Vision & Mission
We exist to glorify god by multiplying disciples of Jesus and churches of all nations
Rhythms
We Gather on Sundays
We gather on Sundays to worship together, delight in the Word, practice the sacraments, petition the Father, and celebrate stories. These Sunday gatherings serve to launch us into the broader mission of multiplying disciples of Jesus and churches by equipping one another to proclaim and glorify Him in our neighborhoods and the nations.
We Scatter into City Groups
We scatter throughout the week into City Groups, the heart of Citylight Church. They are not an optional program or a seasonal Bible study, but a family to belong to. A City Group is a mid-sized community of people who are growing in the Gospel, studying and obeying the Scriptures, connecting as a family, and striving to advance the Gospel in our city and around the globe. These groups are small enough to care for each other’s growth in Christ, but big enough to dare to engage the culture around them.
Core Values
The values that drive Citylight Church are a commitment to reveling in God’s act of reaching down to us in the Gospel and responding by reaching up, in, and out.
Down | The Gospel
The Gospel is the “good news” that God has reached down to us in His Son, Jesus, to defeat sin and death and their effects in our world. Through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, He has initiated and accomplished what we never could—restoring humanity and our world back into right relationship with God and therefore one another, making us who were dead, alive in Him purely through His great grace and mercy! This gospel is the “power of God” (Rom. 1:16) to overcome the penalty of sin and the power it holds over us and our world. The gospel holds the power for personal salvation, transformation, and renewal of neighborhoods, cities, and nations. We never move past Jesus and the Gospel.
Up | Formation
God’s work gives us a new identity which we will spend our whole life learning to live out of. In Christ, we are holy and blameless (Ephesians 1), given a new heart and a new spirit (Ezekiel 36), righteous (2 Corinthians 5), and citizens of heaven (Philippians 3:20). God’s own Spirit is given to us which has the power to transform how we live, think, and act. This means that goal of the Gospel is not just to save us from hell, but to renew our character and lives “until Christ is formed in us” (Gal. 4:19). With our relationship with God restored, we are now able to sit in His presence! As we experience the presence of God through the indwelling of His Spirit, through reading His Word, and through praying to Him, we become more like Him.
In | FAMILY
Because of Christ’s work on the cross, we are adopted into God’s family. Not only does Jesus’ Gospel break down the barriers built up by our sin, but it breaks down the walls between us and the rest of humanity. God is calling a diverse people to Himself and with our variety of gifts, talents, wisdoms, and experiences we get to bless one another. When Jesus called us to Himself, He also called us into His family—the church, and we, therefore, believe that the church is not a place but a people. It’s not just a weekly assembly of individuals, but a family committed to loving each other and doing life. We scatter into City Groups to be deeply known, experience discipleship, encouragement, accountability, and live on mission.
Out | MiSsion
Jesus’ work on the Cross gives us the power and responsibility to continue His work of seeing people restored to relationship with God through the Gospel. When Jesus returned to His disciples after resurrecting, He commissioned them to be His messengers of the Gospel throughout the world. That commission has been passed down to us! Our whole Bible is the story of God bringing in those who were once far off for the sake of His glory, including us. Just as Jesus left the comforts of Heaven and sacrificed Himself for our salvation, we get to the leave behind comfort and enter into a life lived sacrificially for the sake of others hearing the lifesaving truth of the Gospel. “Missions” is not one sub-ministry, but the very core of the church.
Citylight Family of Churches
We are part of the Citylight Family, a family of churches with a shared mission of multiplying disciples and churches in the Midwest and beyond.
Denomination
Citylight is a church within the Christian and Missionary Alliance denomination. The C&MA is a missionary and church-planting movement that has a rich history of planting churches in the United States and all over the world.
“The alliance is a unique missionary denomination – a maverick movement into whose soul the Head of the Church breathed “Go!” from the very start.”
– L.L. King, C&MA President (1978-1987)
Citylight Church is accountable to the leadership and doctrinal statements of the C&MA. You can view our doctrinal statement and learn more about the C&MA at www.cmalliance.org. In addition, maintaining a commitment to gospel-centered ministry, we also gladly affirm the Gospel Coalition’s foundation documents which can be read at www.thegospelcoalition.org.
Statement of Faith
of the Christian and Missionary Alliance
There is one God, who is infinitely perfect, existing eternally in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Jesus Christ is the true God and the true man. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He died upon the cross, the Just for the unjust, as a substitutionary sacrifice, and all who believe in Him are justified on the ground of His shed blood. He arose from the dead according to the Scriptures. He is now at the right hand of Majesty on high as our great High Priest. He will come again to establish His kingdom, righteousness and peace.
The Holy Spirit is a divine person, sent to indwell, guide, teach, empower the believer, and convince the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.
The Old and New Testaments, inerrant as originally given, were verbally inspired by God and are a complete revelation of His will for the salvation of men. They constitute the divine and only rule of Christian faith and practice.
Man was originally created in the image and likeness of God: he fell through disobedience, incurring thereby both physical and spiritual death. All men are born with a sinful nature, are separated from the life of God, and can be saved only through the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The portion of the unrepentant and unbelieving is existence forever in conscious torment; and that of the believer, in everlasting joy and bliss.
Salvation has been provided through Jesus Christ for all men; and those who repent and believe in Him are born again of the Holy Spirit, receive the gift of eternal life, and become the children of God.
It is the will of God that each believer should be filled with the Holy Spirit and be sanctified wholly, being separated from sin and the world and fully dedicated to the will of God, thereby receiving power for holy living and effective service. This is both a crisis and a progressive experience wrought in the life of the believer subsequent to conversion.
Provision is made in the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ for the healing of the mortal body. Prayer for the sick and anointing with oil are taught in the Scriptures and are privileges for the Church in this present age.
The Church consists of all those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, are redeemed through His blood, and are born again of the Holy Spirit. Christ is the Head of the Body, the Church, which has been commissioned by Him to go into all the world as a witness, preaching the gospel to all nations. The local church is a body of believers in Christ who are joined together for the worship of God, for edification through the Word of God, for prayer, fellowship, the proclamation of the gospel, and observance of the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
There shall be a bodily resurrection of the just and of the unjust; for the former, a resurrection unto life; for the latter, a resurrection unto judgment.
The second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ is imminent and will be personal, visible, and premillennial. This is the believer’s blessed hope and is a vital truth which is an incentive to holy living and faithful service.