“I had always,” wrote G. K. Chesterton, “felt life first as a story, and if there is a story, there is a story-teller.”
We are all carefully placed in a larger story than our own. It’s only when we hear the voice of the Story-teller that we learn to find our place in the larger narrative. We believe in the power of the Gospel story — that God uses it to redeem, repair, and restore broken narratives into a deeper and more compelling narrative.
We live in a disenchanted world — a modern world many deem to be absent of the sacred. This absence we observe in the hollowness of our wonder that’s been replaced with an eye of skepticism. But in the words of Wendell Berry, there are no unsacred places; there are only sacred places and desecrated places. For every soul — skeptical or filled with wonder — is made in the image of the God of sacred wonder. Our aim is to offer spaces for sacred friendships and bonds. For all of us bring stories filled with fractures, wounds, regrets, mistakes, and misplaced trust. But we know of a Story that covers over missed opportunities and gaping holes. Our deep desire is to bring to convergence broken narratives with this greater and sacred Story of the Gospel.
As author Sally Lloyd-Jones writes, the Gospel “is an adventure story where the Hero comes from a far country to win back his treasure. A love story where a Brave Prince leaves his palace, his throne — everything — to rescue the one he loves. ... [A]nd it takes the whole Bible to tell this Story.” Only a story so drastic and radical has the power to guide the journey of the traveler whose feet have been shaped by the contours of this disenchanted world. The celestial city may seem too distant, as the weight of days meet us in heavy dread.
But that distant traveler from a far country comes to meet us in our stumbling and weariness. As He’s examined each footstep of our journey, He invites us to observe His journey up a hill on a dark Friday afternoon. For the central promise of God’s Story is that He is with us. He’s with us in our moments turned patterns of brokenness and hurts, and we’re with Him in His Story of upside down victory and hope. This convergence takes what the Bible calls faith. And while some call it a leap into the dark, we’d like to say it’s a leap into the light. For there was only one who truly leapt into the dark, and yet the darkness did not overcome Him.
We are a mixture of puzzle pieces finding our placement in the mess of everyday reality. But we trust that Jesus is with us in our navigating, and this navigation occurs through the weekly re-telling of His Story — for forgiveness, acceptance, transformation, and renewal. Everybody needs a redemption story, and it starts with the acknowledgement that we are not the solution to our own problems. Yet, we know the one who is, and it’s His Story we continue to tell. G. K. Chesterton writes: “Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.” Each week, we tell the Story of the great dragon slayer who defeated the ancient dragon once and for all. For we live in a world in desperate need of change. And while our words and promises are often transient and hollow, Jesus’ are indelibly marked on the palms of his Hands. For the Word become flesh, and it’s Him and His story we are committed to telling.
As author Sally Lloyd-Jones writes, the Gospel “is an adventure story where the Hero comes from a far country to win back his treasure. A love story where a Brave Prince leaves his palace, his throne — everything — to rescue the one he loves. ... [A]nd it takes the whole Bible to tell this Story.” Only a story so drastic and radical has the power to guide the journey of the traveler whose feet have been shaped by the contours of this disenchanted world. The celestial city may seem too distant, as the weight of days meet us in heavy dread.
But that distant traveler from a far country comes to meet us in our stumbling and weariness. As He’s examined each footstep of our journey, He invites us to observe His journey up a hill on a dark Friday afternoon. For the central promise of God’s Story is that He is with us. He’s with us in our moments turned patterns of brokenness and hurts, and we’re with Him in His Story of upside down victory and hope. This convergence takes what the Bible calls faith. And while some call it a leap into the dark, we’d like to say it’s a leap into the light. For there was only one who truly leapt into the dark, and yet the darkness did not overcome Him.
We are a mixture of puzzle pieces finding our placement in the mess of everyday reality. But we trust that Jesus is with us in our navigating, and this navigation occurs through the weekly re-telling of His Story — for forgiveness, acceptance, transformation, and renewal. Everybody needs a redemption story, and it starts with the acknowledgement that we are not the solution to our own problems. Yet, we know the one who is, and it’s His Story we continue to tell. G. K. Chesterton writes: “Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.” Each week, we tell the Story of the great dragon slayer who defeated the ancient dragon once and for all. For we live in a world in desperate need of change. And while our words and promises are often transient and hollow, Jesus’ are indelibly marked on the palms of his Hands. For the Word become flesh, and it’s Him and His story we are committed to telling.
Our mission is to be a community formed, shaped, and animated by the power of the Gospel.
Our values describe how we behave as a community formed, shaped, and animated by the power of the Gospel.
1. Gospel Centrality
Our conviction is in the centrality of the Gospel in all of Scripture contained in the Old and New Testaments (Lk 24:27). We believe that the Gospel has recalibrating power in our wavering and missteps, in order to center and posture us rightly as individuals and a community before our God. Our commitment is to be centered in the Gospel message in our ministry. And by doing so, our aim is to provide a compass to guide home those wayward and to provide an anchor for those drifting through the assurance found in the unshifting promises of God. For we all lose track of our steps and sight of our God from time to time. But with a weekly commitment to preaching Christ and His Gospel message, we participate in the regular work of recalibration toward the haven of God’s grace.
2. Gospel Community
We are all created for community. With the Gospel, there is a centripetal force and power that assembles us toward this need, as it gathers in people of differences who find commonality in something more deeply binding. With Christ as our cornerstone, the church becomes a community of living stones (1 Pet 2:4) positioned not only in dependence upon Jesus but in interdependence upon one another. We aim to be a community that engages in all that encompasses loving one another (Jn 13:34-35), so that the world may know through our countercultural communing that we belong to Jesus. And as we continue to form common Gospel habits in community, our desire is to be shaped and formed into a living entity that reverberates with the energy of grace.
3. Gospel Culture
The culture is the air we breathe. Our desire is to be a church that’s driven to movement not by the law or by works but by the power of grace. For our belief is that there is power in the Gospel of Jesus (1 Cor 1:18). Our aim is to be a church that expresses our deepest need for Jesus and His grace regularly and together, as forgetful sinners in perpetual need of being reminded of our Gospel reprieve. With a regular commitment to confession, repentance, and restoration, our desire is to provide an atmosphere where we might breathe in air that isn’t suffocating or toxic — but rather, that we might breathe in from the atmosphere of grace what’s life-giving and liberating. That the space we create in our community might be the sacred space where Jesus breathes life into our developing of gospel culture, with regular reminders and practices of grace and kindness.
4. Gospel Partnership
With the Gospel, there is also a centrifugal force and power that compels us toward the mission of God. Our conviction is that we don’t do this alone but together — alongside local congregations and ministries in our city and county while also in accountability and partnership with our broader denomination and sister churches. In our relationships, in our communities, and in our city, our aim is to confront the altars of idolatry that surround us. And from there, it’s our conviction that God’s grace charges us toward renewal and restoration (Rom 12:1-2) through observing his initiating movement toward us. As we speak and engage in Gospel fluency, it’s our desire to join in on the Gospel renewal in our relationships, our community, our neighborhoods, and our city.
We belong as a member church in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). We affirm the statements of faith expressed in the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed, along with our confessional beliefs expressed in the Westminster Standards.