City Point Church sets up offices on Square

A church is often thought of as a building, however, the church is actually a body of people.

City Point Church of Washington embodies that thought. There isn't a church building. They meet every Sunday at Washington High School, but the church has recently leased space on the north side of the square for offices that will be open Monday-Thursday from 8 a.m.-5 p.m.

The space also will often be full in the evenings with various Life Groups offered through the church.

City Point Church held its first in September of 2015. Over 275 people showed up for that service and regularly now have over 550 combined in two services on Sundays.

'There is a reason behind the name,” said Tony Widdel, who is the lead pastor. 'We want to point people to Jesus.”

The giant banner across the entrance of the offices has stirred a lot of curiosity.

The church staff had offices in a basement when they began, then rented office space on the west side of town, and now are excited to have a space on the square that they sublease from KCTC. They expect to have the renovations completed and their offices fully transitioned to the new space by the end of the month.

'People are walking by and asking what is City Point Church and that has made this really fun,” Widdel said. 'Hopefully by the end of this month, we will have all of our stuff transitioned over here and our cubicles built.”

Widdel and his wife Cari fell in love with Washington when they moved to the town right after college graduation and began work at Faith Baptist Church. Widdel served as the Youth Pastor there for seven years and Cari spent a couple of years as the Children's Ministry Director. They later moved to Ottumwa where Widdel was on staff at The Bridge Church.

The Widdells have four kids, Myka, Kara, Anna and Ella.

'I am gung-ho about this town,” he said. 'We will have regular office hours here. We are (here) for this city.”

The Bridge Church brought Widdel on staff to plant a new church in Iowa. After a lot of prayer and research, Widdel knew Washington should be the location of the new church.

'A lot of people leave Washington to go to churches at Iowa City,” Widdel said. 'We want to point the people in town to a church that doesn't do things the traditional way.”

Widell grew up in Waterloo, but developed a love of rural towns when he started ministering to youth in Traer.

Widdell accepted Jesus when he was 17 because of his neighbor.

'He was the most confident kid I had ever met. A typical high school kid is always searching for an identity and trying everything to know who they are. He knew who he was and I wanted that.”

His time in Traer eventually brought over 70 kids to the youth ministry.

'I wanted to do everything unconventional,” Widdel said. 'I want to build a relationship with people. We change the script.”

When he linked up with the church in Ottumwa, he learned he could do church in an unconventional way. The Ottumwa church didn't care where he went to start a church, they just let him decide and backed him with resources.

'It was very clear to me that I wanted to be in Washington. I have always wanted to do things a little bit different,” Widdel said. 'There are a lot of great churches that do church greatly. We want to make sure people know they are welcome to come to church even if they don't know anything about Jesus yet. City Point is a safe place to come and learn.”

He just wants to do something unconventional. He wants to appeal to the people that say church is not for them.

'Church may not be for them but Jesus is.”