Did you know?

According to the Pew Research Center, the racial and ethnic composition among members of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod is staggering. In survey year 2007, the LCMS’ members were 95 percent White, 2 percent Black, <1 percent Asian, and 1 percent Latino.

In survey year 2014 and 2021, the demographic breakdown was exactly the same.

Not only is the LCMS disproportionately Anglo. It’s also not changing. And we strongly believe that the Gospel is God’s gift extended to all of our neighbors. We believe that our church demographics can reflect the demographics of our nation as a whole.

We believe that this means that there are so many opportunities in front of us for our church and community! Scroll through the images to see what we believe God is doing and can do in DFW.

  • A city can't be defined in a singular way. Nor can the family of Christ be defined in a singular way.

    We see our city as a tapestry of the fullness of God’s creative love.

  • In the most under-resourced (and African-American majority) communities of Dallas, we see the seeds of a hopeful tomorrow in Jesus.

    City Lights can be a part of real hoped-for change and development.

  • In this image, the darker the red, the wealthier the community. You may notice that most of our churches have stayed away from the southeastern -- and mostly under-resourced -- sector of Dallas.

    City Lights will seek to move back into the heart of our city.

  • Through leadership development and the planting of new and diverse churches and ministries, we can provide spiritual encouragement and skill-building opportunities that can change the narrative arc of the life of those in these communities.

    As a network of churches, businesses, and individuals, City Lights can utilize its diversity of resources to engender hope for those often overlooked or written off.

  • From Day 1, City Lights is working to create ministries, churches, and leaders that live with a call to invest in the whole life of its community -- not just in one area.

    These churches and ministries are tasked to reproduce themselves in different areas of the city.

  • By raising up leaders from the community, the new churches and ministries planted will be sustainable into the future and offer a chance at a fuller, God-glorifying life to all those whom God loves.

    We realize we are just a small character in the narrative God has for our city. But playing a part at all is a joy for us.

  • How do we measure success? City Lights succeeds to the extent that we raise up church planters dedicated to loving and leading healthy servant churches in their local communities, we teach faithful Biblical Law and Gospel confessionalism in our churches, and we plant reproducing ministries that address and give hopeful responses to the voiced needs of each community.

    We work for this reason because we believe that there is a place for EVERY person on earth in God’s family by grace through faith in Christ alone.