We’re excited to share that folks inside and outside of our church have generously helped us create a $52,500 matching grant for this year!
This means, with your help, Citizens Church can receive at least $105,000 for gospel work in San Francisco.
“Citizens Church is one of our unique churches that is contextually relevant to the city at large and specifically to the location where they meet. Located near the historic Haight Ashbury neighborhood that gave birth to the Jesus movement, Citizens Church continues to reach out to those who are outside the four walls of the church.”
Why us? San Francisco is no ordinary city, and Citizens is no ordinary church.
Over the past decade, God has built Citizens Church into an intimate yet diverse community that meets in the heart of San Francisco. Our vision is to be a spiritual home – especially for those who are questioning, lonely, or displaced – in order that we all might find our home in Jesus.
WE ARE A Church for the Spiritually Homeless
San Francisco is the most unchurched city in the country, where fewer than 3 in 100 residents know Jesus. For those wrestling with faith, meaning, and purpose, Citizens Church has become a spiritual home, equipping them to be disciples who have cultural and gospel-impact even beyond their time in San Francisco.
We are A Church for the Physically Homeless
In a city infamous for widespread homelessness, Citizens Church has also been able to patiently serve hundreds of unhoused friends and neighbors. Our church provides leadership of the San Francisco Outer Circle (SFOC), a 27-year old ministry among our unhoused neighbors.
Every Tuesday, rain or shine, we gather in Golden Gate Park for “Pancakes in the Park”, a beloved space for conversation and coffee, peace-building and pancakes, where we share stories, foster friendships, and explore questions together. From this simple foundation, we often welcome these friends to Sunday gatherings, small groups, prayer dinners, and Bible studies.
A Family of Servant Missionaries
As we pursue our vision of being a spiritual home, God has invited our church to live as a family of servant-missionaries, following Jesus with our whole selves, because of who God is and what God has done. Members hail from a variety of religious backgrounds, but we are united together around core Christian convictions.
“The crew at Citizens are such an asset to the wider church of San Francisco. They serve the most vulnerable among us so well and resource other churches like ours to do so alongside them. Personally, Dave has poured into me as a young church planter and has coached several other church planters to provide contextual wisdom and encouragement as we continue to sow into this beautiful city. When I feel in over my head or encounter a situation I don’t know what to do with, Dave is among the first people I call. Citizens is a gift to the church of San Francisco.”
What for? This grant will help us grow our community and build towards long-term growth and sustainability.
Last November, we secured an office space for the first time in our church’s 11-year history. With this office, our church has grown and flourished. Over the course of this past year, we’ve used our office to facilitate: trainings with lay leaders, discipleship gatherings with future elders and deacons, members meetings for prayer and vision-casting, pastoral counseling sessions, rehearsals for the music team, monthly dinners for prayer & fellowship, lunches with visitors and new members, parties for unhoused neighbors, gatherings for strategy and discernment, and weekly staff meetings. With so much growth and opportunity, we need help moving forward.
Hiring: A Growing Staff Team
For the past three years, our church has been led by just two full-time staff. As we focus on sustainability and growth, it’s time to expand our team. In the next few months, we’ll be hiring an Operations Coordinator – someone who will help keep Sundays running smoothly, support staff and ministry leaders, and make sure the practical details of church life are executed with care.
Your support of our Matching Grant will help us add a team member to the behind-the-scenes operations of our church, so that our leaders, volunteers, and members can thrive as we grow.
Growth: AN Investment in a Unique Community
San Francisco is at the center of perhaps the most important technological revolution in the last 100 years, and the people at the heart of that revolution are our neighbors. This is a crucial time! With humility and expectation, we believe God has put Citizens Church here for a reason, and we are ready!
Our membership is growing, our ministries to San Franciscans who live on the margins are growing, and we’re in the early stages of expanding our church staff.
With our church’s particular gifts and strengths, we are joining God in his redemptive work in this specific place and time. We’re humbled by the exciting work that God is doing in and through our community, and we’re at a critical point in our church’s journey.
Why now? The gospel is bearing eternal fruit at Citizens Church and in San Francisco.
We believe that 2026 will hold many stories of redemption: curious atheist friends discovering the love of Christ and community, marriages being strengthened and relationships being repaired, unhoused neighbors being welcomed into homes. God has uniquely positioned Citizens to be a home for the homeless – physically and spiritually. It is who we are and who we want to be. This grant will help us be that home, and expand it to include more people, in order that we all might find our home in Jesus.
Help us Raise $105K!
For every $1 you give, it will be doubled. And then God will take that earthly treasure and make it last forever in the Spirit-filled lives of San Franciscans. What an opportunity for all of us to join in God’s work!
Will you partner with us to reach the materially and spiritually displaced of San Francisco, that many more would find their home in Jesus?
check & stock/daf giving
If you would prefer, we are also able to accept donations by check or via stock gifts.
For giving by check, please put “Matching Grant” in the memo and mail to: Citizens Church, P.O. Box 170435, San Francisco, CA 94117.
For stock or DAF funds, you can give through Infinite Giving at this link. Be sure to also let us know so we can apply it to our Matching Grant.