Missional: We embrace a missionary understanding of the local church and its role as the primary means by which God establishes his kingdom.
The Scriptures reveal a God on mission, sending his Son to seek and save what has been lost, and then sending his Spirit to empower his people to carry on his mission. In the life and ministry of Jesus, and through his death and resurrection, the Kingdom of God is breaking into this world. The church has a clear biblical mandate to look beyond its own community to the neighborhood, the nation, and the world as a whole; thus, mission is not an optional program in the church but an essential element in the identity of the church. We are called to make Christ known through the gospel and, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to bring his lordship to bear on every dimension of life. The primary way we fulfill this mission is through making disciples, training leaders, forming missional communities, and planting churches that plant churches. Our aim is that Jesus Christ would be more fully formed in each person through the ministry of those churches God enables us to plant around the world. We also believe we are responsible neither to retreat from our culture nor to conform to it, but with humility, through the Spirit and the truth of the gospel, to engage it boldly as we seek its transformation and submission to the lordship of Christ.
02 | Missional
May 15, 2022 • Gabe Shippam
07 | On Politics and Power
June 26, 2022 • Steve Hart
On Politics and Power: We affirm the need for Christian civic and political involvement to be marked by a thoughtful, intentional, and theologically-informed cultivation of good citizenship. While our primarily allegiance is to Jesus and His Kingdom, we believe we are called to honor our political leaders as servants of God. We are to be marked by reasonableness, gentleness, and common courtesy, resisting the temptation to speak evil of anyone or to misrepresent the perspectives of those with whom we disagree. We are called to be salt and light in the world, people of deep virtue and abundant good works. Like our King, we are to use whatever power or privilege we’ve been graciously given to serve all people. And we are to root our identity, security, and hope in the good news of the gospel, freeing us to devote ourselves to good works, especially toward the most urgent needs of our world.
06 | On Sexuality and Gender
June 19, 2022 • Steve Hart
On Sexuality and Gender: We affirm a historic Christian view of the goodness of the human body, the purposeful creation of humans as male or female, and the sacredness of the marriage covenant between a man and a woman, designed by God to signify the relationship between Christ and his Church. Sexual intimacy is intended by God to enjoyed within that covenant. We believe sin has impacted every aspect of creation, including human sexuality, and that same-sex sexual desire and incongruence between one’s biological sex and one’s gender identity was never a part of God’s intention for humanity. Through Christ, God is redeeming his people, and empowers us by His Spirit to a life of increasing holiness, conforming to the image of Christ, including the redemption of our sexuality and sexual desires. Because we belong to Jesus, we are called to turn away from thoughts, actions, desires, or behaviors that do not align with God’s intentions for human sexuality. In the church — which is the Family of God — relationships of mutual interdependence and non-sexual intimacy ought to abound, so that all people experience the reality of our shared identity as brothers and sisters as we yearn toward holiness together.
05 | Complementarian
June 12, 2022 • Steve Hart
Complementarian: We are deeply committed to the equality of men and women, to the shared identity of brothers and sisters in Christ, and to the complementary roles of men and women in marriage and the church. Both men and women are created in the image of God and are therefore equal before God as persons, possessing the same moral dignity and value, and have equal access to God through faith in Christ. In the church, men and women relate to one another primarily as brothers and sisters, in relationships marked by honor, care, and sacrifice for one another. Men and women are together charged with the Great Commission, and are recipients of spiritual gifts designed to empower them for ministry in the church and world. Therefore, men and women are to be encouraged, equipped, and empowered to utilize their gifting in ministry, in service to the body of Christ and in mission to the world. While both husbands and wives are responsible to God for spiritual nurture and vitality in the home, God has given to the man primary responsibility for his wife and family in accordance with the servanthood and sacrificial love characterized by Jesus Christ. This principle of male headship should not be confused with, nor give any hint of, domineering control. Rather, it is to be the loving, tender, and nurturing care of a godly man who is himself under the kind and gentle authority of Jesus Christ. Men of qualified character may serve as elders of the local church, overseeing, shepherding, and protecting the church family under the headship of Jesus Christ. Both qualified men and qualified women may serve as deacons, leading ministry teams according to role and gifting.