THE STORY OF CITIZENS CHURCH

In May of 2019, six families started discussing the idea of Citizens Church in a Bryan, Texas backyard. In August of 2019, more than 50 gathered in a house to begin seeking God together about what it might be like to plant a new church in Bryan-College Station. Within a few months, the small church grew out of one home and into another home. By the end of February of 2020, the leadership team started looking for a more permanent location to meet weekly. In March of 2020, Covid-19 allowed Citizens the opportunity to reframe their practices in a pandemic world. As a result, Citizens started three house churches, or Citizens Communities: one in College Station and two in Bryan. In early September of 2020, Citizens began to gather again weekly, in person, for prayer and teaching. Citizens gathers weekly on Sundays at 4 PM and continues to form new Citizens Communities.

Lead Pastors:

NICK & KATHRYN GARDNER

Nick and Kathryn Gardner are the lead pastors of Citizens. Nick is a native of College Station, though he spent most of his childhood and early adulthood in Memphis. Kathryn and Nick met in Memphis in 2013 as college students at a local church where they both found Jesus.

In 2019, Jesus began stirring their hearts for the BCS area and in 2020, they followed the call and made it their home. Since then, they have seen hundreds of people walk through the doors of their home by doing what Jesus did - sitting with people at tables and breaking bread with them.

They have a passion for seeing the Kingdom come through Spirit-filled communities. The desire to be a part of one of these communities led them to Citizens in the summer of 2022. Since then, it’s been home.

In addition to leading Citizens, Kathryn and Nick hold careers in the workplace. Nick works for the Flippen Group and has the privilege of leading and coaching pastors and ministry leaders all over the world. Kathryn is the Instructional Coach at a local charter school, Arrow Academy, located in Bryan, TX. Their biggest desire is to see people be healed and freed from the bondage of sin and shame and from there be sent out to share the Good News- Jesus is here! Whether the sending be in your workplace here in BCS or throughout the world, we believe we are called to be sent and to make disciples.

ELDERS

Our Elders have been installed as spiritual leaders over our community, and we believe this is deeply foundational to being a biblically functioning community. The leadership we call the Elders to provide is one deeply rooted in the example of Jesus and the commands of Scripture.