Vision & Mission
Our vision is a family to belong to, a family to grow with and a family to go with.
Our mission is to glorify God by multiplying Jesus-centered disciples and churches of all nations.
Rhythms
We Gather on Sundays
We gather on Sundays for singing, preaching, sacraments, and stories. Just as Christians have been doing for 2,000 years, Citylight gathers on Sundays to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection, delight in His Word, worship Him together, and remember the Lord’s Supper and baptism. These Sunday gatherings serve the broader mission of multiplying disciples and churches, equipping disciples of Jesus to scatter into City Groups and eventually multiply churches.
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. A City Group is a mid-sized community (15-40 people) who are growing in the Gospel, listening to the Scriptures, connecting as a family, and serving a specific neighborhood or network in the city. 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. As disciples multiply among Citylight, so will City Groups and churches!
Core Values
The values that drive Citylight South 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 his life, death, and resurrection, Jesus has initiated and accomplished what we never could. This Gospel is the “power of God” (Rom. 1:16) to overcome the penalty of sin (past) the power of sin (present) and the presence of sin (future). It is the power for personal salvation and transformation as well as the renewal of neighborhoods, cities, and nations. We never move past Jesus. We never move past the gospel. Who we are and what we do will be rooted in and empowered by God’s reaching down in the Gospel.
Up | Formation
We have all been formed into a certain kind of person. The goal of the Gospel is not just to save us from hell, but to renew our character and lives “until Christ is formed in you” (Gal. 4:19). We are committed to proclaiming the Gospel not just as the front door to Christianity but as the good news that we live by every day. We are committed to being a church that drives people to personal repentance and faith in Jesus for a changed and transformed life.
In | Community
The church is not a place but a people. It’s not just a weekly assembly of individuals, but a community committed to loving each other well and doing life together. Community is the context for Gospel formation and mission. We will not settle for being a weekly service for people to attend, but will continually drive people to share their lives with others as “a people for [God’s] own possession” (1 Pet. 2:9).
Out | Mission
The church is God’s missionary agency to fulfill the Great Commission. Emil Brunner wrote, “The church exists by mission as a fire exists by burning.” Therefore, “missions” is not one ministry within the church, but the very orientation of the church. The same Gospel that transforms us also compels us outward on mission. We exist as a church on mission to be “a city on a hill” and “the light of the world” (Matt. 5:14). We are committed to living as a scattered church during the week in City Groups and as a gathered church on Sunday as our City Groups come together.
Citylight Family of Churches
Citylight South Church is 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 South 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
God
There is one God, who is infinitely perfect, existing eternally in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
(Deut. 6:4, Matt. 5:48, 3:13-17, 28:19, Eph. 1:3-14)
Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ is fully God and fully 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 bodily 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.
(John 1:1-5, Col. 1:19, Phil. 2:7, Lk 1:34-38, 2 Cor. 5:21, Mk. 16:1-8, Heb. 1:3)
Holy Spirit
The Holy spirit is a divine person and the guarantee of the believer’s inheritance in God. He is sent to indwell, guide, teach, empower the believer, and convict the world of sin of righteousness, and of judgement.
(John 14:15-18, 16:7-11, Eph. 1:11-14, Gal. 5:16-26)
Scripture
The Old and New Testaments, inerrant as originally given, were divinely inspired and humanly authored. They are a complete revelation of His will for the purpose of salvation and sanctification. They constitute the divine and only rule of Christian faith and practice. The church is united and governed by Scripture as the supreme standard by which all confessions, lifestyles, and opinions are tried.
(2 Tim. 3:14-16, 2 Pet. 1:19-21, 1 Tim. 6:3-5, Acts 17:10-11)
Humanity
People were originally created in the image and likeness of God: they fell through disobedience, incurring both physical and spiritual death. All people are born with a sinful nature, are separated from life with God, and can be saved only through the atoning work of Jesus Christ. The portion of the unrepentant and unbelieving is existence forever in eternal punishment; and that of the believer, in everlasting joy and bliss.
(Gen. 1:26-27, Matt. 25:46, Rom 3:23, 5:12, 3:28, Rev. 21:8, 21:1-4)
Salvation
Salvation of sinners has been provided by grace, through faith, in Jesus Christ. All those who repent and believe in Jesus’s sacrificial atonement on their behalf are eternally secure in being justified of their sins, born again of the Holy Spirit, passed over from death to life, united with Christ, and adopted as children of God the Father.
(Mk 1:15, Acts 2:38, John 3:5, 5:24, Eph 2:1-10, Rom 3:21-26, Gal 4:4-5, 2 Cor 5:21)
Sanctification
It is the will of God that each believer should be filled with the Holy Spirit and be conformed to the image of Christ, being separated from sin and the world and fully dedicated to the will of God. This process begins with our unity to Christ, and is also a progressive work through the believer’s life.
(1 Thess 4:3, Matt 5:48, 1 Pet 1:16, Rom 6:1-23; 8:29, 2 Cor 3:18)
Church
The Church consists of all those who are chosen by the Father, believe in 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 and making disciples of all nations. The local church is a body of believers in Christ who are joined together for the worship of God, edification through the Word of God, for prayer, fellowship, the proclamation and protection of the gospel, and observance of the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
(Eph 1:3-14, Col 1:18, Acts 1:8, Matt 28:18-20, 1 Tim 3:14-15, Acts 2:41-47)
Resurrection
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.
(1 Cor 15:15-58, Col 1:18, John 5:28-29)
Second Coming
The second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ is imminent, personal, visible, and glorious. He will return in power and victory to finish God’s salvation plan, and bring forth the new heavens and new earth where we will dwell with Him forever. This is our blessed hope and is a vital truth which is an incentive to holy living and faithful service.
(Mark 13:24-27, Titus 2:11-14, 1 Thess. 4:13-18, Rev. 21-22)