Letter from the Elders
CityBridge Family,
As elders, we can’t think of a better way to round the corner into 2025 than by celebrating how God has been transforming people in our midst (2 Peter 1:13), which the following pages certainly highlight. This past year we have witnessed you – the church – faithfully fulfilling our calling to be the church in our homes, our building, and our surrounding cities, making it evident that “God’s at work here”. We also want to evaluate how we’re doing in our core mission to glorify God by calling all people to be fully devoted to Christ. It is our desire that each of you be even more passionately connected to our mission as you excel still more in areas of faithfulness (1 Thessalonians 4:10), including serving, giving generously, living authentically in community, and boldly sharing your faith with the lost.
2024 has been a year marked by many changes, which has helped us continue to refine our focus on who we are as a church and follow God’s leading towards three strategic areas of focus for this next season of ministry: Connecting People & Strengthening Community, Family Discipleship, and City Engagement. We believe this refined focus will help us be more effective in making disciples with the resources God has currently given us to steward. As we look forward to the year ahead, there is much to anticipate. Here are just a few areas to note:
• Our search for a new Lead Pastor is currently underway. We trust God and his timing to bring us the next man to lead in this important role. Know that Christ will remain the Head and focus of CityBridge, shared leadership will remain a high value and formal function, and many advisors will help us in the search process (Proverbs 15:22).
• We anticipate seeing Kyle flourish in his new role on staff leading City Engagement. He will help our body grow in evangelism and outreach, while connecting members with current and new opportunities to live out the meaning of our CityBridge name, serving as a bridge that carries the gospel to surrounding cities (Matthew 5:14-16).
• We invite you to pray with us as we ask God to bring an ever-increasing number of lost and unchurched people through our doors to hear the gospel and find new life in Christ. We are also praying that every single person he brings through our doors is known personally by a CityBridge member (Romans 12:9-13). Please consider joining our monthly elder prayer nights where we seek the Lord together for these things.
• The beginning of the year is a great time to double-down on learning your Bible. It starts with your own disciplined daily study and taking advantage of our equipping ministries and other resources. We believe the Bible should be more central to your daily life than your favorite podcasts, social media, or entertainment, for the purpose walking deeply with Christ and being made more like Him (Romans 12:2). Just imagine the growth in maturity of our church if we each prioritize the Bible in this way!
Let Paul’s encouragement to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:5 challenge all of us as we head into 2025: “As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.” What a privilege it is to do this together with you.