ABOUT US |
CORE VALUES Depth: Our mantra we constantly push, and something that must be burnt onto our hearts, is that we never want to play the “church game”. We know that there’s a difference between merely attending Church and truly following Jesus. And at the end of the day, we would rather have a few who are willing to dive deep in their faith rather than thousands who remain shallow. We know that following religion is easy, but the cost of following Jesus and taking him seriously is more difficult. To this end we run away from anything that draws us away from Jesus and we run towards those things that pull us towards him. We want to constantly be unsatisfied with where we are spiritually and always yearning for more of Jesus. Community: We believe that life is done best in small community. Why? Because small communities forces honesty and openness between people. When you know me and I know you, we can’t pretend to be people that we are not – and so growth continues. We want to be a place where we can move past the surface-level of relationships and laugh together, cry together, encourage, rebuke and sharpen each other. Service: We believe that God has given you your gifts, time, talents and abilities for His kingdom and to push back the darkness. Those things that God has given to you are not meant to terminate on you, but given to you to push back on others. We believe that God has gifted each person differently and with different set of skills, abilities, talents, and spiritual gifts. Therefore you do not have to be like the next person…but you can use your uniqueness to further the kingdom. Truth: All of scripture is inerrant (without error in its original language), sufficient for all of life and holds the authority of God. We believe that scripture leads us to the person and life of Jesus Christ in whom we diligently follow and chase after. We know that there are hard things in the Bible and yet we unapologetically preach and teach from it. We do not shy away from difficult text and we teach the full counsel of scripture to our youth. Missions: We believe that some are on missions overseas…yes, but we understand missions as where God has placed you according to Acts 17. God has determined the times and places which he has placed you and the youth. This means there are no accidents and that God has placed you here for a specific purpose. Wherever you are, wherever you go…that is your missions field (the gym, Starbucks, the grocery store, the movies…). Discipleship: Discipleship isn’t a one-time deal with a popular book. Discipleship is someone following after your footsteps. When Jesus led his disciples they observed everything that he did – his motivations, the way he reacted, learned from his teachings, etc. He led with this life and the disciples were always with him. Discipleship is mentorship for the cause of someone taking your place. So we disciple those under us so they might act and learn from us…as we learn and live like Christ. Prayer: This is something we’re trying to stress more with our youth group. We say that we can plan a stinkin’ awesome youth program and work our guts out…but unless God shows up and changes lives, then it’s all worthless. We’re so dependent on him that we need to constantly beg for him to move not just in our activities and programs, but more importantly our lives. |