Albuqueruqe, New Mexico
Church Profile: FirstABQ is a Christian Church in the North East Heights of Albuquerque. We are led by preaching, formation, worship, student, and children’s ministers along with three support staff and a vibrant elder board. The church has 400+ members and runs 200 in a traditional and a contemporary worship service (also streamed online) and has fifteen small groups. This healthy congregation and leadership have one mission: Follow Jesus. Every day with each task, through all ministries, as a guide to decisions, and in our daily routines, we Follow Jesus. This mission expects each person to be with Jesus everywhere, do what Jesus did, say what Jesus taught, and go where Jesus leads. Following Jesus identifies who we are and functions as our invitation to others. Our living worship and our public worship put God first as we follow Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit. The blessing of a 120-year history as a church in Albuquerque is firm ground we run forward upon to join the work God is doing in Albuquerque. As a group we look forward to where God is calling us rather than backward to what God has done through us.
City: Albuquerque is a mile high city with pleasant weather year-round with all four distinct seasons. It boasts easy outdoor access to hiking and biking trails, rivers for canoeing, mountains for camping and rock climbing, ski slopes, city parks, and more. Our neighborhood of diverse people is represented in its varied ethnicity, culture, earning power, food options, and shopping. Nationally, we sit on the West Sandia Mountains at the intersection of I-40 and I-25, which means we have big city amenities and influences. Like any big city, Albuquerque faces poverty, homelessness, and crime. New Mexico is called the land of enchantment, valuing a creative, artistic, individual spirit as well as a highly communal culture with high technology companies like Intel, large government research like Sandia Labs, and a very old mixture of cultures.