Core Values

 

Word

We believe the Christian scriptures comprised of the sixty-six books in the Old and New Testaments are the divinely-inspired and authoritative Word of God to humanity.  The Bible is consequently relevant for every person in every culture at every moment in history, and it will have a central place at Restoration Community Church.  Our sermons and small group Bible studies will consider a biblical text’s relevance for today by first determining its original meaning within its context, rather than the other way around.

 

Worship

Worship is the act of declaring God’s infinite worth, and it is the proper response to who He is (Psalm 145:3-5; Revelation 4:11).  Christians believe that Jesus is God in human flesh, and he is the Savior of humanity through his death and resurrection.  We will therefore extol him and allow his saving work to infuse our songs and sermons.  Our worship each Sunday morning will strive for relevance in terms of style and reverence in terms of ethos.

 

Biblical Governance

We believe Jesus Christ is the head of the Church (Ephesians 1:22-23), and that he delegates authority to leaders, who are to govern local churches with humility, care, and by example (Hebrews 13:17; 1 Peter 5:1-3).  When the New Testament refers to these leaders, it almost invariably addresses them as a group (Acts 14:23; 20:28; 1 Timothy 5:17; Titus 1:5; James 5:14; 1 Peter 5:5), indicating that plurality of leadership seems to be the normative pattern for local churches.  Restoration Community Church seeks to adopt this pattern. The pastor will neither “call all the shots” nor “take all the hits.”

 

Community

When a person becomes a Christian, he or she also becomes part of the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:12).  To be a Christian is to belong to the community of his people.  The local church is the context in which they are to love one another (John 13:34-35), serve one another (Galatians 5:13), bear each other’s burdens (Galatians 6:2), forgive each other (Ephesians 4:32), encourage one another (1 Thessalonians 5:11), and confess their sins and pray for each other (James 5:16).  The local church is also the place in which Christians are to be nurtured and equipped toward maturity in faith (Ephesians 4:11-13).  We believe that consistent involvement in the local church should be one of the most enriching experiences in the Christian life.

 

Local and Global Mission

We believe that God intends to restore our profoundly broken world, but that such restoration is available only through Jesus (Genesis 3:15; 1 Corinthians 15:1-8, 20-28, 50-57).  While we will make every attempt to be respectful, we won’t hesitate to share the Gospel with clarity and conviction.  And our involvement in the local and global community won’t be limited to conversion.  The Bible speaks of the commitment of God’s people to “seek the peace and prosperity of their city” even as they lived in exile (Jeremiah 29:7).  And the New Testament contains numerous references to churches that cared for the poor and marginalized in society (Acts 2:45; Galatians 2:10).  Indeed, such actions reflect the heart of the Savior himself (Matthew 9:35-36; 25:31-46).