Senior Pastor

 

Church Profile

 

Introducing Center City Church

Center City Church is a 20 year old church of around 75 members who meet in downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico. On any given Sunday we have roughly 100 attendees from all over the city. It’s our vision at Center City Church to bring hope and joy to the downtown communities of Albuquerque through the Gospel.

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The People

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Center City Church is unified as a theologically conservative congregation with a high view of Scripture. We are a church with people who are highly energetic and engaged, which presents our next Senior Pastor with a great opportunity to direct our energy by equipping the congregation and helping us grow in readiness for the work of the ministry.

 

According to a recent Congregational Assessment Tool, our church is made up of those with predominantly white (56%) and Latino/Hispanic/Spanish (40%) ethnic backgrounds, along with Asian (3%) and Black/African American (1%) ethnic backgrounds. Our congregation is a nearly 50/50 split of women (51%) and men (49%). Roughly half of our adult attendees are 55 years old or older (52%) while the other half are spread more or less evenly between the ages of 18 to 54.

 

We currently have an average annual attendance increase of 5% and are ranked in the top 30% of churches with respect to congregant giving as a percentage of congregant income. Center City Church is a financially healthy church with commensurate income and expenses, as reflected in a strong balance sheet.

We have one full-time paid associate pastor, one volunteer associate pastor, and one part-time paid administrative assistant on staff. Although the bylaws currently require only the Senior Pastor to serve on the elder board, all our pastors currently serve on our elder board along with a few more lay elders. We have a number of deacons who help lead specific areas within the church.

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The Worship Service

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Our contemporary service starts at 10:00 a.m. and lasts approximately one and a half hours. It is centered around an expositional sermon, lasting around thirty to forty minutes. Our worship service is informal and relaxed, so people come dressed casually, ready to participate through singing, listening to the sermon, and fellowshipping with one another. Believers participate in communion together once a month during the service. Our services are also streamed weekly on YouTube for those who are unable to attend in person.

We welcome kids of all ages to sit in for the service, but on most Sundays we also provide optional Children’s Church for ages 2 through 5.

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Church Life and Activity

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We have both men’s and women’s Bible studies. The church offers youth Bible studies and fellowship events, as well. We also have a congregational Wednesday night Bible study, which once a month becomes a time for the church to share a meal together and pray. In lieu of small groups we encourage 1-on-1 Bible studies. Center City Church also offers Biblical Counseling, and we have several ACBC Certified Counselors in the congregation.

We hold an annual Thanksgiving potluck dinner for the entire church, their families, and other community members. Center City Church participates in the Shine organization by partnering with a local school, and we do various other outreach events to support the local community. Center City Church also supports missionaries in both Albuquerque and the Middle East, as well as a pastor in Zambia.

 

Center City Church holds a high view of church membership. We are an elder-led, member-governed church. We are a people-focused church with a culture of congregational care. We are a church which values building up men within the church through involvement with sermon preparation and preaching training, but we also have a disciplined process through which we call new men to eldership.

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The Building

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We are currently renting a commercial/retail space in downtown Albuquerque. Downtown Albuquerque is one of the oldest districts in town dating back to the 1700's. It is rich in cultural heritage, and a mixture of beauty and poverty. Artists, businessmen, transients, and families live in this community. Please visit visitalbuquerque.org and cabq.gov for more information about Albuquerque.

 

We moved into this space in October of 2022. It contains a sanctuary, a couple of office spaces, a cry room, a foyer, and three side rooms used primarily for children’s church and counseling. Our building meets our current church needs well, but as we grow our space limitations might become more noticeable.

The church has two parking lots available for church attendees: one on the north side of the building and one on the south side of the building. Between these two lots we have handicapped parking, and can accommodate 17 cars. If these two lots are full, then there is ample street parking which is free on Sundays.

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Wider Connections

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Center City Church maintains membership with the Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA). The EFCA is an association of autonomous, self-governed churches who affirm the same statement of faith. The affirmation of doctrines among like-minded churches builds a cooperation of churches who work together for the advancement of the gospel.

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Mission and Vision

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Our mission is to unwaveringly and unashamedly preach of our Savior, crucified for our sins. It’s a message with which we must engage one another in the church community. As followers of Jesus, we desperately depend upon the Gospel to loosen sin’s remaining grip in our lives and sanctify us into Christ’s image. We must also declare that good news to those in our city who do not profess faith in Christ. “How will they hear without someone preaching?” (Rom 10:14). To sum it up our mission is: to preach Christ crucified and reach the downtown communities with the transformative love and grace of Jesus Christ, fostering a vibrant, inclusive, and compassionate community grounded in biblical truth.

 

Since our inception, God has uniquely given Center City Church the vision of locating and ministering in downtown Albuquerque. The clarity of that vision has shone with different levels of brightness, but its presence has always remained. The vision is more than simply meeting downtown. It’s a vision for the hope of the Gospel to shine brightly in a community of our city darkened by poverty, corruption, crime, and sin. Hope because of the presence of Jesus. Hope that comes from sins forgiven, from justice upheld, from righteousness practiced, from truth clarified. This kind of hope is what the Gospel declares, promises, and delivers. Our vision at Center City Church is: to be a beacon of hope and a center for spiritual renewal in the downtown area, where individuals from all walks of life encounter the living Christ, experience authentic community, and are equipped to live out their faith in practical and impactful ways.

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Church History

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Center City Church began as a church plant of Hope Evangelical Free Church, another Albuquerque-based church. The vision, which was first expressed in 1993, called for a new church in downtown Albuquerque. After establishing a core team and meeting for several years, Center City Church leased its first facility just outside downtown Albuquerque in 2004. Our first pastor was called at this same time. In January of 2005 we held our first service at this location. During the time of meeting in this original location, the church purchased a building in another neighborhood near downtown, but after 1 year of failed attempts to re-zone the property, the church sold the property while continuing to look for a suitable downtown facility.

 

After holding services in its original location, the church moved to a local school in 2008, again outside downtown. In 2009 the church began converting an auto shop just outside downtown, and in 2010 held its first services there. In October of 2012 our first Senior Pastor resigned and Center City Church began looking for a new Senior Pastor. In January of 2014 our second Senior Pastor preached his first sermon at Center City Church.

 

In May of 2015 the vision team assembled to reassess the vision for the church. The vision team still felt led by God to pursue the original vision of planting a church in downtown Albuquerque, so in the fall of 2015 the church began looking for meeting places in downtown. In February of 2016 we left the comfort of an established church facility to set up and tear down in a death metal music venue for the purpose of bringing joy to our city. Center City thus held its first services in downtown Albuquerque, but would move to a different downtown location a couple years later. Both venues required people to set up and take down every week, so in October of 2022 we moved into our current location at 423 4th Street SW. In early 2024 our second Senior Pastor resigned from his position and left Center City Church, prompting the current search for a new Senior Pastor.