The Need
The Church in our community needs help. Church participation in our nation is down, volunteerism is down, and so are the spirits of many pastors and leaders. CitiServe is a new ministry in Cowlitz County that is being launched in January 2022, to strengthen the church by helping pastors and leaders develop deeper, more meaningful relationships with each other. No one church can accomplish everything God wants to do in a region. Congregations need to work together, minister together, and dream together. The foundation of that kind of unity is relationships between the leaders.
CitiServe is designed to serve pastors and leaders as they serve their community. The goal is to develop deeper, more resilient relationships that will open the door for leaders to live out John 17:21, where Jesus prays, “that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in Life Together, writes,
“The first service one owes to others in a community involves listening to them. Just as our love for God begins with listening to God’s Word, the beginning of love for others is learning to listen to them. God’s love for us is shown by the fact that God not only gives God’s Word but also lends us God’s ear…We do God’s work for our brothers and sisters when we learn to listen to them.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in Life Together, writes,
“The first service one owes to others in a community involves listening to them. Just as our love for God begins with listening to God’s Word, the beginning of love for others is learning to listen to them. God’s love for us is shown by the fact that God not only gives God’s Word but also lends us God’s ear…We do God’s work for our brothers and sisters when we learn to listen to them.”
CitiServe Staff
CitiServe Board Of Directors
Our Ministry’s Board of Directors
CitiServe: A Transferrable Ministry Model
In the future, CitiServe is committed to the development of a transferrable ministry model that could be used in other cities or counties. This ministry template and other resources would be made available for free to anyone who is interested in starting a similar ministry in their own city. We are also committed to setting aside a portion of our revenues to support breaking ground on these new CitiServe ministries.