Deep and Wide
extending our roots to broaden our reach
Pastor Roger Patterson

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.

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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

VBS 1972Our 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

pastors

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

For the past 10 years, our high school seniors have been traveling to Riobamba, Ecuador to live generously during their final spring break of high school.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

students ministriesKids 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

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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.

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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.

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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.