A Growing Community of People Learning to Love Jesus
Let’s break it down into its component parts (not necessarily in the order above!):
Community – The early church was characterized by a real sense of community, people sharing their lives and resources with each other voluntarily—not because someone was telling them they had to. Rather, a genuine love for Christ flowed from their hearts, and it was demonstrated by a genuine, caring concern for others.
People – The church is people, individuals who are cultivating a relationship with the God of the universe, people who have been freed from guilt and shame through the forgiveness that is in Christ Jesus, and who are being changed by the grace of God.
Growing – Our community needs to grow, because all living things grow. We can think of this in many ways: individual spiritual growth; numerical growth as more people come into the kingdom of God and into the church; growth in relationships, and so on.
Learning – The Christian life is about far more than taking in knowledge, but it is never about less. We believe that it is critical for Christians to learn the truth of God’s Word, because in learning the truth of God’s Word, they will learn how God designed them to live.
Jesus – Jesus Christ is the focus of our lives, and He is the focus of our church. He is the pre-eminent object of our worship, and the pre-eminent focus of our love.
Love – Everything comes down to truly loving Jesus more, for when we grow in our love for Jesus, we’ll grow in our obedience to Jesus, and the more we grow to obey Jesus, the more that obedience will change us and impact others.
Our focus in 2009 is to become this growing community of people who are learning to love Jesus, and we invite you to join us on our journey!
