turning 10 - Citylight Church

Thursday, May 31, 2018

As Citylight readies to celebrate ten years as a church, I am writing a series of reflections. This is the seventh.

In 2012, we were a four-year old church, gathering for Sunday worship in the Dumas Center and scattering for discipleship in weekly City Groups. Though dark without natural light, the Dumas’ auditorium housed us well in cushioned, stadium-terraced chairs and a state-of-the-art audio-video system. However, we kept losing space for children’s ministry as our landlord, Total Action against Poverty, was moving more offices into the Dumas. Children have always been a large percentage of our church, and so a break point was on the horizon. This came in the summer when our rental agreement was not renewed. TAP was strategically moving in a different direction as it shuffled its downtown presence. And the Lord was sovereignly moving us in a new direction. We had a few short weeks to find a new home for Sunday worship.

Faith with works. Prayer with action. I again assumed the role as scout, frantically looking for a new venue for us. A nearby, renovated high school was not available for rental (though later a church would go in there). A nearby theatre did not return my call (though later churches would go in there). I had inquired of the nearby YMCA in 2009, but at that time they were not open for rental use by a church. Now four years later, with just a few weeks before being “homeless” as a church, I persisted in another inquiry to the Kirk Family YMCA. Our children’s ministry director at the time, Megan Gillenwater (now Megan Hise), had worked at the YMCA, and this helped open a meeting with the Kirk Family YMCA’s director, Nancy Brattain. We had a lovely conversation, and this quickly led to a 12-month, rental agreement. Once again, the Lord graciously provided us a new home for Sunday worship.

Sunday, September 2, 2012, was our first Sunday in the Kirk Family YMCA. The Y was hesitant for us to use the gym, and so that first Sunday we crammed in a dance studio (though the mirrored wall did double our attendance). Nevertheless, for the second week, the Y allowed us to begin using the gym. We no longer were sitting in the comfy, theater seats of the Dumas, but now setting up stackable chairs in a gym. This was a worthwhile trade-off, for now our children’s ministry had well-appointed spaces for nursery and kid classes.

We have now been at the Kirk Family YMCA for almost six years. At first we tirelessly hauled in equipment each week with a trailer (the generous gift of a Citylight family). In these past years we have had on-site storage in a closet off the gym. At first we had to enter through the Church Ave. entrance and then meander through the building and down the stairs or elevator to the gym. In these past years we have now been able to use the Luck Ave. entrance with direct, same-floor access. At first we only used half of the gym with the mechanized divider. In these past years, we have now used the entire gym. All this to say, the Kirk Family YMCA has been a kind landlord, working with us as our ministry needs have changed. We are grateful to God for this relationship for these many years.

We continued to scatter in City Groups for during-the-week discipleship in community. We initially began this with a geographic or neighborhood focus, but we eventually shifted these to relational connections and time of the week.

Now ten years old, there is a rhythm to our year—an autumn chili cook-off and pie bake-off, Reformation Day service with other churches, Advent season unto Christmas Eve service, Easter celebration, summer outdoor worship at a park, and other services and socials. We have served together at another church’s food pantry, the Rescue Mission, Family Promise, the West End Center, hurricane relief, and other directed projects. We have celebrated weddings, graduations, new jobs, new homes, adoptions, and births (many, many births). We have mourned miscarriages, the deaths of loved ones (including two in our congregation), and many natural and national tragedies. We have gathered around the waters of the Roanoke River and the YMCA pool for baptisms. We have welcomed new members—newcomers who recently moved to the Roanoke Valley and natives who have connected in various ways. We have also seen many leave Citylight—some who moved away to new cities, some who better connected in other churches, and still others who left in disagreement or disappointment. In 2013, we weaned off outside support and became financially self-sustaining with congregational giving. in 2014, we adopted a constitution and bylaws, and we are still learning what it means to be an elder-led, deacon-served, congregational church. Presently, there are just under 200 people who call Citylight home, and about 40% of these are children and youth.

There are so many stories to tell—stories of extraordinary workings, stories of ordinary witness. There are so many lessons to share—lessons from shared life, lessons from relational strife. There are so many prayers answered, and still others we continue to pray. Joys have been multiplied. Burdens have been divided. However, in the end, even unto celebration of ten years as a church, it is not about us. It is about God’s glory, the Lord’s faithfulness, our Savior’s kindness. “For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:5-6).

Citylight, this is our worship—knowing Jesus, the light of the world who has shone in our hearts. Jesus is coming again one day to make all things new, and He will be the glorious illumination of the eternal city of God.

Citylight, this is our mission—shining the light of the gospel here in Roanoke and beyond so that more children, women and men know, love and follow Jesus.

Citylight, this is our community—being together in the worship of God, being together on the mission of God. We have now shared a decade together in the redemptive history of God’s eternal purpose. And we look forward to the coming years in God’s sovereign grace and steadfast love, even as we long “for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).

Happy 10th birthday, Citylight! “The Lord has done great things for us; we are glad” (Psalm 126:3). To God be all the glory!

your brother in Christ, Derek Lam

P.S. Words cannot adequately express how loved the “Lam fam” has been by Citylight. I know many pastoral families serve in difficult dynamics, but there has been grace upon grace in how Citylight has prayed for us, encouraged us, given generously to us, and celebrated with us. I am so humbled and grateful to pastor this congregation, and we are so hopeful for the years ahead. We love you! — Derek, Stacy, Nathan, Roman, Makynna, Makalyn, Levi and Taylor