Our Mission
What we want to do
Compelled by God's mission to save the lost and renew all things, we exist to engage more and more people in the Spirit's call to live out God's mission in their neighborhoods and in the world.
Our Vision
What we want to see
We want to see communities of disciples joining in God's mission as they faithfully proclaim and live out the good news of Jesus in their local neighborhoods and around the world.
Our Key Strategies
Resonate joins with a diverse network of CRCNA congregations and other partners locally and globally. We work to mobilize individuals and communities to participate in God’s mission and work for the spiritual and social transformation of the world. We believe that the Holy Spirit is igniting a global gospel movement and we can join in by investing in these three critical strategies:
Our Priorities
Develop young adults and lay leaders for mission
We will open space for diverse groups of young adults and lay leaders, equipping, mentoring and discipling them so that together we may share the good news and live out the gospel in all areas of life.
Plant churches that participate in broader church planting movements
We will catalyze the planting of diverse churches locally and globally that seek spiritual and social transformation in their communities.
Equip and encourage congregations in gospel witness
We will challenge, encourage, and equip communities of disciples locally and globally to discern the Holy Spirit’s work in their neighborhoods and boldly follow the Spirit into relationships that concretely demonstrate the love of Christ and grow the church.
Minister with diaspora communities
We will mobilize believers inside and outside communities of immigrants, migrants, refugees, and international students in a way that welcomes and embraces them, communicates God’s love, and calls them to faith in Christ.
Our Postures
Prayer
We saturate all we do in prayer because we are completely dependent on God.
Listening
We listen to the Holy Spirit, the Word and one another in order to discern God’s will.
Serving
We serve others above ourselves, walking in the footsteps of Jesus who gave his life for us.
Learning
We are at our best when we work together and learn from each other.
Care and Accountability
We offer appreciation for each other, we own our mistakes, and we celebrate what God is doing in and through us.
Peacemaking
We model and nurture trust and respect across barriers that divide people.
Our Pillars
Biblical values that undergird our mission
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)
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 the 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)
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 God’s 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)
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)