This is a shortened version of my previous post that I’m sending out in letters to raise funds for CityPoint to grow by being able to hire more staff and grow in our resources and flexibility for ministry and evangelism.
I’m Matthew O’Mealey. I grew up at First Baptist Claremore where my parents are members. While visiting home while I was in college at Northeastern State in Tahlequah, I surrendered to a call to ministry in 2004. After graduating from NSU, I attended seminary at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and completed my Masters in Divinity in Christian Thought in 2012.
Over the years I’ve been working with different church plants, helping to start, grow, and multiply them through various 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.
CityPoint Church was planted over three 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.” CityPoint is a church with a heart for service and sharing God’s story. Serving others is at the core of our church’s heart, 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. Our Mission at CityPoint is “Serving like Jesus, helping people discover their role in God’s story.”
CityPoint had quick growth early on from unchurched families through new converts and families that weren’t attending anywhere. With their quick growth they were in need of more volunteers and leadership so my wife and I jumped in. My wife, Keeva, soon began leading the worship and I’ve been serving in preaching, teaching and leading small groups and soon joined the pastoral team.
The struggle that most church plants have is funding and building space, and CityPoint is no different. Being just over 3 years since it was planted, CityPoint has been limited in paid staff members with just 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 is a great season to be proactive as church leaders. It’s our prayer that my wife and I and our family would be able to invest more time with CityPoint’s ministries as paid staff, as well as be able to accomplish more as a congregation being better equipped to share the load.
God has blessed us with a unique opportunity to share a church building with 2 other churches. It works for now, though it is not ideal for the long term as we have to balance the schedule with 2 other congregations and may soon outgrow their limited space as God continues to bless and grow our ministries. 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.
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. We have seen a lot of gospel fruit in kids’ lives through Bible Club and it continues to open a lot of doors in the school system and with their parents. We are rebuilding the Bible Clubs after the pandemic shutdowns, and one of the bigger needs that could allow us to serve kids more efficiently would be to have our own church vans or bus to help transport them.
Another ministry my wife and I developed and worked alongside CityPoint was helping students with online school work during virtual and hybrid school. One group in particular that was hit hard from these circumstances was immigrant and refugee families because of language barriers and their job schedules. One of the other churches that we have been sharing the building with is a Congolese refugee church. So after realizing their struggle I felt God leading me to quit my job and I jumped in full time during the school year to create an education assistance program that we ran on donations until our schools went back to full time in person class in mid February earlier this year. For more on what we did with Education Assistance you can look at my blog from the last year at http://www.mattomealey.com/blog
So as we continue to grow and do more ministry in our community here, we need Gospel partnership for prayer, funding, and even extra hands if you ever felt led to join CityPoint for a mission trip or event. Opportunities like the growing Bible Club and the need for a bus or vans, 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.
Our family in particular believes God has us here with CityPoint at this moment 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 stepping into the role of Associate Pastor of Discipleship to develop sermon series and discipleship programs that are consistent between the adults, students and children, and to develop more of our ministry and discipleship systems. My wife, Keeva has been serving weekly as the Worship Leader and we want to do more with us working together to incorporate our discipleship direction into our worship rhythms. We also feel led for her to step into a more invested role as the Worship Leader, and being paid staff 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.
Thanks for your time and hearing what God is doing in our church community. You can reach me at (918)231-5761 or Matt@mattomealey.com with any questions.
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
