North Presbyterian Church

1. We will proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord, Savior, Teacher, Friend.

The mission of North Presbyterian Church is to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ and to invite others to join us in following him. The good news is that God loves people, and that this love saves us from ourselves and our sins through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.. This love is our foundation - it is from this love that every aspect of our Christian walk flows. And so we continually remind one another, and our neighbors, our community, our world, that we are deeply loved by our God. We retell this message by what we do, what we say, and how we live our daily lives. The grace that we experience in Jesus leads us to a new way of living and thinking, and we leave old ways, desires and attitudes behind.. As we meet with Jesus and spend time in his presence, we are transformed into the people God intends us to be. This way of grace changes our relationships with our community; and it leads us to have a passionate and active concern for our neighbors and their spiritual, physical and social well-being. In short, in Jesus, we have hope for ourselves, our community, our world. What a friend we have in Jesus!

2. We will worship God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength.

Weekly worship is the most important scheduled event in the life of our church. It is our privilege and joy to engage in worship, where God graciously meets us through the preaching of his Word, in song and prayer, in Holy Communion, and in the inner working of the Holy Spirit in our minds and hearts. We want to worship God with all of our being, involving our intellect, our feelings, our will, and our bodies. While we acknowledge that worship is not mainly about us and what we find pleasing or preferable, still we understand that worship typically takes place in the context of a particular style. We want our worship style to allow worship to be accessible not only for current members, but for those members who have yet to join us. No worship service stays the same forever, and our worship will necessarily incorporate some variety which reflects new cultural influences, new ways and music. We want to carry our worship from the sanctuary into the community, so that our acts of service, work and play might honor and glorify God beyond our walls.

3. We will pray, first and last – before, during, and after – all that we

We will make prayer a priority, in our life together as well as in our personal lives. Prayer is the life spring of our daily relationship with God, and through prayer we have a real, living relationship with God the Father, Jesus, and Holy Spirit. Prayer moves us beyond dry doctrine and belief to an exciting, growing relationship. Believing this to be true, prayer will permeate our daily lives. Our congregation will do things by prayer, not because our prayers are great, but because God is great; not because we know how to pray but because God is teaching us how to pray. We believe that God answers prayer, therefore, we will pray confidently. We will grow in our corporate prayer life, learning to pray together, and making time to pray together. We are committed to deepening and expanding our prayer life, and we will grow in our understanding and practice of the broad and rich tradition of Christian prayer.

4. We will read the Bible together, accepting its authority over us as the true and active Word of God, striving to obey it.

We believe that the Bible is the true and active word of God, just as vital today as it was yesterday and will be tomorrow. We accept the Bible as the definitive account of God’s plan both in making and now setting right individuals and communities. It is not simply one witness among others, but it is God’s unique revelation of who he is and what he has done through history to call people to relationship with him. In the Bible we find, as nowhere else, who we are, where we have come from, and the purpose for which we have been made. We listen to, read, and study the Bible in worship, across Bible studies and Sunday School classes, and into committee meetings. We read it not simply in an academic or critical way, but so as to bring our lives under submission to the Living Word of God through the written word of God.

5. We will learn together how to follow Jesus.

We are a community learning how to be disciples of Jesus. People who come to Jesus do not automatically know the ways and skills of discipleship, and our learning will never be complete. On-going spiritual growth is our goal. Just as we came to Jesus by the work of the Holy Spirit, we mature as Christians through the continued work of the same “Spirit of Truth”. We will not grow unless we know the truth; therefore, the life of the mind, study and learning are important to us. To this end, we will offer high quality, relevant discipleship training for all ages, for people at different stages of their spiritual journey, and in a variety of settings and times. The content of discipleship training will be as broad as our life experiences as Christians, and it will be intended to equip us practically to live out our calling to be salt and light, to be agents of justice and peace. As a community of learners, we will not do things simply because they have always been done this way or that way. We integrate new circumstances into previously learned ways and skills. We look to develop new ways, skills, understandings, and ministries while respecting accepted traditions and ways.

6. We will listen for God’s call to mission, learning to listen to the voice of Jesus.

North Presbyterian Church is about mission. While the over-arching mission is to proclaim Jesus Christ, how that mission works itself out will change as God leads, as our community and its needs change, and as the gifts and skills of our members develop. Each member is invited and expected to join in discerning the particular mission of North Presbyterian Church and its ministries, (as well as their own particular mission) since God may use any of us to lead us in re-envisioning, establishing and carrying out effective and faithful ministry. As we listen for the voice of Jesus, our attention to scripture reading, prayer, and the work of the Holy Spirit will be indispensable. We will work to encourage and develop among our members the disciplines, skills and processes needed to become a discerning people, that is, people of wisdom, judgment and insight. We will help each member to identify and develop his or her spiritual gifts so that he or she may fruitfully contribute to the building up of God’s kingdom.

7. We will build up the community around us, becoming “hope at work.”

In a sense, the church of Jesus Christ exists for the sake of those people who do not yet belong. God’s love and grace, showered freely upon us, invite from us a response toward God as well as toward our neighbors. We will be a church moving evermore away from self-concern and evermore toward concern for those outside our doors. We will continue to shift our focus from congregation building to kingdom building, from programs to people. We will, with God’s help, raise our level of compassion for our community and our world. We will deepen our understanding of the social, economic, and moral issues of our time. We will stretch ourselves to become fully aware of issues of race, poverty, mental illness and family stressors in our community. And then we will strengthen our work to meet the needs of our community and our world as God leads us, whether those needs be spiritual or physical or social, whether the needs be found in community relations or family relations or in the personal struggles of individuals. We will be reconcilers, peacemakers. We believe that the gospel will change our community, not by the imposition of our viewpoint upon people, but by inviting people to come and see who Jesus is, and what he can do. Our vision is, through the power and grace of God, to make North Presbyterian Church a point of hope, a place of peace, a house of healing for all people in our community.

8. We will reflect Jesus by the way we behave toward one another.

We are the body of Christ. We are not just a collection of individuals or families. In a time when individualism runs rampant, infecting churches as well as our society, we will be learning how to be the community that Christ means us to be. We want to know one another, support one another, walk with one another, care for one another. In our relationships, as in all of our lives, we want to show the Fruit of the Spirit: We want to love one another, forgive one another, pray for one another, and bless one another. We want to be generous with one another, leaving judgmentalism and criticism behind. We will be slow to take offense and quick to forgive. Our life together will be marked by self-giving and self-sacrifice. We will create structures and space and time to come together. We will learn and implement new ways to grow into a richer, more meaningful fellowship in Christ at North Presbyterian Church.