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9:30 a.m.
Contemporary service
11:15 a.m.
Classic service
The first portion of this statement candidly answers the question: "Who are we?" We do not want to presume to be what we are not. We also want to testify that we are not done yet. So we are "living into being" who God is creating us to be. We are in process. We are expectant and dependent upon the transformation of the Holy Spirit. And we know that the Holy Spirit is shaping this group of people from all walks of life, from all levels of spiritual maturity, from all ages, from all ethnic backgrounds, into a community.
The second portion of this statement addresses the question, "What, then, are we called to be?" In a word, we are called to be disciples. But "disciple" is a difficult word for our contemporary society. In order to grasp the relational reality of who we are called to be, we speak in terms of being friends and followers of Jesus Christ. From Scripture, we see three components of this.
Grow in our understanding of loving and being loved by God through Jesus Christ.
Learn to love our neighbors and our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Share God's love for the world through service and witness in Christ's name.
The final phrase of our statement deals with the question of process, asking, "How are we to get where we are called to be?" Here we identify three steps in discipleship. The order of the steps are not fixed... they are not exhaustive, nor do they look the same for each of us. But we believe that this is our publicly understood pathway to maturing as friends and followers of Jesus Christ, both individually and corporately. These three steps, we have called:
Find identity and place in the love and worship of the Triune God and in community with other Christians.
Mature in our understanding of our God, ourselves, and the world in light of God's Word, God's Spirit, and God's Church.
Tend to the world and each other in stewardship, witness, and acts of compassion and justice.
