WE ARE EXPECTING YOU

Welcome! We realize that engaging a new church can be a very intimidating thing and the courage it takes to try something new, even the most confident of people can easily become insecure when it comes to visiting a new church. Especially one that looks so unconventional!


At Citizens, we want to help alleviate some of that potential uneasiness. Even though we can't answer every question here, the following is intended to give you a sense of what you can expect when attending our Sunday Gathering.

We gather at 10am at the D1 Sports Training Facility in Hardin Valley. Especially if you have children we encourage you to come 10-15 minutes early so that we can introduce you to our teachers and the Citizens Kids ministry space.

10258 Hardin Valley Rd
Knoxville, TN 37932

Our Gathering consists primarily of two parts.

CELEBRATION IN WORD | We gather to speak to God in prayer and praise, to speak to one another in encouragement, and to hear from God in the Bible. We want to privilege God's Word over ours and so a majority of our time together is spent focusing our attention on a specific passage in the Bible, in which we work our way through a book of the Bible.

CELEBRATION IN MUSIC | We believe that the right response to the Gospel is worship. God is seeking worshipers who will worship Him in Spirit and in truth (John 4:24). At Citizens, we use the vehicle of music as a way of expressing our praise and our thanksgiving. We often use modern re-interpretations of hymns as well as new musical expressions in our Gatherings.

Some say that Pastor Chris preached his first sermon in a T-Shirt, jeans, and tennis shoes. While that may be true, that may also be how you'll find him on Sunday mornings.

As for you? Come as you are! We dress in a manner that makes us feel both welcome and comfortable. We invite you to do the same. If that means khakis and a button up, you are welcome. If that means shorts and T-Shirt, you are welcome. *Our facility can be warm in the summer and cool in the winter*

If there's one thing that we have at Citizens, it's children. We love our children, and we love the children of our city.

Before the gathering children in elementary school and younger will gather in our children's ministry space.

As we grow our class age groups will shift from time to time to allow for space. We encourage you to arrive 10-15 minutes early so that we can introduce you to our teachers and our Citizens Kids space.

Currently we offer Citizens Kids ministry ages 3-19 years of age!

Please know that all of our kid's helpers and teachers have undergone a thorough background screening process.

We believe whole-heartedly that the church is more than what happens on a Sunday. That is why we want to help get you connected. You can do so by joining a Gospel Community or becoming a Partner of Citizens Church.

We love Jesus and the Gospel…We don't do a single thing where Jesus and the Gospel aren't at the center. All of our teachings, preaching, partying, eating, and goofing around has Jesus as our center of orbit. We are excited about what Jesus has done for us and we can't divorce His good news from any part of our lives. It is the deepest motivation for everything we do. You'll hear his name a bunch.

We love the Bible…The Bible does all of the heavy lifting for us on Sunday mornings and in our homes during the week. On Sundays, you will find us most of the time going through a book of the Bible from front to finish. We do this because we value all of God's word to us (even the hard stuff) and how it leads us in our everyday lives. If you don't have a Bible, we'll have one for you.

We love each other… You can expect to bump into people at Citizens who are living life together regardless of whether or not they have much in common. We love each other because of God, who was different from us, loved us when we were unlovely. This forms the foundation for how we love each other. The community at Citizens is more than "hobby deep". Community for us means different people "doing life" intentionally together. We promise we don't have a section just for the cool kids.

We love Knoxville, and the surrounding cities too… We are a church committed to the city. We love the city and desire to see Jesus elevated in Knoxville and our surrounding communities as the glorious King He is. Because of this, we are always "on a mission" to the city. This means we do as much as possible to extend love and serve as Jesus extended His love to us and served us.