What’s a Shareholder?

Here at the CityGate, we don't have members, we have shareholders. No, not business shareholders; spiritual and community shareholders. The Lord gave our founding leader, Clay Nash, a message about this many years ago...

"Anyone can have a membership to a service, club, or venue: think of a gym membership or a membership to a golf club. You could even have a membership to an online service. Video and audio streaming is popular today and we can easily realize that almost all of us have memberships somewhere (and for many of us -several somewheres!): Spotify, Netflix, Apple Music, Apple TV, YouTube, Hulu, you can see that the list goes on! But, just because you have a membership somewhere doesn't mean that you have a committed investment in that product or service. It means that product or service has your money and "scripted" /signed contractual commitment, but not your mental, emotional, social, and even physical commitment (think about the gym!). You can have a membership somewhere and never go /attend... or use it!

Church membership can be similar! Pay your tithe, sign the paper, you're a member. But how invested are you in the vision and values and goings-on of the house and work of God? Church membership is not something we find in the New Testament Scriptures when Jesus established the ekklesia (church). Different churches and denominations do membership differently because of the absence of biblical direction here. Perhaps because it's not biblical!

Shareholders of a company are different that members of a product or service. When the company does well, the shareholders do well! When the company struggles, the shareholders struggle and step up with investment to empower the whole entity to thrive. We believe that this is more of a biblical model than membership. When the church body hurts, we support and invest, because we care about that success of the whole, not the benefit of the one (self). And when the church thrives and succeed, the people celebrate and benefit as well; the church is also likely thriving because the people are thriving. Shareholders are invested in the vision of the company, not there profit and loss.”

We invite you to come and thrive with us. We also invite you to come and join the vision and invest where there is need. Invest in the vision and values of the CityGate and let's walk together in relationship to see you succeed and step into all God has for you.