Joe has been serving as our counseling and care pastor for the past two years and has earned massive trust by being a consistent, faithful, and a wise voice in the community of Midtown and in our church. Joe lives in Midtown and loves being in the heart of the city. Phil lives in West Omaha, leads a growing and healthy City Group out of his home and is a humble yet competent leader! Joe Julian, will be the pastor giving leadership at Midtown. Phil has been serving as the family and student ministers pastor at Citylight. In West Omaha, the gathering location pastor will be Phil Robinson. These men will be the constant pastor in the room, the one who will be giving stage leadership on Sundays, staff leadership, and shepherding care during the week. With that being said, I want to champion the faith-filled men who have stepped in to serve as the gathering pastors of our two locations. We are taking a new step of faith and inviting others to lead in roles and carry responsibilities that we are all unfamiliar with. This vision of launching a new gathering location in West Omaha has presented some amazing Kingdom opportunities but it has also presented some leadership dynamics we haven’t faced to this point. Just a confession, we’ve never launched a new gathering location before. What about local leadership? Who will be providing constant pastoral leadership at each location? Additionally the gathering pastors (Joe Julian and Phil Robinson) will be teaching at their location four to eight times per year.ģ. This will help keep our church unified as sit under the same preaching and teaching. For example, if Gavin preaches John chapter 1 at Midtown one Sunday, the following Sunday he will preach the same sermon in West Omaha. To facilitate this, we’ve created a preaching team (Gavin Johnson, Chris Hruska, and Cameron Debity) that will rotate between locations. We want to be in the room with you, worshiping Jesus with you, and preaching God’s Word to His people in real time. We as pastors value the conversations that happen off stage as much as we do the chance to preach Christ on stage. There will be live preaching at both locations at all times. What about Preaching? Will one gathering location be a video venue or will it be live preaching at both locations? Going back to two gatherings will allow us more time to connect before and after the gathering and reduce some the chaos that is our parking situation.Ģ. Currently, we are doing three gathering at the Midtown location and have heard from many of you that you miss the in-between time, that allows you to connect with friends and enjoy the family of God. Construction is on pace and we are scheduled to open the West Omaha gathering location in late Jan or early Feb of 2018! As West Omaha launches, gathering times will be 9 AM and 11 AM at both of our church locations. We have purchased the old Hy-Vee building near 144th and Center and are currently renovating the facility. When will West Omaha launch? And what will be the gathering times? But here are the practical questions you may be asking…ġ. In past blogs, we have answered the primary question, “Why a new gathering in West Omaha?” Check out A Vision for West Omaha & Midtown if you’d like to review the vision and reasons for moving to two gathering locations. My aim with this blog is to bring clarity to some of the practical questions you may be asking. Or, maybe you’ve been following the story God is writing but have lots of practical questions about leadership, gathering times and overall structure. Perhaps you’re reading this and you’re a part of the Citylight family but you’re still trying to catch up with the vision of multiplying our gatherings. We will be one church, that gathers in two locations – Midtown and West Omaha. And yet in 2018, the way we gather as a church family will look different. We are going to be one church, with one mission of multiplying disciples and churches. In many ways, nothing changes at Citylight in 2018. We must celebrate God’s faithfulness in the past and continue to look to what He is calling us to in the future. In 100 days, $1,000,000 dollars was given so that construction on a new gathering location could begin! Additionally, a wave of generosity swept across our congregation. As we presented the vision of starting a new gathering in West Omaha, there was 100% unity among our elders and members. Lastly, God provided for our church family in ways that built up my personal faith. We praise God that another church is doing their part to saturate the city of Omaha with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Citylight, God continues to seek and save the lost as we’ve seen more than one hundred people get baptized just this year! Additionally, we got the joy of helping co-plant a new church, Providence, which is now gathering in the Blackstone district. As 2017 comes to a close we need to pause and celebrate all of God’s grace.
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