Community Church

Why We’re Here - Our Purpose

We exist to display the glory of God in a loving family of faith through passionate worship, transformative teaching, deepening fellowship, Spirit-empowered service, and relevant outreach in our own community and around the world.

Each of the phrases in the above statement was carefully chosen as explained below:

Our ultimate purpose:

• “to display the glory of God” … Glorifying God should be our first aim in everything we do as individuals and as a church, since that is what God designed us to do (Ephesians 1:11-12).

The central way we at Community Church glorify God:

• “in a loving family of faith” … “Family” is a word that our members frequently use to describe our church.  We do not, however, want to be just any family; we want to be a loving family that is united by our common faith in Christ (John 13:35; Matthew 12:49-50; John 1:12-13; 1 Timothy 3:15). 

How our family of faith strives to function: 

• “passionate worship” … We want to worship with enthusiasm and heart-felt affection for God – not just with our lips but with our lives.
• “transformative teaching” … Our teaching should transform lives as we proclaim Christ crucified in the power of the Spirit (2 Corinthians 2:1-5; Colossians 1:28-29).  God’s Word is powerful and effective (2 Timothy 3:16-17).  The Holy Spirit uses it to change lives, and we should expect that to happen in response to our teaching (Isaiah 55:10-11; Romans 12:2).
• “deepening fellowship” … This means that we need to go beneath the surface in order to really get to know each other’s joys, pains, dreams, and struggles and help each other follow Christ more deeply.
• “Spirit-empowered service” … Human-empowered service will fail to produce eternal blessings, so we want to serve according to the gifts, direction, and power that the Holy Spirit provides (1 Corinthians 12:7, 11).
• “relevant outreach” … We want to communicate the unchanging message of Christ in a way that people understand (1 Corinthians 9:22; Matthew 5:16). 
• “in our own community and around the world” … Missions is not just “over there” somewhere.  It’s right here, too.  We want to maintain a biblical balance in reaching people for Christ.

Where We’re Going - Our Vision

• Growing the Family - We want believers and non-believers from all different walks of life to experience authentic, loving relationships in the family of God. 
• Transforming Lives - We want to provide a casual, welcoming environment in which people learn to know God better and experience his transforming power so that they move from ignorance to understanding, slavery to freedom, and corruption to Christlikeness. 
• Doing Missions - We want to help everyone become a “world Christian” who strives to make disciples among every tribe, tongue, people, and nation – starting in our own community. 

Who We Are - Our Core Values

• God-entranced … keeping God at the center of everything we do and say)
• Bible-grounded … staying in step with the Scriptures. 
• Love-saturated … doing everything in love.
• Culturally-sensitive … becoming all things to all people so that we might help them follow Jesus.
• Believer-equipping … planning Sunday morning worship to help believers in Jesus grow in their faith.
• Family-supportive … encouraging families to experience God together on Sunday and during the week.
• Elder-led … valuing shared leadership at “the top.”
• Missions-driven … focusing resources on spreading the gospel among those who don’t know Jesus.
• Team-based … working together to accomplish more than we could do alone.
• Theology-deepened … learning more about God as revealed in the truths of Scripture.

What We Believe - Our Statement of Faith

• The Bible is the Word of God, fully inspired and without error in the original texts, and is the supreme authority for Christian faith and living.  
• God exists eternally in three persons:  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; and has revealed Himself to be perfect in love, righteous in all His ways, and  creator of all things.
• Jesus Christ is God’s eternal son.  As true God and true man, He was born of a virgin, taught men how to live through His sinless life, was crucified as a sacrifice for our sins, arose bodily from the dead, was seen by over 500 persons, and returned to heaven to prepare a place for us.
• Men and women are sinners by nature and by choice, and are therefore under condemnation.  Through repentance and personal faith in Jesus Christ, we are forgiven our sins, reborn by the Holy Spirit, and we become children of God.
• The Holy Spirit persuades us to repent of our sins and confess Jesus as Lord.  He lives in us, teaches us, and empowers us to live godly lives for Christ.
• The church is the living body of Christ on earth.  He is its Head and the source of its life.  The local body is comprised of those who have received Christ as Savior and Lord and have publicly confessed Christ through baptism.   
• Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the triune God.  The Lord’s Supper was instituted by Christ in remembrance of His death and our life in Him.  These two ordinances are to be observed by the church until the return of Jesus Christ. 
• Jesus Christ will personally and visibly return to earth to raise the dead, judge the world, and establish His glorious Kingdom.  This is the hope of the church and its encouragement for ministry.  Those who have been reborn will live with Him forever.