Citizens Weekly

As people of Truth living in a world of lies we should expect offenses or offensive ideas to assail us regularly. How do we remain undefiled people of Peace in such situations? Jesus speaks about the corrosiveness of anger–how it eats an individual from the inside out, eventually degrading our families, neighbors, and communities. Spiritual maturity helps us use the tool of our emotions, including...

This week, Kathryn continues our sermon series on the Little Foxes with a teaching on Apathy in Worship. What is apathy? How does the Bible define worship? Who is called to worship and how are we supposed to do it? Kathryn calls Citizens up to be a church that worships corporately, earnestly, and expressively. Why? Because worship makes us behold the Lord and shifts our disordered desires, it comp...

Scripture instructs to rid of the little foxes that spoil this vine. How do we rid of the little fox that is the orphan heart. How does taking the identity of a servant, slave and orphan keep us from our true identity and intimacy with the Father? How do we allow the wounds of rejection to be healed?

On Resurrection Sunday we explore the implications of Jesus' resurrection for our lives today. What is the depth of God's invitation to us through Jesus Christ?

On Palm Sunday, we recognize our humble King Jesus, but do we have any idea how to really relate to a King? Jesus never has to earn his kingship. He is the King. Always has been and always will be. He longs to be our friend, brother, counselor, shepherd, but he will not be any of these things until He is our King.

American men are at a precarious crossroads, and many men–even in the Church–choose preoccupation with childishness over acceptance of God-defined “masculinity”. Men’s restoration will be found in gazing on Christ’s model as the ultimate man and in answering the Apostle Paul’s call, to all men, to serve the Church as Christ served the Church, surrendering His life fully to her.

This week, Nick explores week 4 of Lent with John 6 and the feeding of the 5,000. Jesus teaches about being the bread of life and seeking himself, the provider, over provision.

This week, Kathryn leads us through Ephesians 5:1-14 as we join the global Church in the season of Lent. What does the Word say, what are the implications, and what should we as believers do because of it?

This week, the leadership team announced the updated mission and vision of Citizens church. We also  discussed our church values, including our biblical stance on relevant and important topics. 

This week, Nick began our short series on the vision for Citizens Church in BCS. What does Jesus say about the church and the Kingdom and what does that mean for us today?

This Sunday, Kathryn continued our study of the Gospel of John in our season of prayer and fasting. We pause this week in John 14. Why did Jesus mention the Holy Spirit (at length) twice during the Last Supper before his death and resurrection? Because the Holy Spirit is an essential part of the life of a believer. Who is he? What does he do? And what does that mean for each of us today? Let’s fin...

God’s glory is the manifestation of His radiance and power. We cannot look directly upon God, so God makes Himself perceivable in His glory. As a church body currently in a season of fasting and reading the Gospel of John, God’s glory is a pertinent theme. How can we better recognize God’s glory? And, in doing so, how might we more fully receive His grace?

Our Citizens leadership team joins together for a panel discussion about the practice of fasting.

God offers one thing to those that choose a life and path saturated with humility: grace. Jesus went against the grain of His culture by choosing this path and so can we. 

As believers, we know that happiness is a reaction to something great, but Joy is the product of someone great. To know the Gospel creates the greatest possible joy in the human heart. Advent contains within itself the crucial balance of the now and not-yet that our faith requires: the disappointment, brokenness, suffering and pain that characterize life in this present world is held in dynamic te...

Jesus was the fulfillment of God’s plan for true peace, Shalom. Now, as sons and daughters, wholeness and true peace is ours for the taking. Let’s live our lives undivided and whole as we agree with God’s perfect plan of Shalom!

Biblical Hope finds rest in God’s promises. Therefore, we must know the promises of God found richly in His Word. We also can look to certain Biblical figures, such as the Virgin Mary, as models who cultivated Hope in habit and in prayer, doing so in ways that caught God’s attention and earned His treasured descriptor of “highly favored”.

The Name of the Lord literally cannot be lifted higher. His is already the Name above all names. Yet Jesus tells us to “hallow”, or honor, the Father’s name. The Psalmist also consistently blesses the name of the Lord. What happens when we do the same? What changes in us and in our environment when we bless the Lord? It’s worth finding out and practicing often.

What made Jesus’ prayer life set apart? Jews at that time would have already prayed three times per day yet the disciples still ask, “Will you teach us how to pray?” Together we explore the heart posture that grows our intimacy in prayer. 

What does it look like to really commune and fellowship with each other at a deeper level? Not a church potluck. More than light coffee visits or church lobby hellos. How do we become a community that is truly vulnerable, intimate and known in the family of God? 

New studies suggest Gen Z is now the loneliest generation, and experts say we're in the middle of a loneliness epidemic. But the good news is that, through the cross, we have been born into a family. Through His death, burial and resurrection, Christ not only made a way for us to be made right with God, but He made a way for the members of His household to be rightly related to one another. I...

Our stories of pursuing Christ Jesus often reveal His initial pursuit of us. In the ways we doubt this, let us rehearse our stories together and invite the Holy Spirit to reveal how His presence has been with us all along. In doing so, may we be all the more convinced that our stories, lived in response to Christ Jesus, speak Hope (1 Peter 3:15) and victory (Revelation 12:11) over ourselves and Hi...

This Sunday, Kathryn Gardner began the first part of our journey through our teachings on Acts 2:42 with a message focusing on the purpose for equipping. Ephesians 4:12-13 tell us that it is so “the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ”. But how do we b...

Acts shows an empowered church that is equipped, communing and praying; A return to Eden-like living as God’s children. What keeps us from walking like this? What keeps us from childlike faith? How do we position ourselves to naturally desire true intimacy with the Father and His people?