Community Life Statement

We affirm that the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the ultimate guide for our values, attitudes and behaviors in all relationships.

We will seek to foster the development of spiritual maturity through maintaining a personal devotional life and through participating in community worship and prayer.

We will seek to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace, and in gentleness, patience and humility, accept one another in love.

We will seek to encourage one another to mature in Christ-likeness through attempting to speak the truth in love the context of ministry, relationships, and in all other areas of our common life.

We will seek to encourage unity and spiritual health in marriages and families through responsible relationships.

We will seek to respect and encourage our uniqueness in Christ, which includes our diversity of denominational background, race, culture, personality, life stage, experience, spirituality and gifts.

We will seek to become involved individually and corporately with the Church in ministering to spiritual and social needs within and beyond our own community.

We renounce attitudes such as greed, jealousy, false pride, lust, bitterness, hostility, an unforgiving spirit, and prejudice such as that based on age, race, sex, disability, or socio-economic status.

We renounce behaviors such as distortion of God's Word, deception, falsehood, drunkenness, stealing, and sexual immorality including all non-marital sexual relations.

We believe where conflict or sin occurs in the church, a biblical process such as stated in Matthew 18:15-20 should be followed to seek correction, forgiveness, restitution and reconciliation.

We will seek to practice an attitude of mutual submission according to the mind of Christ, recognizing that at times our personal rights and preferences must be put aside for the sake of others' conscience and the good of the community.

We will seek to encourage the cultivation of such spiritual attitudes as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Adapted from the Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary Community Life Statement.