Our Mission
God is a sending God. Throughout His story we see Him sending His people into His mission over and over. The ultimate picture of that is the sending of Jesus who fully accomplished the mission He was sent to fulfill. Part of that mission was for Jesus to gather and send His disciples to join
IT IS OUR DESIRE TO LIVE OUT THAT MISSION NEAR AND FAR.
- We want to be good neighbors to those we have been sent to looking for ways to enter into Gospel conversations.
- We want to grow in our awareness of the needs of our city and identify meaningful responses to them.
- We want to send out from our church people to live out God’s mission in places far away and among people not like us.
STATEMENT ON RACIAL INEQUALITY
OUR STANCE ON RACISM AND CALL FOR REFLECTIVE
On behalf of Movement Church the Elders would like to make a statement concerning the turmoil surfacing in the culture around us. Our Doctrinal stance unequivocally states under the heading of Sanctity of Human life, “We believe that Christians should stand for human dignity, stand against every form of injustice, racism and abuse, and seek to relieve human suffering when it is in their power to do so.”
The issue isn’t what we say we believe but how it impacts the way we live our lives. There is no room for racism of any form, of any shape either implicit or explicit within the body of Christ and in particular Movement Church. The Gospel is the hope of the world and literally tears down the dividing wall between us and God and tears down all walls that exist among the diverse races that make up God’s creation. It is time we not just hold to the right teachings but to act upon them.
Our first stop towards action that fits within our core doctrine is to self-reflect and invite the Holy Spirit to investigate our own lives to identify and root out any and all forms of racism and bias against any other person or groups of people. Psalm 139:23-24, “Search me, God, and know my heart, test me and know my thoughts, see if there is any offensive way in me, lead me in the everlasting way.” We should seek to see if there is “any offensive way,” which means an offense could and does come in many forms from overt actions, thoughts and also deep-seated systemic issues. We need to self-reflect and repent of every hint of racism and biases that exists within us. May we be humble learners to receive from other brother’s and sister’s ways in which we are complicity sitting silently by when we should as we say we believe “seek to relieve human suffering when it is in our power to do so.”
We should seek to empathize with those who are weeping because of a shared experience based on the color of their skin not to dismiss that experience or seek justification of their pain. In speaking about love and the outpourings of Christian love, Paul says to the church of Rome in Romans 12:15 to “weep with those who weep.” When someone or a group of other people are weeping it is not time to try and point out why they shouldn’t be weeping but to be quiet, sit near, listen and weep with those who are hurting. The body of Jesus ought to hurt all over when certain members of the body are hurting.
This is a call for humility, a call for empathy, justice, righteousness, peace. There needs to be a time of learning, being equipped, being challenged on the relationships we have with those around us and the diversity or lack thereof that exists but now is a time for humble, repentant, prayer and solidarity with our African American brothers and sisters in Christ and a clear call and stance against racism. Seek the Lord with us, ask for forgiveness for not doing enough sooner and let’s commit to fighting for the rights of others as we “do what is in our power to stand against every form of injustice, racism and abuse.”
The issue isn’t what we say we believe but how it impacts the way we live our lives. There is no room for racism of any form, of any shape either implicit or explicit within the body of Christ and in particular Movement Church. The Gospel is the hope of the world and literally tears down the dividing wall between us and God and tears down all walls that exist among the diverse races that make up God’s creation. It is time we not just hold to the right teachings but to act upon them.
Our first stop towards action that fits within our core doctrine is to self-reflect and invite the Holy Spirit to investigate our own lives to identify and root out any and all forms of racism and bias against any other person or groups of people. Psalm 139:23-24, “Search me, God, and know my heart, test me and know my thoughts, see if there is any offensive way in me, lead me in the everlasting way.” We should seek to see if there is “any offensive way,” which means an offense could and does come in many forms from overt actions, thoughts and also deep-seated systemic issues. We need to self-reflect and repent of every hint of racism and biases that exists within us. May we be humble learners to receive from other brother’s and sister’s ways in which we are complicity sitting silently by when we should as we say we believe “seek to relieve human suffering when it is in our power to do so.”
We should seek to empathize with those who are weeping because of a shared experience based on the color of their skin not to dismiss that experience or seek justification of their pain. In speaking about love and the outpourings of Christian love, Paul says to the church of Rome in Romans 12:15 to “weep with those who weep.” When someone or a group of other people are weeping it is not time to try and point out why they shouldn’t be weeping but to be quiet, sit near, listen and weep with those who are hurting. The body of Jesus ought to hurt all over when certain members of the body are hurting.
This is a call for humility, a call for empathy, justice, righteousness, peace. There needs to be a time of learning, being equipped, being challenged on the relationships we have with those around us and the diversity or lack thereof that exists but now is a time for humble, repentant, prayer and solidarity with our African American brothers and sisters in Christ and a clear call and stance against racism. Seek the Lord with us, ask for forgiveness for not doing enough sooner and let’s commit to fighting for the rights of others as we “do what is in our power to stand against every form of injustice, racism and abuse.”