Mission and Values
Vision, Gospel, Church, World
The mission of Faith Fellowship Church is to live out God’s vision by reaching people with God’s gospel, building them as His church, and sending His church into the world.
Sure, that might be a bit of a clunky way to word a mission statement. If you have suggestions on how to make it sound more snazzy, or boujee as the youths say, we’d love to hear them. However, in all honesty, we meant for it to be worded this way because each word is valuable and communicates meaning.
We have found that we often lack a grounding reference point that connects what we believe and what we do. That’s why we flock to the latest bestseller or conference speaker because we do not have a shared mission that compels us forward. “Our mission doesn’t seem to be working so well,” we think. “So this year, let’s try to be radical. Or should we not waste our life? Maybe we need to be more purpose driven. Are we sticky enough? Well that was kind of exhausting, so let’s focus on the family now.” Of course, there’s nothing wrong with the good innovation and excellent content found in these thinly-veiled allusions. However, adopting tools and methods without a fixed understanding of who God is, who we are, and where He calls us to go will inevitably lead to uncertainty, insecurity and indifference.
This is why our mission is worded in a bit of a clunky way. And, if you scroll or swipe down, it is why we spend the rest of this page explaining what we mean by God’s vision, God’s gospel, God’s church, and God’s world.
Vision
As Antoine de Saint-Exupery wrote, “If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.” God has a universal vision for His church that He gives to us through His Word. Because He has done all that is necessary for His vision to be accomplished through His gospel, we can receive our role in His vision for what it is: a great adventure across a vast and endless sea chasing God’s glory, our growth, and the Great Commission.
The adventure begins from this place of safety. The boundaries have been fixed, the destination is in view, and now we must go and explore what it means to believe God’s gospel, become God’s church, and be sent into God’s world.
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God’s glory is His infinite worth made public through men and women conformed to His image.
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The Christian life is centered around Jesus. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we are set apart and recreated into whole people. This is happens at the specific point we became a Christian but is also a process of growth being conformed to Christ likeness.
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We fulfill the Great Commission by serving as ambassadors who are sent with the authority of Jesus, expecting to be changed, and sustained by the power of the Holy Spirit
Gospel
The gospel is our message. It is good news about how we have been rescued from peril and can be brought home. It is good news that a king has come and liberated us from captivity so that we are now free. It is good news that we are more sinful than we ever thought possible but at the very same time we are also more loved and accepted in Jesus than we ever dared imagine.
The gospel is a clear and powerful message to us, and yet it is not a simplistic message. There is one gospel, but there are three vital aspects we must understand in order to experience and live in the beautiful vision God has for us: Kingdom, Cross, Grace.
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The gospel of God’s Kingdom announces that life with God has come near to us and is once again available to all who put their faith in Jesus.
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The gospel of God’s cross announces that, through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, we have been made right with God.
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The gospel of God’s grace announces that God accepts us and shares his life with us. We have not earned or deserved it. God gives it to us freely at Christ’s expense.
Church
As the message of the Gospel is proclaimed and received, something incredible happens: a new people is formed. These new people are given a new name, the church, and are also given a new identity as sons and daughters of God.
We begin with who we are because how we understand our identity will inform everything that we think and everything that we do as a local church. Scripture speaks of five identities that we have: Worshippers, Disciples, Family, Servants, Witnesses.
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True worship is our loving response to who God is and all He has done. God is the most worthy object of worship, but whether we worship God or something else, every human worships.
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Disciples spend time with Jesus to become like Jesus. A disciple is someone who chooses to be with someone else so that they might become capable of doing what that person does and living as that person lives.
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To those who trust him, Jesus, “gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12). The stunning reality of the church is that God has adopted us into His family.
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God’s design for life often reverses this world’s values. The way to success is through service; the way to preserve your life is to lose it. The fundamental orientation of the Christian is away from themselves and towards God.
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A witness is someone who has seen and experienced something and then declares it others. As we experience this redemption, we go to the ends of our driveways and to the ends of the earth inviting others to share in life with God.
World
As the Dutch Theologian Abraham Kuyper once said, “There is not one square inch in the entire cosmos which Jesus, who is sovereign over all, does not emphatically declare, “Mine!”
The Lord of all the Universe has in mind nothing less than being Lord over everything that we do, everywhere that we go, and in everything that we say. God has already told us who we are so from our identity as the church, God sends us into His world as ambassadors of His Kingdom that has come and is coming. Specifically, His world can be divided up in terms of Location, Vocation, Recreation, and Restoration
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Where we primarily live in our homes, neighborhoods and local church.
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Where we work and all that pertains to work, career, and finances.
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Where we rest and play including our hobbies, interests and creativity.
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Where there is brokenness, need, or injustice whether at the ends of our driveway or to the ends of the earth.
For more details about the mission and values of Faith Fellowship, check out what we call our North Star Framework.
