We are a growing church family in Dayton, sharing life together and engaging our city with the Gospel.
Our Vision
A people resting in God, representing him in the world, all for his renown.
There are three parts to our vision: rest, representation, and renown. To begin, we want to be a gospel preaching community that helps people come to find rest in the God of the gospel. Through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we have the forgiveness of sins and have now been brought into right relationship with God. In Christ, God is now our Friend and Father, who lovingly cares for and shepherds us. Our new relationship with God and our freedom from guilt brings rest and satisfaction to our hearts. Therefore, we want others to increasingly experience this rest.
As we grow in resting in God, we believe God’s people will grow in faithfully representing him in the world. We do not exist only for ourselves, but so that those outside of Christ—from our neighborhoods to the nations—might also experience the rest we have found. Therefore, we want to represent God as his children by conducting ourselves with love and good works, as well as proclaiming the message of God’s gospel to a world that needs it. This means that we seek to love one another as we have been loved, to love our neighbors outside the faith as ourselves, to evangelize the lost, to plant and strengthen other churches, and to engage the hurting and needy with compassion and care.
Finally, in the end, we’re doing this all for the renown of God, existing to see him be glorified in the world through the knowledge of him and the spread of his fame. God deserves renown simply because of who he is, as well as because of what he’s done for us in the gospel. We long for him to be adored and known in our city and to the ends of the earth.
Our MISSION
Helping God’s beloved children grow through God’s bestowed gifts.
If our vision is to ‘help one another rest in God, represent him in the world, all for his renown…’ how do we plan to get there? With each other’s help. As Christians, we are not meant to go it alone. Rather, when God saves and adopts us, he saves and adopts us into a household with brothers and sisters through whom he helps and equips us. Therefore, as a church, we endeavor to grow God’s children, both through multiplication and through maturation.
Growth by multiplication means that we desire to help outsiders become God’s beloved children in Christ. Humanity, apart from Christ, is fundamentally lost and orphaned. Without God, we do not have the guidance and assurance of the Father for whom we were made. Thus, we must propagate the gospel of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, so that outsiders can become God’s beloved children.
Growth by maturation means that we want to help those who have already become God’s children grow in living as God’s beloved children. Imitating God as his beloved children does not happen by happy accident. We need one another’s presence and help to foster that kind of community. And we do that by applying the gifts and means God provides.
OUR VALUES
BIBLICAL & HISTORICAL ROOTEDNESS
We are rooted in the biblical and historical Christian faith. The faith has once and for all been delivered to the saints in the Scriptures, and it has been passed down to us from previous generations. The Bible is our source of truth and the only final standard for what we believe. As Christians in the twenty-first century, we are not the first readers of the Bible. For the last two thousand years, the Holy Spirit has been at work in his church to faithfully proclaim and preserve the message of the Scriptures through the writings, creeds, confessions, and traditions of the Christian faith. We want to humbly receive the biblical faith passed on to us. We also want to continue to proclaim the truth of the Christian faith in our generation and preserve it for the generations to come. Thus, we are biblically and historically rooted in the Christian faith.
GRACIOUS & ENCOURAGING RELATIONSHIPS
None of us are as mature and godly as we should be; none of us have it all together. But as Ray Ortlund Jr. has said, “The Gospel + Safety + Time = A church where anyone can grow.” We want to be that kind of church. We want to help one another along in growth in the Christian faith. But we want to do so with a posture of grace and patience, since growing up in maturity as God’s beloved children is a process—not an event. True growth happens in a community where people are loved and encouraged into growth. Growth doesn’t happen in communities that are exacting or legalistic; we cannot be shamed or shouted into growth. For that reason, the ministry of encouragement is a huge deal in the New Testament, as we are repeatedly commanded to encourage one another. A primary purpose for our speech and life together as a church is to build up and encourage one another. And since no one in our church or city is overly encouraged, we want to approach every meeting and interaction we have as a church with a posture of seeking to encourage and affirm one another, for the glory of God.
FERVENT & PATIENT MISSION
Jesus has given his church a mission and vocation to fulfill until he comes. We want to be about our Master’s business, zealously and passionately serving his gracious purposes in the world. However, we also want to be patient in our mission, knowing that the fruit we desire to see will take time. Jesus compared the kingdom of God to a mustard seed that will eventually turn into a tree or a little bit of leaven that works its way through a lump of dough. So we desire to be fervent and patient in mission, not frantic or complacent in mission.
SIMPLE & DEPENDENT MINISTRY
God has promised to bless his church and has ordained to do it through the ordinary means of grace. The means of grace include the Scriptures, the Sacraments, prayer, and the fellowship of the church. These are the gifts of God for the people of God. Therefore, as a church, we are devoted to a ministry of simply availing ourselves of these simple practices and depending upon the Holy Spirit to accomplish what he wills.
WHOLE-LIFE & WHOLE-HEARTED DISCIPLESHIP
We are loyal followers of Jesus Christ. That’s what it means to be a disciple. This discipleship is not a mere add-on to our otherwise preoccupied lives. Instead, we desire to devote the entirety of our lives and our very selves to Christ and his purposes. This means that we subject every other calling and vocation in life to our identity as disciples of Christ. It also means that we seek to not just outwardly conform to Christ’s will for our lives, but seek to give our very hearts to him. Biblical discipleship to Christ finds its source and summit in loving devotion and unrivaled affection to the Triune God.
Our Confession
From the time of the Apostles until now, Christians have laid out beliefs in brief, definitive statements. As those who know God, we believe that it’s necessary to set forth, in a concise way, the cornerstone truths of our church, as guided by the Scriptures. Our Confession of Faith summarizes Christian beliefs, shows our unity in Christ, and guards the Church from error.
As Christians, we confess the Apostle’s Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed with the church throughout the ages. In addition to that, we also confess the Abstract of Principles 1859. Our desire is that, in having a clear confession of faith, we promote clarity, charity, humility, and unity within our congregation and with the universal church.