Jesus is at work not just here in our city, or our country, but globally. We as a Citylight family have multiplied locally and have the opportunity to multiply for the NATIONS. Each Citylight Church is seeking and equipping themselves for these opportunities and we share just a few stories how we see this happening but also invite you to join in this movement to take the Good News to ALL THE NATIONS.
Stories from the churches in Lincoln, Nebraska
Three years ago the church launched an English class. We had two goals for the class. One was for refugee women who wanted to learn English to come and be taught and two, to build relationships with each of them. Over 60 immigrant women attended these English classes throughout it’s term and over 40 women from the church volunteered at different points. One thing we are celebrating from this opportunity is how that class is still impacting people now even though the class hasn’t met in a few years. There is a group of women from the class who still get together semi-regularly and are now close friends. Ladies are still reaching out via text with church leadership sharing that their experience serving in the class gave them confidence to reach out to a new refugee neighbor or someone they just met at the park, etc. To see the long term impact on the women and on the church has been encouraging and continues to shape and grow our learning to love our neighbor well.
A couple from Citylight North Lincoln, Veronica and Craig, were blessed to visit their church’s CMA missionary partners in West Africa earlier in 2022. There is a family from this church who are actually on the team in West Africa but who are currently back home in the States for a short season. Veronica and Craig got to know and care for them over the last year and it was so fun to get to know the rest of the team while they were in Africa. Their pray request is that the trip deepens the church’s relationship with this team and their work there in West Africa.
Before North Lincoln had their own church building, the church was renting office space in a little strip mall. One of the neighbors happened to be a Kurdish community center and the staff and team got to know the owners pretty well. Throughout their time at the strip mall they were able to build some friendships through the connection and have been able to serve the center financially as well by providing material goods for a new refugee family. Families in the North Lincoln church have even brought meals for their new Krudish friends and have hosted a couple Kurdish culture nights! It’s been awesome to engage with the refugee community thee in Lincoln and they are praying that Gospel fruit would come from it.
God is also raising up Long-Term Goers. One way is through a young man, David. David is currently working as an engineer at a train manufacturing company. God has given him a passion to see a movement of the Gospel take place in Japan. The Japanese people are the second largest unreached people group in the world. He’s currently going through Citylight Lincoln’s nine month Goer Training Program. It’s been a total joy for David not to feel this call as an individual but rather as a member of the LOCAL church who is sending him to make disciples and plant churches in Japan. Citylight Lincoln’s vision is to see God raise 150 people like David in the next 10 years to multiply disciples and churches among the unreached.
God has placed a burden on the Lincoln church to take sending seriously. For instance, there is a City Group that has committed to praying for an unreached people group every week and for the people the church has sent so far. The Lincoln church is also investing in the nations. During a recent missions event last year, the church body raised $21,000 to send to indigenous church planters in Central Asia!
Lastly, God is sparking a heart for multiplication in the Lincoln church. Three times a year they train people in Disciple Making Intensives (DMI). DMI’s are 10-week long disciple making teams that practice rhythms of multiplication through time in the word, prayer, and making disciples together! Through these they have seen a college student who had been following Jesus for two months start studying the Bible with a Chinese and an Indian international student in hopes of seeing them know Jesus. They’ve also seen a nurse who has been following Jesus for 20 years begin to have Gospel conversations with her neighbors for the first time! This heart for multiplying disciples in Lincoln has translated into people growing in their passion to see disciples multiplied among the unreached as well. Church leaders have also had conversations with two students who have changed their majors to provide them with a platform to serve the nations when they graduate. The church is currently working to build the mobilization team too. The goal for the year is to have four full-time staff people whose main job is to help people Discover God’s heart for the nations, Develop the character and competency needed for long-term disciple making and church planting, and Deploy strategically with healthy teams and organizations. They do this through both the DMIs and the Goer Group.