Vision & Process
Our vision is to love God, love others and make a difference.
When Jesus was asked about the greatest commandment, he said “love the Lord your God with al your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and Prophets hang on these two commandments (Matthew 22:37-40 NIV).“
He summed up the entire biblical approach to living in relationship with God with these two commands.
When I think about the natural progression of spirituality it stems from this process. The more we learn about God’s love for us the deeper our love for him develops. God has always desired us to love Him. He is a jealous God who desires the praises of His people. Through our own intimate relationship with God we better understand how to extend love to those who live and work around us.
While learning about God we understand that lost people matter to God, and if they matter to God, they better matter to us. Out of the love for Him we are compelled to love others just as he loves them. God wants his love for us to be contagious in our relationships with others. This love we extend is not just an emotion or expression; it is a real action taking love.
When he (Jesus) saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd (Matthew 9:36 NIV). The words “had compassion” refer more to action than emotion. It was out of Jesus view of the people he saw a need and was compelled to take action.
When we look around we see people who are far from God in every city. Sinful people are everywhere. These are the people that Jesus would want us to reach. Our goal is to reach the non-Christian and we will be intentional about this every step of the way.
Our plan is to move to the city and begin the process of building a team of people who love God, love others and make a difference.
When we are in a growing relationship with God and are intentionally surrounding ourselves with lost people and are willing to “have compassion” and take action, we believe we can make a difference in the lives of people. What’s more we want to make a difference in our city. Like the first church we do not believe it is acceptable for children to go to sleep hungry. We want to help the homeless, the needy, and the sinful. We will love God, love others and make a difference.
Our process is our plan for helping people grow in a relationship with Jesus. We want to do three things really well: Gatherings, Groups and Go Teams.
1. Love God (God Stalkers) through our Gatherings
We are assuming a majority of people will enter the process through our Sunday Gatherings. Our hope is we will reach “unchurched” people so our services will be designed from the perspective of the “unchurched”. If we can remove the barriers that keep people away from God, we feel they will be more willing see, hear and feel His grace and ultimately know His love.
We all have our own imperfections but some people know nothing of God’s grace. Helping people know His love and grace will be a priority in our Sunday morning service.
Loving someone is difficult enough, but loving someone you can’t physically see, touch or even hear presents other obstacles. Learning how to love God will be part of our design.
2. Love Others (Grace Dispensers) through Groups
Groups are the next step. Our hope is to engage all people through the group setting. Groups (8-12 people) will meet in homes and in the community to dive deeper into loving God, loving others and making a difference.
We were never meant to do life alone. Learning how to live in a loving relationship with others will be key. In the context of our groups relationships are vital. We will design our groups for authenticity, safety, fun and loving relationships.
Each group will be an extension of the Sunday message asking and answering the questions: How does this help/inspire me to love God? What does this say about loving others? How can I use this to make a difference with others and my community? Our hope is the group setting will provide that platform that inspires people to live out our vision within the greater community.
3. Make A Difference (Guerilla Lovers) Through Go Teams
When it comes to faith we believe everyone has a place on the team. The Christian faith is not for spectators. The next step is to allow your love for God and love for others to make a difference.
Through missional events and go teams we provide opportunities to engage our people to take the next step. Our hope is to engage all people on a team serving in some capacity.
Through these opportunities not only will we feel a sense of purpose and belonging but also we will be helping those we serve begin the process by demonstrating the love of God. Thus our process becomes contagious and cyclical.
