mission

We see our mission as essentially twofold: We proclaim the gospel in Word & Sacrament every Lord's Day, and we proclaim the gospel in Word & Deed during the week. The Word of God, we believe, is central to both aspects of the church's mission.

Proclaiming the Gospel in Word & Sacrament. Our first calling as a body of Christ is to gather around the Lord's Table and worship our heavenly Father in the Holy Spirit and in the Truth of his Son (in Spirit and in Truth). Our highest privilege as human beings is to enter into God's presence on the Lord's Day to be served by our Creator. And so on Sundays we devote ourselves to the apostle's teaching, to fellowship with one another, to the breaking of bread with one another, and to the prayers (Acts 2.42). During the divine worship service, God renews the covenant relationship that he has established with us in Christ: He calls us into his presence, he forgives our sins, he sanctifies us by his Word, he feeds us the body and blood of Jesus at the Lord's Supper.

There are two salient characteristics about our worship at Christ Church: It is saturated with Scripture and it is quite participatory. We sing a lot of songs together and we recite a lot of Scripture together -- the worshipers in the pews are not spectators in our services. Our worship is liturgical, but lively; reverent, but joyful; traditional, but not for tradition's sake. The sermons are relevant and applicational, but not lacking in depth. The service is very easy to follow, because all the hymns, responsive readings, and congregational prayers are printed in the bulletin each week (we do not use hymnals or worship books).

We view worship on the Lord's Day as our weekly "covenant renewal" with God. In other words, we view our weekly service as a time when God renews the relationship that he graciously established with us through the blood of Christ. And we believe our Lord's Day worship is an act of proclaiming the Gospel in Word and in Sacrament, as we lift high the cross and proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

Proclaiming the Gospel in Word & Deed. But no church's mission statement can stop with worshiping God on Sundays. It must only begin there. After all, at the end of each service, after God feeds us at his Table, he then commissions us and sends us out into the world. God has called his church to be missional, to lay down our lives for the world as Jesus did. We strive to be a church that attracts the kinds of people Jesus attracted: sinners, outsiders, marginalized, needy.

Ultimately our mission is to be a witness to all the nations, spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth (Matt 28.19-20; Acts 1.8). And we spread this gospel not merely by speaking it, but also by living it. (Rom 15.18; 1 Jn 3.18). The gospel is the Word and Deeds of Christ, and we proclaim it to the world through our words and our deeds.

The church is called to practice what James calls "Religion that is pure and undefiled," namely, "visiting orphans and widows in their distress and keeping oneself unstained from the world" (James 1.27). In John 17, Jesus longs for his church to be in the world but not of the world. Jesus has called us, his church, to be his hands and feet and mouthpieces in the world (1 Cor 12.12-27). This means our calling is to say and do what he would say and do if he were still here: to hang out with the people he would hang out with, to visit the the people he would visit, to love and serve the world without becoming worldly. This is our mission to the world. This is what the world needs.

Come help us glorify God on Sunday mornings and accomplish our mission to the world throughout the week!