OUR PASTOR
Adam Pickard
Adam married his wife, Emily, in 2016 and since then has been serving on staff at New City Church in Raleigh, NC before planting Citizens Church in 2021. The last few years have provided exciting times to grow in marriage and ministry while following Jesus through life's ups and downs! They live in Kernersville, NC with their daughter, Jane & their pug, Beans.
Our Mission
We exists to see all people brought near and built up through a relationship with Jesus Christ
Values
At Citizens Church, our values drive our behaviors. While our salvation has nothing to do with what we do and all to do with what Christ has done, Jesus does call us to follow Him. Because of that, we want to take seriously what Jesus taught, and want to be a church that lives out His Gospel in word and deed. We operate by these three values as a church.
We are dependent creatures who rely solely and purely on our God in Heaven.
We were not created to do life alone. The gospel calls us to God and towards one another.
The church is a movement on a mission. We want to see all people brought near and built up through the mission of the church.
Beliefs
The Gospel of Jesus is the foundation for all we believe and do at Citizens Church.
“For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 3:11)
“So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows.” (Ephesians 2:19-21)
The good news is that God created us for a perfect relationship with Him. The bad news is that we have all sinned. That sin is an affront to the holiness and justice of God.
The result is that sin makes us dead, not simply bad. Therefore we cannot solve it. The good news is that God is a God of mercy and grace. God the Father sent God the Son, Jesus Christ, to live the life we could not live and to die the death we should have died to be the one and only atoning sacrifice for sin.
After that, he was resurrected to triumph over sin and bring new life. He appeared to over 500 people over a period of 40 days before ascending to heaven (1 Corinthians 15).
Therefore, we believe that a person is saved by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone as told in scripture alone.
We are saved personally, but never privately. The Bible has no category of following Jesus, but not being a part of a local church.
“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” (1 Peter 2:9-11)
“Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy...to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.” (Ephesians 5:25-27)
Simply put, the Gospel is the good news of what Jesus has done for us, and through Him, we have nothing to prove and no one to impress.
There is only one true and living God who is the Creator of the universe. He exists eternally in three Persons – the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The Bible is God’s written revelation of Himself to mankind divinely given through human authors who were inspired by the Holy Spirit. It is entirely true, totally sufficient, and completely authoritative for matters of life and faith.
Human Beings are created by God to bear His image. They are the crowning work of His creation worthy of love, dignity, and respect regardless of matters like age, race, gender, or class.
Because of the Fall, the image of God in people is distorted but not lost. All people have disobeyed God willfully through sin; thus inheriting both physical and spiritual death and the need for redemption. All human beings are born with a sin nature and into an environment inclined toward sin. Only by the grace of God through Jesus Christ can they experience salvation.
Jesus is both fully God and fully human. He was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, died on the Cross as a substitute for mankind, was raised from the dead, ascended into heaven, and will one day return.
Salvation comes only through Jesus Christ, the only mediator between God and man. No other religion, belief, or person can reconcile God and man. He alone can provide forgiveness and eternal salvation.
Salvation comes only through a faith relationship with Jesus Christ, the Savior, as a person repents of sin and receives Christ’s forgiveness and eternal life. Salvation is instantaneous and accomplished solely by the power of the Holy Spirit through the Word of God. This salvation is wholly of God by grace on the basis of Christ’s life, death and resurrection, not on the basis of human works. All the redeemed are secured in Christ forever.
The Holy Spirit immediately places all people who put their faith in Jesus Christ into one united spiritual body, the Church, of which Christ is the head.
God will bring the world to its appropriate end in His own time and in His own way. At that time, Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth. Christ will judge both the saved and unsaved. Those who have trusted Christ will receive a glorified body and dwell forever with the Lord. Those who have not trusted in Christ will spend eternity in hell, the place of everlasting punishment.
"Because of Jesus, we have nothing to prove and no one to impress."
Partners
Acts 29
Citizens Church is part of Acts 29, a diverse, global family of church-planting churches. For more information about Acts 29, click below!
Learn More
New City Church
Before planting Citizens Church, Adam served on staff at New City Church in Raleigh, NC. New City Church has played a crucial role in planting Citizens and we are grateful for their partnership! For more information about New City, click below!
Learn MoreContact Us
Please contact us below if you have any questions about who we are or if you would like to get in contact with Adam or our Citizens launch team.