WHY WE EXIST
CityView Church exists to help disciples of Jesus mature and multiply
To this end, it is our hope to leave a significant legacy of:
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- People transformed by the Gospel (Disciples of Jesus)
- Effective and devout church leaders that last
- Reproducing planted churches
Given our context, history and composition, we believe that these three hopes represent our best opportunity to be the kind of church that helps disciples of Jesus both mature and multiply.
WHERE WE COME FROM
CityView church was started in 2006 with a handful of members and a dream to establish a Gospel beach-head in the Alliance corridor of far north Fort Worth. Approximately 2 years prior, Pastor Rick White had a providential meeting with Pastor Matt Chandler of The Village Church. The result of that meeting led to The Village Church partnering to plant CityView Church.
Like The Village Church before us, we believed (and still believe) our particular culture was in desperate need of the Gospel. This belief was confirmed over and over by our interactions with a spiritually saturated culture (with churches everywhere!) that was often familiar with Jesus, the Bible and church, yet unaware of its great spiritual poverty due to either a misunderstanding of or complete unawareness of Jesus’ Gospel.
To this day, CityView remains committed to awakening people to the Gospel AND re-awakening those that might know a lot about God, the Bible and church but have never been transformed by the message about what Jesus has done to save and transform sinners.
A SNAPSHOT OF THE PEOPLE OF CITYVIEW
In the broadest sense, CityView can be described by three core convictions:
- The Gospel is the glue that holds us and is therefore primary to both our unity and activity. (John 5:39, 1 Cor. 2:1-2, 15:1-4 &12-14, Eph. 4:1-6, Gal. 3:8)
- The Holy Spirit enlivens and empowers us for all of God’s purposes. We are therefore a church that pursues sensitivity to God the Holy Spirit. (Rom. 8, John 16:13, Acts 1:8 1 John 4:4)
- The Bible is God’s revelation to man. Therefore, with the help of Holy Spirit, we consider these Holy Scriptures sufficient as our primary source for truth and understanding reality. (2 Peter 1:20-21, John 16:13-15, Psalm 119:18, 2 Tim. 3:16)
Furthermore, the people of CityView tend to reflect the following characteristics:
- Our church community behaves like a family – we therefore cultivate the kind of traits that reflect God’s design for family (Eph. 2:19-22)
- We value sincerity in our interactions with one another and therefore work towards vulnerability in our closest friendships (1 Peter 1:22, James 3:17 & 5:16, Romans 12:9).
- We arrange our lives to exist as localized people – we make decisions that allow us to be engaged citizens of our community…seeking its good. Put another way, we seek to “tend the garden” we’ve been given. (Jer. 29:7, Acts 17:26-27, 1 Tim. 2:1-2)
- We strive for simplicity in what we do as a church. We fight against being too cute or clever in favor of clarity and focus. This means we will also fight against a crowded calendar that chokes out opportunities to be “everyday people” (“salt” and “light”) in our community. (Matt. 5:13-16, John 17:15, Phil 2:14-15, 2 Cor. 1:12)
Lastly, CityView can be known by the company it keeps.
While we are a self-governing church and unique in our own ways, we consider the following groups to be like-minded partners in our Gospel work.
- The Village Church was the parent/sponsor church of CityView. We love the Village and are thankful for their influence and impact on our church.
- The Acts29 Network is a diverse, global family of church planting churches. CityView has been an Acts 29 member church since 2006.
- The Gospel Coalition is a a broad network of churches that encourage and educate current and next-generation Christian leaders.
- IX Marks has been extremely generous and helpful to many young churches, including CityView. Our pastors value their firm commitment to Scripture and godly church leadership.
- The Denton Baptist Association also helped support CityView. We continue to partner with the DBA and its many ministries.
