Our Purpose, Mission and Values

• Imago Dei Christian CommunityWe are a small community of evangelical protestant Christian believers associated with the Missionary Churches of USA. (click HERE to hyperlink to denomination)

Mission – To Proclaim, Demonstrate, and Celebrate God and His kingdom in order to bring glory to His name, manifest His kingdom purposes and values in concrete measures, reconcile people to God, and to transform His people into the image of Jesus Christ.

To fulfill our mission we commit ourselves to the following values:

Spirituality

• We value intimacy with and passion for our God. We seek to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and to see His life permeate every aspect of our lives. All that we will do or become must flow from our union with God, viz. our living from the Vine (Mk 12:29-31; Jn 15:1-8,16).


• We value the pursuit of becoming like Christ in our purpose, character, and actions. More of Christ in us will mean more of His kingdom through us. Moreover, we recognize that being like Christ doesn’t just make us more spiritual - it makes us most human. Thus, we are committed to exercising and incorporating the contemplative practices and beliefs of our Christian heritage on a regular and frequent basis so that Christ may be formed in us. (2 Cor. 3:18; Eph. 4:24; 2 Peter 1:4)


• We are committed to experiencing and ministering in the fullness of Christ, including all the spiritual gifts God gives our church. This includes: praying for physical, emotional, and relational healing; receiving and sharing specific and sometimes personally addressed messages from God to others or the church; receiving supernatural measures of God’s character such as faith, hope, love, joy, peace, patience, etc. These gifts and manifestations of the Spirit are to be implemented as they are appropriate for building up the body and serving the community (Rom. 12:3-13; 1 Cor. 12-14; Eph. 4:11-16)


• We are committed to the priority of worship as God’s Kingdom people. Therefore, we agree with A. W. Tozer when we states: We’re here to be worshippers first and workers only second. ... God meant that a convert should learn to be a worshipper, and after that learn to be a worker…(It is) out of enraptured, admiring, adoring, worshipping souls, then, God does His work. The work done by a worshipper will have eternity in it.

Community

• We are committed to forming a community of small groups. We believe that it is in the safe, authentic, and interdependent environment of a small group that people grow deep soulfully and relationally (Acts 2:42ff. and 4:32ff). It will be in the contexts of small groups that wounds are healed, sin is addressed, and wholeness in Christ is restored.


• We value becoming an authentic community, where genuine and life-giving relationships will create transformational communities. We are committed to loving one another through being real, truthful, and compassionate. Our oneness in Christ will contribute not only to our depth and health as Christians, but will also serve to generate a greater impact in the world (Jn 17:23; Heb. 10:24-25; 2 Tim. 3:10-11)


• We recognize that all persons are made in the image of God and are to reflect that image in the community of believers. Therefore, we seek to be an incarnational community who embodies Christ to our world in concrete and practical measures. We will seek intentional means, as a community, to express Christ’s compassion, unconditional love and radical truth to a hurting and lost society. (Jn. 13:35; 15:8; 17:21-23; 1 Peter 2:11-12)


• We aim to be a prophetic community in which we live out Christ’s life communally in the world, while not being of it (Jn 17:14-18; 1 Peter 2:11-12). And that by being salt and light (Mt. 5:13-14) we will proclaim, demonstrate, and offer a radically different and “alternative” life which will draw men and women into the kingdom God.


• We value the equality, freedom, and responsibility of all persons. We take seriously the notion of the “priesthood of all believers” (1 Pet. 2:5,9; Rev. 5:10) and therefore, believe all people have a voice and take a shared responsibility in building community, reaching the lost, and redeeming the culture (Eph 4:15-16; Matt 28:16-20).


• We also believe that Christian Leadership is an issue of function, not status. Thus, we value Leader – Member interdependence and a ‘flattened out’ hierarchy of leadership and government.

Mission

• We value being a missional church (Jn 15:16; 20:21; Matt. 28:16-20; Acts 1:8), rather than an attractional church. Much of our efforts to reach the lost will be through each member’s sphere of influence and relationships and not large events.


• We value the centrality of worship in our kingdom mission. We believe that: Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man… Worship therefore, is the fuel and goal of missions. It’s the goal of missions because in missions we simply aim to bring the nations into the white-hot enjoyment of God’s glory… But worship is also the fuel of missions. Passion for God in worship precedes the offer of God in preaching. You can’t commend what you don’t cherish …Missions begins and ends in worship. - John Piper (Ps. 96:1-3)


• We are committed to the full mission of God that seeks the establishment of His Shalom, Reconciliation, Justice, and Righteousness among His creation, as well as the restoration of the Imago Dei in His people. (Isaiah 61:1-3; Prov. 31:8-9; Micah 4:1-5; Amos 5:24; Matt. 25:31-46; 2 Cor 5.17-20; Rev. 11.15b; Rev. 21:1-5)


• Therefore, we seek to focus our mission toward:


• The glory of God’s name - AND


• The transformation and restoration of souls – AND


• The healing of persons – AND


• The redemption of society and creation


• We are committed to the multiplication of smaller churches characterized by deep relationships and spiritual maturity rather than creating one larger entity that may prohibit the kind of Christian community the scriptures describe.


• We value interdependent partnerships with other churches and ministries both locally and globally to bring about a greater impact for the kingdom of God. Our mission is not just about doing ‘our thing’ for God, but us together doing His thing for the Kingdom.


• We believe a church is strongest and most impactful when it is intergenerational, intercultural, interracial, etc. Therefore, it is our intent to not focus on one particular target group but to welcome all generations, races, classes, and cultures.

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