CityView Christian Fellowship

August 26, 2007

We are a church with a vision toward:

• Becoming a catalyst in bringing spiritual transformation to Lubbock and West Texas.


• Breaking the American tradition of being primarily a “come and hear” church to become a “go and tell” church.


• Equipping our people to see themselves as full-time ambassadors of the Kingdom of God where they live work and play.


• Endeavoring to influence pastors and church leaders through encouragement, friendship and training, to get outside the four walls of their church.


• Penetrating the marketplace with kingdom principles.

We figured a church with this kind of vision must have something good going on. It's located in a new building out on Milwaukee near the new Target - nice building, but kind of unassuming and not flashy with a big sign. You kind of have to know what it is since its not well marked. I kind of like that. We drove into the parking lot and though there were clearly marked "guest Parking" spaces, we opted to be stealthy and parked as though we knew what was going on. I didn't want some greeter guy who spies on the guest parking to prey on us as soon as the car door opened. that probably doesn't happen, but that is what having guest parking makes you feel like will happen when you are a guest. The building is nice and modern, set way back from the street and surrounded by undeveloped land. It was obvious where the entrance was (which is not always the case with a church) so we went in it. I guess our stealthy approach diminished upon entering the building because the man who greeted us at the door immediately asked if this was our first visit. Maybe he asks everyone he doesn't recognize that question, but probably we just looked lost.

He made a little small talk, welcomed us to the church and asked how old Avery was. He personally escorted us to her class area (which is a really cool thing for a visitor in a big building) and introduced us to the children's staff. They got us all fixed up and even let us go beyond the "sacred" check-in desk which parents are not allowed behind. She wanted us to feel comfortable leaving Avery and to meet her teachers and that was really great and much appreciated. I was surprised to find that her teachers (a couple team) was one of my customers. I didn't know he attended church there and we had a nice visit. I hoped she acted nice! We wandered back toward the big room and were again greeted by a guy handing out a paper for the worship service. He opened the door to the room and...

...it was filled with round tables! That is not what we were expecting. Not only that, but there was the smell of coffee and breakfast burritos in the air. We looked around and everyone was eating at those tables! Someone pointed us to the food and encouraged us to load up. We'd just eaten breakfast so, we got drinks and some fruit and cautiously looked for a table. I don't know about you, but I have some anxiety about finding a table in a big room full of complete strangers. We found one that was mostly empty (I'd hate to be told a seat we wanted was "reserved") and sat down. The lady across the table was alone and we introduced ourselves - deciding making small talk was our way to ease the tension. Rather Jill decided this - I probably would have just sat there staring at the stage. Turns out she was a visitor too and was a little thrown off by the circle table set-up. She'd visited one other time and assured us it wasn't like this the first time she came.

As we ate, there was a couple milling through the crowd meeting people, but we didn't notice that before they met us. Jill asked how long they'd been members here and they replied, "Well, I guess since the beginning when we started the church." Jill was mortified to discover that he was the Pastor and we had no idea! No wonder they were circulating and introducing themselves! Soon two other couples joined us and we had a really nice chat with them. They told us a lot about the church, its history and mission. One of them happened to be a farmer from New Deal, so we were able to connect and that made it much easier. After about 45 minutes, the Pastor got up and welcomed us. It turns out that every year the church celebrates their anniversary this way by having a big birthday bash. The church turned 7 this year and it was a really neat thing to see them celebrate their community like this.

Since we had eaten breakfast, there wasn't a musical part of the worship that morning. We watched a video about the the summer basketball camp the church had recently hosted in East Lubbock. It was pretty neat to see them reaching out to the community that way. One of the camp leaders got up afterwards to talk about the experience and to do that, he needed 8 volunteers to help him. Once they got up front, he borrowed an object from each of their pockets and proceeded to make up a rap, on the spot, about those objects. It was definitely my first rap in church! He did a great job and I applauded the church for not being afraid to tap the talents of the membership, even though it be nontraditional, and share that with the body. While he was rapping, one of the girls who is a cheerleading coach had a little group of girls on stage behind him doing their "choreography" to the rap. It was really neat!

The Pastor got up and shared a message with us after that. He had a lot of details about the church's history and God's hand in getting them where they were. He told an interesting story about how they came to own the land where they are and it was a good way to learn about the church and their mission. He introduced a class they offer called "Directions" that promised to help Christians learn their spiritual gifts, ministry styles and find a place in the Kingdom (not specifically in this church) to use those gifts. It was compelling enough that we attended the course on Wednesday nights throughout September and have been blessed very much by it.
Even though this was a very different Sunday to visit the church and we didn't really get a feel for their worship time, we are very glad we cam eon that day. It really gave us an opportunity to see the heart of the church by participating in their celebration, by visiting with members for an extended time and by enjoying the fellowship and their laid back style. This visit has been a highlight for us so far and we definitely want to go back on a "normal" Sunday. If we choose to worship in Lubbock, this is a very real possibility . We enjoyed the warmth and friendliness of the people and appreciate very much the heart and vision they have for ministry in the workplace and "outside" the church. That is what all churches ought to be focusing on!

See more at http://www.cityviewlubbock.org/
Posted by Gabe Moudy at 8:00 AM 1 comments

Thinking About Church (and Faith)

I've been reading a new book that's rather intriguing and am wondering if anyone else out there has read it. The basic premise is that the author, a self-professed atheist, wanted to give Christianity or other religions a fair chance to convince him of their legitimacy. So, he set up an auction on eBay. The winning bidder could have the author attend 1 hour of worship service for every $10 bid. Interestingly enough, the winning bid was over $500 and the winning bidder had the author attend various Christian churches of all sizes and denominations and give his observations in blog format. You can look at this at http://friendlyatheist.com/ . He makes some very interesting observations about how churches approach sharing their faith with those who do not share their church background or upbringing. Stay tuned for more, and send me your comments if you've heard about this book.

Fishing Moguls

It's been a month since my last post, so I can safely add something here without spoiling my reputation for terribly infrequent posts!

One of my favorite parts of living in Kenya was being close to the sea, something totally new for a drylander like me. There was always so much to learn about the maritime culture - the tides, the boats, the fish, the salt air. I think the locally crafted Kenyan dhow's were my favorite. These little boats, or canoes as you might imagine them, were carved from a tree trunk and fixed with a small sail and maybe an outrigger or two for stability. Early in the morning 2 or 3 guys would make their way to the beach and push their boat out into the aquamarine water for a day's work of fishing. It was always such a calm, serene process that happened every morning just down the hill from our house. No noise, just ancient wooden vessels being pushed into calm water and silently slicing out of the bay into the wide blue yonder of the open ocean.

One morning as I watched the dhow's pull onto the beach after a day of fishing, I watched the men pull their catch from the boat and stretch their nets on the beach to dry. These men who were so poor - barely clothed, no income but the sale of a few dollars of fish, no other way to make an income because fishing for a living is a last resort. Fishermen in Kenya are uneducated, they barely survive, they are at the bottom of the career ladder. Then it hit me - something I'd never really thought about before. These are the exact guys that Jesus called to be apostles, his best friends and disciples, as he began his ministry that rocked the world. Peter and Andrew, James and John - they weren't the fishing moguls I'd always imagined them to be. They didn't have a huge boat with a rowing crew. They weren't professionals, just local guys trying to scrape a living from their canoe. You know that story when they caught 132 fish and it swamped the boat? I always thought those must have been big fish! That wasn't it at all - the boat was just tiny!

Jesus picked the local guys, the ones at the bottom of the career ladder so to speak. He picked simple guys - guys with little formal education, guys that maybe tried to make it in rabbinic school but failed because they just didn't quite have what it took, guys that knew hard work and weren't afraid of it. Why? Why didn't Jesus pick the educated, or religious, or upity? Why were these guys willing to drop their nets and follow him? Why did he pick them?

And what about me? I don't really fit the mold that Jesus picked from. I'm not at the bottom of society - I have money, I have an education, I've grown up in the church. I don't have a shady career like Matthew, I'm not a revolutionary like Simon the Zealot, I'm pretty plain. Does he pick people like me? Does he pick people like you?

I'm convinced that he does! Jesus picked normal folks from all walks of life to be men and women that abandon everything to follow him. Can Jesus pick a wine-tapper who spends his time atop palm trees collecting the ready-made brew for his buddies? Sure! Can Jesus pick the American Mom who spend her time wrestling kids and running errands? Sure! No matter where we come from, who we are, what our background is - Jesus has picked us to join his team. What a great privilege to know that even in spite of our inadequacies, He asks us to join his mission in the world and make this place better for everyone. That is what fishing for men, I think, is all about.