Mission & Values

Our Mission

Our mission is to magnify Jesus by multiplying disciples and churches of all nations.

Our Rhythms

Just as Christians have done for 2,000 years, Citylight Kearney gathers each Sunday to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection, learn from the Bible, worship as a community, take communion in remembrance of His sacrifice, and celebrate baptisms as public declarations of faith in Christ. 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.

GATHER I Sundays

We scatter throughout the week in City Groups. City Groups are the heart of Citylight Church. They are not an optional program or a seasonal Bible study, but a family to belong to. A City Group is a mid-sized community who are growing in the Gospel, studying and obeying the Scriptures, 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.

SCATTER I City Groups

We also believe that intentional spaces for theological formation and spiritual training are vital for deep discipleship. That's why we offer regular rhythms of equipping through classes, intensives, studies, and intentional discipleship relationships. These are like the classroom or the gym—designed to stretch our minds, shape our hearts, and strengthen our hands for a lifetime of following Jesus. In these environments, we grow in our knowledge of God, our understanding of Scripture, and our obedience to Jesus in every area of life. As disciples are equipped, the whole church is built up in unity, maturity, and mission.

EQUIP I Through

Our Core Values

DOWN, UP, IN, OUT

The values that drive Citylight 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.

LEARN MORE BELOW!

  • The Gospel is the good news that God saves sinners through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. God isn't waiting for us to claw our way up to Him, He has come down to us. Jesus has done for us what we never could do ourselves.  This gospel is the power of God to save sinners and transform neighborhoods and nations (Romans 1:16).  The Gospel isn’t just the ABCs of following Jesus – it is the A to Z of following Jesus.  This value is THE value that seeps into everything we do. It's of first importance as a church. (1 Corinthians 15:1-4)

  • Jesus is such a marvelous Savior that we can't help but want to be more like Him. And through the power of the Gospel & work of the Spirit, we are progressively molded into becoming more like Jesus (Romans 8:29) This doesn't mean our aim is simply to be better Christians, slowly improving our morality & cleaning our lives up. It means as we gaze upon Jesus together, through His Word, the trappings of sin lose their addictive appeal & we realize Jesus is better. As the old hymn says, "The things of the earth grow strangely dim in the light of His glory & grace"

  • The church isn't a place, but a people. It's more than a weekly assembly of individuals. It's a humble, joyful community committed to loving each other and doing life together. Jesus said that the world would know that we're Christians by the way we love each other (John 13:35) The primary expression of community in our church is City Groups, where we connect to hear the gospel, respond to the gospel, and share the gospel. We will never settle for being a weekly gathering for people to attend, but will continually invite people to share their lives with others in missional community.

  • The church is God’s missionary agency to reach the unreached with the Gospel. At the end of our streets & the ends of the earth. Missions aren't just a ministry within the church, but the very orientation of our entire church. The same gospel that transforms us within also compels us outward on mission. We exist as a church to be both “a city on a hill” and “the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14). We do this by focusing each of our City Groups around a shared mission – seeking to love, serve, and make disciples of neighborhoods and networks of people throughout our city of Kearney.