We Value the Fellowship of the Local Church

Generally, when people attend PCM they say it is a warm and inviting place.  We intend to keep it that way!

Some people think focusing on God and using your mind for his glory makes you cold and indifferent to people.  Precisely the opposite has happened to us!  Understanding God’s grace has made us so grateful our hearts have been enlarged and made more loving.

We Value a Reasoned Faith

There’s been a lot of disagreement about the relationship of faith and reason over the last 2,000 years.  Some folks have a hard time keeping them together – but we don’t!

We think believing in God is a perfectly reasonable thing to do.  Indeed, we think God gave us our minds and he wants us to use them when we think about him.

Reason is very helpful for helping Christians understand their faith; further, it is also very helpful for helping unbelievers believe the faith.  Those are the reasons we value reason at PCM.

We Value the Gospel

The Gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ.  Lots of churches believe the Gospel; but we believe the Protestant Reformation recovered a precious insight into the heart of the Gospel.  That insight has been summarized in what has been called “The Five Solas”.  Sola means “alone”.  Here’s a summary of it:  Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, as taught in the scriptures alone, for God’s glory alone.  The emphasis on “alone” means salvation is all about God.  At PCM we preach and teach that when it comes to salvation God is very big and we are very small – and we believe that’s good news!

What we value: Values?

Every Christian church believes in the core doctrines historically embodied in the Apostle’s and Nicene Creeds.  Traditional Presbyterian churches like ours subscribe to the Westminster Confession of Faith. But is that all that we can say about PCM?  What makes our church distinctive?  This list of values is an attempt to say some things about what distinguishes our church.

Constructing a Mission Statement

Step 1 — identifying the components to include:

The over all purpose: the glory of God.

The primary activity: proclaiming the Gospel.

The first locus of activity: the Church.

The second locus of activity: the World.

Second Step — write it out:

“We will glorify God: by proclaiming the Gospel of Christ, and by participating in the body of Christ, and by practicing the Lordship of Christ in the world. ”

Step Three — tightening it up :

“Proclaiming Christ’s gospel; participating in Christ’s body; preserving Christ’s world.”

Thoughts –

I’m not altogether happy with the last clause in either the longer or shorter versions.  To retain rhythm and alliteration I’m obviously limiting myself to words that begin with the letter “p” – maybe I should not limit myself in that way in any of the clauses.  The problem is, I really like the words “proclaim” and “participate” because they’re rich and appropriate.  Departing from the progression would be awkward.

Maybe I should try an entirely different format?

What I’m trying to get at is partly covered by “preservation” — the resistence to decay and the conservation of what is good.  But it leaves out a sense of “development” that I think Christians should promote — i.e. tending the garden & ”increase” via stewardship.  Too often we throw the baby out with the bathwater when it comes to our stance toward the world.  Maybe “culture” would be a better word than “world” here?  But then “Christ’s” would be awkward.  

Any thoughts?

Principles of Guiding the Development of our Mission Statement

1. It should be distinctively Reformed in character and sound.
2. It should “flow” from our values and not conflict with them.
3. It should be constructed so as to be memorable.
4. It should contain a logical progression.
5. It should have a primary task followed by out-workings of it.
6. It should be in the active voice and the indicative case.
7. It should inspire action.
8. It should lend itself to explanation.
9. It should speak both implicitly and explicitly.

These are the guiding principles as I put them forward at our last meeting.  Have I left anything out that should be considered?

We Value: Adventure

This value needs major development.  Please use the comments to give me your thoughts.

Pastor Chris

We Value: Outreach

• We think the Gospel is the heart of Christianity.  The Gospel is news, and if it isn’t told, it isn’t news to anyone.  Therefore, outreach is at the very center of Christianity.
• The Gospel is news of redemption, therefore creation is valuable to God and therefore it should be valued by God’s people. 
• Although only God knows who will be saved, we do not, therefore we proclaim the Gospel to all people, urging them all to repent and believe the Gospel.     
• We believe that outreach must include works of mercy.  Therefore we will sponsor ministries that meet human need.
• We think that every person has a vocation from God and the work of redemption is performed through our daily practices of those vocations.       

We Value: Our Gifts

• God has blessed his people with various gifts and we should strive to make good use of them in His service.
• We think we should be intentional in the use of our resources.
• We think that we should encourage Christians to discover their gifts and put them to use.
• Toward this end we should train members for ministry and provide opportunities for service.
• Finally, we think our material resources should be put to good use.  They should glorify God through their beauty and their usefulness.  These can be in tension, but they are nevertheless both to be striven for.

We Value: Worship

• We think worship is a verb — it is something we do to glorify God.
• We know we can only worship God in response to his grace and by means of his gracious work in us.
• We maintain that God is the only proper object of worship.
• We strive to include the congregation and individuals in worship. 
• Elders should lead in worship but not exclude the laity from leading where appropriate.  Sometimes leadership is expressed through delegation.
• We think that worship should be regulated by God’s word.
• Freedom in worship is encouraged within the bounds of God’s word.
• We think that not only the contents of the liturgy, but also the ordering of the liturgy should express the gospel.

There was mention at the last meeting that something should be said about corporate prayer. 

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