Mission and Vision

Our mission tells us what we are going to do.

Our mission is to build devoted followers of Jesus Christ, so that His Kingdom is extended in our city and the world.

Our vision tells us how we are going to accomplish our mission. The vision is another way of describing our philosophy of ministry.

By God's grace we will build devoted followers of Jesus Christ, extending His Kingdom in St. Petersburg and beyond, by being:

• A Worshiping Community
• A Nurturing Community 
• A Missional Community

A WORSHIPING COMMUNITY

Acts 2:46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.

We were created and redeemed so that we might “glorify God and enjoy him forever.”  Therefore, the chief function of the Church is not evangelism or discipleship or mercy ministry, but worship. All of these ministries flow from and are designed to promote the worship of God. Everything the church does must have the worship of God as the ultimate aim.

What is worship? Jonathan Edwards said that "Worship is setting the affections of the heart on God".  Your affections are not merely your emotions, but your motives, the things that drive you, things that you truly treasure.  Because we were created for worship, when we do not worship God, we worship other things like approval, comfort, power, relationships and success.  When we set our affections on these and other false gods (idols of the heart), we derive our sense of meaning and self-worth from them, which always leaves us unsatisfied. When we worship God we turn away from these false gods and set our affection of Him, the Founatin of Life, who alone can fill and satisfy our souls.

A NURTURING COMMUNITY

Acts 2:42, 44-45 They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.

The first Christians in Jerusalem were committed to nurturing their  relationship with Jesus. They did this by devoting themselves to the teaching of the apostles. It is the Word of God which nourishes and strengthens our faith in Him. As these early believers grew in their understanding of God's Word, they also devoted themselves to caring for each other in very practical ways. They loved each other in such a way that it caught the attention of their unbelieving neighbors and friends. God has designed the Church to be a nurturing community, where the power of the gospel is displayed among us in both word and deed, to the end that Jesus Christ is seen and trusted and treasured by those who don't yet know Him.

Apart from the weekly preaching of God's Word, we will care for and nurture each other's faith in Christ through our Sunday School classes, our network of small groups, called Community Groups, through men's and women's Bible studies and the shepherding care of our elders. For a fuller explanation of our Community Group ministry, please click on Community Groups.

A MISSIONAL COMMUNITY

Acts 2:44-47 All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

God calls His people to be doers of the Word, not merely hearers only (James 1:22). Therefore, as God changes us by the power of His gospel, we move outward into the world of lost people, taking the good news of the gospel, in word and deed. We will seek to do this through personal evangelism, deeds of mercy, and actively supporting gospel-centered missions both at home and abroad. By God's grace, we will send and support many vocational missionaries, especially from our own congregation, who will take the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to the unreached peoples of the world.

Being a Missional Community also means that we will, by God’s grace,  multiply ourselves by planting other like-minded churches in St. Petersburg and beyond, which will in turn, plant other churches. Church planting is the pattern of church growth presented in the New Testament and is God's appointed means of reaching a lost world with the message of the gospel. Our desire is that God would give us the privilege of one day becoming a 50-50 church, meaning that for every dollar given to the general operating budget, .50 cents would go towards supporting the works of gospel-centered missions and church planting efforts in our city, region and throughout the world.