Our Purpose:
To Celebrate God’s Presence;
Transform Lives in Christ; and
Reach Out through the Holy Spirit.
Our Aspirations:
We Celebrate God’s Presence through Christian Formation, such as praying, worshipping, celebrating the sacraments, being good stewards, cultivating our spirituality, learning more about who we are called to be as disciples of Jesus Christ, and continually seeking the will of God.
We Transform lives through God-centered ministries which call each of us to be ministers and missionaries, encouraging and equipping us for the tasks God is calling us to participate within, all along weaving us together into the Body of Christ.
We Reach Out through the Holy Spirit to our neighbors and the world in the name of the Living God, being faithful evangelists of God’s grace, even at the risk of our institutional and personal lives.
Two Year Congregational Mission and Leadership Goals (2005-2007):
Our Priorities, in order, will be to our Purpose, the People of God, Programs of the church, and lastly Property.
Our budget shall reflect our priorities.
We will make clear our expectations, and the resources to help people discover, claim, nurture, and enact their Christian life.
We will do well what we can do and with what God provides.
We will embrace the taking of necessary bold steps in order to fulfill our purpose as the Church of Jesus Christ called to this particular mission and ministry.
We will seek partnerships in mission and ministry, widening the circle of God’s grace.
We will partner with the Presbytery in learning more about natural church development and how we may implement it for our congregation.
We understand we cannot be, and we will not try to be, all things to all people.
Our Guiding Scripture:
From the Letter of St James to the dispersed Christians in the world, 2:14-26 (The Message translation):
Dear friends, do you think you'll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? [15] For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved [16] and say, "Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!" and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup—where does that get you? [17] Isn't it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense?
[18] I can already hear one of you agreeing by saying, "Sounds good. You take care of the faith department, I'll handle the works department."
Not so fast. You can no more show me your works apart from your faith than I can show you my faith apart from my works. Faith and works, works and faith, fit together hand in glove.
[19] Do I hear you professing to believe in the one and only God, but then observe you complacently sitting back as if you had done something wonderful? That's just great. Demons do that, but what good does it do them? [20] Use your heads! Do you suppose for a minute that you can cut faith and works in two and not end up with a corpse on your hands?
[21] Wasn't our ancestor Abraham "made right with God by works" when he placed his son Isaac on the sacrificial altar? [22] Isn't it obvious that faith and works are yoked partners, that faith expresses itself in works? That the works are "works of faith"? [23] The full meaning of "believe" in the Scripture sentence, "Abraham believed God and was set right with God," includes his action. It's that mesh of believing and acting that got Abraham named "God's friend." [24] Is it not evident that a person is made right with God not by a barren faith but by faith fruitful in works?
[25] The same with Rahab, the Jericho harlot. Wasn't her action in hiding God's spies and helping them escape—that seamless unity of believing and doing—what counted with God? [26] The very moment you separate body and spirit, you end up with a corpse. Separate faith and works and you get the same thing: a corpse.
