Please explore our vision in depth below.
The great purpose of our life is to know God, to understand His character, to learn His ways. Since we are made in God’s image, we can’t ever truly understand ourselves without knowing God. Beyond comprehending the truth about God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the loving Sovereign Lord of all creation, lies a knowing that means trusting Him and obeying Him. This faith relationship brings true happiness. Knowing God in this way enables us to say with the biblical psalmist that,
“In His presence is fullness of joy; at His right hand are pleasures for evermore.” Psalm 16:11
In his final words to his disciples, Jesus commanded,
“Go and make disciples of all the nations.” (Matthew 28:19)
Our great purpose as the people of God is to seek those who do not know Jesus and invite them to follow him, to become his disciples too. Proclaiming the reality of a new life in Jesus, we baptize these disciples in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Since following Jesus means becoming like him, we teach new disciples to observe everything that Jesus commanded and invite them to join with us on our mission to demonstrate the good news about Jesus to our dark world.
Scripture tells us that,
“once we were not a people but now we are the people of God.” (1 Peter 2:10)
This is the church, the community of faith, built on the faithful following of the Lord Jesus Christ together. Since our community comes from the common experience of God’s loving presence with us through the Holy Spirit, we can love each other in real ways. We forgive, pray and encourage. We cook, paint and baby-sit. We laugh and cry together. We want this infectious love to overflow into our workplaces, neighborhoods and cities, changing them in the same way that God has changed us, so that they can also hear God say,
“I will be your God and you shall be My people.” (2 Corinthians 6:16)
As followers of Jesus, we are joined together as a church. This is vastly different from simply attending services. The Bible calls the church Christ’s body, and so the church cannot effectively do Christ’s work without the participation of all. What use is an arm or a leg all alone? Commitment to each other and to the Holy Spirit inspired mission of the church is vital in order to fulfill that mission. Scripture exhorts,
“As each one has received a gift, we must use it to serve one another.” (1 Peter 5:7)
So we are not ashamed to ask our members for time, energy, talents and money. On our part, we commit ourselves to faithfully train every member who desires to grow as Christ’s disciple and wants to be better equipped to serve others more effectively.
From the very beginning, the early church gathered daily in the Temple for worship and teaching from the Scriptures. They also broke bread in homes,
“with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God.” (Acts 2:46-47)
As we model our church gatherings on their example, we benefit in many ways. Our large gatherings emphasize celebratory worship, God’s direction for our church, and Bible teaching. When we meet in homes as small groups, we enjoy friendship, mentoring, Bible discussion and prayer. Small groups are also a perfect time to imitate the early church and break bread together. Joyfully, we know that as we worship in large or small gatherings, Jesus is there in the midst of us. In both settings, we welcome visitors, hoping that they too will experience the wonderful presence of the Lord.
We desire a church that reflects the culture of heaven where God is present and has gathered His people from
“every tribe, tongue, people and nation.” (Revelation 5:9)
Therefore, our church will make intentional efforts to welcome people from all nations. By training multinational leadership, indiscriminately sharing the good news of Jesus, and stressing our unity in the Holy Spirit while enjoying cultural differences, we hope to demonstrate the oneness Jesus procured for us through his death on the cross. (Ephesians 2:14) Joyful because Jesus promised that his good news would be preached to the whole world, we will participate in this mission with our prayers and resources. We send our members to serve the nations as we look forward to the day when Jesus
“will draw all peoples to himself.” (John 12:32)
As naturally as acorns fall from an oak tree, sprout and grow, we want many churches to grow from our one church. If one tree can provide shelter for many birds, how much more shelter can a forest provide? Of course many churches working together are more effective than only one. Since our mission is to make, baptize and teach as many disciples as we can, starting new churches is an excellent way to see God’s kingdom come. God loves cheerful giving. We can give away our equipped members and trained leaders by planting new churches and then train and equip more. This is an exciting way to experience Jesus’ teaching that the Kingdom of God begins like a tiny mustard seed but ends up as the largest tree. (Matthew 13:31-32)