Core Commitments
By God�s grace everything in the life of this church will revolve around the reality of Jesus Christ � who He is, what He has done, what He is doing, and what He will do. In the words of the early Church �He is Lord� and will be recognized as such in this church with an absolute allegiance that lifts Him above all others in our hearts, in our homes, and in our congregation. It is His commands that we will obey, His warnings that we will heed, and His promises that we will hold. In every endeavor we will rely upon His power, cherish His presence, and honor His name. We will, in sum, love Him. (John 14:6)
In order to experience and enjoy the centrality of Christ in our congregational life, we will submit to the authority of the Scriptures. They will be the foundational source of information and direction guiding our exploration of Christ�s reality. The Bible will be used to determine our doctrine, to shape our practice, and even, when needed to settle our differences with the conviction that it is the very Word of God. In all the confusion of varied opinions and above all the claims of religious authority we will hold to the scriptures as the Truth for both faith and practice. In them God has spoken and to them we will listen. (2 Timothy 3:16, 17)
We will devote ourselves to prayer. In everything we will turn our hearts God-ward and make our requests known with a bold confidence in our Lord�s promise that �everyone who asks receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened." We will work with painstaking diligence and unrelenting perseverance at the full pursuit of that promise for God�s good in our lives and in the lives of those around us. Because there is so much that we cannot do and so much that He will do we will meet every desperate need, every heavy burden, every anxious worry and every deep desire with prayer. In all things we take it that our first task for God is to ask God. (Colossians 4:2)
Authenticity in our Spiritual Life
We are not here to pretend. We desire a real and genuine relationship with God and we will settle for nothing less. We recognize that means that we must be real and genuine in all our life toward God. As Jesus put it, �true worshipers will worship in spirit and truth, for such people the Father seeks to be his worshipers.� We are committed to being such people and will heed our Lord�s call to guard ourselves against all forms of hypocrisy. For us it is a simple matter: we want to live the full reality Jesus made known and there is only one way to really do that � and that is to live it from the heart. At a time when it is extremely hard to live authenticity and yet very easy to look authentic, we choose the hard course. We will live the God-ward life without pretense or we will not live it at all. (John 4:24)
Community in our Congregational Life
We will serve Christ together. We will practice the �one anothers� of Christian Fellowship. We will pray for one another, we will encourage one another, we will serve one another, even, if need be, we will admonish one another, and above all we will love one another. We believe in the reality and mystery of the Church as Christ�s body. We all are actually one with each of us individually and differently gifted for the good of all. We recognize that by God�s purpose and design the only way for us to grow personally and congregationally is to grow together. The promise in that reality is that as each does their part we will all become more like Christ. Toward that end we will each do our part for the good of all. (John 13:34, 35)
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