Reaching and serving with the love and compassion of Christ.
Our mission goals:
1. Reach out to all - to those who know Christ and to those who don't. For those who don't we seek to fulfill the words of Jesus in the great commission:
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
Matt 28.19-20
For those who do know Christ we want to make them an active part of our local family, following, in this 21st century, the practice of the 1st century church of preaching, teaching and fellowshipping together:
They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
Acts 2.42
2. Service according to His call: Jesus gave us an example of serving one another; and we want to follow his lead as he instructed:
[Jesus speaking about his act of service to the disciples:]
I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.
John 13.15
Scripture also teaches that God as given gifts to be used in the building of the Church, which is the body of Christ. We want to use those gifts for the purposes he gave them:
...to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.
Eph 4.12
3. All done with the Love and Compassion of Christ
The supreme demonstration of Christ's love for us was His gift of true life made possible by the laying down of his own life:
Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
John 15.13
Many companies have made the point that they provide "service with a smile" because there is truly a noticeable difference when the service provider serves with a positive attitude or a negative one. Likewise there is truly a difference in the feel, attitude and life of people and particularly a church when they serve out of different motives. Some serve due to a legalistic need for righteousness; others serve simply to win your soul; others do it for some sort of profit. And while we indeed want to be righteous, and yes we want to win souls, and though we will get spiritual gain from it; none of those are our primary motivation. Our primary motiviation is to show God's love and compassion in all we do. Because Jesus said it best:
"By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
John 13.35 |
