- The Bible
- The Sacraments of Baptism and Communion
- Preaching
- Praise and Worship
- Service
- Innovation
- Hardworking
- Leadership Development
The Bible
Words are simply inadequate containers to express how highly we esteem, venerate, and value God’s Word to us contained in the two testaments and sixty six books that fill the blessed book our great and awesome God has inspired for us! We are passionate about all that God has to say to us and above all else will be known for our enduring enthusiasm for The Bible and the pleasure of explaining what it says.
The Sacraments of Baptism and Communion
Communion is the continual remembering and honoring of the work accomplished on the cross at Calvary. That last sentence is more profound then we can ever imagine and completely bursting at the seams with importance. The inexplicably amazing work down on the cross is the focal point of all creation, history, and purpose. We celebrate the communion table because in this observance we renew our thanks, passion, and active participation in the covenant Jesus established when he broke the bread and drank the wine with his loved ones.
Baptism is the outward profession of the inward work God has accomplished in the hearts of those He’s saved, in the process of saving, and will ultimately save. Baptism is our response to our God making us alive in Christ Jesus. We immerse ourselves in water to symbolize our death to an old Godless life and burst out of the water in new life, a new creation, and born again into God’s massive global and eternal family.
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Preaching
Jesus came for the purpose of preaching light and truth to a world that needs the enlightenment of God’s words to us. The perpetuating practice of preaching is the primary means by which the church receives spiritual health and growth. As the Bible is faithfully preached in a complete and well-rounded way, and is communicated by relating to those being preached to, those who hear and act upon what they’ve heard, will experience the power of God making clear the way to salvation and maturing them into the image of Jesus. The Word of God is completely sufficient and is empowered by the Holy Spirit as He saves and matures. If the Word of God becomes diluted in its powerful properties through careless unbiblical preaching we will produce only emaciated, incompetent, and confused hearers. We hold fast to preaching and highly esteem its profound function in our church.
Praise and Worship
Isn't it amazing how worship and praise is so common to our human condition? We don't go a day without praising new cars, new jobs, new clothes, or new babies. We are constantly in love and spend time with those things that are most worthy of our time, investments, and thoughts. Praise is simply the outward expression of inward excitements, inspirations, and desires. Worship is simply the shaping of a life around a most desired focal point. We are filled with explosive praise for Jesus because His worth and His person are so infinitely more praise worthy then anything that our earth could offer. Our whole lives are fashioned around this focal point of Jesus and all life, plans, investments, and dreams pivot on His mission and person.
We are a church who worships Jesus in a spirit of liberty, exuberance, and with a heart to celebrate all that He is and all that He does. We passionately desire to praise and exalt God in the manners and mindset set forth in the Scriptures. God calls for our whole hearts to be engaged in praise, adoration, and awe. We will rise to the task of exemplifying worshippers who worship in spirit and truth. Participatory praise will always be prioritized as one of the main arteries supplying life, purpose, and meaning to our church. We greatly desire that our God would be enthroned and pleased with our always-maturing exultation and the powerful proclamation of His Name, His Word, His works, and His ways.
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Service
Jesus said that he came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life away for everybody. In the steps of Jesus, we desire to build the Kingdom of God by giving our lives to everyone we come into contact with.
We believe that our love and faith is best expressed in care, constant compassion, and concern for people in all stages of life. Jesus said that our unique and distinguishable characteristic as His followers would be our love for each other and those around us. He said that if we are to accurately tell the world who He actually is, they would only know if He is taught through active, strategic, and tangible love. We will love our community by serving them in simple and effective ways.
Innovation
I believe and go to church because church is and should be a fun and energetic place to be. The Church is not a multi-roomed facility, but a multi-cultured place of fellowship, friendship, and fun. We should strive to enjoy life and make the process of becoming like Jesus serious, but also satisfying. One of the most demonstrably true statements I have ever heard is, "repetition is the breeding ground for boredom." If we fail to relationally engage those we seek to share the person and work of Jesus with, through evolving methods of fresh communication, we will simply fail in communicating the way Jesus did.
We will always be an innovative church of diverse people driven to show the world who Jesus is by using the arts, media, and many other mediums designed to fuse God’s Word and Ways into our hearts and minds. I don’t know about you, but I get sick of listening to the same CD over and over again. I’m programmed to need fresh ways to experience essentially the same things in life: music, teaching, literature, etc. We don’t change the substance of what we intend to relay which would be compromise. We simply utilize differing methods to experience and to engage in necessary essentials to grow in our spiritual lives.
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Hardworking
Jesus was incessant. Like our Savior, we have to be passionate, powerful, and perseverant when it comes to accomplishing goals that are in fulfillment of His commands. Jesus said that we should pray that laborers are sent out into the harvest. We acknowledge that harvesting takes grueling, exhausting, yet rewarding labor. We are willing and accept the challenge and command given by Jesus to exert the necessary effort to serve and bring in those who need Jesus. The harvest will not be brought in without our labor. There is no other way. If we desire to see everyone connect and come to Jesus, we must do the work of including and inviting them.
Leadership Development
One of Jesus' final commands to His followers was the challenge to go into the world with His teachings and make disciples of those who wish to be his followers. We will build leaders to become everything Jesus wants them to be. One of Jesus’ many radical characteristics was His method of finding leaders, training them, and mobilizing them for service. He didn’t wait for those to come to Him, but he prayed about those He knew about and approached them with His mission and purpose. We desire and will seek leaders to befriend and strategically teach to become a leader that is defined by Jesus’ example to us. Jesus called us to pray for laborers and leaders because He taught us that His mission of seeking and saving the lost cannot be done without them. If we fail to build leaders we will fail to reach those who are yet to know Jesus.
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