CityView Church | Fort Worth, TX

• Rick White
• Apr 7, 2010
• Series: Church Profiles
• Categories: Church Planting Articles

Briefly describe your story of your call to plant a church

I was never the guy that always wanted to plant a church. However, through a series of events in 2004, God began prying my heart away from the church I was serving while also engaging my heart with a call to plant a church.

It all began when I was at a bookstore and I accidently picked up a church planting book that I hadn't intended on buying. Instead of taking the book back to the store, I read it...and read it...and got pretty excited about the idea of starting a church. I promptly put the book away in the back of a filing cabinet so as not to be tempted by such a silly idea again.

All of a sudden, I started getting calls from other churches, wanting me to interview for youth pastor positions that were pretty significant. I pretty much bombed each interview when I started asking the lead pastor the fatal question "How often do I get to preach in the adult service?” Most of the pastors weren't as interested in a youth pastor that was so interested in getting preaching reps. Go figure.

During this time, I told my senior pastor about the inquiries I had been receiving and that I had been doing a few interviews...but that he should not fear...it was doubtful I would leave. Two weeks later, he came into my office and told me that he thought it would be a good idea if I would take a position if it were offered to me and that if I didn't do so, let's start making plans for me to be gone within 3 months. Ok...

I took this as a clue from God that I was being disobedient in some way and I thought I should begin by finding that church planting book from the back of my file cabinet. After finishing the rest of the book, I became convinced that God was calling me to plant a church. It wasn't a typical calling "event"...but I was clearer than ever that my point of disobedience was ignoring the Spirit's leading in starting a church.

The idea of planting a church was so new and strange to me that I had to call up a college acquaintance, Darrin Patrick (who had planted a church) to ask him how one goes about starting a church. He directed me to the network he was involved in (Acts 29) and said it was probably what I was looking for.

I attended a boot camp, got assessed and through a random set of God-events, actually met up with Matt Chandler at the boot camp. I had been "secretly" attending his church while we were prepping to plant our church. He recognized me, wanted to meet with me when we got back to DFW and after a few meetings, he asked me if The Village could plant us. This seemed like a good idea to me. From there, it took us about a year before the church was actually launched.

What were the biggest challenges you faced in planting your church (and/or currently facing)?

My biggest challenge was that God pulled a fast-one on me and called me to a different city in DFW in the 11th hour. It was a total beat down, but it was the right move.

Additionally, we learned pretty early into the church plant, that reaching lost people was difficult without a church building. While it might not matter as much in other regions of the country, even lost people care whether you have a building in Dallas/Fort Worth.

Finally, we had a crisis in our 11th month regarding a friend I planted with. Some details of some past sin came out and it totally rocked my world and pretty much stunted our church's growth and life for about 9 months. It was a difficult time, but it was character-building and I have been able to minister to other men in similar situations.

We are currently struggling with the idea of how to leverage our church property practically (we finally bought an 11k church building w/ 10 acres) for making much of Jesus, proclaiming his Gospel and living His mission.

On a personal and communal level, we are really struggling with two things right now. First, there is a lot of suffering and pain and difficulty in our world right now. We are both learning how to respond and minister well to our people and our community.

Second, we are really struggling with how to leverage what we've been given to steward by God for the larger work of Jesus' plans in our city and the world. To be honest, we have rested TOO comfortably in the shadow of The Village Church and we have had to repent and face the fact that we have not been playing our part. In short, we're in a period of "raising our game" so as to allow God to use us in the ways he sees fit.

What advice do you have for men who are wrestling with the decision to plant?

Don't assume you're called. Don't assume you're not called. Embrace the process of wrestling that comes with the call to plant. Go to a local Acts 29 church and start serving that church while you wrestle with your call.

Don't just keep your current church job (if you have one) because you need the paycheck. Resign, find another job and go attend another Acts 29 church and allow yourself to be known by their leadership. They are FOR you...and they will be a tremendous resource for you moving forward.

Seriously consider working another job (especially full-time) for the first year of your plant. Even if you raise a ton of cash, save your church the financial burden and save or use that money for more long-term growth and ministry initiatives.

Men tend toward laziness or over-work. You'll probably struggle with both. A full-time job will help you resist the naturally built-in temptations associated with having no supervision for most of the time.

How did you become involved with Acts 29? What have been the biggest benefits of being in the network?

I knew Darrin Patrick from college. He lived two doors down from me in our college dorm. I called him when I thought I was supposed to plant a church and asked him how on earth to do this. He directed me to an Acts 29 boot camp and the rest was history.

How do you pastor your family? 

For the most part, I try to know both my wife and children and pry into what they need most from me. They're each different and I spend a decent amount of time simply studying and knowing their hearts well. This has served me better than cookie-cutter approaches. I don't always know the best response, but I'm almost always in touch with their hearts.

Outside of the Bible, what is the most helpful book you have read for church planting?

Planting Missional Churches by Stetzer

How can we pray for you?

1. That we steward what God has given us well
2. That we continually stay humble and patient before the Lord.
3. That we are given great favor in our community so as to bring light to darkness.

Church Profile: CityView Church
Launch Date: April, 2006
Location: Fort Worth, TX 

Mission, Vision, Values of Church

Mission: Make Disciples that will Be a Family, Know the Gospel, Live the Gospel, Live in God's Presence, Trust that God is in Control and Take the Gospel to the world (our paraphrase of the Great Commission)

Vision: 1.) Be family to the de-churched, displaced and disconnected, 2.) challenge men to a better manhood, 3.) love & serve kids and empower their parents, 4.) multiply leaders and start new churches and; 5.) to serve our area cities and impact the world.

Values: We want our church culture to exude the following--LOVE, TRUTH, IDENTITY, WORSHIP, FAMILY and MISSION.

What is your biblical perspective on authentic community, and evangelism? How is this practically seen in your church?

Authentic community is best represented by the unifying, character-driving force of Love as described in 1 Corinthians 13. First Corinthians 13 teaches us that Love is most displayed in a people that are 1.) Long Suffering with one another; 2.) Selflessly, self-sacrificially kind with one another and; 3.) Advocates for Truth with one another.

Regarding Evangelism, beyond the typical methods and practical helps, I truly believe that most opportunities for sharing the Gospel are "created" in the moments we don't plan for. Suffering and pain gives God's people an opportunity to show the Gospel's hope and power in ways that many methods do not.

Making an ethical decision in one's job when the unethical route is more expedient speaks to the Gospel's generosity and character-changing power. Additionally, our story is simply a re-telling of the Gospel's story in the world...so our story should be on the tip of our tongue for those that want to know the reason for the hope that we have.

What are some examples of God's grace that you have seen in your life and/or the life of your church?

Personally, my wife is an amazing grace that I never deserved. She seems so completely out of my league and is the most incredible help-mate I could ask for. Also, I've been given the greatest band of brothers a lead pastor could ask for in my fellow Elders. They are an inspiration and challenge to me always. Finally, my kids continually remind me that God is not finished with me as a man. I'm continually shown "holes" in my pastoring as they grow up. There is no doubt that God uses them for my continued sanctification and growth. This is a grace--one I do not deserve.

God has been tremendously good to our church as well. We pretty much deserved to crash as a church from day one due to my complete ineptitude for the finer details of planting a church. For whatever reason, we have been given tremendous favor by God in our associations with The Village, Acts 29 and Northwood Church. Further, we have been blessed in having so many good, future leaders sent our way--many future Elders and Church planters. Finally, we have been blessed in some of the most practical ways--growth, financially and w/ a building and land.