Our church's singular main value is gospel centrality.
The Reality: The word “gospel” is repeated twice in our vision statement and three times in our mission statement.
The rationale: Luke 24:27, Romans 1:16, 1 Corinthians 1:18-31, etc.
The Mission & Vision
Our Mission: Autumn Ridge Community Church exists to glorify God by training people to learn the gospel, love the gospel, and live out the gospel: in our lives, in our community, and to the ends of the earth.
Our Vision: To see a gospel-shaped globe come through a gospel-shaped Gilmer:
- Seeing Gilmer County look increasingly like the New Heavens and New Earth (cf. Rev. 21:1-5)
- Seeing Gilmer County grow into a missions-sending center: laboring unto Jesus’ return by proclaiming the gospel message to all nations (cf. Matt. 24:14)
To understand more about our mission and vision, tune in to our Ridgeline sermon series!
Our Values
The following six values describe how gospel centrality is fleshed out in the life of our church.
We Are Gracious: Autumn’s beauty is due to the diverse mixture of trees that bear leaves from a broad spectrum of colors. The same can be said of the church: our beauty is not found in uniformity, but in unity-in-diversity. Community is a means through which God develops Christ-like character within his people (cf. Ephesians 4:1-6). Grace is necessary in order for a Christ-honoring community to flourish, because a shared commitment to grace allows us to pursue unity with others who exhibit different levels of spiritual maturity/development, who endure different struggles, who have different gifts, and who hold different convictions on matters in which Scripture is silent (Romans 14:1-23).
We Are Missional: as a towering ridgeline serves as a vantage point for navigation and direction, we aim for our lives – both individually and together – to point the people of our community out of darkness and towards the marvelous light of Christ (1 Peter 2:9-12). Furthermore, as leaves fly off of trees at the conclusion of the Autumn season, we believe that our witness consists of more than attracting people to “come and see” our life together; we are called of God to “go and be” Christ’s witnesses in our lives, in our community, and to the ends of the earth (Matt. 28:18-20).
We Focus: Autumn doesn’t last forever; it is a finite season with a particular timeframe. Likewise, our church values “focus” because we acknowledge our limitations; there are more opportunities for Christ-exalting ministry than we have the time, energy, resources, and personnel to engage. Our church is committed to walking in wisdom with respect to outsiders and making the “best” use of time (see Ephesians 5:16). As a result, we will relentlessly say “no” to many good opportunities, in order to focus our “yes” on the best efforts to which the Lord has given us opportunity to engage.
We Are Missional: as a towering ridgeline serves as a vantage point for navigation and direction, we aim for our lives – both individually and together – to point the people of our community out of darkness and towards the marvelous light of Christ (1 Peter 2:9-12). Furthermore, as leaves fly off of trees at the conclusion of the Autumn season, we believe that our witness consists of more than attracting people to “come and see” our life together; we are called of God to “go and be” Christ’s witnesses in our lives, in our community, and to the ends of the earth (Matt. 28:18-20).
We Focus: Autumn doesn’t last forever; it is a finite season with a particular timeframe. Likewise, our church values “focus” because we acknowledge our limitations; there are more opportunities for Christ-exalting ministry than we have the time, energy, resources, and personnel to engage. Our church is committed to walking in wisdom with respect to outsiders and making the “best” use of time (see Ephesians 5:16). As a result, we will relentlessly say “no” to many good opportunities, in order to focus our “yes” on the best efforts to which the Lord has given us opportunity to engage.
We Abide: Before leaves are in color, they bud and bloom through their connection to their source of life (the tree). Similarly, before the gospel calls us to bear fruit for Jesus, the gospel invites us to abide with Jesus – and in abiding, we bear much fruit that he desires (John 15:1-11).
We Self-sacrifice: the beauty of Autumn foliage results from leaves that are dying. In the same way, we believe that the Christ-life is most beautiful – for ourselves, for our brothers and sisters, and for the world – when it’s lived in a posture of self-sacrifice (Philippians 2:1-11). This self-sacrifice will be the natural, Spirit-led product of our shared commitment to abide deeply in Christ.
We Self-sacrifice: the beauty of Autumn foliage results from leaves that are dying. In the same way, we believe that the Christ-life is most beautiful – for ourselves, for our brothers and sisters, and for the world – when it’s lived in a posture of self-sacrifice (Philippians 2:1-11). This self-sacrifice will be the natural, Spirit-led product of our shared commitment to abide deeply in Christ.
