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  My family and I had a pretty good experience at City First for quite a while. We attended for about 3 years before I would say my wife and I really started noticing a pretty steady change in the direction and leadership of the church. A little over a year ago, the leadership/church seemed to begin shifting all of their focus on two things: money and numbers. I won't even get into how they literally just invaded and took over an existing church in FL even though, as a church, we were being told we were supposed to be building campuses in order to bring people in who otherwise may never be able to actually attend a church. Oh, and then they just sprung it on the church after the fact..but..Let's just skip that. It began to get somewhat bothersome to me some of the tactics that were being used to guilt people into giving for things that were often more about building up ego than serving God/others.
  - The pastor guilt tripping by telling the congregation he was going to sell his beloved motorcycle for a cause we were raising for; the only thing was, the initial week he told that story, as he "teared up" over it, he failed to mention that another member in the church was buying the bike and giving it right back to him. See when he also laid out the guilt trip to the staff, days earlier, a member felt moved to do this for him.
  - The pastor constantly making sure to tell the congregation that what him and his wife give is a "massive sacrifice." He even went so far one time as to telling everyone that they were tied for 2nd place for the top givers. Seriously dude?
  - The church sending out letters asking for people to pay for the pastor's vacation when he already gets paid 6 figures & is always traveling all over the world on the church's dime
  Here's the thing, at this church, these pastors are making over 200,000 a year, driving around Audi's, Harley's, and Denali SUV's. They literally fly all over the world constantly, we're talking multiple trips/month they're flying and traveling on the church's dime. The lead pastor takes vacations with both of his sons (separately) every year, takes a whole month off every year, the family takes no shortage of vacations, going all around the world multiple times a year, and not to mention, conveniently, twice a year, they do a Life Group Series where it just so happens that the pastor and usually his group of buddies has to travel to some amazing getaway; climbing Kilimanjaro, going to Jerusalem, etc. At some point, someone has to stand up and say, "This is supposed to be God's house, God's money, and what's going on here is wrong." I don't even want to begin to imagine the number of unnecessary dollars wasted on travel and the pure building up of one's ego instead of glorifying God's name. At some point, City First's leadership became about building up self and not about God. My wife and I used to give 20% of our earnings every week, however, when we noticed the attitude of the leadership beginning to change, the egos, the guilt tripping, all the money being wasted on showy things, we knew it was time to do some serious praying about where we were investing our money for God's purpose. The final straw was about a month ago. Our daughter came home from church with a flyer for the upcoming Camp Kid Dayz. She had noticed that the price had risen from last year and they were also now charging a registration fee. The very first thing she said was, "Daddy, why is church just all about money now?" That was it. Our daughter had seen it in her class, too, and now with camp. My kids had lots of friends (as did we...although 2 other family friends of ours left before we did) so this was a hard decision. My wife and I spent all day in prayer and the Word...we both knew God was telling us we had to leave. I still pray for the pastors and leadership there. They say pride comes before the fall; I just hope the pastors take a step back and see their pride has began to overshadow God's Work before their fall takes down the entire church.

  Added July 07, 2017 by Joe McGathy
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  Love my church. Every time I'm in there no matter the number of people, I feel like God is speaking directly to me. The only drawback is finding a life group that fits my needs, it has been a struggle for 2 years.

  Added May 16, 2017 by Mark Wilson
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  Very informative. Hit right on what I'm going through in my life at this time. It seems that every time I attend church he's speaking to me and my problems. It helps so much. THANKYOU.

  Added March 12, 2017 by James Mathenia Jr
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  Friendly,alive and vibrant place. If you want to learn about Jesus and experience his love in a practical way this is the place to be.

  Added October 30, 2016 by Marilyn Morgan
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  Thankful to be there after missing last week. Loved Pastor Jeremy's message on passion and balance

  Added August 17, 2016 by Daniel Eckburg