God's Kingdom, a Big Mission
We are invited into a big mission. It's a mission that has been underway ever since human beings fell and the world became broken. It's a mission to rescue and restore people to life in relationship with God, self, others, and the world.
The only way this mission gets accomplished is through the Spirit-empowered church - the people of God. And so we are a part of a bigger movement, a missional kingdom movement that is seeing the world restored one person and neighborhood at a time. The church is the hope of the world.
These are our church network affiliations, connecting us to God's kingdom movement for the world, to the praise of his glory.
Evangelical Free Church in America (EFCA)
The EFCA is a historic denomination with a clear focus on "glorifying God by multiplying healthy churches among all people." And this movement of churches has a wonderful emphasis on the heart of the gospel - good news that manifests itself in word and deed for the sake of the world God loves. The EFCA is a "free" church in that there is no episcopal hierarchy; instead, likeminded churches simply band together in regions for mutual support and direction. Our region is the New England District Association, led by Ves Sheely. Ves is a wonderful encouragement to us, and a missional architect of church form and function for a brand new world.
The Ecclesia Network
In addition to our relationship with the EFCA, we are excited about a developing bond with The Ecclesia Network, "a relational network of churches, leaders and movements that seek to equip, partner and multiply missional churches and movements." Two things stand out about Ecclesia: robust theological engagement with a post-Christian context and innovative missional church expressions. Ecclesia plays host to theological and missional luminaries like David Fitch, JR Woodward, and JR Rozko, among others. We are really pumped to head into the second decade of the 21st century on mission with Ecclesia!