Our purpose is to be a local expression of the family of God, on mission with God. 

Our mission is to love and obey Jesus and help others do the same.

You’ve probably been on a roadtrip or driven through your city before. Knowing where you’re headed gives purpose to every turn, toll, and stoplight. It enables you to make purposeful decisions that will get you closer to the final destination. Knowing where God wants us in the future gives purpose to where God has us in the present. It helps us make purposeful decisions that align with God’s overarching purposes for us.

Ephesians 4:15 is one of multiple passages that paint a clear picture of God’s vision for us. Paul says that the Church is “in all things grow(ing) up into Christ, who is the head.” Christ is the head of the Church, and the Church is his body. This means that the Church and Christ are intimately connected beyond our comprehension. God has made us one with Jesus, and his plan is that we would grow up to be totally like Christ. His vision for our future is that the Body would look like it goes with the Head.

First, it looks like embracing Jesus as our Life. Jesus describes the Christian life in terms of a branch and a vine (John 15:5). As the branch is connected to the vine and receives its life from the vine, so we receive our whole existence from Jesus. A life of growing up into Christ is one of looking to Jesus for everything we need, as he shares his life, identity, lifestyle, and blessings with us. This life of receiving everything from Jesus is the foundation of growing up to be like Jesus.

As we embrace Jesus as our life, we are becoming full of the Word and the Spirit. To be full of something is to be guided by that thing. Every decision Jesus made on earth was dictated by the Scriptures and the Spirit (Luke 4:1-13). A life of growing up into Christ looks like rejecting modern mindsets and instead, enjoying a life of being guided by the heart of God, made known to us through the Word of God and the Spirit of God.

As we embrace Jesus as our life, we are also walking out his unity with the family of God. Jesus has eternally lived in unity with God, he died for unity with humanity, and he prayed for his followers to experience this same unity with God and with God’s family (John 17:21). A life of growing up into Christ looks like being individuals who enjoy life together with other Christians, being households who walk arm-in-arm with the family of God, and being a church that partners with the “big C” Church in life and mission.

As we embrace Jesus as our life, we are growing in giving ourselves to God’s mission. This mission of bringing humanity into life with God was the reason Jesus came into the world, and he passes that same mission on to his followers (John 20:21). A life of growing up into Christ looks like having the sense that everywhere we go and everything we do has the God-given purpose of helping people come into life with God. We act on this sense of purpose by giving our time, energy, and resources to that mission.

God’s vision for you is to increasingly embody these values in more and better ways than you did before; this is what it means to grow up into Christ. Our life of purpose will be one of taking every step possible to look more like God’s vision of our future self: fully grown up into Christ.

Our core values are derived from our vision:

• Jesus: We enthusiastically embrace Jesus as our Lord and our Life.

• Word: We walk with an unwavering commitment to God’s word.

• Spirit: We look for God’s manifest presence by the Spirit in the Church.

• Family: We’re pleased to live as a family formed by God.

• Mission: We gladly give ourselves to Jesus’ mission of bringing God’s Good News to neighborhoods and nations.