to resist the temptation to become a community of internally-focused, consumer-oriented churchgoers. We live with a sobering sense that we have been sent to a hungry world that is waiting for real Christians to display the real Jesus in a way that is impossible to ignore.

Although we are a gospel-centered church, we will not be content to merely teach gospel doctrine. We desire to build a  gospel culture that fuels love for God, love for our neighbors, and sustains us in the face of trials and opposition. 

We will not measure our success by attendance, money, or by meeting felt needs. We believe the world has seen enough of the church’s attempts to entertain, impress, or convince people that Jesus is cool.

Our measure of success will be faithfulness to God, resulting in His continual transformation of our self-focused lives into Christ-centered lives by the power of His Spirit in response to the authority of his word. 

We simply want to be a church God can entrust with his glory. When the world sees God’s glory in the church, some will be drawn to it, others will be repelled, but we are convinced that God’s glory is the one thing our church cannot live without. 

We get it. New church plants don’t have many amenities to offer. If you are looking for a church driven by gospel culture, unapologetic preaching, vertical worship, unceasing prayer, deep discipleship, and missional living, we believe you will fit right in. 

We can’t wait for you to become part of our story.