Our Mission
To engraft the believer into our local organized community of faith by rooting and establishing them in those things that bind Christians together in all places and times: Creed, Community, and Communion with the triune God.
Our Vision
Biblical Christianity must never be individualistic. This is why our mission is to bring the believer into our local community of faith. By definition, a biblical community of faith (a church) is not made up of a mixture of believers and unbelievers. However, the process of engrafting occurs as the Holy Spirit saves sinners and sends them into the local body of believers. Thus, the church must never to be stagnant or ingrown. Rather, it seeks to ably teach its members how to be faithful to their faith throughout the week in order that their witness in the world might be a means God uses to call people to himself and his church.This faithfulness to the faith comes in three basic dimensions. It has been this way since the inception of the church and will be this way until Christ returns for his bride. Thus, there are never new and inventive missions for God's people as they seek to be culturally "relevant." Instead, the church must be about the business of perpetuating the faith once for all delivered to the saints, as Jude 3 teaches us.
These dimensions constitute both a vertical and horizontal plane. The unique message of Christianity among all other forms of religion in the world is that God condescended to people who were not even able to stand in his holy presence. He communicated truth about his nature and his plan for his creation in ages to come. The supreme form of communication is embodied in the God-man Jesus Christ who is God in flesh, living and seated at the right hand of the Father. What we have today of God's revelation of himself stands in the form of the Holy Scripture which is fully able to make us wise unto salvation and to give us everything we could possibly need to know about our salvation and growth in it.
Thus, the vertical plane is a downward condescending of God to man and not an upward movement of man towards God. Believers of all ages then make it their business to know as much as they can about this God who so graciously reveals himself to them. This takes the form of both propositions to be believed from the Scripture (creeds) and worship to be given towards God as he continually reveals grace to them in the form of word and sacrament (communion with God). Thus, the first and greatest commandment is obeyed by believers throughout history as they love the Lord their God with all their hearts, minds, soul, and strength.
The other dimension of the faith is a horizontal dimension. It takes place as believers fellowship together with one another, always spurring each other on towards good works as they see the Day of the Lord approaching. It sees them taking care of each others physical and emotional needs and coming together to worship God. In this, community with each other is taught and the second commandment to love your neighbor as yourself is fulfilled. This is the mission of our church and is the mission of the Church given to her by God himself. What follows are summaries of our values as they embody these vertical and horizontal dimensions of biblical Christianity.
Our Purpose
Our purpose as a church is to glorify the triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit and to enjoy him forever. Everything we do is with this overriding desire. "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to Your name give glory" (Psalm 115:1). "Delight yourself in the LORD" (Psalm 37:4). Under this umbrella we have several underlying values.
Worship is foremost. We do not come to church primarily to feel better or be entertained, but to worship the one true and living God through the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit. We gather on the Lord's Day to give God the glory that is due to His name. In a day when most worship services are entertainment-oriented and man-centered, we strive to be reverent and God-centered. We are not interested in featuring popular personalities and introducing fashionable elements that the Bible does not allow. Also, instead of the light and frothy music of the modern church, our singing focuses on biblical and Reformed hymnody and the Psalms. The basic elements of true worship are: reading and exposition of the Scriptures; prayer; singing of psalms, hymns and spiritual songs; baptism and the Lord's Supper; giving of tithes and offerings. We seek to implement all of these elements in holy and joyful reverence. "Give unto the Lord the glory due to His name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness." (Psalm 29:2)
A second underlying purpose is edification of the body. The people of God need to be strengthened and built up in order to fight the good fight of faith and to resolutely live in a world that is not a friend to grace and godliness. The Christian life was not intended by God to be lived in isolation, but in the context of a visible body of believers called the church. Edification occurs through the public ministry of the Word and the mutual ministry of the members as they interact with one another on a daily basis (see Ephesians 4:12-16 & 1 Thessalonians 5:14). We labor to see Christians sanctified and homes ordered according to biblical principles. According to the predestinating purposes of God, we desire to see Christ formed in every member (Galatians 4:19) and every member conformed to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29).
Lastly, we wholeheartedly engage in biblical evangelism and missions. The Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15, 16; Luke 24:46, 47) is very precious to us. We do not believe there is an inconsistency between God's sovereignty in the salvation of His chosen people and His command to preach the gospel to every creature. We are appalled by the superficial work that goes on today under the name of evangelism. We reject unbiblical pressures, gimmicks and schemes that are calculated to produce impressive statistics and "decisions" that work havoc in the souls of people. Nevertheless, we long to see the unconverted convicted of sin through the preaching of the law and the gospel and brought to repentance and faith. We seek to press the claims of Christ on all the unsaved who sit in darkness and the shadow of death so that they, too, may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory (2 Timothy 2:10).