Letter from the Elders
As we reflect on our past year, we are encouraged by how our members have prioritized investing in God’s Word and people. We continue to be amazed at what God is doing in and through the lives of those who call CityBridge home. Our first year was marked by everything feeling new, while our second year has been marked by getting aligned to move in the same direction. As an Elder team, our primary focus is shepherding the body. We are continually discussing how we can help move people to maturity as we ourselves move towards maturity in Christ…
Our Story
The Church must hold two biblical pinciples in tension: to have a high call to full devotion to Jesus while being a safe place for individuals on their journey with Him. These two distinctions are held together in perfect unity in Christ and mark CityBridge Community Church.
High Call.
Jesus commands His followers to follow Him fully as we live out the ‘one anothers’ of Scripture. Jesus will continually transform us as we know, believe, and apply God’s Word. This transformation takes place publicly as we let our light shine before others and privately as we devote ourselves to Him in every aspect of life. On our journey with Jesus, we walk daily with Him and deeply with others who spur us on to full devotion. (Luke 9:23, Matthew 28:20)
Safe Place.
As we call one another to full devotion, we understand that God is in the business of transforming us into His image throughout our lifetime. As believers, we will struggle with misdirected desires, temptations, and sin. As Christ- followers, we should treat others as He did – even those caught in or who have confessed sin. Confession among believers is normal and expected, leading to healing and reconciliation. We should treat and respond as Jesus would with gentleness, humility, mercy, empathy, and patience. (Galatians 6:1, Hebrews 4:15-16)
Our Values
Jesus is our example and His Spirit empowers us. If our church is to imitate the high call and safe place of Jesus, we must live our five core values:
Authenticity
We believe our lives are to be marked by authenticity, transparency, sincerity, and integrity.
Bible-Based
We believe God’s Word is our authority, conscience, and guide in all things.
Community
We believe God intends His people to share life together in deep relationships with one another.
Discipleship
We believe success is measured by our ability to be and make disciples who are fully devoted to Christ in all areas of life.
Engage
We believe Jesus came to seek and save the lost and gave us a mission to do the same through evangelism and intentional engagement.
Featured Stories
Debbie Padilla
“As I began walking with the Lord, I knew I was forgiven for my abortion, but I still lived in fear and shame and continued to keep it hidden. Over the next several years, God continued to pursue me and eventually led me to an after-abortion recovery ministry. I thought being forgiven was all I needed, but God saw the deep wounds that needed to be healed. Through recovery, I was able to work through the resentment and bitterness I held toward my husband and offer him forgiveness for his passive role in our abortion. I was able to accept God’s forgiveness and let go of the anger I held toward myself. I was finally able to acknowledge and grieve the loss of my child. Through healing, I no longer hide my story of grace but use it to praise and glorify God.” Debbie’s Full Story
Ronnie Johnson
“I thought my way was better than God’s and that if He wasn’t going to take care of me when it came to love, I would take care of myself. I was at the darkest, lowest point of my life when I started attending re:generation and living authentically with others. It was in re:generation that I came to understand the full depth of Christ’s love and grace for me, for the first time in my life.
If you’re reading this and you think you’re too far gone, let me tell you, you’re wrong. It’s true for you too. Jesus is better than everything you think you want and you can trust Him.” Ronnie’s Full Story
Sue Bohlin
“Thank You, Lord, for polio. For my limp. For daily exercises and years of physical therapy. For surgeries. For people staring at me. For never being able to wear high heels. For the possibility that no man may see me as beautiful and want to marry me. That I might never be a mother.
As I continually gave thanks for these things that I hated but could not change, something interesting happened. Every ‘Thank You, Lord’ meant ‘I trust You, Lord.’ I discovered that with each ‘Thank You,’ another chunk of anger in my heart was being released. One day I realized I wasn’t angry anymore! The anger was gone, and God had replaced it with Himself—He filled that reservoir with joy.” Sue’s Full Story
Wes Ffolkes
“I no longer have a formulated mental image of myself based on feelings of acceptance from my parents or other people. I’m no longer defined by the expectations of this broken world where often we fight racism and hate with yet more racism and hate.
The truest thing about me is what the Bible says about me, and the body of Christ reinforces those truths that I have learned from God’s Word. For those who are like me, I hope you can consider these things for yourself, and I personally invite you to come and see.” Wes’ Full Story
Shelbi Kovacich
“Busyness, for me, had become a way to reclaim my worth and make myself feel productive. Slowly, I had to work through lessening the number of things I was willing to put on our plate and sort through this with my husband as well.
No matter what season we are in, we must intentionally prioritize our walk with the Lord and the relationships He has entrusted us with. I’m so encouraged when God uses each of us to love people in our communities. It’s such a true embodiment of the name CityBridge!” Shelbi’s Full Story
2022: Laying a Foundation
CityBridge Institute
The CityBridge Institute is making a huge impact in the life of our church. Our participants are falling more in love with Jesus while being prepared for a lifetime of serving Him in ministry. They are being trained in biblical truth while getting hands-on experience alongside our various ministries, including Kids, Students, College and Young Adults, Equipping, Community, and Recovery. Learn More
CityBridge Worship
CityBridge Worship is a collective of worship leaders, songwriters, and artists from CityBridge who gather to write and record music that is rich in biblical truth for the edification and discipleship of our church. This year we unveiled our name, “CityBridge Worship,” and released three original songs, “Help Me to See You,” “Christ Alone,” and our Christmas anthem “Grace Appearing.” We are hard at work in preparing new releases throughout 2023, as well as developing artists and writers who will create beautiful works for the glory of God. We pray God would bless and grow our church through developing and distributing these artistic gifts. Our joy would be that these songs and anthems of God’s truth would be the soundtrack of our lives as we effort to live each day in communion with God. Learn More
College & Young Adults
God is clearly moving in our College and Young Adult ministry. In the past year, our young adults have jumped into community, getting plugged into CityBridge as members and not just consumers. Our young adults are deployed in almost every area of service within CityBridge, including Recovery, Student Ministry, Kids Ministry, Worship Arts, and many more. During our monthly gatherings, we have prioritized the high call of evangelism and discipleship. We are equipping our people to share the gospel with anyone they encounter, from friends to co- workers to strangers. We have begun to make inroads at Collin College and continue to seek opportunities to challenge, encourage, and disciple college students in the Collin County area. Learn More
Skylark
This summer, Skylark served 246 campers from 166 families across Collin and Dallas counties. Each week, our campers heard the good news of Christ and learned how to grow in their relationship with Him. In addition to all the fun our campers had with our counselors, we also loved seeing how our counselors’ authenticity led to our young campers opening up about their own struggles and insecurities. Through it all, our counselors kept pushing the campers to the Bible to find the truth they could build their lives upon. One camper, in particular, gave his life to Christ months after the camp ended as he kept learning about the gospel in his personal time with God’s Word. Throughout the whole summer, God was transforming our campers, our counselors, and our staff leadership. Learn More
CityBridge Parenting Conference
From disciplining preschoolers, to addressing topics like gender, technology, and all challenges in between, parenting is hard work. In February, we hosted our very first Parenting Conference! Parents cleare away their weekend scheduled and came to the conference to focus on raising the next generation of fully devoted followers of Christ. The weekend was filled with sessions discusing how parents can shepherd their kids through different stages of life and gain tools to address various topics their children will encounter as they grow. All of the content from that weekend can be found on the CityBridge App! Parenting Conference Resources
CityBridge Health
Fast facts for 2022:
• 2759 patients served
• 87% of patients are not insured
• 45 active volunteers
• 92 countries served
• 8,000 patient visits in 2022
2023 and Beyond
Phase 3A
We are committed to stewarding CityBridge resources in ways that help us advance the gospel and call people in our surrounding communities to full devotion to Christ. As the Elders have prayed and processed with each other and gifted experts, we believe it is time to initiate the next round of improvements to the facility God has entrusted to us. Phase 3A of our campus includes moving the main entrance and primary parking lot to the north 4.4 acres of our property and developing an outdoor turf field.
Why are we taking on this project? In two words: to invite and connect. The leadership at CityBridge believes that moving our parking lot will improve the appearance, safety, maintenance, and overall control of our parking for years to come. In addition, we believe this will allow us to utilize the porch area better, improving our “first touch” with guests and those seeking to build deeper relationships. The outdoor turf field will allow for outdoor space for our ever-growing kid’s ministry, and it will give us opportunities to impact our community via a space that allows for year-round sports and events.