Our Purpose

To create passionate, kingdom oriented disciples of the Risen Jesus. 

All living things need to know why they exist and what they are here to do.  Without purpose to focus the expression of life, things diminish in strength and impact.  Churches, as living organisms, have the same needs.

For Christian churches in general, our marching orders boil down to two things:

  1. The Great Commission - "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you" (Matthew 28:19-20a).  
     

  2. The Greatest Commandment - "The foremost is, 'Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is ONE Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.  The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  There is no other commandment greater than these'" (Mark 12:29-31).

So distilled, the church is called to make disciples (followers of Jesus) who live from the very life of God, a life characterized by its love and devotion to God and love for each other.

OUR VALUES

VIBRANT WORSHIP

Worship that gives witness to the Resurrection!

Our life together as the church begins with WORSHIP...the expression of our Resurrection grounded relationship with the God who brings life to the world through the doorway of the empty tomb of Jesus.  Because of this...

  1. Our worship is marked by its laughter and joy.

  2. Our worship always points to Jesus the Christ, crucified and risen, and to His forgiveness and reconciliation of the world.

  3. Our worship proclaims God's unmitigated GRACE in Jesus' resurrection for the entire world and everything in it and open hospitality towards the world...pointed to in our communion table acclamation that "The Gifts of God are FREE!"

  4. Our worship employs the best offerings and gifts of the entire body of Christ for the praise of God, regardless of age.

  5. Our worship is always relevant and contextualized to best communicate the Good News of Jesus to the generations we are called to engage.

LIFE-GIVING RELATIONSHIPS 

Relationships that give and build life!

Our life-giving relationships with each other are an extension of our Resurrection grounded relationship with the God who brings life to the world through the doorway of the empty tomb of Jesus.  Because of this... 

  1. We are a community of inclusivity that practices the free gifts of God!

  2. We are a community that builds deep kingdom relationships with each other and the world...relationships characterized by honesty, integrity, love, service, justice, forgiveness, and reconciliation.

  3. We are a community characterized by our love and service towards one another and not by an ethic of lording power over each other.

  4. In our relationships we strive to honor our word, letting our "yes" be "yes" and our "no" be "no."  In so doing we build integrity and trust in our relationships.

  5. In our relationships with others we seek to actively forgive our way into peace and reconciliation, striving to be the first to forgive and not the last.

  6. In our relationships with each other we live accountably, calling forth behavior in each other that honors Jesus and Jesus in each other.

  7. We address all conflict biblically and directly because it honors the good in each other, calls forth the best from each other, and keeps cancerous bitterness, anger, and anxiety from running destructively through our community.

MISSIONAL LIVING and GIVING 

We value MISSIONAL LIVING and GIVING, lives that express a relationship with the world that flow from our Resurrection grounded relationship with the God who brings life to the world through the doorway of the empty tomb of Jesus.  Because of this...

  1. We are a people called to act with an unflagging and unfailing hope.

  2. We believe we are called to act with abundance...to live from the life of God that knows no bounds, and to pay every blessing forward for the sake of the life and well-being of the world.

  3. We know that as the body of the Resurrected Jesus, every member is a minister. 

  4. Each of us is uniquely gifted to serve the kingdom.

  5. We are a community that seeks to go where God is going in the world, loving, blessing, healing and restoring the world entire.

  6. As Jesus' people, and hearing His call to live generous lives, we will live with an incredibly generosity of our resources--FINANCIAL, MATERIAL, and SPIRITUAL.

  7. We believe that as a key feature of our missional living we will see multiplication in the life of the Church

    • leaders creating new leaders at every level of our lives together

    • disciples making and mentoring other disciples

    • and our congregation intentionally planting other congregations

HOUSEHOLDS THRIVING in a RESURRECTION FAITH 

We believe in the construction of households that live out our relationship with the God of the empty tomb in our homes, with our spouses and significant others, our siblings, our parents, our children, and our local neighborhoods.

We believe we are called to see and act with the expansive vision of Jesus' love for all people, all kinds of families, and all things.