The Love and Assurance City Group launched earlier this year. The members were all in a previous City Group that multiplied into two. Trevor Lockard was one of the members of the original group. He questioned the possibility of multiplying; however one afternoon after walking around a park and considering God’s creation, the vision for a new group was revealed. Now, he and the other co-leads, Tim and Taylor Lovewell and Amanda Heath, unanimously have identified this group as a gift and an answer to prayer.
“With no prompting two groups were launched out of the original City Group,” Taylor shared, “and it’s been an answer to prayer for all. We were just praying on how to multiply the original City Group where it wouldn’t feel like you are forcing everyone to take a side or choose a team. It ended up with two separate visions led by two groups of leaders and then offering this to the larger group. They can go either way without having to feel like choosing a side but rather choosing what fit for them and what they wanted to do.”
The other City Group, the Jaywalkers, determined their vision would be college students. Love and Assurance determined their group’s vision would be apologetics. All four leaders of Love and Assurance wanted to be prepared by having reasons for their faith and to be prepared to share that in a loving way with no arguments.
“It’s natural to focus not only on the mental side of our faith and the rational reasoning, but also the love of our faith,” Tim explained. “Apologetics came as a necessity as we looked for what is something we could focus on for our group. I’m naturally skeptical and I don’t take things face value. I want to know the reason behind it and how it is true. I think other believers have those same questions and concerns. People have more capacity to think about the harder things than they think they do.”
Trevor grew up with parents who were passionate about believing for reasons and also not just taking something at face value. His desire is to be equipped with a firm foundation on why we believe and then sharing that faith. For Taylor, she has a desire to learn how to defend her faith. She and Amanda, the other women’s co-lead, are both gifted in seeing how worship can reflect what they learn and then how it can be implemented into their City Group.
“This knowledge of truth shouldn’t puff us up or something like that and to only be used as a battle axe,” Taylor shared. “Instead, make us grow in our knowledge of God the Creator and to love Him more and want to out of that love, share it with others.”
With a rhythm of reading books, studying God’s word, sharing meals and life, the leaders have seen unity, growth, and ownership from the other members of Love and Assurance.
“Already I’ve heard people say they’ve had conversations with others, engage with them where maybe that would not have happened,” Trevor described. “It’s been effective to have more conversations and to have reasons.”
Taylor described what she has seen within the Love and Assurance since launch this year with this.
“Our City Group has a buy in. We are not teaching but instead we are all learning alongside one another. We want all of us to walk together, to think deeply with our minds, heart and soul. I think it’s exciting to see how much people really do want to learn about God and in a deeper way. And for myself, to see myself in a leadership role and realizing I can do it has been powerful. To understand even if I feel weaker in an area, the Lord still works through me. Also, with us, the leaders, we balance each other out. Knowing the other leaders have my back gives me confidence that we will carry each other through and through any difficulty. They are super intentional about that.”
A few months ago, each of the leaders met up at a leadership retreat to talk about their visions for the City Group, leading, and to hear each of their personal stories. A few ideas for the future came out of that discussion. Some of those were giving members a little more say with the group’s book selection, launching Huddles to go deeper into community and to integrate more ways to serve together. The leaders and members of Love and Assurance are excited about the future and are thankful to God for continuing to lead them.
“You know this group is only here because of faithful people like Amy and Garrett Sacco and David Carlson,” Tim offered. “They led our original group with intentionality and gave us an example of good leadership. We wouldn’t be the leaders we are without their example. Leaders who care and look out for others.”
Citylight Church has the desire for everyone to be a part of a City Group to experience the family of God in real ways and continually grow as disciples who love Jesus and love one another more every day. Taylor agreed and shared this about the impact of this family of God on her life:
“City Groups are the way we have made a home in Omaha. Our group has been our family. And it’s not something Tim and I say lightly. It’s been a challenging transition moving to Omaha. And another thing we’ve learned is what you invest in your City Group, is what you get out of it too. The Lord can do amazing things through community. We are all so much stronger together by being vulnerable with one another. Life together is better in general.”
Trevor concluded with this:
“It is so cool to see the people in our lives that God has given to us, to influence us, and for His glory. The people in our City Group are super close. It is no doubt that God appointed the four of us to help lead. We see the members and how they engage with one another, and it just affirms the fact that we are meant to do life together. Each of us uniquely reflects Gods love and according to His plan.”
Join a City Group! Visit citylightomaha.org/citygroups and get connected to a group.