Here is an update on what our family is doing in ministry right now. I included a lot of details just to help you get a picture of where we are what what our new church is about.
Over the years I’ve been working with different church plants, helping to start, grow, and multiply them through various servant and leadership roles in New Orleans, Omaha, and Des Moines, where my family and I now live. We’ve been with a new church plant, CityPoint Church in Urbandale, a Des Moines suburb, since early 2019, serving in various roles.
We heard about CityPoint through our state convention and SEND Network leaders here, and found out they had been growing fast with new converts and connecting to families that previously weren’t attending church anywhere. With quick growth from unchurched families they were in need of more experienced leadership and extra hands since they were a mobile church plant setting up each week. So after getting to know them we jumped in to help. My wife Keeva is leading the worship music, which I also help plan and play. I’ve been serving in preaching and teaching, and leading small groups here, joining the pastoral team, as well as doing pulpit supply regularly for other churches.
The struggle that most church plants have is funding and building space, and CityPoint is no different. God has blessed us with a unique relationship with a church in our area who shares their building with us and another congregation, so we have a good place to meet and host our ministries at the moment. Being just over 3 years since it was planted, CityPoint has been limited in paid staff members, our lead pastor and a part time administrative assistant. As our church continues to grow and more opportunities open up as pandemic restrictions lift, we think this will be a great season to buckle down and be proactive as church leaders.
One key way to get this done is to have the freedom and flexibility that more staff can bring when we can more effectively share the ministry load week to week. It’s our prayer that my wife and I and our family would be able to step into that role for this new season, and for both of us to be able to invest more time with CityPoint’s ministries as paid staff, as well as be able to hire more staff, such as a youth director for our growing childrens and youth ministries.
As God continues to bless and grow our ministries, we will eventually outgrow our space we currently rent and share with two other churches. A key part of our church’s vision and DNA is to have a building we can use for a community center throughout the week to serve our neighborhood and city. We pray that God will provide the funding and open the door to a location we could rent or buy to grow into and to accomplish that vision.
Here is a little more history and backstory about our church. CityPoint Church was planted over two years ago and is a church “for the city” of Urbandale, which has a small town feel in spite of having a population of 48,000. CityPoint’s Pastor, Nick Reed, says, “As a city, Urbandale is ‘over-churched’ and ‘under-gospeled.’ We have churches but only 30% of families are connected to any church.”
Nick Reed is the lead pastor and planter of CityPoint Church, but before planting CityPoint Church, Nick worked for 12 years at a different church in the city in various roles from youth pastor to worship pastor and eventually lead pastor of the same congregation before being sent out to plant a new church.
CityPoint is a church with a heart for service and sharing God’s story. Serving others is at the core of our church, building relationships with those around us – those who share our “Streets”, those places we frequent on a daily basis. We strive to share the love of God in an open, welcoming way, inviting those who don’t know Him to learn more about His promise and their role in His Story.
While the church is rooted in the Urbandale community, our Mission is to multiply. We want to be a sending church and hope to grow God’s kingdom throughout the greater Des Moines area.
Our Mission at CityPoint is “Serving like Jesus, helping people discover their role in God’s story.” This is done through: Living our everyday life for Jesus; Generously giving our time and resources; Leading ourselves, our families, and others; Serving others selflessly; and Sharing Jesus with those around us. Our church strives to accomplish this by Sharing Jesus, life, and new habits; Connecting people to God, family, and purpose; Serving by releasing people to serve others; Leading others toward God in the same process of sharing, connecting, and serving.
One of the most successful ministries that has developed at CityPoint is Bible Club, an after school program geared toward unchurched parents and kids from local schools. Pre-Covid we had three separate Bible Clubs hosted by church members in homes situated near elementary schools. Between the three groups, last year we served over 200 kids.
The Bible Club pattern is simple. Free play for 15 minutes, have a quick snack, then ring the bell to gather the kids for Bible story time. Pastor Nick’s wife Heather is a master Bible storyteller who uses a three-year rotation that walks through the Old Testament, the New Testament and the book of Acts. They sing worship songs and close with “Stumper Questions” when kids try to “stump” leaders with questions about the Bible story. This year, many of those leaders are middle school students from the CityPoint youth group.
Pastor Nick thinks one of the keys to success for Bible Club is the proximity of the host homes. Nick and Heather’s house is only a couple blocks from the school and they can quickly walk kids over right after school. In fact, the school has often let Bible Club kids out of school five minutes early. Their school is the smallest in the district and word got around. Parents began calling the school to ask, “I want my kids to be in Bible Club. Where do I sign up?”
We have seen a lot of gospel fruit in kids’ lives through Bible Club. Pastor Nick thinks that most of the kids would say they believe the gospel. The majority of the kids are from unchurched homes so it’s difficult to evaluate the depth of their faith. But he’s fairly confident many of them are genuinely saved, although they know some are not. Last year in early March, CityPoint baptized 11 people, the majority of which were from Bible Club. That Sunday, immediately before Covid hit, was our largest crowd at CityPoint Sunday services and our largest Bible Club attendance.
Currently, CityPoint is rebuilding the Bible Clubs after Covid shut everything down last year. Two of the three original groups have reopened and about 60 kids have returned. They are eager to begin seeing the gospel fruit they saw before. But there’s a problem: The school near the Reeds’ house is being torn down. This fall, all their Bible Club kids will be going to school at a different building that is a mile and half away from their house. There won’t be a school in their neighborhood.
After finding out that Bible Club was unlikely to be able to meet next year, Nick and Heather’s 10-year old daughter Margo immediately got to work. She told her parents, “We gotta figure out how to make this work so we can have Bible Club next year.” At school, Margo started writing out a plan to pray and work for a solution. Heather said, “Without us knowing, she devised a plan to keep Bible Club going her last year in elementary school. Apparently, her desire is to raise money for a bus so that we can transport the kids to our house just so Bible Club will live on. She told us about her plan and ever since she’s been doing extra chores for the plan.” On her list of “Things To Do” are 1) Pray every day, 2) Get creative, and 3) Convince family.
She started by praying for God to make a way and then started getting others involved. She asked what jobs she can do to make money so they can buy a bus. She told her friends. She told the Bible Club and they’ve been praying about it every week. Buying a bus was her idea, but that’s another area where financial support would help CityPoint, as well as our weekly Bible Clubs, by having our own church vans or bus with all the youth outreach we already do and plan to expand in the future.
Another ministry that my wife and I did alongside CityPoint and the shared church building we use was helping students with online school work. Covid-19 brought about a vast amount of obstacles in all our lives. Controversy and a lack of clear future plans for K-12 education put many families in severely strenuous situations this last year.
One group in particular being hit hardest were immigrant and refugee families. The language barrier alone proves difficult in any education scenario and their children are often behind in education because of it. Virtual learning is further troublesome when the parents' language skills are not yet capable of providing adequate instruction and aid in this process. Many of these parents are already having to work multiple jobs to provide for their families, so there is also a necessary supervision need. Our church is connected with a Congolese congregation through our shared church building. They had shared their need for education help earlier last fall, which made us aware of the larger need in their community and others.
Our hearts break for these families that are searching for hope and we see that this need is essential and we felt God leading us to start an Education Assistance and Homework Co-op. We met with several other organizations implementing similar strategies to gain insight and shifting the focus to accommodate our specific needs. We rallied volunteer tutors to support the students’ daily learning and to provide education assistance. We did all of this while following the school systems Covid-19 guidelines. As we worked to meet this education need we pray this will open opportunities to share the Gospel with this community as well.
As we continue to grow and do more ministry in our community, we need Gospel partnership for prayer, funding, and even extra hands if you ever feel led to join CityPoint for a mission trip or event. Things like the growing Bible Club and potential need for a bus, as well as being able to hire staff to focus on our growing children and youth ministries, and to have a building to facilitate our community center vision for our church home is why we are reaching out to share what God is doing in and through CityPoint, and to seek partnership.
For our family in particular, we believe God has us here with CityPoint at this point in the church’s life and our family’s journey, where we can jump in and grow with them to the next level. I’m planning on stepping into the role of Associate Pastor of Discipleship to help our Lead Pastor, Nick, to develop more sermon series and discipleship programs that are consistent between the adults, students and children, as well as other things we haven’t had time or resources to accomplish. My wife, Keeva, as well has been serving in leading worship every week and sometimes for the youth on Wed., but we want to do more with us working together to incorporate our discipleship direction into our weekly worship rhythms. We feel led for her as well to step into a more invested role as the Worship Leader, and if she can be paid staff to do that it will allow her to not need to take more hours at her other job and our family can more fully invest in CityPoint throughout the week.
I know there’s needs and churches everywhere that need help, but we’ve felt God leading our family to step into this for this season, and along with that God opens the door for even more people to hear stories of Gospel work being done here and be moved to invest through prayer, giving, and action.
You can reach me at (918)231-5761 or Matt@mattomealey.com with any questions.
Thank you in advance for your prayers, generosity, and support!
Blessings,
Matthew O’Mealey
——————————
Thank you in advance for your investment in Gospel ministry through our church by helping us grow our staff and work towards a building we can use as a community center. We appreciate your prayers, generosity, and support!
Send us an email or letter if you’d like to request specific use for any donations.
To send a one time or recurring gift:
Online at https://citypointu.churchcenter.com/giving and mark it as "Ministry Fund" under the drop down.
Or mail checks marked for “Ministry Fund” with any other specifications to:
CityPoint Church
3809 109th St.
Urbandale, IA 50322
Articles:
https://citypointu.com/about-us/
https://bciowa.org/fourteen-baptized-at-citypoint-church-urbandale/
https://bciowa.org/pray-for-citypoint-church-urbandale/
https://bciowa.org/citypoint-urbandale-10-year-leads-charge-to-rebuild-bible-club/
