Community That Displays Christ

We labor to build communities from all cultures where Christ is King through…
· Truth That Transforms Lives
· Community That Displays Christ
· Prayer That Cries ‘Your Kingdom Come’
· Worship That Feeds The Soul
· Outreach That Welcomes Everybody In

We emphasize Community That Displays Christ through the following five distinctives:

1. Doctrinal Love – You cannot display Christ unless you know Him, and you can’t know Him (or yourself, or anything, for that matter) unless you understand Biblical doctrine. Biblical doctrine is simply another way of saying ‘the truths of the Bible’, and again, you can’t understand anything without them. The idea that doctrine is something just for Pastors and Theologians is dead wrong, and even deadly. God intended His truth to help everyone, from recovering crack addicts to recovering Pharisees. We believe that one of the primary ways God’s people help each other grow into a community that displays Christ is by talking about doctrine together. It is by speaking the truth to one another IN LOVE that we grow up into a community that puts Christ on display (Eph. 4:7-16, esp. verse 15). Understanding Jesus better cleans the mirror of our souls from false beliefs so that we can reflect Him better in our daily lives.

2. Practical Love – No one likes someone who is ‘all talk and no action’ and God is no exception (James 2). As a Church we want to be a people who are full of both Christ-centered talk and Christ-centered action. As such we make it our aim to meet needs. We want to meet the practical daily needs of all men, and especially those of the household of faith (Gal. 6:10). While everyone in the Church is deeply involved in this, it is the role of our Deacons to lead us in our goal of having “not a needy person among” us (1 Tim 3:8-13, Acts 4:34).

3. Multi-Cultural Love – Jesus said, “When I am lifted up from the earth, (I) will draw all people to myself” (John 12:32). Well, here we are two thousand years later and it is happening! Across the world people from Norway to Nicaragua all worship Jesus. Unfortunately they don’t seem to always be able to get along in the same Church. Sadly this is even true in America where, although people of many different cultures work together, they do not often worship together. The Church of the New Testament was different. They labored to help Hebrew Christians and Greek Christians get along (Acts 6). They taught one another, and loved one another so that Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians could welcome one another in fellowship (Eph 2:11-22, Romans 13-15). They even rebuked one another when ethnic division crept back in to the Church (Galatians 2:11-21). We want to do the same. Through our worship together, and our daily lives together we want to see love create a community from all cultures where Christ is King.

4. Disciplined Love – One of the most loving things we do as a Church is we practice Church discipline. Practicing Church discipline means that when we see a brother or a sister falling into sin we don’t stand idly by. No! We love them and we speak candidly to them about their sin. This is what Jesus told us to do (Matthew 18:15-17). He told us that when we see a brother in sin we are to confront them, we are to seek to restore them, we are to call for their repentance, and we are to love them so much that we call them back onto the narrow way that leads to life. If this fails then we to treat this person as an unbeliever. This is real love. It is love for the sinner who is wandering from the way of life. It is love for one another as we try to make sure that a little leaven doesn’t leaven the whole lump of the Church. And finally it is love for God who died to purify a people.

5. Converting Love – Why are we so concerned with being a people of doctrinal, practical, multi-cultural, and disciplined love? The reason is because we believe God uses communities like these to draw people to faith in Jesus. Jesus himself said that, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another (John 13:35)" Our love proves we are really following Jesus, and when we are full of unity and love this actually draws people to believe. This is why Jesus prayed that the Church, “may all be one, so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:21) And this is why he taught that we are to, “Matthew 5:16 let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). Our love and unity affects our evangelism. Our unity and love draws people to Christ that is why it is so important to us.