A day in the life of our church

I used to think you had to be special for God to use you, but now I know you simply need to say yes.                                 ~Bob Goff   

CityLife Church serving an apartment near us

 setting up

"Spider man" captured my heart

repaired and painted court where kids can now play soccer

fun balloons given to all the kids

lunch prepared by men willing to cook in over 100 degree heat

willing to take time for others

raffle prizes for adults

and for kids too!

willing servants cleaning a lady's apartment

an awesome water slide

It was fun walking around capturing the day in pictures and talking to people that lived in the apartments.  I am so glad for this day and the smiles I saw. I am glad that as a church and as individuals we said yes, to God!

 

       

More than pancakes...

CityLife Church serves...

~by Jim

This summer, as we begin training for missional living, we are scheduling opportunities for our people to connect with the surrounding community. Saturday we had a group set up to feed a pancake breakfast for the families that would be served by 6Stones through New Hope Center. We planned, prepared, and conducted the entire event without any need for the team at New Hope to be involved…but we did have their approval and their blessing on our effort.

As we gathered early Saturday morning we took time to pray together and talk about what it means to be missional. Missional living has been defined in terms of realigning ourselves with the biblical narrative where we adopt a missionary stance in relation to our culture. Living on mission goes far beyond the “what” and “how” of being sent; it hinges on the “who” of other people. It’s about entering into life with other people and intentionally living the gospel wherever we are. What we do must be of value to the people that we encounter, but it is only the foil that gets us there. While we are there we must engage the people and join them on their journey…we must be willing to get outside of our assumptions about life and walk with people as Jesus did. It was our prayer God would circumcise our eyes and hearts allowing us to see what He sees as we served those that came.

As we departed we were aware that the “pancakes” may have met the immediate need…but we were greatly aware that encounters of significance could only happen by taking the first step to be where the people are. It remains our hope that the “ancient way” will be made new to us again.

Serving our community...

Yesterday our church participated in the HEB ISD Back to School Festival. This is a coalition of churches, social services, school & civic agencies that gave those less fortunate a “hand up” in starting the school year off right by supplying up to 2000 children with a new backpack & school supplies. I had no idea how they would ever pull this off. This had been worked on for 6 months and you could certainly tell as it was very organized. Jim asked me if I would take some pictures and I was so happy to do that. This allowed me to see many different areas. Police, firemen, hospitals, social services were a few of the agencies that were there to serve the people. I saw the volunteers being so kind, helpful and supportive to each family. I saw parents receiving help and information that they needed. I saw moms with their children and families being prayed for. I saw children that would probably not have a back pack or supplies receive them with big smiles! A few would not take them off when they went into the bounch houses. I saw parents who had come looking sad leave with smiles and hope. This morning at church we heard some wonderful stories about the day. One that really touched my heart was the 5 yr. old boy from our church that wanted to know where the backpacks were. When he was told he said, "That's where I will stand, so I can tell them about Jesus!" It was a wonderful day and I am so glad I was a part of it.