In July 2021, our churches merged with a shared vision of what God could do in and through a diverse and unified group of people committed to advancing His Kingdom in Oak Park and in Greater Sacramento. This decision came after months of planning and conversations amongst the leadership as they prayerfully discerned whether God was blessing the opportunity we had to join together. We prayed during this process that God would do more than we could ask, think, or imagine in the lives of the people inour congregations, not only through the way that we show and share Jesus to each another but also to the those around us whohave not yet committed to following Jesus (Ephesians 3:20).
God faithfully answered our prayer. We have become a church committed to discipleship through our three values—Being with God together, living as family together, and loving like Jesus together.
Our Vision
Our vision is to expect God to unite and send a diverse community so that our neighbors find hope, belonging, and beauty in Jesus.
Our Mission
Our mission is to make and develop Jesus followers who enjoy, share, and show His love.
Our Values
Be With God
God is not impersonal or distant, but a loving Father and Daddy. We are deeply loved by Him. He actually enjoys us. Like a young child with their father, we love walking alongside of our Father. We seek to know Him through the Word and experience His presence as we walk with Him through life. Our joy comes from resting in His love and acceptance of us in the midst of our process and shortcomings.
- John 15:1-11 -
Live As Family
We are not designed to live this life alone. Our Father has adopted us into His family with many other sons and daughters. We love deeply, live generously, and make our Father's mission our family's main ambition! Since our Father warmly welcomes us into His family, we welcome others into our family. Not just people who are like us, but people from different backgrounds. As a family, we seek to intentionally and invest in one another.
- 1 Corinthians 12-13 -
Love Like Jesus
Jesus became like us, to reach us. He did not only serve us, but lived among us. We aim not just to love, but live alongside others. We aim to love the diverse, the different, and the despondent since this was all of us at one time. We love those who are sometimes neglected by the church and those who feel rejected by society. With His help, we courageously share Jesus and intentionally love like Jesus.
- Luke 10:25-37 -
What We Believe
We are part of EFCA . It is an association of autonomous churches united around these theological convictions. Here is our shared Statement of Faith.
GOD
We believe in one God, Creator of all things, holy, infinitely perfect, and eternally existing in a loving unity of three equally divine Persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Having limitless knowledge and sovereign power, God has graciously purposed from eternity to redeem a people for Himself and to make all things new for His own glory
THE BIBLE
We believe that God has spoken in the Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, through the words of human authors. As the verbally inspired Word of God, the Bible is without error in the original writings, the complete revelation of His will for salvation, and the ultimate authority by which every realm of human knowledge and endeavor should be judged. Therefore, it is to be believed in all that it teaches, obeyed in all that it requires, and trusted in all that it promises.
THE HUMAN
CONDITION
We believe that God created Adam and Eve in His image, but they sinned when tempted by Satan. In union with Adam, human beings are sinners by nature and by choice, alienated from God, and under His wrath. Only through God’s saving work in Jesus Christ can we be rescued, reconciled and renewed.
JESUS CHRIST
We believe that Jesus Christ is God incarnate, fully God and fully man, one Person in two natures. Jesus—Israel's promised Messiah—was conceived through the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He lived a sinless life, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, arose bodily from the dead, ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father as our High Priest and Advocate.
THE WORK
OF CHRIST
We believe that Jesus Christ, as our representative and substitute, shed His blood on the cross as the perfect, all-sufficient sacrifice for our sins. His atoning death and victorious resurrection constitute the only ground for salvation.
THE HOLY
SPIRIT
We believe that the Holy Spirit, in all that He does, glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ. He convicts the world of its guilt. He regenerates sinners, and in Him they are baptized into union with Christ and adopted as heirs in the family of God. He also indwells, illuminates, guides, equips and empowers believers for Christ-like living and service.
THE CHURCH
We believe that the true church comprises all who have been justified by God's grace through faith alone in Christ alone. They are united by the Holy Spirit in the body of Christ, of which He is the Head. The true church is manifest in local churches, whose membership should be composed only of believers. The Lord Jesus mandated two ordinances, baptism and the Lord’s Supper, which visibly and tangibly express the gospel. Though they are not the means of salvation, when celebrated by the church in genuine faith, these ordinances confirm and nourish the believer.
CHRISTIAN
LIVING
We believe that God's justifying grace must not be separated from His sanctifying power and purpose. God commands us to love Him supremely and others sacrificially, and to live out our faith with care for one another, compassion toward the poor and justice for the oppressed. With God’s Word, the Spirit’s power, and fervent prayer in Christ’s name, we are to combat the spiritual forces of evil. In obedience to Christ’s commission, we are to make disciples among all people, always bearing witness to the gospel in word and deed.
CHRIST'S
RETURN
We believe in the personal, bodily and glorious return of our Lord Jesus Christ. The coming of Christ, at a time known only to God, demands constant expectancy and, as our blessed hope, motivates the believer to godly living, sacrificial service and energetic mission.
RESPONSE AND
ETERNAL DESTINY
We believe that God commands everyone everywhere to believe the gospel by turning to Him in repentance and receiving the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe that God will raise the dead bodily and judge the world, assigning the unbeliever to condemnation and eternal conscious punishment and the believer to eternal blessedness and joy with the Lord in the new heaven and the new earth, to the praise of His glorious grace. Amen.