Who Are We?

Who Are We?

Here’s a bit about us and what we believe….

Our Church’s Vision Statement:

Rooted in the Word and in worship, we strive to be a vibrant community shining the light of Christ into the world around us.

We developed that statement a few years ago as the result of a number of discernment workshops that aimed to have our church’s purpose distilled into a single sentence.

We are a community that is seeking to know Jesus Christ. As followers of Jesus, we understand that our lives are meant to be lived in relationship with him.

The question that naturally arises out of that statement is: “Well, what does that look like”?

Here’s a glimpse!

It looks like recognizing how we are first loved by him. One of the great visionaries and earliest writers about our faith, the Apostle Paul, wrote that “…Christ Jesus has made me his own” (Philippians 3:12). In other words, God loves creation so much that he gave up everything in order to be in relationship with us. He came to be one of us through his Son, Jesus, thereby standing in solidarity with us. If you want to know more about that, please pick up the phone and give us a shout. You bring the questions, we’ll bring the coffee (or tea).

Being in relationship with God through Jesus Christ means that we welcome the Holy Spirit into our lives, asking and entrusting the Spirit to empower us to love God and one another. If you’d like to know more about that, please see the above blurb. We’ll still bring the coffee. And maybe a danish or two.

All of this means that, while we’re far from perfect people, we commit ourselves to being Jesus’ hands and heart to those around us. We try and see the world as he sees it: the amazing creation that is so wonderful to him that he died in order to bring it healing, and to save it from death. We trust that Jesus is always calling us to fall deeper in love with him, and that, when we have faith in him, he can do works of love, mercy, and peace through us that are “more than we can ask or imagine”. We wish that we could take credit for that poetic way of describing God’s power, but we have to say that Paul wrote that, too.

And it means that we rely on grace, which is the love of God poured out upon the world through Jesus. The good news of his gospel is that we have life with him — that we can be transformed from the inside out when we live in relationship with him. That’s the wonderful invitation of the gospel. A part of our regular Sunday morning worship claims that “he invites sinners, and welcomes them to his table”. We come to his table because we’ve heard that invitation and we know we need it. Somehow, some part of us recognizes that we can’t make it on our own, and we need the kind of love, mercy, and purpose in our lives that only Jesus can provide.

Some of the ways that we live in relationship with Jesus are through praying and worshiping together, through the ministries we run and that we are involved with in Parkland County and abroad, and through studying God’s Word through different Bible studies and education groups. But living in relationship with Jesus isn’t something that can be summed up in a little blurb. It’s a way of life. So, the best answer that we can give to those who are interested is “…come and see”. Philip, one of Jesus’ first followers, said that to Nathaniel, a fellow who was wondering if Jesus could possibly be who he claimed to be.

It appears as though all the good lines have been taken already. You can find them all in the Bible, if you’re interested. Because, y’know… we aren’t claiming to be original — we’re just trying to be faithful.

If you’d like to know more about us, come on by. Although if you’d like a danish, too, you’ll need to call first, so we can run out and pick some up. 😉 

(the quotes are, in order: Philippians 3:12, Ephesians 3:20, and John 1:46).

The picture that you see above is a quilt that hangs in the church. It was made by several women in the parish. The little triangle that you see in the bottom right corner was purposefully sewn differently. It symbolizes how we are confronted with our our imperfections before Christ, who has shown perfect love through his cross. And how, in our brokenness, we are called into relationship with God to find healing and life through his perfect love.