God offers us all eternal salvation through Jesus. The divinity of God is a mystery, but our
fullest vision of salvation is in the living work of Christ. What is God like? God is like Jesus.
Jesus reveals who God is and what God looks like. If you want to understand God, look at the
words, ways, and works of Jesus. Jesus inspired these profound words about God in John 1:1-
3; “In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was
created except through him.”
Creation is Beautiful but Broken. Both sin and goodness reside in our souls and in our world.
We dwell in the worldly state: we are created in the image of God, while also carrying the
destruction of sin. We must not be afraid to explore our belovedness and understand our
brokenness. History is messy and tragic but headed somewhere. God is renewing, restoring,
and reconciling all things.
The Good News is for Everyone. Jesus, the crucified and risen Messiah, is King. No politician,
no pastor, no powerful personality holds our allegiance. The Good News is too big, too
beautiful, too expansive, and too subversive. God is inviting all of us to submit to His reign and
reorder our lives around his ways. This will put us at odds with the principalities of this world.
The Kingdom of God is Real. God’s loving, healing, rescuing reign has been launched by Jesus
on earth as in heaven. We do not wait until we get to heaven to experience this, we get to
experience this in part now. A table of peace, with Christ as the host, is being built for strangers,
foreigners, and even our enemies. We are invited to join in.
Salvation is a Rescuing and Recruiting Mission. Without God’s self-emptying move towards us,
we are wanderers, we are homeless. God comes to rescue us from ourselves and from the grip
of The Enemy. When we awaken to this rescue, it is simultaneously a recruitment to join God’s
mission in the world. We are sent ones.
The Church is a Local Community. We cannot follow the way of Jesus without being
interdependent with others, in a particular place. Online connections, podcasts, and books are
wonderful but they cannot replace God’s design for discipleship in our lives—in vulnerability and
accountability. Community reshapes us through its highs and its lows.
The Gifts are For Us All. Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Shepherd, and Teacher are distributed to
both men and woman. We believe God needs the whole body working together without
favoritism towards one gender over another. We must discern our gifts and seek to grow in
maturity in how we use them.
God is Nonviolent. The way of Jesus is the way of love, forgiveness, generosity, peacemaking,
and creativity. Jesus does not coerce or control others in his work to change the world. His
primary tactic for change is the scandal of self-emptying love. It is clear from the mouth and
mission of Christ that retaliatory actions shall not be the actions of God’s people.
The Bible is God’s Story. From Israel, to the early church, to us, the Bible is a God-breathed gift.
We sometimes read it literally, sometimes metaphorically, and other times we read it narratively.
It is a complex and profound book. We don’t just study the story for meaning, we must live the
story to find new depths of meaning. The Bible illustrates for us how to be disciples, on mission,
in God's world, in the way of faith, hope, and love.
We are Being Transformed. Daily we are invited into contemplation, repentance, and surrender.
This is our pathway to union with the Father, Son, and Spirit. This work of letting go of “old
creation” for “new creations” is not forced upon us, rather it is an invitation to us. Certainly, there
is an internal resistance to this but also compelling vision pulling us forward.
Embracing the Common Good. “Every good and perfect gift is from above . . . from the father of
heavenly lights” (James 1:17). This means that every act of goodness, justice and beauty—no
matter who does it—is in some way enabled by God. It is a form of grace. We can learn from all
sectors of the world – from clinical psychology, to neuroscience, to nutritionists, to theology. We
can discern what might be helpful and what may not be.
