City Church is in its first year of existence and is filled with a growing group of people seeking to bring hope and love into their community. They recognize that they are “blessed to be blessings,” and this has  focused City Church on giving back to people. Their vision has moved their gathering into a punk rock club and sparked a passion for innovative small groups. I talked with Kyle Bonenberger, lead pastor, about his church planting journey.

Where are you from? How has your family impacted you?

Kyle: I was born in St. Louis and I moved to California when I was six. My dad was a pastor but I do not remember that from my childhood because a scandal led my parents away from the church. My dad never went back to ministry because he was burned by some stuff. Instead, he and my mom went into business together. Unfortunately, they split up, and I moved to Paris, France for five years. Later, I moved back to California and I have been in this area since 2002.

How did you become a Christian?

Kyle: Even though my dad was a pastor I definitely did not grow up in the church. I became a Christian when I was thirteen years old. I came forward and accepted Christ at a “sweaty Jr. Higher event” when the guy gave the alter-call. At thirteen, I understood intellectually what I believed, but I did not do anything based on my faith until I was fifteen. When I was fifteen, I read a pretty famous book called The Case for Christ, and I realized that this is not just a story… this is real. After that I decided to take my faith seriously and to actually try to emerge as a leader in faith.

How were you called to ministry? How did you start in ministry?

Kyle: I love small groups because a small group changed my life when I was fifteen. The next year I decided to co-lead a small group with a friend, and after that I led my own group. During that time I was going the law or politics route with my life. However, I really wanted to lead worship because I liked this girl who was a singer; and I thought that it would impress her. So I worked my butt off for five to seven hours a day on the guitar and vocally. I took lessons and seriously invested in being a worship leader. I didn’t end up with the girl, but I ended up with a gift. This gift propelled me into the singer/song-writer thing for a while, and it sucked because it is so hard. Even if you are incredible, you are a dime a dozen. Someone once told me that you can go into a random bar in Nashville where there are two people and hear the greatest concert of your life!

I realized that music was not for me during my time at Biola University. While I was at Biola, I got involved in their chapel ministry, and actually led it for a few years. When I graduated from college, I took a television producer job with the Crystal Cathedral. My biggest gift is that I am a connector, and that job gave me the opportunity to find people and connect them with what they would be passionate about and vice versa. That job was a great fit, and my boss knew that my heart was in ministry, so they started a contemporary service because they believed in me. They started it because they needed it, but also because they wanted to give me the opportunity to use all of my gifts, not just some of them. For a variety of reasons the contemporary service never took off, but from that experience came the realization that “hey I could do this,” “I could actually lead one of my own.”

For some reason up until that point I had bought into the “corporate ladder Christianity” belief system, which is this idea that “you can become a senior pastor once you have put in ten years as a youth pastor.” When I look at the Bible, I do not see that example at all. More importantly, I found myself frustrated because I did not agree with the leadership decisions I watched people make. I am a leader, and leaders do not like sitting in meetings but not really being a part of them. Out of all that, I realized that I could lead a church, and not in five or ten years, but today! For me it was not so much a call to ministry as much as a constant “knowing” that I am a leader. I have always known that no matter what I did, I would lead.

Why did you decide to plant a church instead of working within an established congregation?

Kyle: I decided to plant because I realized that I am gifted to do this. Also, my desire to plant was born out of frustration with my situation at the time. The people I was with are good people and they have great hearts, but I realized that my frustration really was not their issue. They were only being who they are. However, my own integrity did not allow me to be who I truly am in that environment. They were not making bad moral choices, but their style of leadership and the type of ministry they valued was so against my heart that it became a matter of integrity for me. Basically, I did not buy into their vision.

Having said that, I think there could have been an established church where I could have bought into the vision, felt empowered, and felt that my leadership mattered. Still, a common denominator I’ve heard from church planters, business leaders, and entrepreneurs is that the desire to do something “new” is born out of a frustration with the current, and it is from that frustration you find what you are uniquely wired to do. The one danger of this is that if you do it too quickly you can plant a church based on what you are mad at and not what you are passionate about. Instead, my frustration with their vision led me to discover what I was really passionate about. However, I do not believe in burning bridges behind you, and I still have great relationships with everyone at Crystal Cathedral.

How did you develop a vision for City Church? How did you gather people to help you lead?

Kyle: Originally, I was working with two other guys and it was not the right team. God showed us this reality and brought about three completely different ministries from all three of us. The vision for City Church was really born out of a disagreement between us three guys.

I felt called to a non-traditional church in the sense that we do not have a church building. However, I am traditional in that I place a lot of emphasis on Sunday morning gatherings and small groups. Those two areas were not important to my two partners because they came from church settings where Sunday mornings and small groups were done just to keep the wheels going. My focus on those aspects came from my experience with a really healthy church in San Diego. That church was built around small groups and that DNA has really stuck with me.

So the vision was born out of a disagreement and also a realization that while there are a lot of churches in the Anaheim area, nothing within five to seven miles is doing what we are trying to do. Even still, I wondered with God what is really going to set us apart form these other churches? Then I realized that we were going to be a church that gives back to the community.

Can you describe the mission of City Church? Why the focus on “blessed to be a blessing.”

Kyle: The whole idea of evangelism has been so intellectually based with a focus on memorizing definitions and passing out flyers door to door. Then the expectation is that since we have the “right” definitions we will naturally spring forth disciples. I feel that that this has done a lot of damage to people. So we decided not to push God on people. We say all the time, “God loves you, no strings attached.” We are going to start this big outreach movement this summer called “I Heart Hearts.” Basically, we just want to reach out to people in our community who are going through the toughest points in life. Our biggest vision in terms of outreach is to reach out to hurting people. There are a few points in people’s lives when they tend to think more about spirituality; Christmas, Easter, the birth of a child, a time of tragedy, or marriage. Statistically, those are key moments, and we want to capitalize on those by giving back to people tangibly with something simple like a care package or bringing meals to a mother who just had a baby. It may seem like nothing, but to them it can be powerful.

How do some of your ministries live out your mission?

Kyle: We try to keep our vision and mission simple. We focus on being “a church that gives back,” and that means three things. First, we give back to each other and to God in a larger context each Sunday morning. We give back through song, teaching, and lunch together. Second, we give back to each other in small groups. This is our time to give back to each other in a more one-on-one and intimate way. Third, we give back to the community outside our church through “I Heart Hearts.” We have also done a few significant events in terms of giving back to the community. The coolest one just landed in our lap. A woman from the City of Anaheim saw our church on twitter and asked us to do a children’s craft at a tree lighting display around Christmas. We brought this big display and did crafts for hundreds of kids. It was very neat to connect hand-to-hand with so many people from our city. We try to continue to do stuff with the City of Anaheim as much as we can.

You mentioned that a representative from the city found you on twitter. What is the value of social media for churches? How do you use social media?

Kyle: Social media has great value, but it can also really be a trap of the pastor’s time. I struggle with that, so I try to not use social media from 8:00am-noon each day. One of the coolest things for church leaders is a website called ChirpCity.com. It is a website that enables you to see what people are tweeting about your city, whether it is about Anaheim, or from people actually in Anaheim. You can search keywords like, “looking for a church,” and then you can connect with that person immediately. I think one of the main advantages of social media is that it gives you access to many more people; but I also think you can inundate people, so I’ve tried to focus on connecting and being very accessible.

I think Rick Warren (@RickWarren) does social media very well. He does an amazing job of tweeting something that is encouraging for everyone but it seems like he has zoned in on church planters and developed that niche. I think as a church, if you are going to do social media well, you have to find that niche. For us, the niche that we have really done well is a photo-blog on Facebook. After each service or church event everyone tags themselves in all the pictures. Due to this photo-blog our Facebook fan-page averages about 500 to 700 hits a week. We are still working on finding our twitter niche.

Describe a worship gathering at City Church? How do you move people into an experience with God?

Kyle: I am a decent musician, and because of our venue, we attract a lot of creative musicians. I always thought that when I planted a church we would be excellent in our worship. We have very good musicians, but our worship gathering is still not the flashiest thing out there. We are not overly concerned with having a service that is “seamless,” partially because we do not have a person to coordinate those things, but also because I would rather empower someone and have them fail and journey with them as they improve. I think this helps develop a really authentic leadership team.

Our worship gathering is fairly typically except we meet in a punk rock club which is atypical. We have a few songs in the beginning, a message, we have coffee, a couple of songs afterwards, and then we all go to Rubio’s for lunch. We try to use our venue to help move people into a worship experience. For example, we try to use the lights and things that the club has to offer. It makes some people feel a little uncomfortable, but when the non-believer walks through the door, they think it is totally awesome!

Why did you choose to meet in a punk rock club called Chain Reaction?

Kyle: Our venue was totally from God. Originally, the Crystal Cathedral was going to allow City Church to use their campus. One day they said they could no longer offer that for a variety of reasons. It was heartbreaking for everyone and very confusing. The next day I was leaving for vacation so I had to meet with a guy to give him my laptop for the contemporary service. I told him that I had no idea what we were going to do. This guy, his name is Ceaser (check him out on twitter @CezarMorales), told me that he knew of this venue called Chain Reaction and encouraged me to check it out.

I went and spoke with the owner about the idea of doing a church there. Turns out he had just been on a mission trip to build houses in Mexico, so he was very open to whatever God wanted to do. I shared the vision with him and his wife, and their hearts melted. At the end of the conversation I said, “Well, what do you think?” They both said, “Sure, you guys can meet here.” Next I asked what they would charge. He responded with, “I’m not going to charge you anything.” He simply said, “If you put the work in, we will put the work in,” and they have. They have been our biggest allies.

An hour after this conversation at Chain Reaction, a buddy of mine called me and said, “God has been speaking with me every month telling me that I need to donate a large amount of money to help you start your church. But there is one condition. I think you need to leave Crystal Cathedral.” So in one hour the Crystal Cathedral says we can’t meet there, an hour later we get a free venue, and an hour later we get a large donation to start our church. After all that happened I said, “Okay God, lets go for it.”

What is the biggest challenge facing City Church after ten months of existence?

Kyle: We have challenges at the leadership level and challenges facing our church as a whole. At a leadership level we need to build a team. We need to get to a point where it does not matter if I am there for City Church to succeed. We need a team of two to five people that are able to lead and sustain the church and fill key roles like a worship leader or a leader for student ministries. Other planters usually go in with a team of people, and in retrospect that might have been something to do differently. Still, I know that it was the timing of God and we needed to go when we did. At a whole church level we need to make sure that our members do not begin to see City Church as something that is now comfortable, steady, and established. It seems to me that every time you get comfortable and sit back in your chair thinking you’re fine… you are not. We need to continue to live out the vision of giving back.

What is the biggest challenge you have experienced as a church planter?

Kyle: This work is hard on your marriage. My wife is amazing and very patient. She has a ministry heart, and we have always known we would be in ministry together. But it is hard sometimes. For example, sometimes we get in a little argument right before worship, and then we have to put our relationship on hold so that we can be on for everyone else. So we are learning how to put unresolved conversations on pause and still be able to minister together.

What goals do you have? Where would you like to be in ten years?

Kyle: I would love to be a dad. That would be awesome. I would like to build a healthy family and a healthy church. I’d like City Church to have a healthy growth pattern and have three or four sites. There is not too much else on the radar right now. I like the film “UP,” and agree with the idea that when it is time for a new adventure, God will make that clear to us.

What advice do you have for someone who feels called to plant a church?

Kyle: Is there anything else you are good at? I’m stealing that from Mark Driscoll because that is what he told me. If there is anything else you can do, be sure and do that. Because it is hard work and no person can really give you advice on planting a church. You need to be sure that there is nothing else you can imagine yourself doing. The only thing I will say is be sure to have a few friends that, if three people come to your church, they still believe in you, and if 30,000 people show up, they will remind you that you’re not really that important.

Special thanks to Kyle Bonenberger and the crew from City Church. Be sure check out City Church on their website and connect with them on facebook and twitter. Also, check out their Vimeo account to watch some messages.

...posted on Saturday, June 19th, 2010 at 4:56 pm , filed under Stories