West University Baptist Church turned ninety years old in 2018! At that time we began to ask the question: What will we look like at one hundred? Roger had been recently impacted by a pastor’s round table and some of the things he learned there. Tom Rainer, the CEO of Lifeway, pointed out that in the last one hundred years, humanity has experienced more change than in all the rest of known history. That is astonishing, but the more astonishing thing was that experts predict even more change in the next ten years than in the last one hundred! As hard as that is to get our minds around, we did grasp that if that were true, we would need to ask what that would mean for our church.
How will we make disciples in an age characterized by rapid change? How do we build up God’s Church and advance the gospel and the Kingdom of God? We began to wrestle with those questions. The Executive Council gathered, and we decided to form some vision teams to address what would be some of the hindrances to what was next at our campuses and come up with a master plan. How could we expand our ministries? Would we add campuses, expand the ones we have or start a network of churches and ministries? What would it mean for our schedule? What would it mean for doing discipleship in the digital age? We saw a tremendous opportunity for the growth of group life both on and off campus, but we needed God’s plan to capitalize on these possibilities.
We formed six teams and began to meet for prayer and dreaming. We realized that we could sit back and start celebrating all the great things God has done among us and say, “Let’s just keep doing what we’ve always done. Let’s not change.” Or, we could seek to aggressively advance the vision God has given us for the future.
We believe these next moves to build up our groups on and off campus, to build up our infrastructure, to build a digital ministry infrastructure as well as a network that will have a city-reaching impact, are vital to fulfilling the Great Commandment to love our neighbor as we love ourselves and the Great Commission to make disciples of all nations in our own day and time. We believe that the church will get behind this, but we also believe it will fail unless God moves. So let’s keep going. Our prayer this season is in Ephesians 3:20-21.
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
We are stepping into one of the most exciting seasons in the life of our church in more than 15 years. We are so thankful to be joined by Pastor Roger’s friend, mentor, and coach, Pastor Dan Hall, in the writing and filming of the Deep & Wide curriculum. Dan has pastored in churches for over 30 years. He has coached executives in the marketplace, in state government, and in the nonprofit world for many years as well. Roger and Dan share a deep bond, and we are thankful that he has agreed to join us on this project.
As you may know, Dan was instrumental in discipling Pastor Roger around the topic of generosity. He lives a generous life and his winsome spirit, teaching gift, and abiding faith will bless you as you watch the video sessions and engage with our roundtable. As you will find, Dan also will draw from a deep well of both Scripture and life application to enhance our study.
As we take our next steps together, we are trusting our Lord to extend our roots that we might widen our reach. These next two years will be some of the most transformative we have ever been through, as we invest in both our campus infrastructure and our ability to reach and disciple people in the digital space. We also have big plans to reach out to our city and further develop our network to do these very things. Thank you for prayerfully considering how you might personally go deeper in order to also go wider for the glory of God.
I’m Still Expectant,
Pastor Roger Patterson
Vision
In order to deepen our roots so we can widen our reach and lift our city, our goal is 100% engagement. God’s primary concern and our primary concern is discipleship. God cares vastly more about our hearts than He does our money, so it is a blessing to have the opportunity to be stretched by God in the area of stewardship and generosity. We are excited to learn how to trust Him more, love Him more, and obey Him more during the course of this campaign, and we’re convinced that if we will go on this journey with God to grow more like His Son Jesus, who gave everything for us, we will get to see God do something powerful and amazing through us. When God’s people trust Him with everything, He uses us to lift our city and spread the gospel for generations to come.
History
Our church has been around for nearly 100 years, and we expect to be found still faithful when Jesus returns, whether it’s tomorrow, another 100 years, or beyond. Here is a brief timeline of some of the highlights of our rich history, beginning with the first Bible study that would become a faithful worshiping church.
FAQ
What if I’m new? How do I know what to give? How long is my commitment? You may have these questions and lots more. We’ve tried to anticipate all the questions that may pop up in your mind, and we’ve listed them here in our FAQs. If you still have questions after reading through them, there is even a link for you to ask us directly.
Campus Updates
Each weekend we have eight services, five in English, one in Chinese, and two in Spanish across our three campuses. If you attend one worship service per weekend you have exposure to one eighth of the people of the church! Our children, youth, and adults are blessed with a church staff that works to serve Christ and serve others. The gospel is being proclaimed in many ways, and Jesus Christ is being exalted on all the CityRise campuses.
Featured Ministries
At CityRise we have a vast array of partners who work together to widen our reach and lift our city, and to also go into the world to proclaim the name of Jesus. There are thousands of amazing ministries in the Houston metro area and all over the globe, but we feature several that we have developed key relationships with. Learn more about our fantastic ministry partners and see how you might serve in some capacity throughout our network.
Next Generation
Kids and youth ministry is a passion for us, and God has blessed us with an abundance of called and gifted leaders for these programs. We know that God takes our kids and their faith seriously, and we seek to partner with parents to help them disciple the next generation.
Deep & Wide
Curriculum
To deepen our roots and widen our reach will take a move of God. Throughout our 90 plus year history, God has done amazing things through the faithfulness of God’s people on the CityRise campuses. But what we are embarking on now is the most ambitious campaign we’ve ever undertaken. If God doesn’t move powerfully, we have every reason to believe that it will fail. But what seems like a huge, ambitious project to us, is nothing to our God.
We’ve put together this campaign and curriculum to share our hearts, teaching, stories, and inspiration so that we can get on the same page with a God who never fails. You’ll find sermon notes, vision, plans and stories here to help you grow in faith, maturity, and excitement for what God is going to do.
Deep & Wide
Vision Brochure
David and Denise
When David and Denise Glenn first got married, they thought they couldn’t afford to tithe. But God gave them the grace to start, and soon they understood they couldn’t afford not to tithe. Since then, they’ve been blessed to start an international ministry and have been able to increase their giving year after year. See their story and how God continues to bless them, use them, and how they’ve been able to help other people in the church to grow in generosity.
Bobby
83-year-old Bobby was a member and treasurer of CityRise long before it was called CityRise. This faithful man has seen it all, and one thing he’s seen over and over again is God’s faithfulness to CityRise and His will to bless the church in its calling to lift the city and “do bigger and bigger things” for God.
Worship
Gathering to worship is one of the key ways we function as a local expression of the worldwide body of Christ. We are never more who we were meant to be than when we are worshiping and glorifying God together by singing songs to him and about him. This small group and personal worship experience video was prayerfully and worshipfully created by our CityRise worship teams as a way for you and your small group to glorify God in song and prayer.