What is the gospel?

Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man, lived a perfect life on Earth and died to pay the debt for the sins of those who respond in faith to Him. On the third day He rose from the dead to conquer sin and death. We are all sinners in need of reconciliation to a righteous God, which is precisely what Jesus provides for us.  Our salvation is not by our own effort, but we are declared righteous by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone.

Our Mission

 Making disciples who live by God’s grace and for His glory at home and across the world.

 Two of the most important words that Jesus ever spoke were “follow me;” a statement filled with clarity and mystery that invites a person to leave behind his personal agenda and become a disciple, or follower, of Jesus Christ. Disciples are those who want to become like Jesus in both attitude and action. Jesus did not spend His time on the earth glorifying Himself by flaunting His perfection to the world. Rather He laid down His rights to give humanity the grace that we did not deserve and glorified His heavenly Father instead. He did this while equipping and empowering 12 disciples to follow in His footsteps, making disciples in Judea, Samaria and even to the ends of the earth. This is our prayer. This is our desire. Fellowship’s mission is directly linked to Jesus’ Great Commission. We desire to be people who are making disciples who live by God’s grace and for His glory at home and across the world.

 

Values

Connection

Disconnected. This is how we start life, dead in our sins, and until we respond in faith to the grace of God in Jesus Christ this is how we will live. Our first and greatest priority in life is to be connected to God through His son, Jesus Christ. All of life flows from this continuous, abiding relationship with Jesus and is initiated by His love and sustained by His grace. We must first be with Jesus before we ever do for Jesus. Through this connection, we also see that we were created for connection with others. God did not design us to do life on our own. He created us to know and be known. We believe this happens best in the context of spiritual community, which we call Discipleship Groups, or D-Groups, where we can engage in the one another commands of Scripture and grow in the knowledge and grace of Jesus Christ.

Transformation

A disciple of Jesus is not someone who just knows a lot about Jesus or someone who just attends church. Instead, a disciple is someone who follows Jesus in every part of his or her life, seeking to become more and more like Jesus in attitude and action. And since transformation is about our similarity to Christ, then discipleship must be something more than religious activities like attending Sunday worship or being a part of a Bible study (which are good things to do). True transformation occurs as a gift of God’s grace and is empowered by the Holy Spirit. Our role is to be continually aware of our ongoing need for transformation and have faith that God will finish the work He has begun in us.

Multiplication

Multiplication is what results when people live connected to Christ, connected to each other and are being transformed into His likeness by grace. God’s desire is to advance the Gospel and the chief way He does so is through multiplication. God has been intentional in directing our lives so we should live with intentionality in looking for opportunities to enter into His work of multiplication, making disciples. While there are lots of places to make disciples, the two primary places are at home and across the world. When we say “home” we mean that place where we live and do life with others. All of us have a home and within our home is a sphere of key relationships, like a spouse, children, friends, co-workers, etc., and it is in the context of these significant relationships where perhaps we have the greatest opportunity to multiply disciples who follow Jesus and live by His grace. But, the ministry of multiplication doesn’t stop in the home. It carries around the world. God has a heart for people of all nations and desires to see His Gospel advance across the world through His people being disciples who make disciples with intentionality across the world for the glory and fame of God.