Christ City Church – Our Vision & Values

So it’s been a while since I have posted and do you know why? We launched our church and we’re now one month old! Do check out the facebook photos of our launch to get a feel for what we’re doing.

This Sunday we have our first Connect Night so I thought it might be worth posting something on our vision and values by summarising a series of posts I did on the Christ City Church blog in September and October.

Part 1: Vision part 1: A provocative church

The church is supposed to provoke questions and awaken desires within people’s lives. Instead of ‘bashing people with the Bible’ we’re to understand and apply the gospel to our lives in such a way that we start to look, act and talk more like Jesus. And it’s when people see Jesus in us that we’ll provoke questions and make a difference in Dublin. Our vision is to make a positive difference to the city of Dublin spiritually, culturally and socially.

Part 2: Value 1: Mission – What happened to all the fun?

For some reason (called religion!) the church can become stagnant, irrelevant and boring. This is such a tragedy as the church is God’s number one means of bringing his love and healing to the world which is certainly not boring; in fact it is an adventure. And that is what mission is all about, being caught up on God’s adventure and finding your place in it. Once you understand mission like that, it becomes way more fun.

Part 3: Value 2: Discipleship – When will I grow up?

Just as God doesn’t want the church to become stagnant, he doesn’t want any of us individually to become stagnant either. He wants us to grow and change and mature and grow up! He wants us to become more obedient to Jesus, more saturated in his Word and more filled with his Holy Spirit so that we start looking more and more like Christ.

Part 4: Value 3: Community – Where is the love? 

Jesus famously said that the way we love one another will be the greatest sign that we are his disciples (John 13:34-35). This is a scary statement as we so often fail and the disunity in the church becomes a reason why people don’t become Christians. We want to be a community that cries, celebrates, confesses and chills (four cheesy Cs I know!).

Part 5: Value 4: Leadership – Stop the tall poppy syndrome!

Leaders are hard to come by and when you find one, you’ll find that there are people trying to cut them down (i.e. tall poppy syndrome). We are committed to raising leaders by developing people in three areas – character, theology and gifting. We want Christ City Church to be a place where leaders are found, nurtured, trained and released.

Part 6: Vision part 2: A church not for ourselves 

What would it mean to be a church not for ourselves? I think it would mean two things. Firstly, we’d become a church that is for those in Dublin who don’t go to church, hate church, laugh at church, have fallen out with church, don’t understand church or any combination of the above. Secondly, we’d be less concerned about building a great church and more concerned about playing our part to make Dublin the greatest city it can be. And that’s our vision, to make a positive difference to the city of Dublin spiritually, culturally and socially.

If you were going to read only one of the six posts above, read the last one. It’s my favourite and the one I feel most passionate about…and there is a cool picture of a skeptic! NOTE: Vision and values are always aspirational; the big challenge is to make them a reality.  May God help us!