Back to "About Citylights"

We dream of being a church that loves, seeks, and reaches the lost.  Members of our church will be evangelistically bold, yet extremely loving.  We will be a place where the unchurched will feel drawn to because of our uncommon love and compassion for them.  We will be a church that will reach out to the “radically unchurched.”  We hope to see 50% of our membership be made up of formerly unchurched people.  We expect to regularly hear testimonies of how people from lifestyles of drug addiction, prostitution, gangs, etc. were changed by God’s grace.

We dream of having far reaching impact into our city.   The city will see us as making a positive impact and a great ally.  We will be a church that mobilizes every member into action to impact our neighborhoods.  We will donate thousands of volunteer man hours to the city each year.  We will run an excellent community center that will offer relevant needs-meeting services to the community.  One day, the local newspapers will write articles about the impact that our church has made in the community.

We dream of being a multiethnic and economically diverse church.  We will be a place that accepts and welcomes all people regardless of background, social status, or race.  We believe that the local church should be a reflection of the Kingdom of God on earth.   We will strive towards unity as a testimony of Jesus’ power to break down the artificial barriers society has put up.

We dream of having a dynamic network of small groups.  We will meet in each other’s homes to encourage one another, learn together, support each other, and experience God together.  Members will love and serve each other within the context of authentic community.  These small groups will nurture, shepherd, and meet the needs of its members.  We believe that these groups will be life-changing for each participant. 

We dream of having creative, dynamic and uplifting weekly worship gatherings.  It will be a place where participants will experience God’s presence in a unique way.  It will be a tool of life transformation through the faithful, creative and relevant teaching of the Bible.  People who participate in our worship gatherings will walk away with a picture of God’s transcendence and His nearness.  It will be a place where people would feel comfortable inviting unchurched friends to.

We dream of having an excellent neighborhood coffeehouse.  Our coffeehouse will be an excellent place to gather the community and engage the culture.  It will be a place where gifted local musicians will desire to play and local artists will desire to display their work.  It will be considered a cool place to hangout in by Long Beach locals.

We dream of being a catalyst for leadership development.  We will open a Christian leadership development center that will identify, train, mentor and send out quality leaders to make an impact for the Kingdom of God.  Our priority will be to multiply leaders from within the church.  We will host an annual leadership conference that will address leadership issues.

We dream of being a part of a church planting movement.  We will open a church planting center that will assist in starting at least one church each year.  We will run a church planter’s training residency program in which we take good prospective church planters, train them and send them out.