What makes Christ Community Church distinct? The first way to answer that question would be to look at our doctrinal commitments – the creeds and summaries we believe reflect the Bible’s teaching about God, Man, Salvation, the Church, and so on. CCC stands with all Christian churches in affirming the Apostles’ Creed. We stand in the Protestant and Reformation tradition in affirming the historic views of the Westminster Confession of Faith.
But churches that share a doctrinal commitment still have to decide how those doctrinal views will be explained, lived out and applied to the lives of the people in the church fellowship and how they relate to the culture in which we live. The application of our doctrinal views to our life situation is reflected in our “core values” or our “philosophy of ministry.” What follows is a summary of our core values and our vision for how these will be lived out in our community.
GOSPEL TRANSFORMATION
God’s grace in Jesus Christ is the only power that will really change anyone! Christianity is not another “religion.” The common denominator in all religions is some version of becoming acceptable by doing right things. The message of the Bible is that we are accepted through what Jesus did, not by what we do. Believing God and living out what God says is true produces change! We can’t change ourselves just by trying harder, but God can and will change us by the power of His Spirit who works in us.
The word “gospel” means “good news.” The gospel announcement is that “God made Him [Christ], who had no sin, to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (II Corinthians 5:21). The gospel message is this: We are so sinful, lost and helpless that we can’t save ourselves. Jesus, the Son of God, has done for us what we are incapable of doing: In our place, He lived the life we owe to God. And in our place, He paid the penalty our sin deserves. Those who now trust in Christ’s work instead of their own efforts are “saved” by God’s grace. Through God’s justifying grace, they have peace with God and a new relationship with God as loved and accepted children. The gospel doesn’t just promise a glorious future, it gives a new identity for living right now!
We have to start by facing the truth about our condition apart from God. Our problem is not just our failure to obey God, but our reliance on our effort to save ourselves. The Gospel is an absolutely unique message in this world. It says we are not saved by doing the right things or by working up and trying to maintain faith that the Bible is true. We are saved by what Jesus has already done for us. Faith is trusting God’s promises in Christ and following after Jesus – not to try to gain salvation, but because Christ has set us free!
In our culture, most people have some familiarity with Protestant churches. They assume they know what Christianity is all about – telling people to try harder to be good. The Christians they know still sin, so they assume the Church doesn’t help people. It produces hypocrites. It’s our conviction that many people have rejected a caricature of Christianity and have never truly heard the gospel message. The church has often obscured the gospel in various forms of works-righteousness. Non-believers need to hear of Christ, and so do believers! When the gospel is clearly presented, it amazes and attracts those who don’t yet believe, and it helps Christians grow in grace who are trapped in self-righteousness, pride and the anxiety moralism produces.
The Gospel is what changes us - it continues to address every issue in our lives as we grow in God’s grace. The more you understand the gospel, the more you will see the depths of sin in your heart. At the same time, the deeper your awareness of sin, the greater your certainty will be that you have been saved only by God’s grace!
God’s grace sets you free: free from the penalty of sin (you are truly forgiven for all your sin) and free from the reigning power of sin (sin no longer has a dominating control over your life). You are free to follow Christ with your whole heart, soul, mind and strength. Doing what God commands increasingly becomes a delight, not a burden, as you grow to trust that God knows what is best for you and that He wants what is best for you. God’s law is not a burden. It is a liberating delight. Instead of the law being a way to try to earn God’s favor, it is the way of freedom for those adopted as God’s children.
God calls us to holiness – to become like Christ in godly character. But holiness is not something we accomplish through working harder to make ourselves good. We grow in godliness by faith – by believing the gospel and applying it to every area of our lives.
So the gospel truly changes everything. It addresses relational issues, psychological issues (like feelings of pride or of inferiority). It allows us to be authentic with one another rather than feeling the need to pretend to be something we are not. It shapes the way we do everything in this church family – how we encourage people, how we help them work through their problems, how we worship, and how we accept criticism from others.
AUTHENTIC COMMUNITY
God has called us to belong to “the kingdom of light” (Colossians 1). The Bible calls us to biblical community, not to a private, isolated, individual relationship with Christ. The gospel creates this community! This is not an optional thing or an “extra benefit” some people choose to accept. To be “In Christ” by God’s grace is to belong to the people of God. The purpose of salvation is to gather a people for God’s glory from the nations of the world (Revelation 5). God’s promise in salvation is to create a “holy nation,” a people who will live with Him forever. So individual Christians who are joined to Christ by faith are therefore united to one another forever! Since our culture knows very little about real community, we will have to work hard at making this biblical vision visible in this place.
Biblical community is the objective of the gospel, the means by which the gospel spreads, and the context for living a godly life. We are to love one another, reflecting the grace we have received in the way we accept one another. We are to be a holy community, encouraging one another to live lives that honor God. We are to be a repenting community – free to repent of our own sins and free to allow others to repent because of the truth of the gospel that addresses us all as sinners in need of grace. We are to be an encouraging community that builds up others rather than tearing down. We are to be a sacrificing community, giving up time and resources for the needs of others.
We are a worshiping community. We worship God not just as isolated, individual Christians, but as the people of God. Our worship is intergenerational by intention – children, teens, adults, seniors – for worship to be rich and meaningful, we need the whole Body involved. Our worship is participatory: singing, praying and responding to God is not something we watch others do, it is the work of the whole Body. Our worship is “doxological.” A doxology is a song of praise to God. For worship to be doxological means it centers on God, not on us. Our focus is on giving adoration and praise to God for who He is and for what He has done for us in Christ. We also work at keeping our worship understandable so children, teens, new Christians, and people who are not yet believers can understand the truths we are affirming as they see our worship happening. Worship if for believers, but it should be intelligible to non-believers.
We are a praying community. Prayer is an expression of our dependence on God for everything. We can’t build Christ’s Kingdom by our ingenuity and effort! All our plans and strategies will amount to nothing if God doesn’t move in grace in the hearts and lives of people in this community. In prayer we seek God’s presence and power and praise Him for what He has done already.
MISSIONAL LIVING
Our desire is not merely that we have a church in Titusville that we enjoy attending. God intends to reach the nations with the gospel of His grace in Christ. God has called us to serve Him at this time, in this place, with the gifts, abilities, and resources entrusted to us individually. Increasingly, our hearts need to be drawn into God’s passion for the lost. Mission involves living out the callings God has given us in our homes, in our schools, in our places of work, in our neighborhoods and in our city, that Christ might be exalted here and that the fame of His glory might spread to the nations. Christ has not called us to isolate ourselves from the world, but to represent Him before a watching world. Jesus has called us out of the world to belong to Him and has sent us back into the world to be His witnesses and servants.
Missional living means having a welcoming orientation toward secular people who don’t believe the gospel. If we believe we are saved by grace, we should have no sense of superiority toward those who don’t share our beliefs. Many of us can remember what it is like to doubt the Christian message. So we welcome non-Christians and want them to be involved in almost every facet of the life of this church.
Missional living means we don’t just care about words, but about deeds. Jesus didn’t just talk about truth, he demonstrated the truth with his whole life. Having experienced God’s love, we are called to love our neighbors, to care for those who are hurting and needy, and to give ourselves in service to others.
The Bible gives us a unique way of understanding all of life – God, human nature, the material world, the meaning and direction of history, and purpose and meaning of our lives - everything we think and everything we do is shaped by our relationship to Jesus Christ. Whether you work as an engineer at the space center, teach in a local school, work at the hospital, run a small business, or work at home to raise children, we want to help you integrate your faith and your work to serve the common good and to honor our Lord Jesus.
Missional living produces a heart for the expansion of God’s glory and God’s Kingdom in the world. By giving to send missionaries, by praying for missionaries specifically, by staying in contact with missionaries we help send, an awareness of what God is doing in the world develops. You grow to share in God’s joy in the advancement of His Kingdom.
Our purpose (why are we here?):
To glorify God by enjoying Him forever.
Our Vision (what do we want to see happen?):
We want the greatness and glory of Jesus Christ to be made visible in our world through a community of people who are being transformed by the gospel of God’s grace.
Our core values (what is important to us?):
Transformation by Grace
Authentic Community
Missional Living
Basic Strategy and Structure
Our strategy is simple: Connect to God
Connect to God’s family in community
Connect to the world
Our structure flows out of our strategy: Everything we do at CCC is intended to support this basic strategy:
Help people connect to God
Enjoy God in corporate worship
Grow in understanding the gospel through community
Help people connect to others
We grow best in community
We learn to serve through small groups
We want meaningful, long-lasting friendships
Help people connect to the world
Promote missional living
Provide opportunities for service and outreach
Encourage evangelism through relationships
Ministry Programs: We are currently evaluating all our ministry programs and trying to think through how everything we do reflects our vision and values. It is too easy to start programs in the church that take on a life of their own and don’t help the church stay focused on what is most important. No program or activity is helpful in the long run if it doesn’t help people move along this discipleship path or if it distracts us from our core values. Some traditional approaches to discipleship and church life can actually foster isolation and independence rather than bringing people together in community. We don’t want to develop programs that isolate and separate people. We believe people grow best in community.
Our weekly Structure:
Sunday 10:00 A.M. Gather for corporate worship.
Sunday 11:15 A.M. Gather in smaller community groups for training in discipleship.
Adult community groups.
Teens and children community groups.
Weeknights: Gather in small groups during the week for nurture and fellowship.
Sunday Night Live for teens
Middle School Group
Small Groups in homes
Every Day: Spread out in the community as representatives of Jesus Christ.
What would a person who is being transformed by God’s grace in Christ look like?
1. Delights in and treasures God above everything else in life.
2. Loves the Bride of Christ, the Father’s family.
3. Serve the Lord from a joyful heart.
4. Lives missionally: through words and deeds, makes the gospel visible where God has placed him.
If this is the kind of person we want to see developed through the life and ministry of Christ Community Church, what is the discipleship process we believe is most likely to produce this kind of person?
1. Corporate Worship that Delights in God
Most people will first experience this church’s life as a community of believers by coming to a Sunday morning worship service. They may have come to faith in Christ through the witness of a friend and been invited to worship with other believers, or God may be drawing them to Christ and has brought them to the Church and they come to faith through hearing the gospel of God’s grace proclaimed in worship services, or they may be Christians already and have come to investigate this church. We want them to hear and feel and experience the power of the gospel in our lives as we thank and praise and enjoy God in worship. We want them to hear God speaking through the preaching of His Word. We want them to develop a deeper grasp of the glory and majesty of God and the wonder of His love for us in Christ. Worship is not about being passive spectators. It involves offering our whole selves to God in response to his amazing love for us.
But we want more for them. We are not satisfied just to have people worshiping with us on Sunday mornings.
2. Community – Loving God’s Family.
Lives usually change in community, not in isolation. People need to move from being part of a worshiping community to being part of a transformational community. The first taste of that community is in our discussions that follow the worship service. We want people to see followers of Jesus intentionally trying to work out what it means to apply truth to life. In a non-threatening environment where they don’t stand out, they can listen to Christians wrestling with life application of God’s truth. This time is not a substitute for small groups or a program that rivals small groups. It is part of building community and learning to apply the truth of God’s Word. It is a place where friendships can begin to form and where people can be invited personally to participate in a smaller group.
More intentional life change happens in smaller groups of people who love each other and want to grow as followers of Christ. Our desire is to see people grow as followers of Christ, learning to do everything Jesus commanded (Matt. 28). We believe the best way to learn what it means to live out the gospel is in relationship with other disciples. Our small groups are a place where the truth of the gospel can be explored in more detail, where questions can be asked, where personal struggles to live out the gospel can be shared, where people can be challenged and encouraged. We are called to love the Lord with our whole heart, soul, mind and strength. We’re also called to love our neighbor as ourselves. Through our small groups, we want to help people learn what it means to love God deeply and to love one another. Small groups are not Christian social clubs. They aren’t seminary classes either. We want our small groups to be intentional about helping people move ahead in the process of growing as disciples of Jesus. People need to talk about their struggles and successes in light of the gospel. They need to see how the truth of God’s Word applies to all of life. They need to know that the Christian life is not lived alone – we need each other!
But rich fellowship with fellow believers is not an end in itself either.
3. Serving God from a joyful heart
We are called to serve Jesus, to serve His church, and to serve the world. Rather than making service an optional program in the church for more committed people, we should expect that every growing disciple of Jesus will be moved by Christ into service of some kind. The challenge to serve and opportunities to serve will usually come through our small groups. If people learn to serve alongside people they are growing to love, service will become an organic part of life rather than a project. A desire to serve will lead people toward ministry opportunities in the church (like serving in children’s ministry, helping with nursery, using gifts to assist in leading worship, serving as elders or deacons or leading a small group, helping with a mercy ministry need). Service opportunities within the body also point us toward caring for people in the church family who are hurting financially or needing assistance of some kind. And a constant focus on serving the Lord with our lives points us out of the church toward a lost world, helping people see needs and find opportunities to serve the broader Titusville community in the name of Christ.
4. Missional Living (Making God known in the world):
If our path of discipleship ends in people connected in small groups, enjoying fellowship and even learning to serve alongside others, there’s still something missing. We are not called to isolate ourselves as Christians from the lost world around us. We are called to go into the world and make disciples. We believe people are called by God to serve the culture with the gifts God has given them for the good of others. We encourage people to coach soccer teams, to mentor at-risk students, to serve in local ministries, to volunteer in schools, to find ways to spend time with lost people, because God has called us to be ambassadors of the gospel. As we do this, people we’re meeting and befriending will be drawn to the church, come to faith in Christ, and begin to grow as disciples of Jesus Christ.
