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Members of CityView Church don’t have to look far—only a mile and a half down the road, actually—to see the work that God is doing through one of the congregations they sent out.
For CityView, it’s not about competition. It’s about kingdom collaboration and multiplication.
“They have a very distinct group of people in the context that they’re reaching. We have a very distinct group of people that we reach, so we really do not have almost any crossover between the two churches,” CityView Teaching Pastor Jason Crandall said.
CityView itself launched in 2014 with a goal of planting 100 churches throughout Houston in 25 years because they saw the potential for the city’s growth. “The big thought was, ‘Let’s plant churches that love their neighborhoods well,’” Crandall said.
Crandall, who also serves as director of Send Network SBTC—the church-planting ministry partnership between the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention and the North American Mission Board—enjoys getting to know people and the issues they’re facing.
“That’s really what church planting tends to do: You’re making disciples on a grittier level because you love that city and you love those people in that area,” he said.
When Nate Law was ready to be sent by CityView to plant a church, he and his very athletic family felt called to the west side of Pearland, where a sports program drew people like them.
“It was absolutely incredible to be part of a church so boldly passionate about church planting,” Law, now pastor of Renovation City Church in Pearland, said of CityView. “I had the privilege of being trained to plant a church in real time, surrounded by a team of believers willing to step out in faith with us.
“CityView didn’t just talk about supporting us—they sent some of their very own people to join us on this adventure, poured out financial gifts, and, most importantly, fueled everything with powerful, unwavering prayer,” Law said.
Knowing they have a church family and a pastor like Crandall “cheering us on and always just a phone call away has been nothing short of inspiring,” he added.
Just over two years ago, God provided a building for Renovation City very close to CityView when another church in the local association wanted to merge. Renovation City has performed 24 baptisms, and Law describes each as “a story of transformation and hope.”
The plant and the sending church have partnered on several projects “because we know and trust each other,” Crandall said. “It has actually been great to have a partner very close by that has a similar heart.”
“We’re a partner for the community. We tell our churches to own their mile—the mile radius around their church. You can’t be known by everybody everywhere, but the people within a mile should know who you are and that you’re in the community for their good.”
‘Own their mile’
CityView averages about 140 on Sundays and has been part of starting 14 other churches. Not all of the plants have survived, Crandall noted, because in a couple of cases they “fulfilled what the Lord had for them” and then “went away based on a myriad of factors.”
“We’re a partner for the community. We tell our churches to own their mile—the mile radius around their church,” Crandall said. “You can’t be known by everybody everywhere, but the people within a mile should know who you are and that you’re in the community for their good.”
In addition to Renovation City, CityView has helped plant Image Church in Cypress, West Oaks Church in West Columbia, and Mosaic Church in southwest Houston, among others.
Several of CityView’s plants have co-vocational pastors, which Crandall described as situations where most of the pastor’s salary comes from a marketplace job—such as a barbershop in one case or software sales in another—with a stipend coming from the church.
A main way CityView gets plants off the ground is to connect them with other churches that can help support them. The church also provides training such as a sending lab and a residency builder, both in partnership with Send Network SBTC.
“Not everybody can be involved in church planting the same way, but everybody can be involved in church planting,” Crandall said. “It’s not a one-size-fits-all thing. You figure out what your context is.”
A first step for a church to get involved with sending could be to find a church planter and begin to pray for and build a relationship with that planter, he said. “As you do that, you’ll find ways you can serve, and you’ll start to catch a vision for what you could do as well.”
Crandall said he has a passion for helping churches recognize that they, too, can be sending churches.
“My heart’s desire is [for pastors] to see that churches can be engaged in church multiplication,” he said, “that it is doable no matter what size you are.
“You might be a sending church, you might be a supporting church, but you can be engaged in the work.”
