OUR MISSION STATEMENT

The Mission Statement for Christ Presbyterian Church is simple and straightforward. Our purpose is to establish and build a church that is pleasing to God. It is our conviction that what is pleasing to God is necessarily driven by and the consequence of believing and trusting the gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord. In that regard, our vision for the success of the church may be expressed in our sense of purpose.Our purpose first and foremost is to be a gospel-driven church. The gospel is the good news to fallen men and the only hope of redemption in this world. It is what Christ has done for us rather than what we can do for Him. It is simply that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, was buried, and rose again on the third day, according to the Scriptures, for our justification.Our affirmation of the truth and unique character of the gospel of Jesus Christ leads us to a desire to offer proper worship to God. Proper worship is necessarily about what is pleasing to God rather than what is attractive to men. Mindful that men have a sinful tendency to corrupt proper worship, we must be diligent and discerning in our effort to worship God in Spirit and in truth.

The ongoing application of the benefits of the gospel of Jesus Christ by God the Holy Spirit is called sanctification. The responsibility and challenge of the Church is to faithfully administer the ordained means of grace and to do everything necessary to see that the sanctification process is facilitated in each member of the church. To be sanctified is both a matter of being set apart to serve God and a process by which believers progressively reflect the character of Christ through the fruit of the Holy Spirit.The manner in which we understand and apply the gospel, offer proper worship, and support the work of sanctification must continually be evaluated to determine if the church is pleasing to its Head and King, Jesus Christ. The standard by which the Church determines what is pleasing to Christ is the Bible. The inerrant, infallible, and all-sufficient Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are given by God to man to inform him of what pleases Him and what duty He requires. What is pleasing to God is often counter-cultural and seldom pleasing to man.

The purpose of the church is first and last to please God.As the church reflects the purposes stated above, it will necessarily be engaged in the task of evangelism. Evangelism is the normal consequence of each believer’s embrace of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the proper worship of God, and the ongoing work of sanctification. A church indifferent to the evangelization of the lost is a church that has failed in its fundamental mission and Christ’s Great Commission.Finally, the purpose of the church is to love one another. This is the glue that holds a covenant community together. This love is practical, active, and persistent. It is the most effective advertisement the church can offer to a dark and hurting world. Love is the supernatural consequence of grace in the life of a genuine believer. Love provides the vitality and redolence of a healthy Body of believers. Purposing to be a gospel-driven church, to offer proper worship to God, to engender the sanctification of our members, to please Christ in our work, to evangelize the lost, and to love one another, we humbly rely upon God the Holy Spirit to grant us success.

 

OUR MEANS

The means by which our church will achieve its mission is four-fold. It is first of all requisite that our church frame its mission through the grid and boundaries of the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. Therefore, we affirm the Reformation truth Sola Scriptura and purpose to do our utmost to stand within that tradition. Secondly, we will establish a church that is founded upon Jesus Christ, the cornerstone of the Church. Therefore we affirm the truth Solus Christus. Jesus Christ is the raison d’être (reason for being) for the Church and must be preeminent in all things. He is the Head and King of our church as well as the only Redeemer of the elect who are gathered in Christ. Thirdly, we will establish a church which affirms that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone. It is through faith that God’s justification of repentant sinners is appropriated. Salvation is, from beginning to end, a matter of the sovereign grace of God rather than the work of man. Therefore we affirm the essential Reformation truths Sola Gratia and Sola Fide. Fourth, we will build a church which glorifies God in all it undertakes, from the smallest concerns to the matters of greatest import. This will require the pursuit and affirmation of God’s truth and a rejection of empty pursuits and the fads and fashions of the world. We therefore embrace the principle of Soli Deo Gloria; to God alone be the glory! This is finally and ultimately the capstone of our church’s mission. While the application of the means explained above may vary in the course of pursuing our mission and purpose, all that is done must stand the test of Soli Deo Gloria!

 

EDUCATIONAL MINISTRIES

As our sense of purpose works its way through the various ministries of the church, it will be realized practically and especially through the educational ministry of the church. The education ministry of our church has three primary objectives. They are:─ to equip our people with a Christian world-and-life view─ to facilitate the establishment and nurture of meaningful relationships within the Church, the effect being the development of genuine community─ the creation of biblically literate and theologically grounded believersThe Christian world-and-life view is the outcome of adopting specific biblical convictions (special revelation) and more general common sense presuppositions (inferred from general revelation), which are subordinate to the clearest passages of Scripture. This Christian world-and-life view will be evident in particular moral positions, a reasonable and biblically informed approach to cultural, political, and social issues, and certain assumptions regarding the sanctity and value of human life as well as human endeavor, including the arts and sciences.The community of believers is a covenant community in which substantive relationships and meaningful friendships are engendered.

This community is a nexus of relationships in which believers have voluntarily committed themselves to one another, which in turn is reflected in mutual encouragement, support, and accountability. The larger community will include all members of the church, communing and non-communing. Further, this larger community ought to be manifested in smaller groups of folks drawn to one another out of common interests, age, gender, and Christian affection, yet all with a clear sense of identity and commitment to the church community as a whole.The creation of biblically literate believers will require a variety of bible studies, sitting under the preaching of the Word, the regular reading and study of Scripture, bible memorization, and consistent and repetitive exposure to the specifics of each of the sixty-six books of Scripture. The various characters, personalities, and themes of each book of the bible ought to be learned and remembered, resulting in biblical literacy.

The theological grounding of believers requires an understanding of the system of theological and doctrinal truths found in Scripture. This will be accomplished through the study of the historic creeds and confessions of the church, the writings of the early church fathers, and the works of the best of contemporary theologians. In the teaching of theological and doctrinal truths, it will be necessary not only to present the truths themselves as taught in Scripture, but further to cite doctrinal and theological errors both from history and those which may be prevalent in our day as well. This approach requires comparing and contrasting different doctrinal positions within the Church. The task of correcting error necessarily is polemical but ought to be constructive in effect. Biblical literacy and theological grounding are understood to be lifelong endeavors integral to fulfilling the Church’s Great Commission to make disciples (Matthew 28:19).