Christ Community Church is a fellowship of Jesus followers wanting to live Christianity in such a way as to lovingly serve our city, neighbors, friends, adversaries, and one another to God’s honor, the good of all others and the blessing of every tribe, tongue and nation.
Humbled by the love of God, we declare the good news of Christ and work towards the reconciliation, redemption, renewal and progress of our neighbors, nation and world as an ongoing expression of God’s love, supremacy, mercy, power , and redemptive mission to present and future generations as God grants us grace and ability to do so.
As a church, our plans, schedule and ways of doing life together work – we pray- to nurture the family of God towards knowing God well whilst progressing in His ultimate intention: loving God, loving others, and making disciples who, as a community together, make much of Jesus to the Father’s honor and the blessing of others and do so from a newness of life in the strength and by the leading of God the Holy Spirit. We do this – we pray with grace and kindness- as His sent and sending community-the church to the glory of God, the good of all others and our joy as His people.
Christ put it this way:
And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40; ESV).
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20; ESV).
Church: A Defining Premise
Jesus’ church is not a building, a meeting, or a service or social club. Rather, she is a fellowship, a family, an interdependent community of called-out-ones who place their confidence in Christ alone for life, rescue, restoration and joy. She is comprised of a made new people who are given by God the Father to God the Son and placed by God the Spirit into the Body of Christ -the Church- as regenerated and revived partners in the mission of God who are indwelt and gifted by the Spirit for participation in the together life and mission of the family of God.
Members openly confess Jesus as Lord and seek to follow Him into life and good works as marks of being His disciples. They learn and know the value of suffering and the joy of fellowship with Christ as sent ones into the mission of God given to His church. To this end and in obedience to the Scriptures, they organize as a community under biblically qualified leadership, gather regularly for preaching, worship, teaching, and prayer, observe the ordinances of baptism and communion, are united by the Holy Spirit, and are progressing toward godliness for Jesus’ here, now and forever honor, as well as, the all-encompassing everywhere extolling of the manifold wisdom of God which He brings to light as the church gathers and scatters to fulfill the Great Commandment and the Great Commission. Doing so, we follow in the steps of Him who “became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14; ESV).
Love God : Love Each Other : Love Our Neighbor : Love Our World
As a people, we heartily respond to God’s great love and rich mercy towards humankind with gratitude for the forgiveness of sins, the righteousness and newness of life given in Christ, and our adoption as daughters and sons in the family of God. In keeping with the will of the Father by grace through faith in Christ alone, we are thereby justified before God and labor by His power at work within us to manifest His message, character, love and life to others from a position of gifted and irrevocable acceptance.
Solely on the basis of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, we are free from performing for God in order to gain His favorable reception and now serve with delight and abandon from the place of freedom and new life that He has secured in Jesus. This is great news of life changing importance that transforms the world. The gospel, therefore, is central to our being as a church and shapes our manner of doing life together as a community of disciples.
God initiates towards humanity. He always has-even before the creation of the world. Moreover, He continues to do so by His Spirit, through His Word, and through His people in the lifting up of His Son. The triune God is thus a missionary God.
This missionary attribute is evidenced in the incarnation as Christ, God the Son, is sent by the Father. This same Jesus said to His disciples, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” (John 20:21; ESV) Therefore, we, His church, find that the Gospel mission of God is tangible through His example and merits its place as the church’s chief organizing principle in her “as she goes” task of loving God, loving others, and making disciples to the blessing of the nations.
“A tapestry, which precedes our generation and which, will supersede, without interruption, every generation until Christ’s return.”
Moreover, continuing throughout history, God, through His sovereign intention, the work of His Spirit and the cooperating labor of His people, continues to weave a tapestry of living threads which precedes our generation and which, will supersede, without interruption, every generation until Christ’s return. By our own doings, it is a marred, blemished, and sometimes unsightly tapestry; but it is a tapestry of God’s choosing nonetheless. As a fellowship, we are part of this tapestry. We are among the living threads. Moreover, being part of a continuing work of God provides a context for our ministry as Christ Community Church.
Note: Christ Community Church is an autonomous local church organized under biblically qualified leadership as a community of Christ’s followers in the Village of Stone Mountain towards fulfilling the Great Commandment and Great Commission. Recognizing the importance of cooperation with others in God’s redemptive mission and plan, we voluntarily, and in step with what we believe is God’s will presently for us a church, affiliate with the Southern Baptist Convention in its national, state and local expressions whilst remaining independent of denominational control or governance.
C3 Village : Following Jesus : Blessing Our Neighbors : Embracing Inconvenience : Delighting to Serve 