Category Archives: CityLife Church
New Series Starts Sunday
You know your church is getting old when you start your second sermon series!
It’s easy for me to track the age of our church right now because we’re in sync with the NFL season. So this Sunday is week 5!
I’m looking forward to starting a new teaching series straight from the New Testament Book of James. This letter, written by Jesus’ brother, has a lot to say to us about persevering through trials, the power of our words, the value of waiting, and the potential of prayer.
This Sunday we’ll kick things by studying a surprising command. Count it all joy when you meet trials of various kinds. What you’ll discover may surprise you–and encourage you!
See you Sunday!
Starting Point
I spent this morning planning for our first Starting Point class at CityLife Church. This one hour class will take place this Sunday, immediately after the worship experience, in the school’s cafeteria. If you want to connect at CityLife, this class is where you want to start.
If you’ve started to attend CityLife, or are thinking of attending, here are some reasons why you should be a part of Starting Point.
- Free lunch!
- You’ll hear how God called my family to move to Philadelphia.
- You have to eat lunch anyway.
- You’ll hear exactly how to connect to the Dream Team at CityLife.
- We’ll watch your kids for you.
- You’ll find out how to get one of those stylish blue and green CityLife t-shirts you’ve seen everybody wearing.
- You’ll learn the vision, values, and ministry strategy of our church.
- Did I mention lunch is free!
A New Teacher’s Lounge, Water Bottles, and Week 3 At CityLife!
Today I am celebrating an amazing weekend of ministry at CityLife Church! Here are a few of the highlights.
- About 35 friends from the choir at Allison Park Church joined us for the weekend. They had awesome attitudes as they served South Philly.
- On Friday night we outfitted the teacher’s lounge at The Academy at Palumbo. You can see the before and after photos above. So thankful for our relationship with this great school and happy to invest in their teachers!
- On Saturday we gave away hundreds of bottles of water and distributed thousands of door hangers. During the day one of our church’s 94 year old neighbors committed his life to Christ!
- Yesterday we had our 3rd service. There was so much energy and excitement that filled the school!
- Counting the choir, we had 196 people in attendance, and at the end of the service 19 people responded to plead guilty and surrender their lives to Jesus!
Launch Recap
Wow! Yesterday was such a fun day for CityLife Church! For months we have been preparing for September 11 with the goal of throwing the finest God party we could. And yesterday it happened. The Academy at Palumbo was packed with people, energy, and LIFE!
Yesterday was my 33rd birthday. In the morning, one friend who forgot CityLife was launching, posted a message to my Facebook wall that said, “Happy birthday. I hope it’s a blast and that you do something you love.” Honestly, I can’t imagine anything I’d rather do on my birthday than start a church, and can’t remember ever having a birthday that was as much fun as this one.
We weren’t quite sure what to expect but were thrilled with what God did. 210 people attended the service, and 12 made a commitment to cross the line of faith and surrender to Christ.
I was so proud of our team. I can’t begin to calculate the number of hours and cumulative sacrifice they’ve invested in the birth of CityLife Church. There’s no way yesterday would have happened without you. I love you guys and feel honored to share in this dream with you.
If you’d like to get a taste of the fun, check out the CityLife Launch photo album on our Facebook page!
Thinking of Visiting CityLife This Sunday?
Are you thinking of joining us for the launch of CityLife Church this weekend? Check out the VIP Guest Guide to quickly reference location, times and directions.
You can find all of the other juicy details by visiting our website!
The End of the Beginning
On Sunday our launch team celebrated our final weekend together before CityLife Church officially launches this coming weekend. We had an outdoor service, our first three water baptisms, and then spent the afternoon relaxing together. It was a fun conclusion to what has been a very meaningful season in my life.
The pre-launch phase of a church plant feels a lot like being engaged. You spend some extended time preparing for a big day, and then the real commitment and hard work begins. Honestly, I am going to miss this season. It has been a highly relational, organic, meaningful time for my family and our core group. But all good things must come to an end, and we are all pumped to see what God will do this Sunday when CityLifegoes public!
Kickoff!
Hard to believe that it’s almost been a full year since Leah and I moved to Philly! And it’s hard to describe how much we’ve grown to love this city–parking wars and all!
For the past year we’ve been eagerly anticipating the official launch of CityLife Church on September 11, and it’s finally here!
September 11 is an important day for several reasons.
- It’s the 10 year anniversary of the tragedy that forever changed our country.
- It’s my birthday.
- It’s the day my daughter Claire turns 6 months old.
- It’s the start of the NFL season!
While They Were Fasting
While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them (Acts 13.2).
This week I am leading our CityLife Church core group through a focused process of prayer and fasting. We have specific prayer points we’re agreeing for throughout the week, and tonight we’ll gather to worship and pray.
Honestly, I called this week of prayer and fasting with an agenda in mind. Our public launch for CityLife Church is just a few weeks away, which gives me a sense a desperation for God to bless all the work we’ve put into starting this new church. As I wrote earlier this week, we need his hand to be on us.
But this morning I read this verse about a similar experience at the Church in Antioch, and was reminded about the potential of fasting. As these first century church leaders pursued God together, He surprised them with a Divine strategy session. He spoke to them, and led them to take a step of faith by sending Paul on the first of three church planting journeys. It was a directive that undoubtedly changed the course of church history.
And it hit me.
If we’re not careful we can get so focused on what we want God to do for us that we forget He has something He wants us to do for Him.
My prayer today is that God will use this time to direct us, stretch us, guide us, and get us focused on His agenda.
The Hand of the Lord Was With Them
I’ve always been inspired by the story of the Antioch church plant in Acts 11. An anonymous group of church planters moved into the third largest city in the world and set in motion a chain of events that changed the Roman Empire.
There’s one phrase in particular in verse 21 that I’m thinking about today.
…and the hand of the Lord was with them.
The city of Philadelphia often makes me feel small and powerless. Big buildings. Big population base. Big challenges. There really is nothing our new church can accomplish here without the hand of the Lord being with us.
With a little less than three weeks until CityLife Church launches, my sense of dependency on God is growing. We’ve worked hard and prepared, but only God can produce lasting fruit from it.
That’s why our launch team is dedicating this week to prayer so we can connect to an even bigger God.
A few years ago I had the opportunity to hear David Mohan share his story. He leads a church in India that has grown to over 30,000 people and has planted over 100 churches. They started with just seven people. And he made it very clear that prayer is the backbone of their ministry. In fact, on Friday nights, they have up to 1,000 people who gather at the church to pray all night long.
His most striking comment to me was this.
If I don’t pray as a pastor, then I am saying I can build my church without God’s help.
My dream is that several years from now, when the story of CityLife Church is told, it would be said of us–The hand of the Lord was with them.
Movie at Montrose
This Saturday night CityLife Church is sponsoring the second “Movie at Montrose” block party. This monthly event is a great opportunity for South Philly to experience a fun neighborhood party absolutely free!
Here’s the schedule:
- 6.30 pm: Free food and games
- 8.15-8.30 pm: Movie and popcorn
