MISSION
We will achieve our Vision by: casting a vision for God’s mission; equipping missional leaders: guiding new church development; and partnering with CRCNA congregations and other churches and ministries worldwide.
VISION
Our vision is to bring the Gospel to people, neighborhoods, communities, churches and the world to embolden them in participating in God’s mission and faithfully proclaiming and living out the good news of Jesus.
CORE POSTURES
Prayer
We saturate all we do in prayer as an expression of our complete dependence on God.
Listening
We listen to God’s Spirit and Word before we act in order to discern together with others where God wants us to act in our context.
Serving
We walk alongside and encourage local leaders, congregations, and the communities to which God has called us by following Jesus in taking the posture of a servant.
Learning
We continually seek to learn from each other and others rather than presuming we already have all the answers.
Mutual Care and Accountability
We seek to build mutual care and accountability into all aspects of our internal life as an organization as well as our relationships with ministry partners.
Peacemaking
We seek to model and nurture authentic relationships of trust and mutual respect across the barriers that divide people, including race, ethnicity, gender, denominationalism, and socioeconomic status.
PILLARS
God’s Mission
God’s mission as central to our being as the church
Joining the mission of God, the church is sent with the gospel of the kingdom to call everyone to know and follow Christ and to proclaim to all the assurance that in the name of Jesus there is forgiveness of sin and new life for all who repent and believe. The Spirit calls all members to embrace God’s mission in their neighborhoods and in the world: to feed the hungry, bring water to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, care for the sick, and free the prisoner.
We repent of leaving this work to a few, for this mission is central to our being.
On our part in God’s mission, see Matthew 28:18-20, Luke 24:45-49, and John 17:18; on seeing our mission beyond our local community, Matthew 24:14 and Acts 13:1-3; on meeting the needs of people, Matthew 25:31-46 and Luke 4:18-19; and on the centrality of mission to our being, John 20:21.
(Our World Belongs to God: A Contemporary Testimony, para. 41)
Whole World
God’s loving care for creation and people
We celebrate the abundance and diversity of the gifts and resources God has given to all peoples and cultures. We continually point others toward and remind ourselves of God’s faithful provision to both meet our own needs and to share with others. We embrace our calling as disciples of Jesus to live and learn together as faithful and generous stewards of God’s best intentions for his world.
Our world, fallen into sin, has lost its first goodness, but God has not abandoned the work of his hands: our Maker preserves this world, sending seasons, sun, and rain, upholding all creatures, renewing the earth, promising a Savior, guiding all things to their purpose.
See Genesis 3; 9:8-16; Psalm 104, especially verse 30; Matthew 5:45; and Acts 14:17. For the promises of a Savior, see Genesis 3:15; Isaiah 7:14; 11:1-5; 42:1-7; 53; and Micah 5:2.
(Our World Belongs to God, para. 4)
Whole Gospel
The comprehensive scope of God’s redemptive work in Christ
We announce the gospel of Jesus as good news of redemption for the whole world. We proclaim and embrace the reconciling work of Christ for personal salvation, and we participate in God’s reconciling and transforming of our world by working for his reign of peace and justice. We recognize all aspects of life and community, as well as the darkness in our own personal lives, as needing redemption and transformation.
In a world estranged from God . . . we witness—with respect for followers of other ways—to the only one in whose name salvation is found: Jesus Christ. In Jesus, God reconciles the world to himself. God loves all creation; his compassion knows no bounds.
On the exclusive claims of Christ, see John 14:6 and Acts 4:12; on God’s love and compassion for the world, see Matthew 9:36-38 and John 3:16
(Our World Belongs to God, para. 42)
Whole Church
The church as the worldwide body of Christ formed by the Spirit and the Word
We celebrate the unity in diversity of the worldwide body of Christ. We humbly acknowledge that the church is empowered by the Spirit to not only announce but also live out the good news of Jesus. We commit ourselves and call others to a radical discipleship that follows Jesus in the way of the cross, putting others above ourselves and overcoming evil with good. We seek to model this by being a caring and diverse community ourselves. In our worldwide ministry, we honor the work the Spirit has done and is doing through other expressions of the church while contributing our distinctive Reformed flavor. We seek to partner with others whenever and wherever possible.
The Spirit gathers people from every tongue, tribe, and nation into the unity of the body of Christ. . . . Men and women, impelled by the Spirit, go next door and far away into science and art, media and marketplace—every area of life—pointing to the reign of God with what they do and say.
On the gathering of all nations, see Revelation 7:9-17 . . . and on the breadth of the church’s mission in the Spirit, Philippians 1:27-2:15.
(Our World Belongs to God, para. 30)